Movies and Films
This is the forum for Movie and Film discussions. Again, our topic is naval warfare in WWII for the most part.
Re: Der Alte's Character
Posted by:
Meg Rosenfeld
()
Date: February 03, 2007 07:38AM
Hello, Barry!
According to Buchheim's "Der Film: Das Boot," he arranged for Jürgen Prochnow to meet with Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock specifically so that he would be able to see and learn from the man he was portraying; one thing he needed to learn, according to LGB, was the calm strength and matter-of-fact, unruffled demeanor of the seasoned U-Boot commander. I gather that he also wanted JP to learn first-hand some of "der Alte's" personal mannerisms: his deep, thoughtful frown, for instance, and his habit of sniffling (which would drive me nuts in real life, I must admit) and of rubbing his jaw. LGB was very pleased with how JP developed the character after this meeting, and wrote in his book (I'm quoting, and translating, from memory here) "It's absolutely remarkable how much Prochnow has come to resemble der Alte." Coming from him, that was extremely high praise!
and of course, like your wife, I find JP to have been absolute eye-candy in that role.
Happy new year (belatedly)!
Meg
According to Buchheim's "Der Film: Das Boot," he arranged for Jürgen Prochnow to meet with Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock specifically so that he would be able to see and learn from the man he was portraying; one thing he needed to learn, according to LGB, was the calm strength and matter-of-fact, unruffled demeanor of the seasoned U-Boot commander. I gather that he also wanted JP to learn first-hand some of "der Alte's" personal mannerisms: his deep, thoughtful frown, for instance, and his habit of sniffling (which would drive me nuts in real life, I must admit) and of rubbing his jaw. LGB was very pleased with how JP developed the character after this meeting, and wrote in his book (I'm quoting, and translating, from memory here) "It's absolutely remarkable how much Prochnow has come to resemble der Alte." Coming from him, that was extremely high praise!
and of course, like your wife, I find JP to have been absolute eye-candy in that role.
Happy new year (belatedly)!
Meg