According to the German director Edward Berger, the world must remember the horrors of the First World War. He had this to say at the Toronto Film Festival, where he presented the new adaptation of Calm on the Western Front. Based on the novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, the film partly made in the Czech Republic, Germany will submit it for Oscar submissions. Viewers will see it on October 28 in the Netflix video library.
This novel is the first purely German adaptation of the famous anti-war novel from 1928. It has been filmed twice so far, First by Moldovan-American Lewis Mileston shortly after its release, the second time again by American Delbert Mann in 1979. The first film received Oscars for directing and best picture, the second, shot at Most or Karlovy Vary, among others, won a Golden Globe.
The current film with a budget of around 20 million dollars, less than half a billion crowns, also has Czech imprints. Staff work in Prague’s Barrandov, Žatec, Roudnice nad Labem, Buškovice, Postoloprty, Milovice, Králové dvor, Venátky nad Jizerou or Luštěnice. And the Czechs are also included in it. For example, Jindřich Kočí and Pavel Vojtíšek were in charge of sets and scenography.
On the Western Front, Quiet tells the story of a young man full of patriotism who enlists in the German army during the First World War. Only ahead do they fully understand the horror of the conflict, which will change them irrevocably. The book sold 2.5 million copies in its first 18 months after its publication and was gradually translated into dozens of languages, significantly changing the way war was glorified up until then.
The novel was directed by fifty-two-year-old German Edward Berger, who signed under the serial Germany 83 or Patrick Melrose. He wanted to show how the world wars led by his country marked generations of Germans and scarred their society. “They make us feel guilty and hurt. And it is these emotions that we now want to convey to audiences,” Berger said at the Toronto, Canada festival, where the film had its world premiere this week.
“For me, the German perspective is unique in this case, but such a film could also be of interest to other countries. Hopefully, that will show that nothing good ever comes from war. We all know that, but it’s the same thing. if we keep forgetting about it,” he added. He would love it if the news sounded as historically convincing as German films Fall of the Third Reich or Submarine.
The title increased the appeal of the First World War for viewers in the new millennium Merry Christmas, A war horse or, most recently, the Oscar winner in 1917. However, Berger accounts for the fact that the purely German adaptation On the Western Front is only being made now in historical context. “In Germany, the memories of the First World War quickly replaced the horrors that the Germans committed in the Second World War,” he told Spiegel magazine. While Americans had reasons to look to the war for stories of heroism, it wasn’t good for the Germans, so they had no motivation to go back there, Berger believed.
Quiet on the Western Front will be available on Netflix starting October 28. | Videos: Netflix
Remarque’s book, like its adaptation, focuses on seventeen year old German Paul Bäumer. He and his friends, under pressure from the environment, especially class professors, finished their studies at the gymnasium, voluntarily underwent training and headed for the Western Front. However, his fighting spirit gradually wanes when his comrades die. He alienated himself from his family and the rest of society.
Felix Kammerer plays Paul in the news, his Polish best friend Stanisław Katczyński is played by Albrecht Schuch. He said at the premiere that the First World War did no good to anyone who fought in it. “He destroyed several more generations,” he said.
The crew began filming during the coronavirus pandemic, when the director realized that the European Union was in danger of collapsing, America was experiencing a return to right-wing populism and Great Britain was struggling with the effects of Brexit. “In such a setting, we thought it was appropriate to tell this particular story,” said Edward Berger. “The fact that nationalism and patriotism are returning and society is becoming polarized does not represent one iota of change for the better,” he added.
According to Deadline.com, the news is absolutely epic. It seems like it actually had a higher budget, and the fight scenes convincingly depict the horrors of war. In light of the war in Ukraine, “the time has come to remind us that war is not a video game, which this film does well.” summarizes website.
Also, Screendaily.com magazine shoot praise. This “horrendous and stunningly filmed spectacle of death and destruction” seeks to portray the bloodiness of repeated wars. According to him, he is not too sad and depressed thanks to the character played by Daniel Brühl.
The 44-year-old German, known from the films Shameful Pancharti or Rivals, plays the liberal-minded and realistic German minister Matthias Erzberger, who is frustrated by the progress of the war and persuades his comrades to surrender. In November 1918, as a representative of the Reich government, Erzberger actually signed the Armistice of Compiègne, effectively ending the fighting.
The creators made the 1917 war film technically excellent, it looks like the perfect computer game, says film critic Kamil Fila. | Video: Kamil Fila, Blahoslav Baťa
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