Wolfgang Becker
The Cinema of Author Breaks Silences
In 2003, when he came to Brazil to accompany Good Bye, Lenin! at the 27th Mostra, Wolfgang Becker was not known nor did he attract much the press’ attention. Afterwards the film was acclaimed, and we must not forget his title-episode that closes the collective work Welcome to São Paulo, screened at the 28th Mostra. Then Becker became a hot name. Once more, “Mostra showed it first”. The master class he gave in FAAP, on the 27th, was attended not just by students, but also by several people who went there out of curiosity, and the conversation lasted over two hours.From the beginning he mentioned several times his biggest success, reminding that it’s funny to be renowned for Good Bye, Lenin!, since it was a film with a peculiar history and difficult production. The synopsis (by Bernd Lichtenberg) was sent to him and got lost in the middle of the daily routine. Six months later the author contacted him after a decision. After having to look for the “lost script”, he found it and accepted it. The shootings had to face destroyed sceneries by the rain, he needed to hire private security guards that could protect the scenographic Berlin wall during the night, because every morning it had new wall graffiti.
At a certain point, Becker said that movies and arts in general don’t change the world. On the other hand, author’s cinema is able to break silences. That, in fact, already changes something. At the same time, he defends popular and commercial movies, because that’s the industrial base to a market in which is possible to develop alternative projects. When he was questioned if he would feel comfortable with a Hollywood remake of Good Bye, Lenin! – in reference to the remake scheduled for The Edukators (2004, 28th Mostra’s selection), by Hans Weingartner, another recent big German success –, Becker replied that Hollywood pays too good a money to offer something to the spectator that doesn’t read subtitles. But he doesn’t know how they could adapt a historical plot to an American context. Who is able to show Arnold Schwarzenegger going to bed one night and waking up the next morning as governor of California? Better still: exactly on the contrary of his film, why not show a wall being built over night, like the one dividing the United States and Mexico? It’s obvious that this last “synopsis” was the one that provoked the warmest reaction from the public.
Close to the end of the lecture, Becker was asked if Central Station (1998), by Walter Salles, was a success in Germany because it is the Brazilian image foreigners want to see. He denied it, and said that Germany has a good knowledge of “Brazilian things”, because there are lots of TV documentaries showing different aspects of Brazil. He wrapped up by complimenting Central Station, saying that its success is due to the film being good and emotional. And after this master class, all that is left for Becker to do is to watch the films that were best voted by the public, and help choose the jury’s Bandeira Paulista Award.