Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Jan
ROSENSTRASSE is basically a period drama about the Holocaust told from the German perspective. So I’d like you to start by telling me why it starts in New York?
Pam
Why start in New York, why have the modern day perspective? There are two reasons. I will start with the practical reason.
[Director] Margarethe von Trotta started trying to make a film about this subject in the early 90s. She originally wrote a historical script, and she tried to get it made, but at that time the Germans were into doing modern comedies, and nobody wanted to make a historical film. She tried for many years, and at a certain point she gave up. But after SCHINDLER’S LIST opened in Germany in 1994, somebody said to her: “Okay, now it’s time for you to try again.”
And that was the point at which she came to me and asked me to collaborate with her on a new version of her screenplay.
Click HERE to read complete chat with Pamela Katz at FILMS FOR TWO.
