VARIOUS: BATTLE OF STALINGRAD FILM "ENEMY AT THE GATES" OPENS THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL

Record ID: 391013

  • Title: VARIOUS: BATTLE OF STALINGRAD FILM "ENEMY AT THE GATES" OPENS THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
  • Date: 4th February 2001
  • Summary: NEW YORK, USA (4, FEBRUARY 2001) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE (English JEAN¬JACQUES ANNAUD "I met Jude and when I walked to this restaurant I saw this charismatic young man. The way he stood up, looked at me the intensity in his eyes. After a few minutes of conversation I saw how intelligent he was, how he was speaking about his role was extraordinary."
  • Embargoed: 19th February 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY AND NEW YORK, USA
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAVMO4ICKRE8WVK5VF50UJ6QA6
  • Story Text: Jude Law, his wife Sadie Frost, Rachel Weisz, Bob Hoskins and Jean¬Jacques Annaud all turned up for the world premiere of war epic "Enemy at the Gates", which opened the 51st Berlin Film Festival.
    The 51st International Berlin Film Festival opened on Wednesday with the world premiere of one of this year`s most eagerly awaited films.
    "Enemy at the Gates", directed by Frenchman Jean¬Jacques Annaud, is an epic account of the infamous World War II Battle of Stalingrad, in which an estimated quarter of a million soldiers under German command and four times as many Russians lost their lives.
    Filmed in English, the drama pits a German and a Russian sniper against each other during the epic battle at Stalingrad, which Germany lost.
    The battle is said to have cost the lives of nearly one million Russian and a quarter of a million German soldiers.
    The battle's wreckage has been compared by historians to Hiroshima after the atom bomb.
    In the film, Jude Law plays Vassili Zaitsev, a Russian sniper who is said to have killed 149 Germans with his rifle.
    Opposite him is Ed Harris who plays German sniper Major Koenig, said to have been sent out by the Germans to kill Vassili.
    After many failed attempts, the two men finally meet face to face and Vassili kills the Major.
    "I knew nothing about this battle really before. I knew the Russian involvement came in a little later but I didn`t know it kind of concentrated down in this particular siege.
    What is important, as you said is the West is quite quick to say, oh the Russians` involvement...but this is more of a story and makes one realize that it doesn`t matter where you go in the world, wars are very often stories of individuals and no one wants to be out there fighting. Very few people go...I`m gonna fight. It`s terrifying, it`s brutal and it`s dangerous", says Jude Law.
    To play a sniper means having to learn how to use a rifle, a task, Jude Law took very seriously.
    "I`ve never really handled the rifle before so I met up early on with the military advisor, stunt co-ordinator and so on and he took me under his wing, he was an ex soldier and he took me to the SAS Base in Hertfordshire and he started with the basics, stripping it , cleaning it, carrying it. We worked on, which for me was the most fascinating element, which is how you approach an area choose the best spot, cover yourself.
    Breathing is important."
    "Enemy at the Gates" also stars British actor Joseph Fiennes as Russian Official Danilov, who initially befriends Vassili and takes him under his wings, using him as an example to refuel the Russian fighting spirit.
    But, he soon begins to dislike Vassili when both men fall in love with Tania, played by Rachel Weisz, who also fights in the battle.
    About working with Oscar winner Jean¬Jacques Annaud, Fiennes says "Jean¬Jacques is one of the few directors who can really fulfil the cinematic syntax and juxtapose so that he then homes in very well on a small human intimate narrative."
    "Enemy at the Gates" was shot outside of Berlin, in studios where Stalingrad was recreated. Says Fiennes, "I cannot express the impact that it has when you walk into a set that is a recreation of Stalingrad, Red Square, 360 degrees of building smoke, gunfire, mud, where you get a flavour of the atmosphere and the abhorrent condition that these young men were going through."
    After movies like "In the Name of the Rose" and "Seven Years in Tibet", Annaud`s choice to battle with Stalingrad, may have come as a surprise to some. But not so, for his colleagues in Hollywood.
    "My friends in Hollywood are sort of used to me now. I think if I was coming with an idea of an American reporter having a love affair in Beirut, they`d say, Jean¬Jacques is that really what you want to do. They were excited after movies like Seven Years in Tibet...they went oh this time about World War II, the Russian side, yes of course."
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