Oliver Herbrich (born 1961 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

) is a German filmmaker working as author, film director and producer. He is associated with the

New German Cinema New German Cinema (german: Neuer Deutscher Film) is a period in German cinema which lasted from 1962 to 1982, in which a new generation of directors emerged who, working with low budgets, and influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neore ...

movement in the 1980s. From 2016, his films are digitally remastered and re-released in the ''Fiction – Non-Fiction Film Edition''. In 2018, the Film Museum Düsseldorf added all archival documents to its collection.

Work

Before his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

, Herbrich realized his cinema debut ''The Proud and Sad Life of

Mathias Kneissl Mathias, a given name and a surname which is a variant of Matthew (name), may refer to: Places * Mathias, West Virginia * Mathias Township, Michigan People with the given name or surname ''Mathias'' In music * Mathias Eick, Norwegian Jazz Musici ...

'' in 1979 with the support of the “Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film” (Young German Film Committee). Although Herbrich was enrolled in the

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

department of the

University of Television and Film Munich The University of Television and Film Munich (German: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München, short: HFF Munich) is a publicly funded film school in Munich, Germany. The school was established in 1966 by decree of the Bavarian government. T ...

since 1980, it was here that he made his first two

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

, which were shot under adverse conditions in the Australian desert and the Amazon jungle. Since then, he has worked on both narrative and documentary films. After completing his studies, Herbrich turned back to feature filmmaking in 1984. ''

Wodzeck ''Wodzeck'' is a 1984 West German drama film directed by Oliver Herbrich based on the 1837 play ''Woyzeck'' by Georg Büchner. It was entered into the 14th Moscow International Film Festival. Detlef Kügow here received the "Award for best male ...

'', an adaptation of

Georg Büchner Karl Georg Büchner (17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose, considered part of the Young Germany movement. He was also a revolutionary and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchn ...

's ''

Woyzeck ''Woyzeck'' () is a stage play written by Georg Büchner. Büchner wrote the play between July and October 1836, yet left it incomplete at his death in February 1837. The play first appeared in 1877 in a heavily edited version by Karl Emil Fr ...

'', ran as a German entry in the competition of the 14th Moscow International Film Festival and was awarded for the "Best Male Leading Role". The film was also presented at 20 other festivals. As an auteur filmmaker (Herbrich is involved in all films as director, screenwriter and producer) he is a representative of the New German Cinema of the 1980s and 90s. In order to have his own production equipment such as film cameras and editing tables, Herbrich founded the technology service provider LICHT & TON Ltd, which existed until 2010. After the success of ''Wodzeck'' followed further documentaries: ''Bikini - mon amour'' dealt with the recent consequences of above-ground atomic bomb tests. Like ''Searching for El Dorado'', ''Bikini - mon amour'' reached an audience of millions when it was shown in prime time on German TV Channel 1 ( ARD). In 1985/86 Herbrich realized a documentary biopic with the Bavarian jail break king, Theo Berger. ''The Bavarian Al Capone'' also caused a sensation, but was not allowed to broadcast on Bavarian television ( BR). After cinema distribution, the film was broadcast on West German television ( WDR). For this broadcast, the film needed to be subtitled in High German. In 1988, the “Filmmakers' Distribution Association” re-released Herbrich's films in the edition "Fiction - Non-Fiction". In the same year, he shot his third feature film ''Earthbound''. The film is a fictional adaptation inspired by the life story of Gustav Mesmer. ''Earthbound'' received international awards and stars Hannes Thanheiser,

Rüdiger Vogler Rüdiger Vogler (born 14 May 1942 in Warthausen, near Biberach an der Riß) is a German film and stage actor. Biography Rüdiger Vogler attended acting school in Heidelberg from 1963 to 1965. Later he played for six years at "''Theater am Turm' ...

and

Vera Tschechowa Vera Wilhelmowna Rust (born 22 July 1940), known as Vera Tschechowa, is a German producer, director, screenwriter, and retired actress, of Russian descent. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1957 and 1996. She was widely known as Elvis P ...

