Hans Günther Pflaum

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Hans Günther Pflaum , also Hans Günter Pflaum (* 1941 in Munich ; † December 19, 2018 ), was a German film critic and author of radio plays and film literature as well as director and screenwriter of documentaries and television presenter .

Life

After studying German , newspaper studies and theater history , Pflaum began working as a freelance journalist and film critic. From 1970 to 2007 he wrote about film topics in the Süddeutsche Zeitung . When the Catholic Institute for Media Information began to realign its church-oriented information service Katholische FILM-Korrespondenz , which had existed since 1955, in 1972 , he came up with the 30-year-old Pflaum, who had become famous for his passionate commitment to the medium of film, and appointed him as editor . The imprint of a harsh film-political polemics directed against the “Munich power faction around Franz Josef Strauss ” by Hans Rolf Strobel was his undoing in 1976. Under internal pressure, he resigned his post, but remained connected to the editorial team as a contributor. For the parallel paper film-dienst , which specializes in film reviews , he was also an editor in the 1970s and worked as a reviewer for a long time afterwards . From 1984 he also wrote for epd film .

Radio and television were also a platform for film reviews for him. The ZDF broadcast Advice for Moviegoers , which was launched before his entry (around the early 1980s), is considered to be the first series of film tips on television that gave film critics (mostly the feature pages ) the floor. Another format was as the WDR - Cinema magazine . Together with Michael Althen , Doris Kuhn and Rainer Gansera he also moderated programs. The young German film was close to his heart, especially the exponents of a Munich counterculture to the politically repressive guidelines of the conservatives from Franz-Josef Strauss to Friedrich Zimmermann . He worked continuously through Rainer Werner Fassbinder , who was four years his junior ; Numerous texts and interviews, books and films, as well as seminars, workshops and symposia bear witness to this . Particularly noteworthy here are the book The Bit Reality That I Need , written in 1976 together with Fassbinder and published by Carl Hanser Verlag , and which was produced in 1992, ten years after Fassbinder's death, in cooperation with the film publisher of the authors and ZDF Portrait film I don't just want you to love me , the title of which is a reference to Fassbinder's 1975 film, I just want you to love me . In addition to his own experiences with Fassbinder, prominent Fassbinder colleagues such as Karlheinz Böhm , Hanna Schygulla , Peter Zadek and Volker Schlöndorff talk about their encounters with him. Pflaum devoted some film documentaries to Herbert Achternbusch , who was attacked hard by Friedrich Zimmermann and systematically blocked in his career , for example Der Niemandslandstreicher , the title of which ties in with Fassbinder's very early short film Der Stadtstreicher and in this way establishes a rigorous connection between these two people who are personally close to him inappropriate filmmakers.

For Pflaum, film policy was always part of the overall picture. He was able to deal with and have dealt with related topics in his yearbook Film , which was published from 1977 to 1985 . The texts came from young, new authors, such as Thomas Honickel , as well as from emerging, such as Karsten Witte , and well-known, such as Peter W. Jansen . At the time, Wolf Donner wrote about the first issue that the band did not set any priorities, but rather scattered small parts "slightly without conception". Nevertheless, the contributions are useful and especially Hans Helmut Prinzler's overviews such as the directory of all film and television editorial staff are among the most widely read parts. The series is still classified today as an important reference work on this heyday of German auteur films . In 1979, Hans Helmut Prinzler and Hans Günther Pflaum compiled the Handbook Film in the Federal Republic of Germany , which appeared in several editions and languages ​​until 1992. Pflaum published various essays in collections of articles , for example in Peter W. Jansens and Wolfram Schuette's Film in the GDR (Hanser, 1977).

He continued to write for daily newspapers, for example the Berliner Tagesspiegel . He most recently directed the documentaries "Von Sex bis Simmel " (2005), a settlement with the commercial cinema of the 1970s, and "Was kann denn sein" (2007) about the traditional homeland film of the 1950s, which was used in television assembly line productions the 2000s was continued.

Pflaum also worked on the film funding agency's project commission . His precise knowledge of German film led him to the Goethe Institute . He went on many trips, presented German films in the countries he visited and discussed them with the audience.

Hans Günther Pflaum died on December 19, 2018 after a long illness.

