Heimat (film series)

Heimat is a series of films written and directed by Edgar Reitz about life in Germany from the 1840s to 2000 through the eyes of a family from the Hunsrück area of the Rhineland-Palatinate. The family's personal and domestic life is set against the backdrop of wider social and political events. The combined length of the 5 films – broken into 32 episodes – is 59 hours and 32 minutes, making it one of the longest series of feature-length films in =cinema history.
The title "Heimat" () is a German word, often translated as "homeland" or "home place", but it has been alleged that the word has no true English equivalent. Usage has come to include that of an ironic reference to the film genre known as "Heimatfilm" which was popular in Germany in the 1950s. "Heimat" films were characterised by rural settings, sentimental tone and simplistic morality.
Aesthetically, the series is notable for the frequent switching between color and black-and-white film to convey different emotional states. In 1987 it won a BAFTA for "Foreign Television Programme".
The first film was released in 1984 with a followup in 1993. A direct sequel to the original film was released in 2003. Using unused footage and outtakes to create a narrative, in 2006, a film was released focusing on the women, as Hermann's daughter Lulu looks back on her family history. A prequel film to the original was released in 2013.
Background.
"Tales from the Hunsrück Villages".
Before creating the "Heimat" series, Edgar Reitz produced a documentary during 1980–81 about people from his home region, the Hunsrück, where he later set the "Heimat" series. In "Geschichten aus den Hunsrückdörfern" () he showed people who had not left the region, unlike "Heimat"'s theme of leaving home. This documentary is not considered to be part of the core "Heimat" series but set the stage for the work to come a few years later.
Autobiographical elements.
Berkeley film and media professor Anton Kaes argued that "auteur" film-maker Reitz's trilogy was autobiographical. Reitz and Paul Simon, his fictional character in "Heimat", had fathers who were skilled craftsmen. Edgar Reitz was born in 1932 and Paul Simon in 1898 in Hunsrück. They grew up there, then left when they were in their twenties and returned in their fifties. Like Hermann Simon in the 1950s, Reitz left rural life for the world of German urban avant-garde arts and intelligentsia. Reitz worked at the Institute of Film Design in Ulm, while Hermann became a celebrated conductor in Munich. Wealthy American entrepreneur Paul Simon returned to Hunsrück only briefly when the war ended, but Hermann Simon's return was more permanent. He and his lover Clarissa restored a house overlooking the Rhine that lay in ruins, eventually composing music for representing and celebrating his relationship to "Heimat". Both Hermann and Reitz "dramatized the tensions between staying home, leaving and returning" (Kaes 1989:164), Hermann through music and Reitz through film.
Development.
After watching "Holocaust", Reitz was offended by the American 'melodramaticisation' of the tragic events and the positive reception the film received. In 1979, Reitz began to make notes of his own life and completed a 250-page screenplay draft based upon his youth. Later in the year, Reitz contacted Peter Steinbach and together after what was planned to be a single night, they stayed for the next thirteen months in a small hut in Woppenroth writing a script. They became friendly with the local villagers and invited them to comment on the characters and incidents in the story. 
In 1980, Reitz and Steinbach completed a 2,000-page screenplay. The success of "Berlin Alexanderplatz" had convinced television production companies that there was a market for sagas. After some haggling, Reitz managed to secure funding for the length of the script and remodeling of five Hunsrück villages.
Shooting began on the first film in May 1981, and continued for eighteen months. The cast consisted of 140 speaking parts, 32 full-time actors, 15 non-professional actors and 3,862 extras. Many of the cast had limited stage experience or no acting experience at all. While shooting, the villagers became heavily involved in the project and helped with re-modelling or set changes depending on the time period. Villagers put out advertisements in nearby villages in hope to find authentic items that could be used as props.
During shooting, Reitz decided that certain elements required extra emphasis that only colour could provide. However, Reitz was quick to deny any theories behind the alternations between black-and-white and colour.
