⌊Mannheim Film symposium⌋

BY MONIKA HINZ

The annual Mannheim Film Symposium took place from October 6th to 8th, 2023, this time under the theme of production design, costume design and make-up design. Supported by the city of Mannheim, film enthusiasts meet every year in the CINEMA QUADRAT to shed light on various aspects of film with selected speakers. Under the very committed leadership of Peter Bär and his friendly, volunteer team, Sebastian Soukup, Silke Buhr (production design) and Monika Hinz (costume design) from the Association for Production Design and Costume Design (VSK) met, as well as the make-up artist Jens Bartram. Numerous specialist speakers and historians also had their say. The respective trades were able to present their work comprehensively, accompanied by film and photos. The interest of the viewers and listeners was huge!
The closeness that arose between the audience and the filmmakers this weekend enabled a lively discourse. The mayor of Mannheim, Christian Specht, pledged his support for further film symposiums at a reception. This annual event can be highly recommended!

Interesting insights

Sebastian Soukup very clearly presented his work as a set designer for the project DER VERMESSENE MENSCH (2023). A pioneering achievement on a topic that has never been depicted in German cinema before: the brutal colonization of Namibia by the German Empire. In his rousing presentation it became clear that this unusual project required Sebastian's full commitment and a lot of passion.
Silke Buhr spoke about the POLL project (2010), which presented her with the enormous challenge of having to build an entire house in the sea based on a historical model. The success of the film and the lasting significance of this motif have greatly rewarded her fantastic work!

Based on his successful projects (including UNORTHODOX, 2020 and DIE SPIEGEL AFFÄRE, 2014), make-up artist Jens Bartram illustrated the formulation of film characters with make-up and hairstyles.
I, Monika Hinz, talked about the adventure of research. It has long been my concern that this important phase of costume work, the creation of moods and designs, should be more appreciated and rewarded accordingly. Often enough, productions underestimate how difficult it is to prepare yourself professionally for a project.

Realism or Stylization?

The work I presented was related to the project A VILLAGE DEFENDS ITSELF (2019), for which the research lasted four weeks.
The film shows what happened in the Altaussee salt mine in 1945:  For years, Nazis stole thousands of Europe's greatest art treasures for the planned Führer Museum in Linz and stored them in the mountain, including the Ghent Altarpiece and works by Dürer and Vermeer.
Hitler's Nero order to blow up the mountain before it was liberated by the Americans would not only have destroyed the works of art, but also the region's most important workplace, which had existed for centuries. The miners decided, risking their lives, to defy this order. Their resistance is a rare example of courage and solidarity.

But what do you do when, during the preparation of the film project, it becomes clear that there is actually no photo of a salt miner in Altaussee at work underground between 1930 and 1945? Only those that show workers dressed up in guild clothing in front of the mine on special occasions? Or historical pictures that only show Altaussee residents in traditional costumes in stylized, romantic photos for touristic and ideological advertising purposes? Only written information could be found from the partisan camp in the mountains, not a single picture.

Likewise, the new residents of Altaussee who have appeared since the invasion - high-ranking Nazis such as Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Adolf Eichmann - have left no photos. There is no evidence of their lives in partly stolen summer houses, many of which had previously belonged to Jews and were now inhabited by them and became the hubs of their cruel machinations.

Since these important image sources were not immediately accessible to me to prepare the project, I had to rely on costume libraries and on-site research.
As a costume designer, I had many questions: Did the photos and offers in the Styrian costume catalogues from 1930-1945 correspond to the everyday reality of a mountain farmer? What role did fascism play in the stylization of the rural world? What role did the local clog makers play? How closely should I stick to historical models in the design of the costumes and how much could the realism be abstracted, even stylized? If, for example, a large part of the film takes place over 1000 meters deep in the belly of a mountain and the mined material is salt-colored, what level of patination should be chosen to make the miners' original eggshell-colored work clothes look used?
The research to answer all these questions turned into an exciting detective job. Investigating contemporary history and politics against the imposing mountain backdrop of a magnificent landscape made the costume work for this project a unique assignment for me.