Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 17, 1992 TAG: 9203170120
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
More Germans saw "Men" the year of its release than any other picture. Six million tickets were sold, which, Dorrie says, means some Germans saw it two and three times.
It was released in this country and received good reviews while building audiences respectable in size for a foreign, subtitled picture. The comedy about a straight-laced advertising man who becomes roommates with his wife's bohemian lover made Dorrie (pronounced Duh-ree-uh) Germany's most commercial filmmaker.
But Dorrie, who is a Fulbright scholar at Hollins College this spring and will be the honored guest at the upcoming German film colloquium, notes that being a popular filmmaker in Germany is not quite the same as it is in the United States. Here, a hit movie means the kind of power that can lead to budgets that typically exceed $25 million. "Men" was made on a budget of $400,000 and "Happy Birthday, Turke!," her latest, on about $2.8 million.
"There is no such thing as a film industry in Germany," Dorrie says. "All movies are financed by the government and public television. You don't have to be commercial. But committees decide what gets made. They're made up of church people, politicians, movie theater owners, art critics and university people. It's a very pluralistic crowd who don't know very much about filmmaking.
"There are two sides - you're freer from an artistic perspective but you're much more dependent on the committees. Everybody is competing for the same money."
"Happy Birthday, Turke!" is a film noir detective thriller that's another hot ticket in Germany and is expected to make its American premiere in April.
Dorrie and her husband, cinematographer Helge Weindler, work closely together.
Their collaboration on "Turke" has already begun to draw good notices.
"Sight and Sound" magazine calls it "excellent: Doris Dorrie's best combination of social criticism and technical skill since `Men.' "
"Variety" magazine calls it a triumphant return for Dorrie, "full of originality," and calls for a sequel.
"I'm more interested in story telling than action movies," Weindler says. "That's why I like working with Doris. She's the only one in Germany who tells a story."
There is action in "Happy Birthday, Turke!," but there's a substantial story full of humor, drama and attention to social issues.
The hero is a private eye of Turkish background named Kayankaya who grew up in Germany and doesn't speak Turkish. He's the ultimate outsider, looked down upon by his fellow Germans and cut off from his ethnic heritage.
There's prejudice against Turks in Germany, Dorrie says, particularly now that reunification has caused even more social stratification.
"The weak hit on the weaker, which are always the foreigners," says Dorrie, whose father was part of the resistance to Hitler.
"We were brought up to be very alert to fascism. All this was the reason I made the movie."
"Turke" is a story involving police corruption and the many forms of prejudices that Kayankaya, cannily played by Hansa Czypionka, encounters during his investigation of a missing-persons case.
However, even with its forceful indictments of bigotry, the movie is never preachy.
"When I go to movies, I want to be entertained," Dorrie says. "I don't want to go to the school bench again and have a teacher tell me what to think.
"In Germany, you have to suffer for art. Art has to be torture. If you're bored, it's probably art."
Obviously, Dorrie doesn't share that viewpoint. She believes movies should, above all, tell a good story.
In fact, her desire to tell a good story is what led her to a filmmaking career.
"When I was in high school, I was very dumb. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to tell stories. I thought I could tell stories by being an actress." Dorrie attended the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., to learn acting. But she concluded that "I wouldn't be a great actress or even a good one." So she thought she could tell stories through filmmaking and went to film school in Munich.
Movies aren't the only medium through which Dorrie tells stories. She has written four books - two books of short stories, which have been translated into English, and two novels that she hopes will be picked up by Knopf. Not only does she teach at Hollins, she's taking a creative-writing class.
"Writing now is as important as filmmaking - maybe more important," she says. "I'm so independent in writing. I'm completely on my own. In filmmaking, there are always people who want to take control."
Dorrie learned a bitter lesson about control - Hollywood-style - with her one venture into movie making in America.
The picture was "Me and Him," a comedy of risky and risque subject matter. Dorrie agreed to make the movie for Columbia when it was headed by David Puttnam, a studio boss noted for backing unorthodox projects. A week before shooting began, Puttnam became the victim of a corporate beheading. Dorrie went ahead with the movie but had to make more compromises than she wanted. It was released on video and shown on cable TV but never got a theatrical release.
"We were the first ones to be affected by the whole [Puttnam] thing," she says. "I was naive. I thought I would be the first one to change the system and make an alternative movie in Hollywood. I wound up with another studio boss. I thought people would keep the same jobs forever. It was very German of me."
Dorrie doesn't let such experiences interfere with her prolific career, however.
She's at work on two more film projects - one to be shot in England and one in Germany. The next movie, she says, will be a comedy about death and depression.
"I like to find a balance between the tragic and the funny stuff," she says.
"That's what happens in real life."
by CNB