Thirteen months were required for editing with Reitz working alongside Heidi Handorf. Together they created an eighteen-hour rough cut that was later trimmed to just over fifteen hours. Post-production continued until the premiere at Munich Film Festival in 1984. The entire project had taken over five years to complete.
While making "Heimat", Reitz had become interested in developing a series of love stories with the working title of "Men and Women". However, in October 1985, Reitz decided to make these tales the basis of "Die Zweite Heimat" (). The film follows the character Hermann as he leaves to study music in Munich and meets new friends, who are all following their own dreams.
Running at over 25 hours, "Die Zweite Heimat" took over six years to write and production lasted 557 days. The cast comprised 71 leading actors, 310 supporting actors and 2,300 extras. The film's soundtrack also became the longest soundtrack ever produced.
Films.
"Heimat".
"Heimat", the original series, premiered in 1984 and follows the life of Maria Simon, a woman living in the fictional village of Schabbach. It was filmed in and around the village of Woppenroth in Rhein-Hunsrück, a rural region of Germany to the west of the Rhineland-Palatinate. Subtitled "Eine Deutsche Chronik — A German Chronicle", it consists of 11 episodes running in total to 15 hours 24 minutes of screen time. The film spans 1919 to 1982, and depicts how historical events affect the Simon family and the community in which they lived. At the start of each episode, Karl Glasisch narrates the story so far over photographs by Eduard Simon.
"Die zweite Heimat" ("Leaving Home").
"Die zweite Heimat" (literally "The Second Heimat"; English title "Heimat 2") (subtitled "Chronik einer Jugend — Chronicle of a Youth") followed in 1992. It is set during the socially turbulent years of the 1960s and how Maria's youngest son Hermann leaves his rural home and makes a new life for himself as a composer in Munich.
Hermann is a musical prodigy whose teenage romance in 1955 with 26-year-old soul-mate Klärchen was considered scandalous by his conservative home village. It resulted in her being expelled and coerced not to contact him ever again. Hermann was crushed and vowed never to love again and to leave his wicked village forever. He arrives in Munich at age 19, overwhelmed and with no place to stay. He finds a private room opening in a month, leaving the deposit with a flamboyant Hungarian woman. His friend Renate, a law student, allows Hermann to sleep on her floor but he is put off by her sexual advances. He finally rooms with Clemens, a fellow Hunsrücker who plays jazz drums in Munich's clubs. Hermann is accepted into the music conservatory, where he meets the incredibly talented Juan from Chile, whose school application is rejected on the grounds his marimbas are "folklore". Hermann and Juan network with the avant-garde culture surrounding the conservatory, including film students, while Hermann takes odd jobs and Juan works as a gymnastics teacher. Both Juan and Hermann have a brief fling with the beautiful cellist Clarissa, who is drawn to those who also fear intimacy. The students are gradually drawn to the Foxhole, a mansion headed by a wealthy art patroness said to be a "collector of artists".
"Heimat 3".
"Heimat 3" (subtitled "Chronik einer Zeitenwende — Chronicle of a Changing Time") premiered in 2004. It continues Hermann's story in 1989 as he returns to Schabbach and depicts the events of the period from the fall of the Berlin Wall until 2000. The cinema version consists of six episodes running to 11 hours 29 minutes, although controversially the version broadcast on the German ARD television network in December 2004 was edited to six 90-minute episodes and it is this 20% shorter version which was released on DVD.
"Heimat-Fragmente" ("Heimat Fragments").
"Heimat-Fragmente" (English title "Heimat Fragments"), subtitled "Die Frauen — The Women", was released in cinemas in 2006 and focuses on the women of the Simon family at the turn of the millennium, and in the 1960s.
"Die andere Heimat" ("Home from Home").
In April 2012, Reitz started filming a prequel to the series: "Die andere Heimat" (literally "The other Heimat"; English title "Home from Home"), with the subtitle "Chronik einer Sehnsucht — Chronicle of a Vision". The film takes place between 1840 and 1844 and centres around two brothers, their families and love relations from the Hunsrück area and their decision whether to flee hunger and poverty by emigrating to Brazil. Principal filming was completed in August 2012. It was screened at the Venice Film Festival in September 2013. The film was awarded a score of 70 on critical aggregator website Metacritic, indicating generally favorable reviews.
