There’s one thing she finds incredibly boring, Caroline Link once complained: cinema films from Germany – far too often they’re made for teenagers while the adult audience is neglected. When asked about this today, the 44-year-old director says dismissively: “That really has changed now.” German cinema has gone through a complete transformation. And the Munich director is partly responsible for this. Her debut film Beyond Silence, a moving story about the musically gifted daughter of mute parents, already earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Then, in 2003, she actually won the award for her film Nowhere in Africa. In Germany alone six million people have been moved by Caroline Link’s calmly narrated films. They’re thought-provoking stuff, and definitely not boring.
“German cinema is full of diversity”
Ms. Link, five years after you won the Oscar with “Nowhere in Africa”, now your new film “A Year Ago in Winter” is showing in the cinemas at last. Do you feel that the Academy Award put pressure on you?
I’ve put myself under pressure. I thought to myself, you have to make something out of an Oscar like that. And I was really interested in making a film in the United States. Two American projects eventually failed because of difficult negotiations with actors. Apart from that, my baby was born just before I received the Oscar, and I would have found it really hard to leave my young daughter alone for any length of time. A baby and an Oscar just don’t go together all that well. I try not to lose any sleep over “A Year Ago in Winter”. After three films each with about two million viewers, I reckon it’s worth taking a risk.
Was “A Year Ago in Winter” supposed to be made in the United States as well?
Yes, an American production company had asked me to write a screenplay based on Scott Campbell’s novel “Aftermath”. I wanted to shoot it on America’s east coast. Everything went well at first. Working together with the American producer was unconventional and very open. But the difficulties cropped up with the cast. There’s hardly any money available for high-quality material without a top star. A big name guarantees a certain amount of commercial success. This means that the agencies and the actors’ managers have an incredible amount of power. Eventually, I simply lost patience, and in early 2006 I decided to make the film in Germany. Then things moved really quickly. After all, there are enough excellent German actors here. Making the film with Karoline Herfurth, Josef Bierbichler and Corinna Harfouch was a fantastic experience.
Even so, while you were shooting didn’t you sometimes think about how the film might have looked if it had been made abroad?
No, so far I haven’t regretted not making it in America, not for one moment. But when it was clear that I’d be making the film in Germany, I had to adapt the screenplay accordingly. So instead of playing in the United States, as the novel does, “A Year Ago in Winter” is located in Bavaria. The main reason for this was that the leading role of the artist is played by Josef Bierbichler, and he comes from Bavaria. When he agreed to play the part, it settled my decision for the story’s location. He was the first person who entered my mind as the ideal candidate. I sent him the original screenplay, but he didn’t want to read it in English, because he thought he wouldn’t be able to get an accurate idea of the dialogue. So I kept sending him small parcels with 20 or 30 translated pages. In the end the project convinced him. In Germany you can simply phone the actors personally and ask what they think of the screenplay.
The subject of the family and family roots is something you regularly address in your films. To what extent is your screenplay autobiographical?
My father died three years ago. Suddenly the subject of death played a big role in my life. Campbell’s novel focuses on a family that has to deal with the death of a son and brother. Maybe that’s why I felt so strongly attracted towards this material. It was very soothing to deal with the subject in this way. That’s why my new film tends to be a rather calm production that draws on the interplay of the actors. The audience has to get involved with the characters, the atmospheric images. It’s about images, about atmosphere. There isn’t a plot on which everything hinges and which provides the storyline.
Is this kind of film a typical example of cinema “made in Germany”?
No, nowadays all kinds of films are being made in Germany. Take for instance the recent release “The Baader Meinhof Complex”, which has been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film. That definitely isn’t a quiet film. Successful comedies are being made, good dramas, action films. Germany hasn’t seen such a lively diversity for a long time. That’s why it’s impossible to say that German films are like this, or like that. I don’t think that directors like Til Schweiger, Uli Edel or Christian Petzold want to compare themselves with each other. I tend to think of “A Year Ago in Winter” in the context of the European cinema tradition, where you take your time to tell a story rather than more or less following a prescribed dramatic formula. European filmmakers trust in the fact that emotion and atmosphere can carry stories, even though they don’t chase after a particular plot. In the United States directors and producers often prefer to shape films according to proven recipes for success.
Is this film diversity the reason for the strong international interest in German productions? “A Year Ago in Winter” was premiered abroad, at the film festival in Toronto.
Films such as “The Lives of Others” by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck attract considerable attention abroad. Meanwhile, it is well known that Germany is a source of productions that successfully combine demanding themes with entertainment. They work emotionally whilst playing at a very high artistic level.
When can audiences look forward to seeing your next film?
There certainly won’t be a five-year break this time. After all, I don’t have a young baby at home any more. I expect to make my next film in two or three years. I already have some interesting offers on my desk, but I haven’t made any decisions yet. One of them would actually be shot in America. Let’s just wait and see. Maybe I’ll make my film in the United States after all – preferably when people are no longer expecting me to do it.
