Tema con variazione – this could be one way of describing Roger Fritz’s body of work. Some motives and certain constellations can be found in each of his films, every time with subtle changes and a slightly different tone. In his second feature film he once again positions his muse, Helga Anders the Anna Karina of German cinema, between a young and an older man. With the latter, a famous conductor, the young ballerina has an affair approved by her mother Francine. The other man is a philosophical beat musician whom she meets during a festival in the scenic Spoleto.
The melodramatic love-triangle is complicated by Francine who wants to live out her secret fantasy through her daughter by sponsoring her affair. Fritz turns this into pure pop-cinema-gold. Like Eckhart Schmidt with “Jet Generation” he divulges himself in glossy and beautiful exteriors, but he allows the surfaces to crack and become brittle. In one of the most disturbing film scenes of the decade a frivolous party turns into a violent riot within moments. Danger lurks everywhere. It is the one element that finally binds all protagonists together. –Oldenburg Film Festival
Roger Fritz was born in Mannheim on September 22nd 1936. In 1955, after an apprenticeship as a businessman, he made the acquaintance of photographer Herbert List in Munich and became his part-time assistant.
He started to take pictures on his own, winning his first Photokina award as a 20year-old, followed by another prize two years later. In 1960, Fritz founded the now-legendary magazine twen, and in 1961, he enrolled at the Ufa talent school for acting and directing in Berlin.
Fritz produced his first short feature “Verstummte Stimmen” in 1963. The film won a German Film Award, while Fritz" second short feature “Zimmer im Grünen” was given the official certificate “Besonders wertvoll”, deeming it to be of extraordinary artistic value.
Fritz also assisted director Luchino Visconti on “Boccaccio 70” (I/F 1961) and “Il Gattopardo” (I/F 1962), and worked with Gian Carlo Menotti in New York.
Back in Germany, Roger Fritz directed feature films like “Mädchen, Mädchen”… read more