Works

Book publications

  • with Rainer Werner Fassbinder: That little bit of reality that I need. How films are made. Hanser, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-446-12283-4 .
    • Swedish edition: Den bit verklighet som jag behöver. Hur filmer kommer til. Bokförlaget Pan / Norstedt, Stockholm 1978, ISBN 91-1-773421-5 .
    • Unabridged paperback edition (= dtv-Sachbuch ; 1491): Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-423-01491-1 .
  • with Jürgen Theobaldy , Kraft Wetzel, Hans Helmut Prinzler: Werner Herzog . Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-446-12871-9 .
  • with Hans Helmut Prinzler: Film in the Federal Republic of Germany. The new German film. Origin, current situation. A manual. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-446-12434-9 .
    • Paperback edition (= Fischer-Taschenbücher. Fischer-Cinema ; 3673): Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-596-23673-8 .
    • French edition: Le film en République Fédérale d'Allemagne. Le nouveau film allemand. Origine, situation current. Un vade-mecum. Inter Nationes, Bonn 1983.
    • English edition: Cinema in the Federal Republic of Germany. The new German film. Origins and present situation. A handbook. Inter Nationes, Bonn 1983.
    • Spanish edition: El cine en la República Federale de Alemania. El nuevo cine alemán. Origen, situación actual. Manual. Inter Nationes, Bonn 1983.
    • Reprint udT: Film in the Federal Republic of Germany. The new German film from the beginning to the present. A manual. Inter Nationes, Bonn 1985.
    • extended new edition udT: Film in the Federal Republic of Germany. The new German film. From the beginning to the present. A manual. With an excursus about the cinema of the GDR. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-446-17471-0 .
  • Germany in the film. Main topics of the feature film in the Federal Republic of Germany (= materials on regional studies ). Hueber, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-19-001412-4 .
    • American edition: Germany on film. Theme and content in the cinema of the Federal Republic of Germany. Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1990, ISBN 0-8143-2258-1 .
  • Heinz Müller (Ed.): Film in the FRG. With an essay by Hans Günther Pflaum. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-362-00374-5 .
  • Newcomer Films. Part 3: The Product Testing of Hearth and Home. Written by Hans Günther Pflaum. Translation: Jeremy Roth. Goethe Institute, Munich 1991.
  • with Susanne Reinker : Minute cinema. Translation: Jeremy Roth. Goethe Institute, Munich 1991.
  • Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Pictures and documents. Edition Spangenberg, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-89409-068-5 .
  • Frank Beyer retrospective. Goethe-Institut, Munich 1996.
    • respective English, Spanish, French editions under the same title
  • Herbert Achternbusch. Filmmakers. Goethe-Institut, Munich 2000. (bilingual editions: German / English, German / Spanish, German / French)
  • German silent film classics. A publication by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation and Transit Film GmbH in collaboration with the Goethe Institute Inter Nationes. Transit-Film, Munich 2002.

Film documentaries (selection)

  • 1993: I don't just want you to love me - The filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder (director and screenplay)
  • 1996: The no man's land tramp. Herbert Achternbusch - filmmaker, painter, writer (director and screenplay)
  • 2004: Mabuse's motifs (direction and screenplay)
  • 2005: From Sex to Simmel (director and screenplay)
  • 2007: What could be nicer? Thoughts on German Heimatfilm (direction and screenplay)

Radio plays (author)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hans Günther Pflaum . In: Hans Günther Pflaum (Ed.): Jahrbuch Film 81/82. Reports / reviews / data . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-446-13456-5 , The authors, p. 256 .
  2. ↑ a b Pflaum, Hans Günther. In: br.de. November 23, 2012, accessed May 1, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Peter Kremski: Memories of Hans-Günther Pflaum (1941–2018). In: vdfk.de. Association of German Film Critics V., January 21, 2019, accessed on May 1, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Rainer Gansera: Hans-Günther Pflaum (1941–19.12.2018). An obituary for the film critic, who was also the chief editor of the magazine "film-dienst" from 1973 to 1976. In: filmdienst.de. January 11, 2019, accessed May 1, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Wilhelm Roth: Memories of Günther Pflaum. The film critic died on December 19, 2018. In: epd-film.de. January 11, 2019, accessed May 1, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Wolf Donner: Too colorful. “Yearbook Film” . In: The time . No. 47/1977 , November 11, 1977, Kultur ( zeit.de [accessed on May 1, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Pflaum, Hans Günther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pflaum, Hans Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film critic and author of film literature
DATE OF BIRTH 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH 19th December 2018