The drama belongs to the theater like the camera belongs to a movie. But when the film teams arrive at the Small Theater on Casinostrasse in Haar, it’s surprisingly undramatic. Instead, it looks almost cozy. “The first thing that is set up is always the buffet. Then we have something to eat and drink here all day,” says director Matthias Riedel-Rüppel and laughs. So before anyone thinks about working on the film, we first have a cup of coffee together. A team-building measure that could well be copied from other industries.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons why Riedel-Rüppel is so keen on renting out the rooms in the Small Theater to film production companies. The cooperation is always very cooperative and respectful. “I never felt like they took possession of my theater,” he says. On the contrary: film teams are often well equipped and if something breaks, it is quickly repaired. Bayerischer Rundfunk, for example, always brings a lifting platform, and if a light bulb needs to be replaced, it’s done quickly and without much fuss. That’s why watching films and television in the Little Theater is always a welcome change.
Director Matthias Riedel-Rüppel is happy to rent the Small Theater Haar to film crews.
(Photo: Sebastian Gabriel)
Riedel-Rüppel approves film shoots when there is no other program running in the theater – around the time of the Oktoberfest. Scenes for a Munich “crime scene” with Miroslav Nemec and Udo Wachtveitl, for a series of “Polizeiruf 110” and for “Aktenzeichen XY” and “Fünf Freunde” have already been created there.
Although Riedel-Rüppel has to admit that he has swallowed a few times when the character of the theater was changed significantly for filming – such as in the thriller “Ballon” by Michael Bully Herbig (2018). It is based on a true story and deals with the escape of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families from the GDR in 1979 in a hot air balloon. The first scene – a youth consecration – was filmed in the small theater. In order to create GDR flair in the Art Nouveau building, even the headlights were removed and replaced with lighting from the 1970s. Some have been taped off. And the large theater hall was decorated with flags and coats of arms of the GDR, even the clock was taken down.
“When the original style of the house is distorted like this, I get a bit uneasy,” says Riedel-Rüppel. But art is basically free, and transformation is part of film. That applies to the actors as well as to the locations where the film is shot. And who would know that better than a person from the theater? Also: When Riedel-Rüppel sits in the cinema afterwards and sees the finished film, he’s proud that scenes from it are playing in his theater. At the same time, the film is also a little disenchanted for him. Because if you know the background, then you really realize how much show is in such a film.
The entire area of the Art Nouveau Park is a popular location for film crews. The picture shows the building of the Oberbayernische Heimstätte.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
For example, there was a particularly insane transformation in a crime scene episode. The interior shots were taken in the small theater, but the portal of the Oberbayerische Heimstätte, i.e. the building opposite, was used for the exterior shots. This one seemed more imposing with its porch and sweeping entrance. “It’s particularly funny when Miroslav Nemec walks through the door of the Oberbayerische Heimstätte and ends up in the small theater,” says Riedel-Rüppel. In the film – in contrast to the theater – you have unlimited possibilities. That is exciting and funny at the same time. And it makes it clear again that theater and film are two different construction sites.
The limited nature of the theater in terms of scenery has a certain charm, however, because it stimulates the viewer’s imagination much more, says Riedel-Rüppel. In the film, on the other hand, it is precisely this cognitive performance that the filmmakers relieve the viewer of with great meticulousness. Because in order to create the perfect illusion, every detail has to be right. Much is then retouched afterwards, such as the fire alarm devices for the “Balloon”, since these were not yet standard in the 1970s. From a total of three days of shooting, about five minutes of film came out at the end. Then you realize how much work is behind it.
In the police call 110 episode “The place from which the clouds come”, police commissioner Elisabeth Eyckhoff (Verena Altenberger) determines the origin of a neglected boy (Dennis Doms). In the background you can see the theater chairs.
(Photo: Marco Nagel/Roxy Film/BR)
Things were turbulent in the small theater when an episode of the police call 110 (2019) was filmed. “The Place Where the Clouds Come From” required crawling under the chairs, and the main auditorium had to be in fog all the time. Of course, there was also shooting, which is why the police had to be informed beforehand so that they did not approach.
However, film shoots do not only take place in the Small Theater. Since its sale and the associated conversion work, the entire Art Nouveau park has provided a good backdrop for filming. Many buildings are still empty, which is why numerous film scenes have been shot on the entire site in recent years. Among other things, for the cinema hit “Father’s Joy” by and with Matthias Schweighöfer (2014) and for the crime drama “Two Alone” (2014) with Elmar Wepper and Johanna Bittenbinder as well as numerous other short and TV films.
The Art Nouveau park with its eventful history is also a place of transformation itself. On the former psychiatric site, where the Nazis committed horrible crimes between 1939 and 1945, a luxurious housing estate is currently being built. And right in the middle is the Small Theater. “It was always a bit like being in a bubble, and that’s what theater is supposed to be,” says Riedel-Rüppel. Even though the Small Theater has also undergone many transformations – it has already served as a bed store, a pharmacy and even a cinema itself in the 1950s. The projection room used to be where the technology is located today. The folding chairs on the gallery still bear witness to the time when the theater was a cinema.
“The fact that so much is filmed in the Art Nouveau Park will certainly change when the conversion work is complete and everything is inhabited,” believes Riedel-Rüppel. And then at some point only the theater will remain as an oasis of enchantment and staging.