Buddenbrooks on festive line-up
Father Christmas’ sack of treats includes a film eagerly awaited by German audiences: December 25 sees the release of the saga Die Buddenbrooks - Ein Geschäft von einiger Größe [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
This debut feature by television director Heinrich Breloer is adapted from one of the main works that earned Thomas Mann the 1929 Nobel Prize for Literature and stars Oscar-nominated actor Armin Mueller-Stahl.
This costume drama traces the decline of the Buddenbrooks, a bourgeois family from Northern Germany whom Mann knew and whose life he recounted over four generations.
The film looks at the efforts of young Thomas Buddenbrooks (Mark Waschke) to follow in the footsteps and carry on the business of his father, the Consul (Mueller-Stahl). Meanwhile, his brother Christian (August Diehl) leads a dissolute life and their sister Tony (Jessica Schwarz) sacrifices herself to keep the family together.
The film was co-written by Breloer and Dr. Horst Königstein (both Mann specialists, Breloer having worked on the TV docu-fiction The Manns - Novel of a Century, which earned him nine Adolf Grimme Awards and an Emmy, among other distinctions).
Die Buddenbrooks - Ein Geschäft von einiger Größe was produced by Bavaria Film and Colonia Media in co-production with FilmInterest, WDR, NDR, SWR, BR, Degeto and ARTE. Released by Warner, the film is set to be a box office success, finishing the year with a flourish. A two-part TV drama will be broadcast at a later stage by ARD.
Meanwhile, young audiences will have the chance to discover Erna Schmidt’s Stella und der Stern des Orients, which is being launched by Farbfilm. When the young, 10-year-old protagonist of the title rummages through the attic on New Year’s Eve, she finds a magic object that transports her 100 years back into her family’s past and she also unearths some precious treasure.
The film was produced by Kinderfilm, Studio Babelsberg and ZDF.
Pol Cruchten’s Austrian/Luxembourg co-production Little Secrets [+see also:
trailer
film profile] also centres on a child’s discovery of a possible family mystery and is set against the backdrop of the contradictory 1960s. This Luxembourg-language film stars the country’s most eminent actors, including Thierry Van Werveke, Luc Feit and Myriam Müller.
The well-structured title – produced by Red Lion and Austrian company Amour fou – is being released by MFA.
The fourth European film on this festive line-up (out of a total of six new releases) is Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: John Nordling
interview: Tomas Alfredson
film profile], also distributed by MFA.
(Translated from French)
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