Justus von Dohnányi

We’re in Eisenstein, an upmarket café-restaurant in Hamburg’s Altona district, a superb example of an old industrial building repurposed, and also appropriately named for what turns out to be a very wide ranging conversation with Justus von Dohnányi, a writer-director and, above all, actor who has an encompassing love of film.

The end of September saw the premiere of Oskar Roehler’s "Jud Süß – Film ohne Gewissen", in which von Dohnányi plays the notorious film’s director Veit Harlan. What was it like, a director playing a director? "Not easy!" is the reply. "I watched the original film and a documentary on him. I spoke with his son Thomas, who has very divided and critical feelings towards his father, and got information wherever I could to find out what he was like as a man. I felt he was obsessed with power. Goebbels was the only man he had respect, fear for. Harlan had this great self-security but could also be strongly submissive and servile towards Goebbels. He was also one of the time’s most successful directors, which made him a star and so very vain."

As an actor, von Dohnányi uses certain mechanisms to get closer to each role, "but it’s very different according to what the role requires. For Veit Harlan I used research, for others I take an external approach, such as what would they be if they were an animal? How would they move? What tics and gestures do they have? And so on. At the same time I always stick to what is available in terms of the script or historical documentation."

In the case of "Jud Süß – Film ohne Gewissen", the story of how a film was created, Roehler has his own perspective, so this is not an actual portrait of how it was, but him translating an idea into reality. "That means the characters are overdrawn," von Dohnányi explains, "but are very strongly tied to the story. Since my character is close to the historical reality, we tried very hard to stay with facts."

Busy beyond the dreams of most actors, and also humbly grateful for the fact, von Dohnányi is currently playing in "Yoko", a children’s film, and is gearing up for a sequel to the highly successful "Männerherzen" ("Men in the City"). In writer-director Simon Verhoeven’s comedy about five men in their 30s and 40s and how they deal with life, he again plays Bruce Berger, a pop singer.

In "Der ganz große Traum", in which acting colleague Daniel Brühl plays the man who, in 1874, brought football from England to a boarding school in Braunschweig as a teaching aid, von Dohnányi plays an old-fashioned bank manager who is against these new fangled and especially foreign ideas.

As an actor, von Dohnányi looks for competence in his director: "I hope he can convey a view of what he’s filming," he explains. "He first has to have an idea! He, or she, also needs to know the language of images and I would wish for the ability to organize technically, which means also taking time to work with actors on the content, explaining why and how they’re playing something. There needs to be time for rehearsal, too." He then continues to praise Oskar Roehler’s "strong grip on his material and being able to convey what he sees and wants."

When not on set, von Dohnányi is a self-confessed cinema fan. "I watch everything possible!" he says. "I hardly ever watch TV, though." While admitting he is not so keen on films for just a young audience ("Teen comedies, for example. No longer my world!,") he takes in German and international films, arthouse and commercial films, in fact "everything from comedy to genre to blockbusters with popcorn. I live in Hamburg and Berlin, so it’s off to one of the big cinemas!"

Among von Dohnányi’s recent favorites are "Sin Nombre" ("The most exciting film I’ve seen this year"),  Precious and, lower down the list, "Inception": "I look sometimes for recommendations from friends or colleagues, sometimes it’s the director or actor or cinematographer or writer. With some filmmakers, such as Woody Allen or the Coen Brothers, I don’t care what they make because they’re so exciting! Sometimes I just go to the cinema to see what’s showing and get a positive surprise from a film I don’t know much about. I like to concentrate on the screen and get the big experience with the loudness and darkness. At home the phone always rings!"

With perhaps this time the writer in him coming more to the fore, von Dohnányi explains, "The alpha and omega is that the story must function. Then the film’s ahead already and I’m happy when it’s well made, when the actors do a good job or the director has a great signature." He cites "The Ghostwriter" here, "whatever one thinks of Polanski, it is technically good. He knows what he wants to achieve and gets the result from the audience. Blockbusters sometimes work only in parts," he continues, "whereas small films achieve it more often. But they are often just to entertain and that’s fine, like watching a football game, it’s fun."

The film that carries his name as writer, as well as director, actor and producer, is "Bis zum Ellenbogen" (2006), a comedy crime caper film about three men who meet by accident, one subsequently dies but not before he tells the others about a bank full of black money. It can be gotten at easily, but only by the dead guy. So the others transport the body across Germany.

"I’d written several scripts already," von Dohnányi explains, "and thought, it’s a small story, I can make it with friends. My co-producer was Lars Büchel, from Element E in Hamburg, Jan Josef Liefers and Stefan Kurt co-starred. Germany was in World Cup fever at the time so we dressed the corpse up as a fan. I’d only done serious stuff till then and wanted to do comedy. It worked very well, made money and we didn’t have a broadcaster or film funder aboard either. We had more than 100,000 viewers, got our money back and a bit more! We were very pleased."

Hollywood’s new baby, 3D, gets short shrift from von Dohnányi. "I’ve yet to see a good one! I saw
'Avatar' and can’t understand all the fuss," he states. "Film is driven by a good story, when you have one that works then it’s great and you enthuse people." He is a fan, it must be said, of "the Americans’ willingness to invest in development: They take it seriously, whereas in Germany it’s not always so well-developed." He is, however, a supporter of new media: "It allows good films to be sold, like 'Blair Witch Project' and 'Paranormal Activity". But then it still comes down to the writing, back to good stories, well told."

Von Dohnányi believes "German cinema is developing in a very good direction at the moment. There is a range and great variety of different filmmakers." He cites Lars Becker, Tom Tykwer, Fatih Akin, Andreas Dresen, Oskar Roehler, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Dominik Graf as "auteur filmmakers with their own vision. There are also the old stalwarts like Bernd Eichinger and I also look at Til Schweiger to see how and where he goes. It helps the industry when we also make successful mainstream films. Comedies, especially romantic ones, have the best chance of making their money back. We can’t rely on action," he continues, "because that has to be for the English-language market. A German film is primarily for the German market!"

What about when von Dohnányi isn’t working or watching a film? "I’m still very busy!" he laughs, "Being a family guy! I don’t have an all-consuming passion, like sailing around the world. I like being with my family, going to the theater, getting inspired by culture. I write a lot; scripts, ideas, developing stories gives me a great deal of pleasure. I’m working on material I want to realize, but nothing’s hatched till it’s hatched! I’m not a chicken counter! It’ll get placed on the market when it’s ready."

But upcoming and hatched is the film "Ruhm". From the novel by Daniel Kehlmann, it is directed by Isabel Kleefeld and produced by Little Shark Entertainment, with whom von Dohnányi made "Hardcover" (2007), and begins shooting at the end of October.

And with that, von Dohnányi drains the last of his coffee, checks his watch and says he has to be going. The cinema next door is showing the Swedish comedy "The Swimsuit Issue", he has yet to see it and is hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Author: Simon Kingsley