Arsenal film distribution

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The Arsenal Film Distribution GmbH is an independent German film distribution in Tübingen , who is also a film production company is working together with other independent rental companies own DVD operates label. In addition to music films, the company is u. a. Specialized in Scandinavian and French art house cinema .

The Arsenal Kinobetriebe Stefan Paul KG with the venues “Arsenal” and “Atelier Café Have” are legally independent .

history

After the German and American studies student and freelancer at SDR , Stefan Paul (* 1946 in Leipzig ), had organized film evenings and rock concerts in the left-wing cultural scene in Tübingen, which was influenced by the student movement of the 1960s , in the early 1970s , he founded Tübingen in 1975 the Egon sneeze Arsenal Filmverleih as limited partnership after Paul last year already the cinema Arsenal had founded, the oldest cinema in Baden-Württemberg applies. The distribution company of the same name was subsequently thematically aligned and was thus one of the first independent film distributors in Germany.

The first film that Arsenal brought to German cinemas was the anarcho- grotesque Themroc with Michel Piccoli . Then the company specialized in music documentaries. American independent films were another mainstay , especially John Waters' early work from Pink Flamingos to Hairspray .

From 1979, the rental program was supplemented by in-house productions. These were mostly music films or documentaries that Stefan Paul directed and was partly responsible for the script . The first own production was the music documentary Reggae Sunsplash with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh , which was recorded in 1979 at the Reggae Festival of the same name . The Rio Reiser trilogy, which consists of Rio Reiser - König von Deutschland (2004), Jan Plewka sings Rio Reiser (2006) and Lass uns'n Wunder - In Search of Rio Reiser (2008 ), as well as the concert film Mercedes Sosa - Sera posible el sur (1985/2008).

The greatest success of the 1980s was achieved by the romantic crime thriller Diva by Jean-Jacques Seeleix in 1983 with more than one million viewers. A long dry spell in the 1990s was only ended in 1999 with the film The (Really) Very Last Prank of the Olsen Gang , the last episode of the Danish comedy series about the petty criminal Olsen gang , which was immensely successful, especially in East Germany . In 1999 the Kinowelt group acquired the majority of Arsenal Filmverleihe and its entire catalog, after Kinowelt had already taken over the authors' film publishing house in the same year in order to add high-quality titles to its own catalog. Stefan Paul, who hoped this merger would open up new market segments, remained one of the managing directors of the new GmbH alongside Kinowelt boss Michael Kölmel . But already in 2000 Paul took control of the company again, shortly before the financially troubled cinema world had to file for bankruptcy. As a result, the distribution program became more focused on Scandinavian and French cinema.

With the Norwegian comedy Elling (more than 500,000 viewers in Germany), there was a further consolidation of the distribution business in 2002; This was followed by art house films such as Long Walk Home (2003), Kitchen Stories (2004) and The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife (2005), Darwin's Nightmare (2005), Dialog mit mein Gärtner (2007) and Lemon Tree (2008).

To date, Arsenal Filmverleih has released ten to twelve films a year across Germany, some films are also sold in German-speaking countries. The catalog also includes films that have been awarded a César , Palme d' Or or Oscar , but which do not fit into the mainstream concept of the large multiplex cinemas , and films that are risky in terms of sales, whose distribution, due to their artistic value, through distribution support awards and grants supported and partly made possible. The latter include, for example, films such as Welcome (2009) by Philippe Lioret and The Color of Milk by Torun Lian . Since 2005, Arsenal has operated the DVD label Good Movies together with originally eight, now nine, other independent film distribution companies , which is intended to facilitate the exploitation of film rights and whose financing, technical processing and marketing is entirely in the hands of the distribution companies. In view of the strongly shrunk German program cinema landscape, the cooperation with the public television broadcasters has also become another important economic pillar of the company.

The company is a member of the AG Verleih .

Awards

2001, 2006 and 2010, the company "for special achievements in spreading artistic outstanding films" was awarded the € 75,000 endowed German lender Price awarded by the Federal Government. In 2006, the jury praised the diverse and demanding distribution program, in particular the perseverance and persistence of the company on the art film market.

Movies

Music films

From the beginning, music films have been the focus of Arsenal Filmverleih.

The most successful music films from the early stages of distribution include AC / DC - Let there be Rock and above all Jonathan Demme's concert film about the Talking Heads , Stop Making Sense . Recently, z. E.g. the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2003) by Paul Justman, which deals with the Motown record label , The Nomi Song (2005), a biography of the avant-garde singer Klaus Nomi by Andrew Horn , CSNY Déjà Vu (2008) political concert film by Neil Young (under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey ) about the band after their testimony against George W. Bush . The 2009 film It Might Get Loud by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim , which portrayed the guitarists Jimmy Page ( Led Zeppelin ), The Edge ( U2 ) and Jack White ( The White Stripes ) and told their story, attracted particular attention lets, the tango documentary The Last Applause by German Krahl and 2010 Sounds and Silence about the founder and boss of the ECM label , Manfred Eicher . Arsenal Filmverleih has also released feature films in which music plays an important role, such as Havana Blues (2006) by Benito Zambrano or Swing (2002) and Exil (2006) (both by Tony Gatlif ).

