He was “a little overwhelmed,” says Edward Berger in response to the sensational news from Hollywood. His anti-war epic “Nothing New in the West,” based on the famous novel by Erich Maria Remarque, was nominated for nine Oscars on Tuesday, a record. There have never been so many opportunities for a German production at the Academy Awards.
The previous record holder, Wolfgang Petersen’s “Das Boot”, received six nominations in 1983. And didn’t manage then, which has now succeeded – also to be in the race in the king’s category “Best Film”. If you add the 14 nominations for the British film and television award Bafta, also a record, you can say that the international film world loves this Netflix film like nothing else that was recently shot in German.
Edward Berger, born in Wolfsburg in 1970, began his studies in Braunschweig, but then quickly switched to the film school at New York University, which has also produced greats such as Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Joel Coen and Ang Lee. Berger then worked with Lee at the Good Machine company, in the spirit of New York independent cinema. Having become a father early, he then switched between “Tatort” and other German series commissions and very personal projects such as the Berlinale competition entry “Jack”, for which he wrote a gripping role for his wife Nele Mueller-Stöfen: classic social realism, but not a bit tearful .
“Nothing New in the West” has already been filmed twice as an American production, the first time by German exiles, the legendary 1930 version hated by the Nazis. This time the initiative came from two British authors working in the USA, Ian Stokell and Lesley Paterson who had optioned the rights. German producer Malte Grunert convinced her and the Remarque heirs to try it in the original language this time. And Edward Berger agreed to be the director on the spot, before he even knew the script – such was the pull of the famous material.
The film acts as a mirror for the current Russian obsession with war
At this point, Berger, whose view had always extended beyond Germany, had already established himself internationally. First with “The Terror”, a supernatural horror series set in the Canadian pack ice, then as director of the British mini-series “Patrick Melrose” with Benedict Cumberbatch. Eventually, he directed Bryan Cranston in the American version of the justice series Your Honor. So he was technically and logistically well equipped for the large-scale production of “Nothing New in the West”, for which a mud set with one and a half kilometers of trenches was dug near Prague.
The core of his staging aims to show the poison of war propaganda and slogans of aggression and the contempt of the military apparatus for the lives of their soldiers – certainly in the spirit of the original, but transforming it in many places and driving it even further insane. American and British war films are inevitably about “victory and heroism,” says Berger, “but you can’t do that as a German. You bring a feeling of guilt and shame and terror. It has to feel different.” In this way, the film now also acts as a mirror for the current Russian war obsession, which certainly contributes to its success at the Oscars and Baftas.
Berger now has almost no time for the show before the award ceremony on March 12 and for celebrating the German presence, no matter how things turn out. He is in the middle of filming in the Roman film town of Cinecittà, where he is directing the thriller “Conclave” based on Robert Harris. Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow play cardinals who fight with the toughest bandages to win a papal election.