Closing Night

MELODIES OF SPRING

MÄRZMELODIE

Directed by Martin Walz

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 21 7:30PM CASTRO
FOLLOWED BY CLOSING NIGHT PARTY CASTRO

A warm-hearted and old-fashioned, yet thoroughly original boy-meets-girl story MÄRZMELODIE starts with a charming, 1950s style animated title sequence that gently morphs into real-life action, resembling Marc Webb’s use of impromptu graffiti in his 2005 video for Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day”. Within the first few minutes, gorgeous Katja (Jana Pallaske) breaks Thilo’s heart, only to have her heart broken by Thilo’s best friend Florian in turn. Good thing Thilo (Jan Henrik Stahlberg) has friends acting as not-so-clandestine matchmakers, arranging for him to get romantically involved with Anna, a burnt-out schoolteacher (Alexandra Neldel). It’s nice to see Stahlberg, the prototypical hard man of MUXMÄUSCHENSTILL and KNALLHART, as a head-in-the-clouds kind of guy. A touching performance by Inga Busch as Anna’s best friend, a long-suffering working mum the action is interspersed with 10-second snippets from popular songs, lip-synced by the actors. Highlights include Rio Reiser, Udo Lindenberg, Westernhagen, Nena and the immortal Zarah Leander. (IMDB)

IN PERSON: Jan Henrik Stahlberg

PURCHASE TICKET

Country
Germany
Year
2008
Run Time
35mm, 93min., German
with English subtitles
Cast
Jan Henrik Stahlberg
Alexandra Neldel
Gode Benedix
Inga Busch
Gedeon Burkhard
Jana Pallaske Camera
Matthias Fleischer
Screenwriter
Martin Walz
Printsource
Beta Cinema
Email
andreas.rothbauer@betacinema.com

Awards
2008 Undine Award: Best Young Supporting Actress (Jana Pallaske)

Director

Martin Walz
born in Zurich/Switzerland in 1964, spent his childhood in Berlin. After finishing school, he took acting lessons and appeared in DAS BOOT IST VOLL in 1980 and ROTE ERDE in 1982. His first directing experience for cinema was an assistant director for Thomas Brasch (WELCOME TO GERMANY), Dani Levy (ROBBYKALLEPAUL) and Wolf Vogel (REISE HINTER DEN SPIEGEL). He made his award-winning debut as a feature film director with SAZKA - DIE WETTE in 1991. In addition to working for television, he continued writing screenplays.