- Title: GERMANY: Jeff Goldblum touches audiences and critics as "Adam Resurrected"
- Date: 9th February 2009
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (JANUARY 05, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEFF GOLDBLUM WHO PLAYS ADAM STEIN, SAYING "Whenever I as an actor was going, oh, this is hard and it's so painful and so upsetting, I thought back to the interviews I had with the people, the generous people who are survivors, still alive and told me their stories. And I would go, how long were you in this concentration camp? And they would go, eight years. And I said, I don't know how you did it. It's just.... You know, people endured unimaginable suffering. My life has been pretty peachy, you know. And during a movie like this, it's a great part. But you are responsible for depicting the suffering in such a way that is worthy of that story, so the people watching it go, yes, that is something like I went through. You got to do that."
- Embargoed: 24th February 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA8F3PIW2K2EBH5TM5Q32MRZRT5
- Story Text: Jeff Goldblum touches audiences and critics as "Adam Resurrected".
US actor Jeff Goldblum, director Paul Schrader and numerous German celebrities enjoyed themselves at on of the Berlin Film Festival's receptions at the Kempinsky hotel on Saturday (February 7), shortly before the European premiere of Goldblum's and Schrader's Holocaust survivors drama "Adam Resurrected".
Due to the financial crisis, many parties and after show events had been canceled, but the cast and guests appeared to be in good spirits at the Kempinsky before hitting the Red Carpet at Berlin's Cinema Paris.
To play a role some are already calling a tour de force in "Adam Resurrected," Goldblum visited Nazi-era concentration camps and spoke to Holocaust survivors.
He also had to deal with the emotional toll of playing former nightclub clown Adam Stein, a man driven mad by the loss of his family in the Holocaust.
"Whenever I as an actor was going, oh, this is hard and it's so painful and so upsetting, I thought back to the interviews I had with the people, the generous people who are survivors, still alive and told me their stories. And I would go, how long were you in this concentration camp? And they would go, eight years. And I said, I don't know how you did it. It's just.... You know, people endured unimaginable suffering. My life has been pretty peachy", Goldblum said in an interview in Berlin, where the movie had its European premiere at the International Film Fest.
The movie is adapted from an acclaimed 1968 novel by Yoram Kaniuk and Goldblum spent a full year preparing to play Stein, who draws packed crowds in pre-World War Two Berlin to shows in which he read minds and threw knives blindfolded.
By the time film viewers meet him in an Israeli insane asylum in the 1960s, Stein can still dazzle a crowd and can seduce a pretty nurse half his age. But he has lost nearly everything that really matters to him: his family, freedom and sanity.
Goldblum, who is Jewish, said he felt a responsibility to do justice to the material, which deals heavily with "survivor guilt" experienced by many of those who survived Nazi death camps during the war. "You are responsible for depicting the suffering in such a way that is worthy of that story, so the people watching it go, yes, that is something like I went through. You got to do that" Goldblum said.
The commitment appears to have paid off for Goldblum, who has been known for playing quirky, intellectual sidekicks in a hot-and-cold film career. Early reviews for his "Adam Resurrected" performance have been overwhelmingly positive- although he narrowly missed an Oscar-nomination as his German co-star in the movie, Joachim Krol (who play holocaust survivor Wolfowitz) told Reuters: "As we know today he only narrowly missed an Oscar nomination -- back then we all kept our fingers crossed when it was decided -- that would have surely helped the movie a great deal, but it was not to be."
Director Paul Schrader grumpily admitted: "Well, they made an attempt to get a nomination for Jeff. But I think that was misguided. We didn't really go about it right. But whatever was the reason, it didn't happen."
Through flashbacks, we see Stein in his days as a Jewish entertainer, performing alongside his wife and daughters. They are arrested as the net closes around Germany's Jews and taken to a concentration camp, where Adam catches the eye of a Nazi commandant played by Willem Dafoe.
While his family is hauled away, Adam is forced to act as the commandant's "dog" to take the Nazi's mind off what is going on around him. Goldblum took lessons on how to act like a dog to prepare for that aspect of the role.
Adam survives the concentration camp but emerges a haunted man, beginning a descent that lands him at the asylum, where his memories are sparked by the arrival of a young boy who also believes he is a dog.
The film is sometimes hard to watch, particularly as Adam deals with the guilt of surviving the camp and questions if he could have done more to help his wife and daughters.
"Adam" comes after Goldblum's short-lived outing in the TV series "Raines," which was canceled after only a few episodes last year.
The actor is set join the cast of the highly successful "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" this fall. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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