GERMANY: AWARD WINNING FILM DIRECTOR JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD IS IN BERLIN TO MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THE SIEGE OF STALINGRAD

Record ID: 389203

  • Title: GERMANY: AWARD WINNING FILM DIRECTOR JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD IS IN BERLIN TO MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THE SIEGE OF STALINGRAD
  • Date: 24th April 2000
  • Summary: (REUTER ARCHIVE NEWSREELS) WORLD WAR II ARCHIVE FOOTAGE OF STALINGRAD, AERIALS OF GERMAN TANKS ADVANCING / BOMBS DROPPING FROM GERMAN NAZI PLANES /BOMBS DROPPING ON BUILDINGS /BURNING BUILDINGS/ GERMAN TROOPS MARCHING /STREET FIGHTING /HITLER AND MILITARY LOOKING AT MAPS OF CAMPAIGN /TROOPS FIGHTING /GERMAN TROOPS WITH NAZI FLAG /ENDING OF SIEGE OF STALINGRAD
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVABFYZUXSFGEQ42I3NDUTZRLEZT
  • Story Text: After searching for a whole year, award winning French director Jean-Jacques Annaud has finally found the perfect location to produce his latest movie."Enemy at the Gates" - a moving epic about love, friendship and betrayal centred around the infamous Battle of Stalingrad will be filmed in Germany's capital Berlin.The most expensive film ever produced in Europe, is currently underway, with a recreation of Germany's biggest military defeat of the Second World War being staged on German soil.
    "Enemy at the Gates" is essentially a love story, set against the horrific scenes of the Battle of Stalingrad.Jude Law plays Vassily, a Russian sharp-shooter, who assumes the status of a hero under the guidance of his political officer Danilov, played by Joseph Fiennes.They both fall in love with buxom Red Army trooper Tanya, played by another English actor, Rachel Weisz.The Wehrmacht, demoralised by Vassily's growing cult status among their enemy send Koenig, played by Ed Harris, to eliminate Vassily.It was the human aspect of the story that attracted director Jean-Jacques Annaud.
    "This idea came just after Seven Years in Tibet.I'd heard of this story, the anecdote of this little shepherd from the Urals fighting a single dual against a great aristocrat, a hunter, an important person in the German Army.And it fairly was a extraordinary symbolic story and you know I always like the contrast of a very intimate story within the frame of an epic.And that intimate story had a number of ingredients that were very appealing to me.There is a political level.
    There is a romantic level.There is a friendship level.It's life, you know.One should not remember that even in the worst situation where there is the human heart."
    With a budget of $86 million, there are high hopes that the film, which is being shot at Babelsberg Studios, where the 1930's classic, The Blue Angel was made, will do much to entice Hollywood film studios to Germany.The studios have been upgrading their facilities and thousands of extras will take place in the re-enactment of the battle to be staged there - although many of the scenes will be enhanced by computer technology.The lack of a waterfront has not hindered the appeal of the location, waterside scenes will be shot by the river Oder, 50 miles away.The painstakingly constructed set of Stalingrad even has a replica statue of Stalin.It is such detail that Annaud enjoys researching, "Each time when I do a new movie, one of the pleasures of doing a new movie is precisely to be back to be a student.
    So, I go to libraries.I look up books.I emerge myself roughly six months.This is what I did on this movie.I read a number of books on the period of course, a number of books on political history of Soviet Union and Germany of that period.I went to a number of museums.Of course I went to Stalingrad today.I went to Moscow, Saint Petersburg.I went to museums in Berlin.And I had special screenings for the unused footage of the newsreel footage.So, all that emerged me in the period.It's a wonderful delight in my life.For six months, I'm learning.I'm reading.After that, this is when I start writing and it took us another six months.It was quite quick as a matter of fact, you know--quicker than usual."
    Annaud is keen for the battle scenes to be as authentic as possible, and memories of the bloodbath that took place on the banks of the Volga are still strong.The German 6th Army, forbidden to surrender, lost a quarter of a million men in horrific conditions, a further 112,000 were captured, only 6,000 of those ever made it back to Germany.
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