Reception.
Release and awards.
After premiering in Germany, "Heimat" was shown in Venice, London and New York festivals. It was shown in movie screens around the world in separate parts. However, it gained its worldwide exposure on television, across 26 countries. In order to shape the film into eleven episodes, Reitz devised introductory segments in which Kurt Wagner as Glasisch narrated the brief story so far, over photographs by Eduard Simon. In Germany, the broadcast received over fifteen million viewers.
"Heimat" earned Edgar Reitz the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1984 Venice Film Festival, while Marita Breuer won the Darstellerpreis for Best Actress at the 1985 Bavarian Film Awards. In the United Kingdom the film won a BAFTA and the London Film Critics' Circle award for Best Foreign Language Film.
"Die Zweite Heimat" premiered at the Venice Biennale and broadcast rights were purchased by television companies in 16 different countries. However, the German backers were disappointed that it received a smaller percentage-viewing share than the first. Reitz said the executives overlooked the fact that in 1984 only three channels existed compared to more than twenty in 1992. In the United States the film had a short theatrical run in New York at The Public Theater. It also screened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and various Goethe Institute across the country. It was not picked up for television by US cable networks.
In Italy the film was shown at a large venue in Rome, that had sold out tickets weekly. Reitz was presented with the "Eurofipa d’honneur" award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994.
Critical reception.
"Heimat" received acclaim around the world. Many were enthusiastic how it never felt like a television movie, but a cinematic experience. Many praised the themes through the film about leaving and returning and simply how we connect to the larger world from our home. Reitz received thousands of letters from ordinary people, thanking him for retrieving and unlocking their memories of the 1919–1982 period. However, critic Leonie Naughton accused the film of presenting a "bourgeois history of the Third Reich, a homespun tale of innocence."
"Die Zweite Heimat" received a lukewarm reception in the United States. National press coverage was limited to a single review by Stephen Holden in The New York Times, who described Hermann Simon as "a hotheaded romantic" and the film as a "alternately gripping and lyrical 13-episode serial about German life in the 1960s". Holden also declared the film a "the ultimate highbrow soap opera for couch potatoes".
British press for "Die Zweite Heimat" was more enthusiastic with The Financial Times, The Observer and The Independent all praising it.
Lasting impact.
"Heimat" was one of director Stanley Kubrick's favourite films. It is ranked  59 in "Empire" magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010. It also finished in 6th place when BBC Two ran a 40th birthday poll celebrating the station's greatest programmes and was 10th in Channel 4's "50 Greatest TV Dramas".
"Heimat" has faced some criticism for its selective interpretation of German history, with some writers noting that there is limited treatment of the hyperinflationary spiral of the 1920s, the Great Depression, or certain aspects of Nazi history such as the Holocaust of World War II. In 1985, Timothy Garton Ash wrote in "The New York Review of Books" that:When you show the 1930s as a golden age of prosperity and excitement in the German countryside, when you are shown the Germans as victims of the war, then you inevitably find yourself asking: But what about the other side? What about Auschwitz? Where is the director's moral judgment? To which the color filters insistently reply: 'Remember, remember, this is a film about what Germans remember. Some things they remember in full color. Some in sepia. Others they prefer to forget. Memory is selective. Memory is partial. Memory is amoral.'"Heimat" 's themes of decadent American values and Western corporate greed rising up against the innocent simplicity of the Hunsrück have been seen as "resurrecting a discourse that prevailed in the nineteenth century about the modernization of Germany's society and economy ... no compromises or delicate balances are possible".
Barbara Gabriel argued that the series was part of a larger movement of national memory work in Germany, provoked in part by the American television series "Holocaust". As European art in general and German art in particular underwent a resurgence in the 1960s, artists like Günter Grass and Edgar Reitz captured international attention as they grappled with issues of identity in a divided, post-Holocaust Germany.