© Julie Delvaux 2006-7

It is interesting to notice that in 2005 two film-makers looked at the ‘last days’ of a famous person. Gus Van Sant (Last Days) followed a man-who-looked-like-Kurt-Cobain, while Mark Rothemund (Sophie
Scholl – The Last Days) told the story of the emblematic figure of the German anti-fascist movement. One can more or less confidently say that both directors wanted to ‘demythologise’ their protagonists, but here the similarity between two films ends. Cobain’s death is still under the veil of mystery. Rothemund was more fortunate: his film is based on the newly discovered archival resources. The film had won two prizes at the Berlinale 2005 and was shortlisted for an Oscar in 2006.

Rothemund’s Sophie Scholl is one of several films about the Resistance group The White Rose in Munich that German directors had done in the past. Two other films included Die Weisse Rose and Fuenf letzte Tage, both filmed in 1982 and both starring Lena Stoltze as Sophie Scholl. Marc’s film, however, is a good treat to all students of the Second World War history, as his film is based on archival material and memories. The viewers are also in for the experience of almost palpable realism. The film is set in the same buildings, and the crew went the extra mile to obtain the weather reports for February 1943. Turned out, the weather was warm and sunny.

In brief, in mid-1942 several medical students began to print leaflets containing damning information on the Nazi atrocities at the front. The main five members were all men: Willi Graf, Christof Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl and Kurt Huber. By February 1943, five leaflets had already been distributed. It was on 18 February 1943 that Sophie, Hans’s sister, volunteered to help her brother to distribute the sixth leaflet at the University of Munich. Later that day they were captured, a quick trial followed, and on 22 February Hans and Sophie, together with Probst, were condemned to death and executed the same day.

Marc’s film is unique in that it is based on the previously unknown archival resources. In 2003 the Bundestag archives were opened that contained interrogation minutes for the White Rose trial. To his unvaining surprise, Rothemund was given a permission to photocopy those documents. The bigger surprise came when he began to read them: “On the first page I read: she was lying. She was saying: I did not lay there those leaflets. And I realised: this speaks a person who fights for her life”.

The painstaking process of research for the film, which included many interviews with friends and relatives of the White Rose members and of whose who were involved in the trial (like a son of Inspector Mohr), was carried out for a purpose. Despite the fact that in Germany Sophie Scholl has long been perceived as a hero, with time she became ‘like a monument, a martyr’. The interrogation minutes that surfaced in the Bundestag archives showed Sophie as a human being. Admittedly, they seem to have only further strengthened her heroism.

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In the past few years Germany has shown a strong interest in bringing to screen the reflections on the Second World War. Following the success of the last days of Hitler’s clique in Der Untergang (2004), Rothemund presented a story of the last days of Sophie Scholl, a figure opposite to that of Hitler. In fact, however, both Der Untergang and Sophie Scholl are the part of the larger trend of the past several years. Together with Van Sant’s Last Days, and also such films as Ray and TV series Elvis Presley – The Early Years, one may notice an increased interest in the well-known people “the way they really were”. Hence we see Sophie Scholl who denies her distributing the leaflets; Ray Charles who suffers from drug addiction and hallucinations; Hitler and his gang who continue to uphold their “ideals” even when they have already been defeated.

This looks quite close to revelations of contemporary celebrities who are dying to prove that they are as ordinary the mortals, as anyone else. And yet Godard’s thesis from Notre Musique remains as true as ever: only imaginary is certain. Rothemund’s attempt to render Sophie of her “heroic” halo is well-understood and needs no justification. His research resulted in a sensitive script by Fred Breinersdorfer, who brilliantly reconstructed the drama of interrogation and the trial. The unintrusive yet attentive camerawork highlights the top performances from today’s leading German actors. However, heroic halo not only remains, it may even have become brighter, – because Sophie’s heroism is, after all, a fact. Rothemund’s achievement has been in making an attentive viewer realise that heroes are still human. They love life and perhaps even more so because they are prepared to die for it.

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As we continue talking with Marc, I ask him exactly how he decided to become a film director. “I didn’t decide it”, he says. He is the son of a German TV director. “My parents divorced when I was very young, and I lived with my mother. When I wanted to see my father, I had to go and spend my holidays with him on the set. And it was then that I discovered what a great joy it is when in a team you make a movie”.

Learning the art of cinema from the very beginning was tough, but for Marc every stage was a challenge, to which he was keen to respond. Moving from a team assistant, ‘cooking hundreds of litres of coffee’, to a TV director and eventually to an assistant director on a big-budget film was a probing of his interest in cinema. His first feature was an acclaimed Love Scenes from the Planet Earth, which was followed by The Ants in the Pants (aka Only Two of Us) – a homage to the teenage comedies, like American Pie.

I ask Marc about his favourite film or director. His response comes in immediately: “Yes, I remember this because my parents got divorced when I was four or five years old and the first film to which I bought a ticket and went to see several times was Kramer against Kramer by Sydney Pollack, with Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman. It was just so real! But I also like Robert Altman and Todd Solondz”.

But it is undoubtedly his work as an assistant director on Puccini and Farinelli Il Castrato (both directed by Gerard Corbiau) that expanded his experience of cinema and paved the road to his own directorship. I have seen Farinelli enough many times for it to become one of my favourite films. It was not only big-budget, but also an international feature, and was nominated for an Oscar in 1994. What did working on it teach Marc?

“Oh, it was really important because I had to direct the audience”, he begins, evidently happy to revive those memories. “We filmed in a small German town, and I was the only member of the crew who spoke German. And Stefano Dionisi who played Farinelli stood on stage and tried to sing, like he was a great opera singer. It sounded so bad!” he shakes his head, smiling. “And in the script he sings so well that people faint when they hear him. So, I stood on stage next to him, and I had to explain to the extras: УThis will not be his voice! You have to imagine that he is a great opera singer. You will not hear his voice!”.

While I commend his effort, he adds: “Yes, it taught me that I could do it, that I could actually direct people. And Stefano and I are great friends these days”.