you alone) that I too have indulged in the odd speculation. Even so, it ill behoves Fliss to rail against national stereotypes while dealing them up herself. Not content with Germans who eat frankfurters, French who chew garlic, and English who are rosbifs , she has produced an adult version. The Germans believe that you can do whatever you like so long as you’re locked in a cellar; the French that, whatever you do, you must be home in time to dine; the English that, no matter what you do, you’ll have to pay for it in the end.
Enough of this dodgy shag story and back to the Festival. The Magic Mountain was a triumph. The film is said to be a hot tip for the Palme d’Or (although Wolfram holds out little hope after his run-in with Rossellini 26 ) and Dieter Reiss to be favourite for BestActor. I worried that, if he wins, he might pass on playing Julius Streicher which is, after all, a minor role. Wolfram, however, was confident of his loyalty. The group works like an old-fashioned rep. One week, you’re playing the Countess and the next, the maid … unless you happen to be Renate, in which case you’re always the maid. She’s here too, of course, although, according to Fliss, she had to buy her own ticket. She would have been reduced to sleeping on the beach, had Kurt – the composer – not lent her his bath. Wolfram was furious, damning him for a traitor. Then, the following day, he took out a wad of notes (we’re talking Godfather -thick) and told Renate to buy herself a dress for the premiere … Sometimes, I yearn for the clear-cut animosities of the ADC.
The film’s success was especially welcome, given the problems of financing Unity . Wolfram depends on official subsidy, but the board unexpectedly turned him down. Werner says that this is partly the result of the continuing controversy over The Judge , but also of fears about the subject. The Germans, understandably, have stringent laws about representing Hitler. (I should have liked to ask Wolfram how that squares with his anything-goes philosophy . Are they manifesting Nazi attitudes in banning depictions of Nazism? But, as always, my esprit d’escalier was stuck on the bottom rung). Wolfram claims that the reason for the board’s fighting shy is a mixture of a budget which is far higher than for his previous films (news that fills me with a perverse pride) and his decision to shoot in English. Fortunately, he has found a backer in Thomas Bücher, an independent producer whose work is unknown to me – to judge by the titles, they’re the kind of flimsy romantic comedy that would sink in mid-Channel. He has had a chequered career, including a spell in a concentration camp, a fact that made me intensely apprehensive about meeting him. Feeble I know, but I felt so callow in the face of his experience. I was sure that I would say the wrong thing (It’s your fault with all your digs about foot-in-mouth disease!). What’s more, I was filledwith an overwhelming dread that, the moment he sat down, he would roll up his sleeve. I needn’t have worried. His cuffs were as perfectly aligned as the rest of him. He is a sixty-year-old man of great dignity: poker-backed, silver-haired, with haunted, hooded eyes like the Buñuel actor, Fernando Rey. 27 With his impeccable clothes and grooming, he looks as if he were permanently setting out for the opera.
At the end of The Magic Mountain press conference, Wolfram announced his plans to film Unity . He then summoned Fliss and me on to the platform (WITH NO WARNING!). I was horrified to hear him say that Unity had won the Best Play award in Edinburgh and that I was under commission to both the RSC (or, as he put it, the Royal Stratford Company) and the National Theatre. Do you think they collect cuttings? Will I be writer non grata for life? As we faced the photographic firing squad, I broke out in a muck sweat. Fliss, on the other hand, was coolness personified. In contrast to the starlets, she played the English
Enough of this dodgy shag story and back to the Festival. The Magic Mountain was a triumph. The film is said to be a hot tip for the Palme d’Or (although Wolfram holds out little hope after his run-in with Rossellini 26 ) and Dieter Reiss to be favourite for BestActor. I worried that, if he wins, he might pass on playing Julius Streicher which is, after all, a minor role. Wolfram, however, was confident of his loyalty. The group works like an old-fashioned rep. One week, you’re playing the Countess and the next, the maid … unless you happen to be Renate, in which case you’re always the maid. She’s here too, of course, although, according to Fliss, she had to buy her own ticket. She would have been reduced to sleeping on the beach, had Kurt – the composer – not lent her his bath. Wolfram was furious, damning him for a traitor. Then, the following day, he took out a wad of notes (we’re talking Godfather -thick) and told Renate to buy herself a dress for the premiere … Sometimes, I yearn for the clear-cut animosities of the ADC.
The film’s success was especially welcome, given the problems of financing Unity . Wolfram depends on official subsidy, but the board unexpectedly turned him down. Werner says that this is partly the result of the continuing controversy over The Judge , but also of fears about the subject. The Germans, understandably, have stringent laws about representing Hitler. (I should have liked to ask Wolfram how that squares with his anything-goes philosophy . Are they manifesting Nazi attitudes in banning depictions of Nazism? But, as always, my esprit d’escalier was stuck on the bottom rung). Wolfram claims that the reason for the board’s fighting shy is a mixture of a budget which is far higher than for his previous films (news that fills me with a perverse pride) and his decision to shoot in English. Fortunately, he has found a backer in Thomas Bücher, an independent producer whose work is unknown to me – to judge by the titles, they’re the kind of flimsy romantic comedy that would sink in mid-Channel. He has had a chequered career, including a spell in a concentration camp, a fact that made me intensely apprehensive about meeting him. Feeble I know, but I felt so callow in the face of his experience. I was sure that I would say the wrong thing (It’s your fault with all your digs about foot-in-mouth disease!). What’s more, I was filledwith an overwhelming dread that, the moment he sat down, he would roll up his sleeve. I needn’t have worried. His cuffs were as perfectly aligned as the rest of him. He is a sixty-year-old man of great dignity: poker-backed, silver-haired, with haunted, hooded eyes like the Buñuel actor, Fernando Rey. 27 With his impeccable clothes and grooming, he looks as if he were permanently setting out for the opera.
At the end of The Magic Mountain press conference, Wolfram announced his plans to film Unity . He then summoned Fliss and me on to the platform (WITH NO WARNING!). I was horrified to hear him say that Unity had won the Best Play award in Edinburgh and that I was under commission to both the RSC (or, as he put it, the Royal Stratford Company) and the National Theatre. Do you think they collect cuttings? Will I be writer non grata for life? As we faced the photographic firing squad, I broke out in a muck sweat. Fliss, on the other hand, was coolness personified. In contrast to the starlets, she played the English
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