. Oliver Herbrich ended his career as a filmmaker with two cinema documentaries shot in Nepal and Ireland. For his complete works, he was awarded the "Film Prize of the City of Munich" in 1994. In 2016-18 the reels of negative films archived in the Federal Film Archive Berlin were digitally remastered and reissued in the "Fiction - Non-Fiction Film Edition". A collection of analogue (16 and 35 mm) film copies is owned by the Film Museum Munich and the Film Museum Düsseldorf. In 2018, Film Museum Düsseldorf catalogued all written documents from the films.

Cinematic approach

Dieter Kosslick Dieter Kosslick is a German film critic, journalist and researcher. He was the fourth director of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) from 1 May 2001, when he took over from Moritz de Hadeln, until 2019. Early life Born in Pfor ...

, former director of

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

outlined Herbrich's working style as follows: "Fortunately Oliver Herbrich doesn't create an ideology when walking the line between fictional movie and documentary film. Herbrich’s approach is solely based on the storytelling needs of the subjects. Remarkably, this technique results in a combination of documentary and fictional elements. There's one scene sequence during the ''Mathias Kneissl'' movie, when the gendarmerie brigade is closing in on the folk hero. The resulting police violence is reminiscent of documentary reports. Vice versa, his documentary films include elements of fiction. The scenes of gold diggers carrying sacks of mud uphill from their claims in the documentary ''Searching for El Dorado'' reminds the viewer of monumental feature movies. This evokes a mythologization of the real life, revealing the general in the particular. One can describe Herbrich’s films as stories about human behavior, depicting the mechanisms of reality. Reaching limits and crossing borders is something to be taken in the literal sense in Herbrich’s oeuvre.“ (Dieter Kosslick, 1994).

Filmography

* 1979/80 ''The Proud and Sad Life of Mathias Kneissl'' (Das stolze und traurige Leben des Mathias Kneißl) * 1982 ''Dead Heart'' (Totes Herz) * 1983/84 ''Searching for El Dorado'' (Auf der Suche nach El Dorado) * 1983/84 ''Wodzeck'' * 1985/86 ''The Bavarian Al Capone'' (Der Al Capone vom Donaumoos) * 1986/87 The World beyond the World (Die Welt jenseits der Welt) * 1987 ''Bikini – mon amour'' * 1988/89 ''Earthbound'' (Erdenschwer) * 1991 ''Priests of the Condemned'' (Priester der Verdammten) * 1992/93 ''Rules of the Road'' (Gesetz der Straße)

Awards

* 1980 and 1984

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

“Highly Recommended” for ''Mathias Kneissl'' and ''Searching for El Dorado'' * 1985 Prix d' Antenne II, Paris (Festival

Cinéma du Réel Cinéma du Réel (Cinema of the Real) is an international documentary film festival organized by the BPI-Bibliothèque publique d'information (Public Information Library) in Paris and was founded in 1978. The festival presents about 200 films per ye ...

) for ''Searching for El Dorado''; 2nd Prize Cine-stud Film Fest, Amsterdam for ''Searching for El Dorado''; Best Male Actor (International Film Festival Moscow) for Detlef Kügow in ''Wodzeck'' * 1989 Honorary Mention at 4th Medikinale International Parma, Italy for ''Bikini – mon amour''; Honorary Mention at Red Cross and Health Film Fest Varna, Bulgaria for ''Bikini – mon amour'' * 1990 Best Screenplay (Festival Imag Fic, Madrid) for ''Earthbound''; Best Artistic Contribution (Festival Europa Cinema, Viareggio) for ''Earthbound''; Prix de la Fédération international del Cine Club (Festival Figuera da Foz, Portugal) for ''Earthbound'' * 1994 Film Prize of the City of Munich (lifetime achievement)

Retrospectives

* 1987 Low Budget Festival Hamburg, Germany * 1989 Film Week Onikon Cinema Herdecke, Germany * 1990 West Virginia Film Festival, Charleston, USA * 1993 Film Museum Düsseldorf, Germany * 1994 Film Museum Munich, Germany * 2018 Breitwand Cinema Gauting, Germany

Social Engagement

* 1990–2000 Sponsor “Award for the Outstanding Documentary“ ( International Documentary Film Festival Munich) * 2010 start of charity NGO “Foundation Oliver Herbrich Children's Fund”

Work

Cinematic approach

Filmography

Awards

Retrospectives

Social Engagement

References

Further reading

External links