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THE EUROPEAN FRIEND: BRUNO GANZ
June 25 - July 8, 2004

left:

In The White City / Dans La Ville Blanche

Presented by the Film Society with the support of the Consulate General of Switzerland, Goethe-Institut New York, French Institute Alliance Française, Italian Cultural Institute, ProHelvetia, Arts Council of Switzerland, and SwissPeaks.

The roster of supporting organizations listed above reflects the unique quality of Bruno Ganz: he is in many ways the quintessentially European actor, comfortable in roles that require German, Italian, French and even English. Born in 1941 to a Swiss father and an Italian mother, by the early 60s Ganz was already active on the German stage and would later go on to co-found with Peter Stein Berlin's famous and influential Schaubühne Theater. He appeared in a number of German films and television shows throughout the 60s, but it wasn't until the mid-70s, when he co-starred in Eric Rohmer's THE MARQUISE OF O, that he really found a place for himself in the cinema. Soon thereafter he became one of the most sought-after actors in the New German Cinema, working with Werner Herzog, Hans Geissendörfer, Reinhard Hauff and especially Wim Wenders. He also began to work internationally, throughout Europe and in a memorable role in THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL. Some actors come out at you from the screen; Bruno Ganz is the kind of actor who on the contrary draws you in. The soft lines of his face seem to contain secrets, perhaps a touch of sadness, that keep the audience guessing about his characters. They can also contain a hint of mischief, as seen in his comic work in films such as BREAD AND TULIPS. As revealed in BEHIND ME, a touching documentary portrait film of the actor, that sense of mischief can also apply to his thoughts about his own life and craft, both of which Ganz approaches with a good deal of self-deprecating humor. With several new films about to be released (including a turn at playing Hitler in a new German film, DOWNFALL) and a continuous schedule of theatrical performances, Bruno Ganz's career, as it enters its fifth decade, has never been stronger. We're delighted and proud to present this brief tribute to one of the finest actors working anywhere today.

Additional programs: THE MARQUISE OF O will be shown at the French Institute Alliance Française (www.fiaf.org) on June 29 at 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, and 9pm. Video recordings of Ganz's theater work at Germany's renowned Schaubühne Berlin Theater will be screened at the Martin E. Segal Theatre (The Graduate Center, CUNY) in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut New York on June 28 and 29. For more information please go to www.goethe.de/uk/ney/enindex.htm.

WINGS OF DESIRE / DER HIMMEL ÜBER BERLIN
Wim Wenders, Germany, 1987; 127m
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For many, Bruno Ganz's signature role was that of Damiel, the gentle angel who looks down on a tired, confused humanity from the parapets high above the city. In Wenders' version of the beyond, angels can gently prod but never truly interact; they mainly serve to bear witness and worry about human weakness. One day, Damiel spots a beautiful trapeze artist working in a rundown circus; suddenly, to be near her, to touch her, seems to him as if it might well be worth coming down to the earthly plain. Ganz and his angelic partner Cassiel (Otto Sander) brilliantly convey a kind of ethereal quality; even when standing on Earth next to other actors they never seem to be quite there. Wenders' bold conception for his film was immeasurably aided by the extraordinary cinematography of Henri Alekan, called out of retirement once again for the film; there are many memorable moments, but none perhaps tops the wonderful sequence in the library, a tour-de-force of visual and sound design.
Fri June 25: 1:30 & 6:15pm; Sat June 26: 4; Sun June 27: 8:15; Mon June 28: 3:15

TRUTH AND LIES / LA FORZA DEL PASSATO
Piergiorgio Gay, Italy, 2002; 98m
Based on the well-loved novel by Sandro Veronesi, The Power of the Past, the film tells the story of Giovanni Orzan (Sergio Rubini), an acclaimed writer of children's books, married with an eight-year-old son. One day, a man comes to his door; he introduces himself as Gianni Bogliasco (Bruno Ganz), and claims that he was an old friend of Giovanni's recently deceased father. What's more, Gianni reveals that the father, who had been a rather cold military man with whom Giovanni had a troubled relationship, was in fact a spy for the KGB. Suddenly, Giovanni's whole world seems to collapse, as he struggles to determine how much he knows about his own past - and how much he can confide in his new friend, who seems to implicate himself more and more in Giovanni's life. Rubini and Ganz are brilliant together, and their scenes together become taut mano a mano psychological battles as each tries to gain the upper hand over the other. Ganz finds just the right balance between fatherly concern and hidden menace.
Fri June 25: 4:15 & 9; Sat June 26: 6:45; Sun June 27: 2

BEHIND ME
Norbert Wiedmer, Germany, 2002; 85m
Bruno Ganz teamed up with veteran documentary filmmaker Wiedmer to create this touching portrait/diary film that follows the actor as he travels across Europe playing Faust, a stage role with which he has become singularly identified. Ganz is remarkably candid on screen, talking about his life as well as reflecting on his acting career and his methods of work. The collaboration between filmmaker and filmed subject (Ganz actually shot part of the film himself) gives the film a special quality, helping it to avoid the stiff, airless feeling of an official portrait; rather, the film captures the playfulness and constant self-interrogation that seems to define Bruno Ganz both as an artist and as a man.
Sat June 26: 2; Sun June 27: 4; Wed June 30: 4 & 8

