Munich: Secrets of a City
München - Geheimnisse einer Stadt
Germany
2000
120 Min
Color, Black and White
1.66:1
German
Synopsis
What do women ticket inspectors dream about? What happens when two men realise they have loved the same woman? What do two boys who want a star’s autograph find out? And what does the solar eclipse have to do with it all? This is a film about Munich. Primarily, however, this is not a film about Munich. This is the fictive portrait of a city. Or the portrait of a fictive city. The city which everyone dreams of. And the dream which is every city. It is all about the way each individual’s biography is involved in the story of a city – and how the thousands of stories of a city also amount to something resembling a biography of that city. And the question asked is: What do you see when you take a magnifying glass to the city? And what pattern emerges when you follow the urban bustle? So the film begins with a child’s view of the distant, immense and shapeless unknown, composed of so many names and forms, concealing strange promises. And it ends with the dead eyes of a blind man, to whom nothing but memories remain. —german-films.de
Director
Michael Althen
Michael Althen, born October 14, 1962, in München started to write film reviews as a freelance author at the age of 19. After finishing school, he studied German philology and journalism, but dropped out of university before he graduated. From 1984 on, Althen worked as a film critic for famous newspapers and magazines such as “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, “Die Zeit”, and “Der Spiegel”. In 1998, he succeeded Peter Buchka as the managing editor of film reviews at “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, before he became an editor of the arts section of “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” in 2001.
Over the years, Althen has become one of the most famous German speaking film critics with his trenchant reviews, portrays, and essays. He has written books about Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin and has “declared his love for the cinema” in an autobiographically influenced book called “Warte, bis es dunkel ist” (2002). Althen won the Grimme award for his TV documentary “Das Kino bittet zu Tisch – Essen im Film” in… read more
Dominik Graf
Dominik Graf was born September 6, 1972, as the son of the actors Selma and Robert Graf. In 1972, he took up German language and literature studies as well as musicology at the University of Munich. In 1974, however, he switched to the Academy for Television & Film (HFF), where he shot the short film “Carlas Briefe” during his first academic year. In addition to his studies, he wrote screenplays for the TV series Auf Achse. Furthermore, he played small roles in feature films such as Der Mädchenkrieg (1977, Alf Brustellin, Bernhard Sinkel). He also took on the leading role in Heidi Genée’s comedy 1 + 1 = 3 (1979).
He received the Bavarian Film Award for his graduation film Der kostbare Gast (1979). Subsequently, Graf concentrated on his television work and directed several episodes for series such as Familientag and Köberle kommt. With his work on the TV series Der Fahnder and the Tatort episode Schwarzes… read more
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