Hilde (2009)

Director:

Kai Wessel

Writers:

Hildegard Knef (autobiography)
Maria von Heland (screenplay)

Release Date:

12 March 2009 (Germany)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music

Plot:

A biography of Hildegard Knef, one of Germany's biggest post-war stars. |

Plot Keywords:

Berlin Germany | Hollywood | Live Concert | WWII | Shot In The Head

Cast

Heike Makatsch	...	Hildegard Knef
Dan Stevens	...	David Cameron
Monica Bleibtreu	...	Else Bongers
Hanns Zischler	...	Erich Pommer
Johanna Gastdorf	...	Frieda Knef
Trystan Wyn Puetter	...	Kurt Hirsch
Michael Gwisdek	...	Großvater
Roger Cicero	...	Ricci Blum
Anian Zollner	...	Ewald von Demandowsky
Sylvester Groth	...	Boleslaw Barlog
Fritz Roth	...	Stiefvater
Hary Prinz	...	Willi Forst
Jeroen Willems	...	Anatole Litvak
Stanley Townsend	...	David Selznick
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sebastian Bender
Hans Brückner
Leon Clingman	...	Reporter
Sebastian Fuhrmann
Grischa Huber
Rüdiger Kühmstedt
Susanne Menner
Ben Posener	...	Heimleiter
Matthew Dylan Roberts	...	Hollywood Reporter
Sebastian Rüger	...	Unteroffizier Schmargendorf
Paul Schlase	...	Journalist
Oliver Unkel	...	Requisiteur
Marlon van den Boogaard
Joe Vaz	...	Director
Ricky Watson	...	US Soldier
Mario Zuber	...	Defa-Mitarbeiter

Also Known As:

The Gift Horse (International: English title) (working title)
Untitled Hildegard Knef Biopic (Germany) (working title)

Runtime:

Argentina:137 min | Germany:136 min (Berlin International Film Festival)

Country:

Germany

Language:

German | English | Polish | Russian

Color:

Color

Certification:

Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Egoli Tossell Film

Trivia:

Heike Makatsch originally had to back out of the project due to her pregnancy in 2006. But, pre-production was then delayed and she was eventually able to take the lead part.

Movie Connections:

References Alraune (1952)

No fraternization? - mixed feelings

The praising first:

1. Heike Makatsch is Hilde (quite a case for an actress credibly depicting the severely challenged fin-de-siecle toy producer Margarete Steiff just a few years ago), and she outshines most of the contemporary female Hollywood superstars by the numbers (just like Fraulein Knef did way back then)

2. The unforgettable pictures (maybe the camera fell in love with Heike - a graspable incident)

3. The storyline (allowedly an easy thing, since Hildegard is the personification of a life between Germany's rushed then's and now's)

4. The benign depiction of the German people's distraught reaction upon the bitter end of a 12year dictatorship they simply had to exhaustively praise or camp out...

Any line spoken in this incredible flick is worth to be taken for a review summary, so i spare out on the banner content. My mixed feelings are with the entire thang: couldn't it be possible to make more good movies about Germany before-during-after the war? Most of them are comprehensible (but still) propaganda - like there was no good German available back then. There were more Schindlers than the book tells, and anyone knowing the German people a bit knows that they're much rather a hospitable, fair-minded breed with a pleasant sense of humor and notably democratic views.

They just don't stand up against bullshit if it's governmental, and they're so true-blue with that ever since. Pity.