Renate Leiffer

The core of the holdings that came into the Kinemathek in 2014 stems from Leiffer’s journalistic work phase from 1989 to 1999. A 32-part series called “Ton ab, Kamera läuft! Frauen und Männer der ersten Stunde”, published in 1991 in the ‘Süddeutschen Zeitung’ (‘Münchner Stadtanzeiger’), includes accounts on film production in Munich after the Second World War (it also goes back in part to the National Socialist period). The series, which has entered the collection in originals, focuses on individuals among the film team who mainly worked in the background. It presents portraits of Jonas Müller, the former head makeup artist at Bavaria Filmgesellschaft, costume designer Josefine Franz, camera assistant Oskar Wintergerst and Karl Baumgartner, a specialist for special effects, among others. Numerous production photographs that were used are included as paper prints, for instance, for films such as ‘Wildwest in Oberbayern’ (1951, directed by Ferdinand Dörfler, Joe Stöckel) and ‘Das letzte Rezept’ (1952, Rolf Hansen), as well as ‘Die Ratten’ (1955) made by Robert Siodmak. Complementary material consists of letters from readers, local, specialized reports from the early postwar period (photocopies) and Leiffer’s subsequent explanations about the image production for her series. She also published on other topics in the local Munich paper ‘Münchner Stadtanzeiger’, for instance, “Ein altes Haus und lauter nette Leute” about one of the oldest residential buildings in Munich and “Hereinspaziert” about Munich artists and their experiences. Leiffer also gave to the Kinemathek the film take clapperboard used during the filming of ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’ (1980). (Text: Rolf Aurich)