Films by Hartmut Kasper

Germany 2024, 91 min
by André Schäfer

In 1905, Thomas Mann made his first plans for a novel about an impostor. The first volume of “Confessions of Felix Krull” was not published until 1954. No literary figure has accompanied Thomas Mann for as long as Felix Krull. Both Krull and Thomas Mann are masters of deception. Thomas Mann was a literary superstar with an upper class façade. His world fame meant everything to him – but it cost him an enormous amount of energy to maintain this appearance.Thomas Mann’s diaries reveal an insecure, often depressed man who suppressed his desires throughout his life: Thomas Mann was homosexual. Nevertheless, he chose a married life with six children.The film follows in Felix Krull’s footsteps to Eltville, Frankfurt am Main, Paris and Lisbon – and uses archives, letters and diary entries to trace Thomas Mann’s own journey during the creative process. The work on the novel accompanied Thomas Mann through the Nazi regime, McCarthyism in the USA and the new Europe after the Second World War.In this hybrid documentary, director André Schäfer and actor Sebastian Schneider blur the lines between Thomas Mann and his alter ego Felix Krull, telling the story of a titan of German literature from an entirely new perspective.

2023, 90 min
by André Schäfer

"Die Ente bleibt draußen!" A film obeisance to the German humorist Loriot. To mark Loriot’s 100th birthday, André Schäfer paints a multi-facetted portrait of the best-known German humorist: With numerous film excerpts from his famous sketches, rare documentary footage of Vicco von Bülow from the early days of his career and interviews with companions, colleagues, experts and fans. The film remembers the inventor of the bulbous-nosed Knollennasenmännchen and explores the secret of his very German universe. It’s also a homage to the German post-war economic miracle and Loriot’s singular symbiosis of Prussianism and anarchic humour. [31 FFHH]With: Johann von Bülow, Olli Dittrich, Oliver Kalkofe, Hape Kerkeling, Helge Schneider, Ariana Baborie , Dagmar Biener, Mirja Boes, Katja Bogdanski, Sarah Bosetti, Claudia Hillebrandt u.a.

Germany 2017, 52 min
by Jonas Niewianda, André Schäfer

While the First World War and its battles on the Western Front are still very much anchored in our memory of history, the simultaneous battle in the East appears now to have been largely forgotten. During the course of this military action, a peculiar, state-like entity was created, a German colony in Eastern Europe, a military utopia: the Land of Ober Ost. The occupied region was to become a productive state, completely under military command; a state that was to serve not least as a deployment zone for the impending war.

2017, 90 min
by André Schäfer, Jascha Hannover

"There are three golden rules to filmmaking: thou shalt not bore, thou shalt not bore, and thou shaltnot bore!" Billy Wilder was one of the greatest writers and directors in Hollywood. The man who filmed Marilyn Monroe with her dress blowing up, wrote screenplays with Raymond Chandler and created film history with classics like 'Sunset Boulevard', 'Some Like It Hot' or 'One, Two, Three'.Billy Wilder was a legend in his lifetime and embodies a period of contemporary history. He was successful beyond measure, and became very rich as a result – but he never sold out.Our film rediscovers this cultural figurehead. Via trailers and film extracts from his greatest works, it documents and analyses Wilder's filmmaking. In exclusive, newly-filmed interviews companions and contemporaries of Billy Wilder, such as Volker Schlöndorff, Marthe Keller und Paul Diamond document a century of contemporary history and portray a person who above all was never boring.

2016, 90 min
by André Schäfer, Hartmut Kasper

YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE tells the story of a song. A song that has becomethe epitome of a global folk song. Each and every weekend, hundreds of thousands of football fans sing it in stadiums all over the world.But who would know that the roots of the tune go back to Budapest in the year 1909 – to a young playwright and a stage play called 'Lilliom'?We will re-experience the journey the song took from there and immerse ourselves into various different worlds: the sophisticated and artistic social circle of the Habsburg empire, the flamboyance of Berlin in the 1920s, the high-gloss of Hollywood of the 40s and 50s, working-class Liverpool in the 60s – and global football fan culture.Like many great works of art YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE is a collaboration – an Austro-Hungarian-German US-American-British co-production, that reflects more then a century of cultural history. And the story of the song is still ongoing, as „You’ll never walk alone” is still regularly performed in various contexts all across the world."Molnár always said: 'My plays are no good to set to music.' But he was short of money in 1945. And when he saw how much he was offered by Rodgers & Hammerstein, he said 'All right, yes!'" (Matyas Sarkozi, grandson of Ferenc Molnár)

Germany 2012, 90 min
by André Schäfer

John Irving is one of the world’s most read writers: More than 10 million copies of his 12 novels have been sold in 30 languages. In 2012 Irving celebrated his 70th birthday.When reading John Irving, you get the feeling that you are sitting at a table and one of the characters is handing you a glass of wine: Irving is one of the world’s most read writers: More than 10 million copies of his 12 novels have been sold in 30 languages. In 2012 Irving celebrated his 70th birthday. The film visualises the elation in Irving’s novels, a factor which makes him a literary figure of global format: a reality available for everyone, approachable though closely knitted and inhabited by characters and inventions boasting an exuberant lust for storytelling.