Directed by:
Dominik WesselyScreenplay:
Rainer KölmelComposer:
Philipp Fabian KölmelCast:
Hark Bohm, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peter Fleischmann, Peter Handke, Irm Hermann, Werner Herzog, Alexander Kluge, Peter Lilienthal, Hans Noever, Wim Wenders, Uwe Brandner, Michael Fengler (more)Plots(1)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Werner Herzog. Wim Wenders. Three directors whose names are synonymous with the emergence of West German cinema from decades of post-war insignificance. An important co-architect of this new departure was the Filmverlag der Autoren – a production and distribution co-operative founded by thirteen filmmakers in Munich in April 1971. Besides Wim Wenders, the initial members included Uwe Brandner, Michael Fengler, Hans Noever, Peter Lilienthal, Thomas Schamoni and Laurens Straub. Within just a few years, the Filmverlag was to become the platform for an entire generation of German filmmakers.
GEGENSCHUSS tells the story of this unusual collective of auteurs – from its beginnings in Munich during the 1960s, to the international successes at Cannes and the disintegration of the group in 1977. This film is a portrait of an artistic community – and a generation. For the struggle of a small group of independent young filmmakers for self-determination in the face of the hegemony of an older generation of financially solvent producers, was in fact a conflict between the first post-war generation in Germany and their fathers, who had learned their craft working for the film industry during the Third Reich. Filmmakers Laurens Straub, who died in 2007, and Dominik Wessely interweave interviews, film excerpts and hitherto partially unpublished archive footage to tell the story of the rise and fall of this organisation in a film that has all the ingredients of a big screen drama: friendship, success, jealousy, destruction and death.
(Berlinale)
Cast
Hark Bohm
German Empire
Best movies:
Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) (series)
Underground (1995)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Germany
Best movies:
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) (series) - actor, narrator
Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Peter Fleischmann
German Empire
Peter Handke
Austria
Best movies:
Irm Hermann
German Empire
Best movies:
Der Zauberberg (1982)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) (series)
Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Werner Herzog
German Empire
Best movies:
Home from Home - Chronicle of a Vision (2013)
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Jack Reacher (2012)
Alexander Kluge
German Empire
Best movies:
Yesterday Girl (1966)
Peter Lilienthal
German Empire
Best movies:
The American Friend (1977)
Tatort (1970) (series)
Hans Noever
German Empire
Wim Wenders
Best movies:
Kings of the Road (1976)
Alice in the Cities (1974)
Summer in the City (1971)
Uwe Brandner
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Michael Fengler
German Empire
Best movies:
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971)
Beware of a Holy Whore (1971)
The Niklashausen Journey (1970) (TV movie)
Thomas Schamoni
German Empire
Margaret Ménégoz
Kingdom of Hungary
Tom Luddy
USA
Best movies:
Rudolf Augstein (a.f.)
German Empire
Heinz Badewitz
Germany
Best movies:
Pornorama (2007)