by Gill Pringle at the 18th annual Zurich Film Festival
First published in 1929, Remarque’s best-seller is considered the definitive anti-war book, adapted into the 1930 Oscar-winning film of the same name directed by Lewis Milestone, later a made-for-TV film starring Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine.
Nearly a century after Milestone’s film, Edward Berger (Deutschland 83) is at the helm of this visually arresting interpretation of the classic German novel, Im Westen nichts Neues – presented entirely in its native language.
“When the producer called me about two and a half years ago to ask if I would be interested to make it, I was like, ‘Why did no-one ever think of this before?’” recalls Berger.
“It was just flabbergasting to me because the book was sitting there for 90 years, it almost felt evident that it had to be made,” says the director whose own version of this famous story makes the pacifist case to contemporary audiences through its depiction of the horrible madness of World War I and the tragedy of a doomed generation.
Told through the eyes of schoolboy Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), it is 1917 in wartime Germany when he lies about his age in order to enlist with his friends – all of them filled with romanticised, patriotic notions. The reality of war almost immediately extinguishes their exuberance as Paul is thrown into a trench with little equipment, minimal training, and the swiftly repaired uniform of a dead soldier on his back. Only the sage advice of an older veteran prevents him from becoming another statistic on his first day.
Ask Berger if he believes the story hasn’t been touched by filmmakers for more than four decades because of the traditional expense associated with war movies – which technology now reduces – he believes that is one factor.
“We usually don’t have that type of budget in Germany. And this film is cheaper than you would think, at least I hope so.
“But, more importantly, the time suddenly felt ripe, because the atmosphere when we made it two and a half years ago, felt very relevant because of Trump, Brexit, surging far right voters in France and Hungary and Germany. And you felt like suddenly those institutions that gave us peace for a long time, like the EU, are being questioned by propaganda and demagogues and the tone felt more aggressive with nationalism.
“I felt this film might have an interesting perspective, especially introducing the German perspective because if I watch American or British films, they always feel a bit heroic because it is a hero story in that England or France was attacked by a power that had no right to attack it. And America sort of went into the war and has the myth of liberating Europe. So naturally, a film like that feels very different from a German film.”
It’s impossible to argue otherwise, given how this was always a story written by a German WWI veteran about the extreme physical and mental stress he suffered during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt upon returning home from the front.
“And I also thought to have the heritage of two aggressive wars against other countries, and to say what that leaves in the world, but also in us,” argues Berger. “I inherited nothing, and there is nothing to be proud of. It’s only shame, guilt, terror and horror, and those feelings inform the film. Ideally, if you make it, a German film must feel very different from an American film. And I thought that might be interesting for other countries to see,” he tells us following the film’s gala premiere.
“Ultimately, it was important to me to take on the German perspective. It’s a perspective which no longer exists in modern war movies because we usually lack the courage and the opportunities to show it.
“But every death, regardless of which side, is a death and is therefore simply horrific. It’s a person who died. I felt that making our history, background and attitude towards war the driving force behind the movie was a huge and fascinating challenge. And I thought it might be interesting to share this perspective from Germany with the world,” he adds.
Furthermore, the film will also serve as Germany’s official submission for International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards next year.
Remarkably, Berger found inspiration for his harrowing battle scenes not through viewing hundreds of other war movies – but by discovering real-life footage posted on YouTube.
If pressed to name his personal favourite war films, he will admit to Laszlo Nemes’ recent Son of Saul and Francis Ford Coppola’s classic Apocalypse Now.
Berger believes All Quiet on the Western Front is as relevant today as when it was first published – not only because of the current invasion in Ukraine or any other number of hostilities being waged around the world. “There’s always a war, be it ten years ago or 120 years ago, and there will be others in ten or 120 years time – so it doesn’t seem to be never relevant.”
Further inspiration came from an unlikely source.
“When I thought about making this film, I discussed it at the dinner table, and my kids always get up because they think it’s uninteresting, but when I mentioned the title, my daughter whipped around and said, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front? If you can make that, you absolutely have to make it.’ She said she had just read it in school and cried five times. She said it was the best book she’d ever read.
“And so, if there’s a book that touches a young woman of 17, 90 years after it’s been written, it must be quite relevant.”
Indeed, the book and its 1930 sequel, The Road Back, were among the books banned and burned in Nazi Germany.
Berger’s fresh take on Remarque’s story introduces an entirely new character to the film, with Daniel Bruhl portraying liberal German politician Matthias Erzberger who, by November 1918, convinces the supreme leadership that it is time to admit defeat and negotiate a ceasefire.
With the armistice signed by all parties on a railway carriage, Erzberger – whose actions helped save thousands of lives – was regarded as a traitor by many Germans on the political right, and was assassinated in 1921 for his efforts.
“Later, he was used by the Nazis as propaganda,” explains Bruhl. “And Adolf Hitler asked for that very train when he invaded France as a humiliation for the French to sign the capitulation.
“It’s such an iconic and important moment in history, that train and the consequences it had for everything, then a whole legend – known as the backstabbing legends in Germany,” says Bruhl who applauds the filmmakers for having the courage to add this detail – little discussed outside of Germany – to Remarque’s story.
“I thought it was very bold to add something which is historically accurate and also such a crucial moment in Europe’s World History,” says the multi-lingual German actor known for his roles in The Zookeeper’s Wife, The Woman in Gold, Captain America: Civil War and Ron Howard’s Rush.
But it’s his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds which he hopes might persuade young audiences to return for another war movie.
“Obviously, this has a very different approach. But I’m equally proud. I found it absolutely brilliant the way Quentin Tarantino reinvented history,” he says.
Bruhl believes that All Quiet on the Western Front is off to a good start, heavily supported by Netflix who will ensure a sizable theatrical window before shifting it to their streaming service.
“My own two little boys are far too young to watch this film, but I just hope that some young people go and see it and maybe even be inspired to read the novel,” he says.
All Quiet on the Western Front is in cinemas October 13 and on Netflix from October 28, 2022