Friedrich - A German King (2011)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Friedrich - a German king |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jan Peter |
| script |
Yury Winterberg , Jan Peter |
| production |
Jost-Arend Bösenberg , Frank Schmuck |
| music |
Jean-Marie Gilles , Nikolai Tomas |
| camera | Jürgen Rehberg |
| cut | Susanne Schiebler |
| occupation | |
| |
Friedrich - Ein deutscher König is a historical, documentary fictional film by director Jan Peter about Friedrich II. From 2011.
action
1763, Kunersdorf: A carriage stops in the open. The children from the villages destroyed by the war suspect a ghost to meet a black man. In fact, King Frederick II, tired and scarred by the war, gets out of the carriage and looks at what is left of his country after seven years of war. Four years ago at the Battle of Kunersdorf it could have turned out very differently ...
In retrospect, the documentary feature film describes the essential stages of Frederick II's life in striking key scenes, introduces important companions and at the same time creates a fine psychogram of the Prussian king.
Parallel to the plot, experts, including the Australian historian Christopher Clark , comment on the individual scenes in the game.
Background information
This documentary film was broadcast on the occasion of the 300th birthday of Frederick II in January 2012 on Arte and on Erste. Particularly noteworthy is the occupation of Friedrich with two women. Katharina Thalbach plays the old Fritz, Anna Thalbach the crown prince and young king.
The budget for the film was around 1.2 million euros. This generous financial endowment for a German documentary is extremely low for a historical feature film. The 65-minute production with well-known actors focuses primarily on a psychological deepening of the living conditions of the Prussian king. Crowd scenes are almost completely missing, but the battle of Kunersdorf is shown with a certain amount of effort. Classical documentary recordings practically do not appear in the film; instead, additional information is conveyed through animations in the style of mechanically moving wall pictures from the 18th century.
In addition to short scenes in Sanssouci, the film was mainly shot in Oranienbaum Palace near Dessau and Waldenburg Palace (Saxony) near Chemnitz . All recordings were made on 16 mm film, here too the strip turns out to be far more of a feature film than a classic documentary.
Charisma
The film was broadcast for the first time on January 7, 2012 at 8.15 p.m. on ARTE. The film achieved an extraordinarily high audience response in Germany and France. In Germany alone, around 1.75 million viewers tuned in.
On January 16, 2012, the film ran on the ARD's history slot, which was often criticized for its unfavorable airtime, at 10:45 p.m. There it reached another 1.5 million viewers and a market share of almost 10 percent.
Another broadcast on RBB television on April 10, 2012 at 8:15 p.m. achieved a below-average audience interest of 3.4 percent market share.
The picture was completely different when it was broadcast on June 13, 2012 on MDR. Placed in prime time at 8:15 p.m. in direct competition with the game of the German national team at the European Football Championship, more than 200,000 people watched.
reception
The public response to the film was very high. Almost all regional and national daily and weekly newspapers reported on its broadcast. In particular, there was a report about the casting of the title role with Anna and Katharina Thalbach.
Most of the media coverage was positive. TV Today headlined "History is seldom so entertaining!" (TV Today 02/12) and TV Spielfilm wrote: "ARD Coup - Friedrich DIE Große" (TV Spielfilm 02/12). Almost all regional newspapers in Germany and Austria reported equally euphoric. So wrote z. B. Die Presse (Die Presse, January 15, 2012): "They succeeded in the coup, the makers of" Friedrich - Ein deutscher König ": Hardly anyone will watch without astonishment how mother and daughter represent one and the same figure . "
On Spiegel Online (SPON of January 7, 2012) Nikolaus von Festenberg praised: "In terms of mental enlightenment, however, this film does an extraordinary job thanks to its protagonists. It is these Thalbach views from which today's people look at the suffering behind the power and glory of the past. "
The Tagesspiegel (Tagesspiegel from January 7, 2012) also joined the enthusiasm. Bernhard Schulz wrote: "Surprisingly, the in and for itself worn-out transformation into the" trouser roll "turns out surprisingly well. Little men or women, the question no longer arises after a few minutes; all the less since Friedrich was already considered genderless, or better said, being shown completely disinterested in the female counterpart, without ascribing lived homosexuality to him. (...) So the viewer may enjoy some surreal scenes, such as battles with few extras and a lot of red poppies. And a Katharina Thalbach who on At the end of an old Fritz is like Otto Fee would never have managed. "
Jens Bisky saw the work much more critically in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ of January 7, 2012). In a long article he praised on the one hand: "The documentary drama Friedrich a German King begins with the horror of the children playing and the monarch's sorrowful face. The ARD celebrates the 300th birthday of the king with the ARD. The beginning is cleverly chosen. He creates Curiosity. Kunersdorf was indeed a turning point in Friedrich's life and a first shock at the much vaunted, much maligned man is not the worst thing if you want to avoid glorification. " On the other hand, Bisky thinks: "The idea of having two women play king is of moderate originality."
The FOCUS was enthusiastic about the choice of the leading actress (FOCUS from January 18, 2012): "As old Fritz, Katharina Thalbach lets forget that there is a woman under the cloakroom - thanks to costume and make-up artists. Under the drum roll she trudges across as a standing man Battlefield. After all, the king fought three wars and moved Prussia to the center of Europe. At the end the scene when children flee from an alleged ghost was touching. But in the carriage there is only a lone king. In the end, the monarch is plagued by gout, hemorrhoids, Loss of teeth, lame bones and watery eyes - you also suffer in the film. "
However, Andreas Kilb could not find anything positive about the film in the FAZ (FAZ of January 6, 2012). In a long review he writes: "Anna and Katharina Thalbach play - unfortunately it's a caricature. (..) Even where the film is right, it plays wrong."
literature
- Johannes Unger: Friedrich: Ein deutscher König , Propylaen Verlag, 2011, ISBN 3-5490-7413-1 .
DVD
- Friedrich - A German King , Edel (2012).
Web links
- Friedrich - A German king in the Internet Movie Database (English)