AW: GR-related

[Stefan Matzig]

PS Who is going to make a film on the Elser case?


"Georg Elser" was shot under the direction of the charismatic Klaus-Maria Brandauer around 1987/88 and flopped, though Brandauer was a big star at the time. Braundauer is the Austrian actor who became famous through his performance as Gustav Gruendgens in "Mephisto" (based on the novel by Klaus Mann, Th. Mann's son, directed by the guy who did "Amadeus" and I think "Out of Africa").

A friend was working as a Production Assistant for "Georg Elser". She liked to describe the eery atmosphere when Brandauer got the extras, a group of older men, who had fought in WWII, into the mood of SA veterans eagerly awaiting the Fuehrer's appearance--by way of conducting the old songs. His manipulations worked wonderfully, she said, he managed to loosen them up to a degree that "there was a glow in their eyes..." and they remembered with pride.

I don't recall that the film captures the intensity of that moment, but it's a good period piece. More importantly, along with his generation's efforts in the 80s, Brandauer tried to establish a new set of German/Austrian heroes, a more honest, more human tradition to serve as an orientation mark for the future (and ends up with a counterforce of attractive weirdoes?).

St.