Alexandra von Grote

Alexandra Ursula Maria von Grote (born April 23, 1944 in Bad Polzin ) is a German author , director and screenwriter .

Live and act

Alexandra von Grote comes from the German-Baltic noble family von Grote . Born in Pomerania, she lived in Paris in her youth and attended a French high school here, the international school in St. Germain-en-Laye, where she graduated from high school. She then studied theater studies, philosophy and Romance studies at the universities in Munich and Vienna and did her doctorate in Vienna. phil. At the same time, she completed an acting training, worked in small theaters and took on translations from French for the dramaturgy of the Vienna Burgtheater.

After completing her studies, she worked as an editor at ZDF (in Mainz) in the drama and television play departments. Then von Grote became a cultural policy advisor at the Senator for Science and Art in Berlin.

The Berliner-by-choice, who also lives in southern France and lives there, has been working as a freelance film director, screenwriter and writer for many years. She made her debut as a director in 1982 with the film Going Out to Arrive .

The film Novembermond followed three years later (a German-French co-production), which tells the story of a Berlin Jew who fled the Nazis to Paris and met the French Ferial there. But even in Paris, the Jewish woman named November has to stay in hiding for years. Against the backdrop of the Second World War, an intense relationship develops between the two women, which forms the dramaturgical thread of the film. Hamburger Abendblatt on February 27, 1986 (Michael Kassandros): The film describes the changes in numerous characters under the pressure created by political circumstances. Alexandra von Grote succeeds in combining the observation of history and the love story into a unity in which the political circumstances always influence the private. She dispenses with spectacular, superficial effects, rather tries to make the personal fates of her main characters tangible for the audience in details and nuances. Thanks to a very good script, skilful actor management and good acting performances, a dense composition has emerged that makes the cinema a place of feelings and passions again ... With Novembermond the director has succeeded in creating a film that again focuses on the possibilities and The strengths of the cinema reflect ... "

In 1989 she directed the film Reise ohne Rückerkehr (BRD 1990), which vividly and touchingly depicts how the fate of some handicapped children during the Nazi era turned into a “journey without return”. Under the pretext of being moved to other children's homes, they are abused for medical purposes and then murdered (Filmportal.de). The film is about the Nazi victims who were least able to defend themselves: the children, the sick, the weak. During the Nazi regime, thousands of disabled Jewish and non-Jewish children and young people in Germany were abducted, killed or used by unscrupulous doctors for cruel medical experiments. Cinema 6/91: "Half a century after the fascist terror regime of the Nazis, Alexandra von Grote created the first German feature film on the subject of" euthanasia "with" Reise ohne Wiederkehr ". It is hardly possible to experience the moving suggestive power of the film Why did it take so long for a film like this to be made in the country of the perpetrators? "

For many years she has worked as a director for German film dubbing (foreign language films and TV films). Until today she has created countless German dubbed versions (script and direction) a. a. with Hitlerjunge Salomon (film by Agnieszka Holland), Die Bartholomäusnacht (film by Patrice Chereau), Süßes Poison (film by Claude Chabrol), Sagan (film by Diane Kurys), La Belle et la Bete (by Christophe Gans) and The Blue Room after George Simenon (2015).

In addition to numerous scripts, she wrote poems, stories and novels. Her first novel, entitled "The Unknown Third", was published in 1998 by Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. This was followed by three more novels in the crime series with Commissioner Florence Labelle. Then she invented a crime series with the Parisian commissioner LaBréa and wrote a total of six novels. Another novel called “Nothing is for Eternity” was published in 2006. A short story entitled "Eyes as blue as the sea" was published in 1991. Three of her detective novels with the Parisian Commissioner LaBréa were filmed by ARD / Degeto and teamWorx Filmproduktion: Death at the Bastille , Murder on Rue St. Lazare and Dreams of Death at Montparnasse .

In April 2015 her novel “The Night of Lavara” was published as an e-book by dotbooks Verlag. Alexandra von Grote tells a story about guilt and an unpunished war crime that took place in Italy in 1943. A journey into the past, back to that night when the war brutally entered the seclusion of the small town of Lavara. Her novel focuses on three people: an Italian opera singer, a homeless man in Paris and a well-known French industrialist whose lives are fatefully linked by the events of the war. In a mosaic-like manner, the author skilfully puts the background of the story together in flashbacks, changes of perspective and present-day events. (Review at Amazon.de) “With an intensity that is second to none, Alexandra von Grote tells the story of a night that forever destroyed the lives of many people. (dotbooks publishing house) "

Works

As a director and screenwriter

• 1982: leaving to arrive
• 1985: November moon
• 1986: Time is Money (short film)
• 1989: Journey of no return

As an author

Florence-Labelle series

• The unknown third. Novel . Fischer-Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt / M. 1998, ISBN 3-596-13958-9 .
• The cold of the heart. Novel . Fischer-Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt / M. 2000, ISBN 3-596-14729-8 .
• The feast of the dove. Novel . Fischer-Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt / M. 2002, ISBN 3-596-15488-X .
• The silence on the 6th floor. Novel . Fischer-Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt / M. 2002, ISBN 3-596-15705-6 .

Maurice LaBréa series

• Murder on Rue St. Lazare. Maurice LaBréa's first case . Droemer Knaur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-426-62699-3 ; Heyne, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-453-43377-9 .
• Death at the Place de la Bastille. Maurice LaBréa's second case . Knaur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-426-62700-0 ; Death at the Bastille, Heyne, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-453-43378-6 .
• Death dreams. Maurice LaBréa's third case . Knaur, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-426-63393-9 ; Heyne, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-453-43379-3 .
• The last waltz in Paris. A case for Commissioner LaBréa . Heyne, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-453-43376-2 .
• The dead boy from the Seine. A case for Commissioner LaBréa . Heyne, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-453-43380-9 .
• The long shadow. A case for Commissioner LaBréa . Heyne, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-453-40833-3 .

Other books

• Eyes as blue as the sea. A romantic story . Feminist Buchverlag, Wiesbaden 1991, ISBN 3-922229-13-1 .
• Nothing is forever. Detective novel . Knaur, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-426-62910-9 .
• The night of Lavara. Roman, Verlag dotbooks Munich, Kindle Edition, ISBN 978-3-95824-174-9

Web links

• Website of Alexandra von Grote
• Literature by and about Alexandra von Grote in the catalog of the German National Library
• Alexandra von Grote at the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Short biography and information on the work of Alexandra von Grote at Literaturport

Individual evidence

1. ^ Genealogical handbook of the Baltic knighthoods . New episode. Vol. VIII. Hamburg: 2018. P. 105.