At the opening of the Montblanc house, Leander Haussmann remembers a love letter, Daniel Brühl a dispute over a fountain pen.
The opening of the Montblanc House, which was celebrated on Tuesday evening on 3,600 square meters in Hamburg with many celebrities, was all about “Inspire Writing”. One of the highlights of the house, which makes a statement for handwriting in the digital age and for which Nicolas Baretzki, CEO of Montblanc, promises visitors “a journey of discovery”, is the “Autograph Library” with 30 original handwritten notes of great personalities, including Ernest Hemingway, Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo.
Successful singer Jamie Cullum (42), who performed live on the evening of the festival, also keeps his writings. The 42-year-old describes himself as an “analog guy who doesn’t leave the house without a pen”: “I have hundreds of boxes with my notebooks and diaries at home”. He follows the family tradition of his mother and grandmother, who also like him “had to write down thoughts so that they come out”. For him, writing is “therapy” and “stimulation of the brain” at the same time, without which he could not be creative.
“The nice thing is, they can be picked up!”
“We used to leave little messages for each other while we were shooting,” enthuses actor Sabin Tambrea (37) about the romantic early days with his current wife Alice Dwyer (34). The two met and fell in love while filming together. “Today,” says Tambrea, “there is a shopping list” and admits that he mourns the news from back then – laid out in the hotel room – a “nice expression of mutual respect”. His wife adds, “a way to turn to each other,” but the news is not lost. Dwyer explains meaningfully: “The beauty of it is, they can be picked up!”
Actor Trystan Pütter (41) also wrote love letters to his girlfriend a few years ago – but without sending them. His love relationship was about to fail at the time. “It was my therapy. I was looking for answers to pressing questions and trying to understand the world around me.” One essence from all his letters eventually found its way to the addressee, but that didn’t save the relationship. Pütter, who is now in a relationship with actress Heike Makatsch (50), is happy to have this chapter behind him and not to have to resort to this remedy again: “I hope I’ll never have broken hearts in my life again!”
For director Leander Haussmann (62), writing in connection with love brings back positive memories. Even today, he not only remembers his first love letter, but also the name of his lover at the time – and his adversary. “It was in fifth grade, we boys both wrote letters that we secretly passed around the class with sweaty hands.” Haussmann embellished his with small drawings and ornaments and suspects: “That was what made the difference in her case for me”. And a reward in the form of “holding hands” and a “first, tender kiss”, says Haussmann proudly of his love success at the time.
Daniel Brühl’s special passion for collecting
Actor Daniel Brühl (43) reveals himself as a former “pen collector”: “Together with my brother, I had at least 20 historical pieces during school that we collected at flea markets, in antique shops or from relatives”. Because of this, he almost fell out with his best friend at the time. “I lent him one of my fountain pens, but he was absentmindedly chewing on it – like children do – but at the time I was really mad at him and couldn’t believe what he had done!” However, the actor collects his ideas on a dictaphone. “Even at night, when I wake up and have ideas, I talk about them – even if I discard them the next day because maybe they weren’t as brilliant as I thought at night…”
Actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal (44) also uses digital media for her ideas and ideas. For her, the mobile phone is the medium in which she “writes down everything that is important,” says Gyllenhaal. She only recently rediscovered the value of writing when, among other things, she remembered how much she enjoyed letters when she was young: “Especially when they came from overseas in the blue, red and white envelopes!”.
Author Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre (47) describes his creative writing process: “First I write everything down by hand and write on everything that’s there: newspapers, menus…”. In the second step, he then transfers his spontaneous ideas to the notebook and from there they finally end up fully formulated on the computer. “Then it’s printed out again and corrected with a red pen”. When writing letters, on the other hand, the process is the other way around. “I formulate it on the computer to put everything in order and finally write down the result neatly with a fountain pen – preferably with a soft, wide lead”.
“Creativity flows better with a pen”
On the other hand, actor and director Reggie Yates (38) belongs to the analogue group: “Creativity flows better with a pen,” he says and describes himself as a “constant notebook wearer” and regrets not having pocketed one that evening due to his “tight jacket”. “I would have made a note of the way we were all huddled at the entrance in the rain and wind,” laughs Yates. Moments like this – taken from real life – flowed into his screenplays.
The actress Emilia Schüle (29) is currently using writing mainly to learn French, because the German actress is shooting more and more often in the neighboring country, to which she has had little connection so far. Soon she will be in front of the camera again in Paris. Reading is usually more important to her than writing, says Schüle. As a child she was a “bookworm” who made a bet with her father to read 100 books in a short time. The actress, born in East Russia in 1992, proudly looks back on her sweet child self: “I won the bet and got a cuddly toy for it!”.
Actor Jannis Niewöhner (30) was also brought up well in his parents’ house in terms of words and text. His mother, a teacher, placed particular value on beautiful handwriting. Even today he writes with a “clean handwriting”. He writes letters with a fountain pen: “Last time I thanked a director for a film that I just loved!”. He puts in more effort than he did with his first letters: “love letters with a check box in the third grade”.