‘The People Vs. Fritz Bauer’ Opening in Los Angeles and New York, August 19th
Last year at Locarno, the Audience Award went to the film “The People vs. Fritz Bauer”. I just caught up with it, in time to announce to my readers that Cohen Media will have a sneak preview of it at L.A.’s Goethe Institut August 16 before its official L.A. and New York opening August 19. This is the film that could capture the Best Foreign Language Academy Award … if it is indeed selected by the Germans to submit. Read more about German submission protocol.
Spending the summer here in Berlin gives quite a different slant on the world and our history. From this vantage point, watching the world news is just as horrifying as it must be from home in the good old USA but in a different way. While I can ride my bike almost to the door of the “White House” (Bundesamt) and the police stay out of sight, and I can have lunch in the Congress (Reichstag), now under heavy guard and yet very publicly open; still, as I rode home the other day past the rows of embassies, I noticed a very heavy police presence and suddenly felt alarmed and rode quickly to get past any possible “situation”. And suddenly we were reading about a rash of killings in Germany.
Visiting the Jewish spots, I’ve always been aware of the police guards, but this year, it seems more ominous, more necessary than before. And it is ironic to think how Germany, after 50 years of being the bad guy, is leading Europe (as the good guys under the leadership of a woman) through the crises from how it is dealing with immigration, terrorism, Brexit and the coup of its neighbor Turkey.
Leading the world in welcoming immigrants (2 million I have heard) and its economic sense of well-being come with the recognition of the need to take responsibility for the deeds of the nation. Such self-awareness came hard to Germany and is currently most visible in its choices which have not (yet?) swung right as everywhere else in the world. It’s not like there are not those who want to go as far right as they can however.
“The People vs. Fritz Bauer” is a riveting historical thriller about a major landmark for Germany, U.S. and the world. It chronicles the Herculean efforts of German district attorney, Fritz Bauer played by Burghart Klaussner (“The White Ribbon”, “The Edukators”, “Good Bye Lenin!”), to bring Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann to justice. It is almost the same story as last year’s Sony Pictures Classics release “Labyrinth of Lies”, but far better and more complex.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE US TRAILER
Bauer, himself Jewish, homosexual and a Socialist has been trying to take crimes from the Third Reich to court ever since his return from Danish exile after World War II’s end. Alone except for one young public prosecutor, played by Ronald Zehrfeld (“Barbara”, “Phoenix”), he proceeds with dogged perservance interspersed with moments of depression and feelings of hopelessness. However, with no success so far due to the fierce German determination to repress its sinister past and because of his distrust in the German justice system, Fritz Bauer contacts the Israeli secret service Mossad, and, by doing so, commits treason. Bauer is not seeking revenge for the Holocaust ‐‐ he is concerned with the German future.
“Labyrinth of Lies” was the story of the same young recently appointed public prosecutor in Germany in 1957 and 1958 during its “economic miracle recovery” as he is encouraged by his boss, the Prosecutor General, Fritz Bauer, to use the case of a recently identified teacher as a former Auschwitz guard to bring the German people out of denial and see the vast network of Nazi-war profiteers and former Nazis themselves as they permeate the post-war society. It is about the Auschwitz Trials, while “The People vs. Fritz Bauer” is about the search of Eichmann.
“The People vs. Fritz Bauer” reveals the complexity of the new democratic government, including the many former Nazis’ positions in it and their contempt and degradation not just of Jews, but in their present (in the movie) homophobic persecution which continued far beyond the time of war well into the 1950s where the “paragraph 175” of German law, invented in 1872, continued. While the homosexual aspect of the film serves as an important plot point, the movie is not about being gay. Rather the two gay characters are striving to bring justice to Germany. The new democratic state is also shown in its injustice through this dimension as well as in the covering up of war crimes.
While this film will never pass the “Bechtel Test” which is completely beside the point, it has a feeling of what the Bechtel Test is trying to implement, the fact that two men are homosexual is important as a plot point but has little to do with their value as normal human beings. Furthermore, in giving top billing to the brilliant Burghart Klauβner, who is an old man with messy hair, a stocky figure and a temper, the reality of the drama is enhanced. The audience can love someone who is not Hollywoodized and beautiful but someone who actually looks like normal people. The author of the Bechtel Test would approve.
The reporter in “The People” was a bit overplayed by Rüdiger Klink. I found him much more interesting in “Labyrinth of Lies”. The music by Julian Maas and Christoph M. Kaiser was sometimes heavy handed giving emotional cues to the action, but at other times it was brilliant in its use of jazz which, during Nazi time was also designated as “degenerate”. The soundtrack was especially well done over the usually ignored end credits giving those who stay time to absorb and feel the impact of this fascinating story.
Also notable are the songs in the drag bar of the transvestite singer, especially “I Am A Man” sung by the crossdresser in drag as a man.
A little part as the Israeli Mossad member Chaim Cohen, played by director Dany Levi is surprisingly antithetical to Fritz Bauer’s goals as Israel claimed the glory for Eichmann’s capture for ten years until the part played by Fritz Bauer was made public.