French films

Ever since the publication of Philippe Lioret's The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife with Sandrine Bonnaire in 2005, Arsenal Film Distributors have been focusing on French films again, following a tradition that began with Diva in 1983 . The most important French films in the repertoire include Intime Strangers (2004) by Patrice Leconte , Two Unequal Sisters (2005) by Alexandra Leclère, Hearts (2006) by Alain Resnais , Dialogue with my gardener (2007) and Days or Hours (2008) by Jean Becker , the literary film adaptation A Secret by Claude Miller based on the novel of the same name by Philippe Grimbert and in 2009 the artist biography Seraphine by Martin Provost about the painter of Art Brut Séraphine Louis with Yolande Moreau and Ulrich Tukur in the leading roles. The most relevant French films currently distributed by Arsenal are the refugee drama Welcome (2010), also by Philippe Lioret , which, with Vincent Lindon in the lead role, tells of the failure of humanity due to the French migration laws, and the comedy Fasting in Italian (2010) with Kad Merad , who also deals with the migration problem in a humorous way. Arsenal is also the German distributor of Leos Carax 's art film Holy Motors , which caused a sensation at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2012 .

Scandinavian films

With Elling from Petter Næss , Arsenal achieved the world's best result for Scandinavian films in 2002, in addition to Norway, followed by Kitchen Stories by Bent Hamer , Daniel Lind Lagerlöfs Miffo - Da Braut sich was sich and Flickering Lights by Anders Thomas Jensen , but also with Dogma films like Kira by Ole Christian Madsen and Open Hearts by Susanne Bier and above all with the multi-award-winning drama Lilja 4-ever by Lukas Moodysson had its highlights.

Mediterranean and Middle East

Arsenal Filmverleih also devotes numerous films to the Mediterranean region and the Middle East , often dealing with the conflicts there in a wide variety of ways. The repertoire ranges from comedies like Everything I love about you (Spain, Argentina 2004) to political films like Lemon Tree (Israel / Germany / France 2007) by Eran Riklis , Walk on Water (Israel 2004) by Eytan Fox , No Man's Land (France / Belgium / Great Britain / Slovenia 2001) by Danis Tanović or Das Herz von Jenin (Israel / Germany 2008) by Marcus Vetter to arthouse films such as Jellyfish - carried by the sea (Israel / France 2007) by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen, The Great Journey (Morocco / France 2004) by Ismaël Ferroukhi or Three Monkeys (Turkey / France / Italy 2008) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan .

Spanish speaking area

Another facet of the repertoire is made up of films from Spanish-speaking countries, with the range of topics from comedies such as B. Ein Ferpektes Verbrechen (2003) by Álex de la Iglesia , Nicotina (Mexico 2003) by Hugo Rodríguez or Susos Turm (Spain 2007) by Tom Fernández to dramas like The Wind (Argentina / Spain 2005) by Eduardo Mignogna, dark blue branch black (Spain 2006) by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo .

German-language films

Arsenal Filmverleih also released a number of German films. Particularly worth mentioning here are Heinrich the Säger , Am I sexy? , We'll see each other again , ping-pong , Viehjud Levi , table No.6 and above all the Austrian black comedy Immer nie am Meer by Antonin Svoboda with cabaret artists Stermann & Grissemann and Heinz Strunk in the leading roles, and in 2011 the one with Max -Ophüls-Preis film The man who jumped over cars with Jessica Schwarz and Robert Stadlober .

Documentary and experimental films

Arsenal also regularly publishes less-consumable documentaries and experimental films . The documentaries range from the above music documentaries to experimental films such as Tarnation by Jonathan Caouette or The Five Obstructions by Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier to political documentaries such as Darwin's Nightmare by Hubert Sauper or Das Herz von Jenin by Leon Geller and Marcus Vetter. Particularly noteworthy here is the Oscar winner Man on Wire by James Marsh, who tells the story of the tightrope artist Philippe Petit , who on August 7, 1974 balanced back and forth between the towers of the World Trade Center eight times .

Other films

In addition to the main topics discussed, Arsenal Filmverleih also publishes films from all over the world. Here are u. a. The following films were named: Pi by Darren Aronofsky , Koyaanisqatsi with soundtrack by Philip Glass , Beijing Bicycle by Wang Xiaoshuai , Atanarjuat - The legend of the fast runner by Zacharias Kunuk , the first film written on Inuktitut , Secretary of Steven Shainberg , Before Night Falls by Julian Schnabel with Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp , Tuya's wedding by Wang Quan'an , Junebug by Phil Morrison, Welcome to the Rileys by Jake Scott or The Woman Who Sings - Incendies by Denis Villeneuve , Canada's Oscar entry 2011.

Filmography (from 1997)

1997:

1998:

1999:

  • School of desire
  • pi
  • High art
  • Dance of Dust
  • Megacities
  • Bob Marley - Live in Concert
  • Louise - Take 2
  • Over the rainbow
  • Cattle Jew Levi
  • Table No. 6th
  • The volcano
  • A specialist
  • The (really) very last trick of the Olsen gang
  • It starts today

2000:

2001:

2002:

2003:

2004:

2005:

2006:

2007:

2008:

2009:

2010:

2011:

2012:

2013:

  • Renoir
  • A lady in Paris
  • BB King: The Life of Riley
  • The Virgin, the Copts and I ...

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ tagblatt.de
  2. ↑ a b bundesregierung.de ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundesregierung.de
  3. ↑ screendaily.com
  4. ↑ mediabiz.de
  5. ↑ swp.de ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Nine independent German film distributors found a joint DVD label called "Good Movies" ( Memento from July 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  7. ↑ Article in the last row - feature films on public TV in: epd film 6/2004
  8. ↑ Announcement of prices for distributors and cinemas in: epd Film 11/2001
  9. ^ Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann awards cinema program awards and distributor awards 2006 ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on June 26, 2011)
  10. ^ Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann awards cinema program awards and distributor awards 2010 ( Memento from June 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on June 26, 2011)
  11. ↑ Holy Motors . Time online , May 23, 2012.