CIRCLE OF DECEIT / DIE FÄLSCHUNG
Volker Schlöndorff, Germany, 1981; 109m
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In the midst of a marital crisis, West German journalist Georg Laschen (Bruno Ganz) is sent to cover the civil war then raging in Lebanon. He's accompanied by Hoffmann (Jerzy Skolimowski), a world-weary photographer. Laschen wants to find something - some cause, some overriding truth - in which he can still believe; for his part, Hoffmann has seen too many sites of human misery and stupidity to think there's any truth greater than learning to watch your own back. Their reporting leads them to the various sides and factions in the conflict; along the way, Lachen meets up with Arainna (Hanna Schygulla), an old friend whose Arab husband has been killed. Actually shot in Lebanon under amazingly dangerous conditions, CIRCLE OF DECEIT today stands as an extraordinarily prescient work, one of the first European films to convey that the new breed of conflicts starting to erupt were in some fundamental ways different than the kinds of wars people like Laschen and Hoffmann were used to covering.
Sat June 26: 9; Sun June 27: 6; Mon June 28: 1 & 6

CLOSED CIRCUIT / SYSTEM OHNE SCHATTEN
Rudolf Thomé, West Germany, 1983; 114m
"A piece performed by avant-garde musician Laurie Anderson halfway through CLOSED CIRCUIT may succinctly outline the thrust of the film ("You're a closed circuit, baby . . ."), but the literal translation of the German title, "system without shadows," more graphically describes the world without complexity desired by Faber (Bruno Ganz), the film's central character. Faber, an introverted electronics expert who spends his free time playing chess with his computer, is easily seduced into a new game by Juliet (Dominique Laffin), a coy unemployed actress, and Mélo (Hanns Zischler), a small-time con man working on the edge of the art world. With amoral diligence Faber plans to break into the computer system of a European banking corporation that he services as part of his work. The idea is to channel millions into a Swiss account for himself and the others before the error is discovered. Life is not so free of shadows, nor schemes so effortlessly pulled off, Faber finds, when storm clouds gather in the foreground of his mathematically precise vision." - Barbara Scharres, Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Wed June 30: 2 & 6; Sun July 4: 12 noon

IN THE WHITE CITY / DANS LA VILLE BLANCHE
Alain Tanner, 1983, Switzerland/Portugal; 108m
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One of Alain Tanner's most beautiful films, IN THE WHITE CITY is a haunting, bluesy mood piece that follows a disconnected sailor who decides to jump ship in Lisbon. Bruno Ganz plays this sailor, Paul, a Swiss who suddenly finds himself entranced by the ghostly "white city" on the edge of the Atlantic. He wanders the city's steep streets and labyrinthine alleys, shooting Super-8 films that he sends to his wife back in Switzerland as tentative explanations of what's going on in his life. Jean-Luc Barbier's marvelous jazz score is the perfect complement for Tanner's loose, almost improvisational approach.
Thurs July 1: 2 & 6:30; Fri July 2: 4:30; Wed. July 7: 2

BREAD AND TULIPS / PANE E TULIPANI
Silvio Soldini, 2000, Italy/Switzerland; 115m
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Bruno Ganz shines as Fernando, a suicidal Icelandic waiter living in Venice in Silvio Soldini's delightful film, one of the best-loved Italian comedies of recent years. The story begins when Rosabla, played by the marvelous Licia Maglietta, is left behind at a highway rest stop while on a vacation trip. Rather than figure out a way to head home, she decides go off by herself and visit Venice, a place she's always wanted to see. Soon after arriving, she falls in with a ragtag group of loners and eccentrics including a holistic masseuse, an ill-tempered anarchist and the aforementioned Fernando (Ganz), with whom she starts a tentative affair. Although full of many hilarious moments, Soldini never forgets that his characters are all middle-aged adults looking for a second chance after feeling they've missed out on too much of life thus far, giving the film a poignancy that always underlines even the most comedic moments.
Thurs July 1: 4:15 & 8:45; Sat July 3: 12 noon

THE LAST DAYS OF CHEZ NOUS
Gillian Armstrong, 1992; 96m
"Women are at the heart of this extraordinary film, a Down Under Hannah and Her Sisters from Australian director Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career) and writer Helen Garner (Two Friends). At Chez Nous, the house in Sydney she bought with her earnings as an author, Beth (the luminous Lisa Harrow) is the calm in a storm created by her discontented French husband, J.P. (Bruno Ganz), her distracted teen daughter, Annie (Miranda Otto), and her pregnant and unmarried sister, Vicki (Kerry Fox), home from Europe with a thinly veiled resentment toward her successful sibling. When Beth takes off for two weeks to get closer to her crusty father (Bill Hunter), Chez Nous becomes the setting for a series of emotional eruptions...CHEZ NOUS brims over with humor and heart-break, but don't expect any histrionics. This is a family that learns to live with the consequences of breaking the ties that bind. Armstrong, a gifted director in top form, draws inspired performances in a keenly observant film about the dynamics of relationships." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Please note that some reels of this print are scratched.
Fri July 2: 12 noon & 9:15; Sun July 4: 2:15; Tue July 6: 4; Wed. July 7: 6:30

