Akademie Members Present:
Marcel Ophüls

The works by documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophüls combine all the virtues of investigative journalism with the art of great cinema, and are regarded as milestones in audio-visual historiography. To offer an insight into his remarkable oeuvre, selected films by Marcel Ophüls are to be screened on two days in the presence of the director and film historian Ralph Eue.
Using archive material and a wide range of statements from contemporary witnesses, his film Le Chagrin et la pitié (Das Haus nebenan – Chronik einer französischen Stadt im Krieg / The Sorrow and the Pity) presents a view of collaboration and resistance previously strictly tabooed in France. The film, banned from French TV for many years, presents a clear picture of how, as Ophüls has said, “politics is part of life and interwoven with our everyday lives”.
In 1989, Marcel Ophüls won the Oscar for Hotel Terminus – Klaus Barbie, sa vie et son temps (Hotel Terminus – Leben und Zeit des Klaus Barbie / The Life and Times of Klaus Barbi). The film traces the life of this Nazi war criminal, dubbed ‘The Butcher of Lyon’ during the war, and his work for the US secret service after 1945 until he went into hiding in Bolivia.
Novembertage (November Days), shot in 1989-90, explores fates before and after the fall of the Wall. The film Zwei ganze Tage, based on the comedy by Sacha Guitry, offers a chance to discover an unknown side of Marcel Ophüls as a feature film director. His documentary film Kortnergeschichten is dedicated to the life of actor and director Fritz Kortner.

Supported by Alexander-Verlag.