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PRODUCTION Germany

Fassbinder by Kreuzpaintner

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- While the town of Bad Wörishofen commemorated Fassbinder last weekend, the director of the very popular Krabat and the Legend of the Satanic Mill is planning to make a film about him

Thirty years ago, on June 10, 1982, the emblematic 1970s and 1980s German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder died of an overdose in Munich, aged 37, leaving behind him a legacy of more than 40 films made over 16 years, including The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Marriage of Maria Braun and the immense episodic film Berlin Alexanderplatz. Last weekend, his hometown Bad Wörishofen gave homage to him, as will the Munich Film Festival at the end of the month. But several films are also to be made about him.

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In Cannes last month, it was announced that Marco Kreuzpaintner ( Krabat and the Legend of the Satanic Mill [+see also:
trailer
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]
) would be making Rainer, a film to be co-produced by deutschfilm (a subsidiary of Senator who is to distribute the film in German speaking countries), French production company Rezo (also in charge of international sales), and Iris Group from Luxembourg.

The film project, to be made on a budget of €6 million, doesn’t aim to be entirely biographical. Rather, Kreuzpaintner explains, it will be a "melodrama in the style of those made by Fassbinder, a homage to his films". As such, he is not looking for a Fassbinder look-alike or a famous actor to play him, but merely an actor who will be able to convey his "emotional truth" and accept to put on weight to portray Fassbinder, marked by his excesses, in his thirties. The screenplay, co-written by Kreuzpaintner and Gerrit Hermans, will follow the artist’s life from a young age. Filming should kick off next spring.

Although deutschfilm hopes to count the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation among its partners, Rainer might also have to do without the latter’s support, especially as the foundation has just announced that it is negotiating the production of another, strictly biographical feature about the director with European and American partners.

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(Translated from French)

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