VARIOUS: Peter Doerfler presents documentary about Germany's last playboy Rolf Eden

Record ID: 470210

  • Title: VARIOUS: Peter Doerfler presents documentary about Germany's last playboy Rolf Eden
  • Date: 16th February 2011
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 15, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (German) DIRECTOR PETER DOERFLER, SAYING: "To me they are some sort of outlaws of society. I think they are some sort of extreme, and in the extreme one can see one's mirror image." DOERFLER WALKING IN
  • Embargoed: 3rd March 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA8XGAN6URBRR0G5V7PO7BUIJF7
  • Story Text: The 61st Berlinale on Tuesday (February 15) became the showcase for yet another biopic.
    "The Big Eden" is a documentary about Germany's last playboy of the 'old school variety: Rolf Eden is 80 years old and has no plans to slow down. Quite the opposite. He still parties, enjoys the good life and takes special care of his looks, if necessary with a little extra surgical help.
    Eden was once the king of the discotheques in West Berlin with his flagship, 'Big Eden' from which the film takes its name. Eden has seven children by seven different women. The lady currently at his side is Brigitte, about half a century younger than him and known as 'Brischid'.
    The aged playboy with the (still) blond hair doesn't mind that he was once was once top of the list of 'most embarrassing Berliners' - a rank that Eden takes as a compliment: "A population of four million and I'm the most embarrassing - who can say that? I think it's great!"
    Now he is in the spotlight in Berlin once more. This time as the protagonist of a documentary by director Peter Doerfler, 'Big Eden,' that premieres in Berlin on Tuesday.
    Eden said he was very excited to see the finished product and promised that "this year or at the beginning of next year we will do a feature film about my life. And that will be even more authentic."
    In his younger days Eden ran a string of night clubs and discotheques. 'Eden Salon', 'New Eden', 'Eden Playboy Club, 'Cabaret Schluesselloch' and 'Big Eden', which he sold in 2002, were all something of an institution in West Berlin and Eden himself is still a popular figure in Berlin's tabloids.
    Fifteen thousand nights without sleep, one thousand bottles of champagne and three thousand female conquests - these are the kind of statistics that make good cover stories. And whenever he buys a new car, such as his Rolls Royce Convertible in his favourite shade of arctic white, a snap of him in his new wheels, new girlfriend in tow, duly appears in the news.
    Doerfler said that he initially wanted to make a film about the seven children of Rolf Eden, "Only then did I realise what an interesting biography he has," Doerfler said and the idea for the documentary was born.
    In this third part of his trilogy about ego-driven men ('Der Panzerknacker' and 'Achterbahn' being the first two) Doerfler takes a look at the life of Eden, a man who invented himself sixty years ago and looms large in the history of city's colourful nightlife.
    Filmed in lavish CinemaScope, the filmmaker, a trained cinematographer, portrays a flamboyant personality who has managed to survive the world he created in and around the Ku'damm - the heart of 'old' West Berlin.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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