THE AMERICAN FRIEND / DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND
Wim Wenders, 1977, West Germany; 123m
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If any one image could be said to be emblematic of an actor's career, it would certainly be Bruno Ganz leaning up against a yellow taxi cab (with Dennis Hopper in the driver's seat) from THE AMERICAN FRIEND. Loosely adapting Patricia Highsmith's thriller Ripley's Game, Wim Wenders cast Ganz as Jonathan Zimmermann, a Hamburg picture framer who discovers that he's dying from leukemia. Ripley (Hopper), an American art dealer, recruits him to work as a hit man for the mob, promising Jonathan a big pay day for his work that he can leave his family as an inheritance. The plot, though, is really just the premise for Wenders' extended meditation on the complex, fascinating, at times tortured relations between Germany and America, pop culture and high art. Featuring cameo appearances by some of Wenders' favorite directors, including Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller and Jean Eustache.
Fri July 2: 2 & 6:45; Sat July 3: 6:45; Thurs. July 8: 6:15

THE WILD DUCK / DIE WILDENTE
Hans W. Geissendörfer, 1976, West Germany/Austria; 100m
A powerful adaptation of Ibsen's searing, symbolist drama, THE WILD DUCK is the story of Hjalmar (Peter Kern), a photographer lost in his dreams of creating an important new invention. Ganz plays his friend, Gregers, a reckless young idealist who returns to his father's house after an absence of seventeen years and decides to make everyone around him face the truth about themselves - setting in motion an engine of emotional and finally physical destruction. Geissendörfer uses the "softness" of Ganz's persona to good effect; one really believes that he believes he's doing good, even as he's wreaking havoc all around him. Sadly, THE WILD DUCK proved to be the final screen appearance for Jean Seberg, who plays Hjalmar's wife Gina; the cinematography was by Robby Müller, later to become known for his work with Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch.
Please note that this print is faded. It is the only subtitled print in existence.
Sat July 3: 2:15; Sun July 4: 8:30; Tue July 6: 2; Thurs. July 8: 4 & 8:45

NOSFERATU
Werner Herzog, 1979, Germany/France; 107m
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Herzog assembled an extraordinary cast, including Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, Isabelle Adjani as his wife Lucy and Klaus Kinski as the Vampire, for this bold, controversial adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Although unavoidably compared to the incomparable version by Murnau, Herzog's film actually focuses much more on the personal interaction among the characters. Ganz plays Harker, the ambitious real estate agent who unwittingly releases the Vampire's terror on an unsuspecting world, as more worldly wise and less innocent than Gustav van Wangenheim in the Murnau film. But the show really belongs to Kinski, who makes the Vampire's hunger for blood truly frightening, as well as rather sad.
Sat July 3: 4:30 & 9:15; Sun July 4: 6:15

THE INVENTOR / DER ERFINDER
Kurt Gloor, 1980, Switzerland; 100m Jakob (Bruno Ganz) is an obsessive inventor who lives in a Swiss village in the early years of the twentieth century. For most of his neighbors, he's pretty much a harmless if occasionally annoying eccentric who loves to tinker with machines and patch together odd bits - all except for his friend Otti, who's convinced that Jakob's a genius whose talents will soon be recognized by all. One day, Jakob does in fact have a brilliant idea: to create a kind of cart that would run not on roads or on dirt but rather on its own treads - creating its own roads, so to speak. Will Jakub's invention turn out to be the boon to farmers everywhere he hopes it will be - or will someone figure out another use for it? Ganz is wonderfully effective here, playing a man who dreams of providing service to a world that, sadly, has little use for him.
Sun July 4: 4:15; Mon July 5: 4:15 & 8:30; Thurs. July 8: 2

THE MARQUISE OF O / DIE MARQUISE VON O
Eric Rohmer, 1976, France/Germany; 107m
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One of his first major roles in the cinema, Bruno Ganz co-starred with his colleague from the Schaubuhne, the wonderful Edith Clever, in this brilliant adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist's classic novella. During the early 18th century, a widow with two children, the Marquise of O (Clever), is drugged and then raped by an officer from the invading Russian army, Count F (Ganz). Discovering that she is pregnant, the Marquise confronts her rapist and demand that he marry her; the Count agrees - but what future could there be for a couple brought together in such circumstances? Many were shocked when Eric Rohmer announced that his first project after his "Six Moral Tales" would be this period film - in German, no less - but for Rohmer the moral preoccupations and sexual tensions of past and present-day Europe are more alike than most can imagine. THE MARQUISE OF O also features some of the finest work by cinematographer Nestor Almendros, who based much of the film's look on the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich.
Mon July 5: 2 & 6:15; Wed. July 7: 4:15 & 8:30

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