At 105 minutes, “The People vs. Fritz Bauer” is never dull and builds to a very unexpected and unsettling complex situation already one hour and 27 minutes in. In the next five minutes the information is incredibly dense and dangerous. The movie makes it very clear that the entire German government in the later 1950s under Adenauer was permeated by Nazis, was emerging as an economic power and was an essential part of NATO in the Cold War. The U.S. did not want to destabilize the government by bringing Nazis to justice, nor did any of the Allies. It was left to Israel to deal with them in spite of Fritz Bauer’s mission to make their role known throughout Germany. His own role in locating Eichmann was not known for ten more years by which time he had died. But he did have the satisfaction of the Auschwitz Trials bringing the German sense of responsibility to its present outcomes that we are witnessing today.
Lars Kraume, the film’s director answered a few questions about what we can still learn and why we should buy tickets to this film.
Did you … see the Danish police files on Fritz Bauer in the exhibition [that the Fritz Bauer Institute put together a big exhibition at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt?]
Yes, the report from the Danes about his contacts with homosexuals was on display there in public for the first time. It’s documented that when Fritz Bauer was in exile in Denmark he was apprehended by the police in the company of male prostitutes. It can only be speculated on how he dealt with his sexuality later on as the attorney general in Hessen. We
portrayed this in the film as delicately as possible. But the subject of homosexuality was important to us in two ways: first, for the dramatic development of the story, because at
that time Paragraph 175 of the Civil Code was in effect, which made “lewd activities” between males punishable by law, and this gives the antagonists the chance to bring about Fritz Bauer’s downfall.
And second, in order to show the ongoing tyranny of the Adenauer era: This “homo paragraph,” which had been made even stricter when the Nazis were in power, wasn’t abolished in Germany until 1994! An impressive example for how long the ideas of the unjust state still remained in place in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Are the state attorneys who appear in the film real or fictional characters?
Almost all of the characters really existed, except for Karl Angermann, our representative of a generation of young, idealistic public prosecutors who fought together with Fritz Bauer out of conviction. We fictionalized him by fusing various real persons in order to put an attachment figure at Bauer’s side — and also of course in order to bring the aforementioned
subject of homosexuality into play.
What can we still learn from Fritz Bauer in the 21st century?
One should have the courage to devote oneself consequently to a cause and persistently pursue one’s goals — against every form of resistance. Fritz Bauer ran into opposition for
being a “Jew out for revenge” and was permanently surrounded by powerful enemies; none of the German authorities wanted to cooperate with him; they tossed one obstacle after another in his way. This legendary statement came from him: “When I leave my office I am entering an enemy, foreign country.” In spite of this, in the end he prevailed. To me he’s a genuine hero.
Why should someone, in your opinion, buy a movie ticket to see The People vs. Fritz Bauer?
Because you’re offered something suspenseful here: the ancient battle of an outsider against an all‐powerful system — and this was a battle that really took place and not in some
invented comic universe. To put it briely: an emotionally gripping, timelessly inspiring tale of a hero.
“The People vs. Fritz Bauer” went from Locarno to Toronto, London and Berlin. It has won several prizes including six German Film Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Screenplay which was written by the director Lars Kraume and Olivier Guez.
“The Labyrinth of Lies” U.S. box office was $794,452. Along with the rest of the world’s $4,122,863, its worldwide gross was $4,917,315. International sales agent, Beta, sold it to 18 reported territories.
US — Sony Pictures Classics, Argentina — Entertainment CDI, Australia — Manman, Benelux — Lumiere, Brazil — Mares, Canada — Metropole/ Mogul, Colombia — Cine Colombia, France — Sophie Dulac, Germany, Switzerland — UPI, Greece — Danaos, Scandinavia — Scanbox, Israel — Ephraim, Italy — Good Films, Japan — At Entertainment, Poland — Aurora, Portugal — Films4You, Spain — DeA Planeta, Taiwan — Swallow Wings, Turkey — Fabula,
“The People Vs. Fritz Bauer” has the same ISA, Beta. It is reported to have sold to 13 territories and thus far, outside of U.S. it has grossed $622,573.
US — Cohen Media, Argentina — Alfa, Australia — JIFF, Austria — Thimfilm, Benelux — Cineart, France — ARP, Germany — Alamode, Italy — Cinema Swirl, Japan — New Select, Poland — Aurora, Spain — Caramel, Switzerland — Look Now!, Taiwan — Encore
Running time: 105 Minutes | German with English Subtitles
MPAA Rated: R
“Sneak Preview” at Goethe Institut:
Tuesday, August 16th 2016, 7:00 PM presented with the support of Cohen Media Group.
RSVP via Eventbrite is mandatory.
Free Admission Seating first come — first served GOETHE-INSTITUT LOS ANGELES 5750 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100 Los Angeles, CA 90036 Info: +1 323–525–3388 info@losangeles.goethe.org
$1 validated parking (for events only) on weekdays after 6:00 pm and all day on weekends in the Wilshire Courtyard West underground garage-P1.
”The People Vs. Fritz Bauer” opens theatrical on August 26th at the Laemmle Royal, and Town Center 5 theaters. Information and tickets for these screenings available via: LAEMMLE THEATERS
