![]() ![]() "And, very quickly, he realizes that all his ideals, all what he's learned as a child growing up in Germany are worth nothing." "This young man goes into war with enthusiasm, and he feels like he's going to be a hero with innocence, with youth," Berger said. But the director was primarily interested in putting the internal conflicts of the main character, Paul Bäumer, front and center. Of course, Berger and his team tried to follow the plot and characters of the novel as closely as possible. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 'All Quiet on the Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque "We have a very different perspective on it today." "World War I was more than 100 years ago," he said. He feels filmmakers can and should take liberties, and he acknowledges that his film is a new interpretation. And when it's made into a film, it's a new medium,'" Berger said. "Remarque himself once said: 'A book is a book. There's nothing heroic there's nothing good about it." Retelling the storyīerger is not concerned about the criticism that his film, unlike its 19 predecessors, is only loosely based on the novel. "I feel like, in a German war film, you can't have heroes and the death of the enemy," he said. ![]() "So that leaves a very different legacy among the people and among the filmmakers that grow up there." "In American war films or British war films, there are heroes, which is something that comes from the history - that America was roped into the war, England defended themselves," Berger said. The original film adaptation in 1930, by director Lewis Milestone, won two Oscars Image: United Archives/picture alliance Berger's film is the first German adaptation of the book. In 1930, the work was made into a movie for the first time in the United States and won two Oscars, including the award for best picture. It was based on the author's own experiences as a soldier in the war. Published in Germany in 1929, Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" was one of the greatest successes in German literary history. I thought these were times we would never come back to," he said. This resurgence of populism and nationalism motivated Berger to take on the film. "I felt that it would be a good time to make a movie that reminded us that, before World War I, it wasn't that different. "I heard sentences in the subway, going to work, sentences that you feel like that almost sounded like from the 1930s in Germany, like: 'We should put Angela Merkel up against the wall.'" "Suddenly, institutions that brought us peace for 70 years, like the EU, were being questioned."īerger, who lives in Berlin, was shocked by the hate speech he was hearing from governments. "That speech trickles down to the streets," he said. "There was Brexit in the UK, we had a right-wing government in Hungary, and a rising far right in France and Germany and many countries around Europe," he said. Three years ago, when Berger started working on the film, he was incredibly worried by political developments in Europe and the world, he said. Director Berger said the rise of nationalism in recent years inspired him to make the film Image: Annette Riedl/dpa/picture alliance Remarque's novel, published in 1929, paints a portrait of a generation that leaves school for the front and ends up perishing in World War I from 1914 to 1918.īerger told DW that the subject remains relevant over 100 years after the war, with growing populism and nationalism making the movie eerily topical. "All Quiet on the Western Front" has been nominated in nine Oscar categories including best picture and best international feature, as well as best cinematography, production design, visual effects, sound, makeup and hairstyling, original score and adapted screenplay. The film is also among the favorites at the Academy Awards on March 12, and the BAFTAs are considered important indicators of win possibilities at the Hollywood event. On Sunday, it took home seven British Academy Film (BAFTA) awards including best picture, best screenplay, best non-English-language film and best director. Nonetheless, "All Quiet on the Western Front" is already receiving top film prizes. Some critics have praised the remake as a successful anti-war drama, while others have criticized the director for inventing new storylines and omitting characters and crucial scenes. It's the first non-English-language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's anti-war novel "All Quiet on the Western Front." German director Edward Berger took it upon himself to venture a German interpretation that launched internationally on Netflix in October 2022. ![]()
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