The Ogre

With the election of Hitler as Chancellor in Germany in 1933, a large portion of Central European culture was placed under the cloak of Nazism for good. Only the greatest names have survived, such as Wagner, who managed to raise himself above this historical yoke. Other contemporary names such as Zarah Leander and Leni Riefenstahl, have remained to some extent Nazi stars. Volker Schlöndorff is notorious for his adaptations of difficult and problematical novels for the screen. Three typical examples from his career are: The Lost Honor of Katarina Blum by Heinrich Böll, The Tin Drum by Günter Grass and Swann in Love, based on Proust's work Remembrance of Things Past. After years of trying to save Germany's old film studios Babelsberg outside of Berlin, and transform the film studios into a modern centre for European film production, Schondorff could hardly have found a more difficult novel to adapt than Michel Tournier's Le Roi des Aulnes. The Ogre tries to re-create large parts of Central European culture with its roots in the legends of the Middle Ages and in the story-telling tradition of the nineteenth century; and it succeeds, not least thanks to Michael Nyman's sublime music. The Ogre mixes Goethe, Wagner, and the Jewish Golem myth with beautiful images which can be seen as pure quotations from Riefenstahl's propaganda films. The main character, Abel Tiffauges, is played by John Malkovich: a kindly monster who through a freak of fate is made responsible for recruitment to what is to become Hitlerjugend's model school, where tomorrow's Nazis are indoctrinated and transformed into soldiers and war machines. Abel is transformed into a Christopher figure who at the end carries a Jesus-child on his shoulders, in this case a small Jewish boy. In The Ogre, Schlöndorff tries to depict the beautiful and as he says himself: ''the positive in Nazi culture''. Reaction in Germany has been quick. The Ogre is a devastatingly beautiful film, but a number of difficult questions are raised after having seen it: Should you or ought you use Nazi culture in this way? For what artistic goal? The film is dedicated to his friend Louis Malle who had a radically different perspective to Nazism and children in Au Revoirles Enfants. Can you do this to dead friends? PEL

Premiärstatus
Skandinavisk premiär: Medverkande
John Malkovich, Armin Müller-Stahl, Gottfried John: Producent
Ingrid Windisch: Manus
Jean-Claude Carriere & Volker Schlöndorff, based on the novel “Le roi des aulnes” by Michel Tournier: Foto
Bruno de Keyzer: Musik
Michael Nyman: Talat språk
English