BERLIN -- "Horst Buchholz ... My Papa" is a rambling, deeply personal document -- to call it a documentary might be pushing things -- about a son's search for his dad. Christopher Buchholz's father, the late actor Horst Buchholz, was a minor celebrity and actor known mostly for memorable roles in his youth both in Germany and in Hollywood. From 2001 until Horst's death in 2003, Christopher got his dad in front of a camera and tried but failed to get him to open up about his life.
Nothing says that an actor, even one who has lived as rich a life as Horst Buchholz, can't be a dull person. Yet Buchholz's dullness in front of his son's camera is the most interesting thing about this film. He chooses to be dull: It's a guise mostly, a means of avoiding any discussion of things intimate. He comes off as a man not given to introspection, and were he to indulge he certainly would not share such introspection with anyone else, even those closest to him.
Christopher Buchholz and co-director Sandra Hacker make little attempt to survey Buchholz's extensive career on stage, screen and TV. There is more discussion of roles turned down -- astonishingly, roles offered by such luminary directors as Visconti, Kazan and Wenders -- than about his successes. He shrugs off these poor decisions, saying, "I never have regrets".
Asked about his drinking problem, he murmurs, "I drink too much water". Asked about his bisexuality, he grows evasive. His wife, former actress Myriam Bru, is much more open, but even she is at times elusive -- or simply mystified. The movie is a study in ambiguity.
Christopher basically interviews himself -- mostly a reflection of his relationship with his dad as he walks through the empty Berlin flat his father occupied until his death -- and his sister in Los Angeles, who is now an American Sikh who calls herself Simran Kaur Khalsa. Each tries to puzzle out the enigma who was their dad.
It is a pity more effort wasn't spent on his films. None of the scant clips is identified. His genuine talent, especially in youth roles that had him labeled the James Dean of German cinema, barely is hinted at.
As a boy, Buchholz suffered through the horrors of war. He later searched for his biological father, knew many film greats, enjoyed a chaotic love life and seemingly was bent on destroying his own talent. The film never delves into any of this.
Of course, securing rights to film clips, interviewing people other than family members and really searching for the key to an inscrutable personality are not easy things. But they are what documentary filmmakers owe to their subject.
HORST BUCHHOLZ ... MY PAPA
Say Cheese Productions
Credits:
Producers/directors: Christopher Buchholz, Sandra Hacker
Director of photography: Christoper Buchholz, Olivier Distel, Sandra Hacker, Arthur Boisnard
Music: Arnaud Jacquin
Editor: Jean-Marc Lesguillons
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 93 minutes...
Nothing says that an actor, even one who has lived as rich a life as Horst Buchholz, can't be a dull person. Yet Buchholz's dullness in front of his son's camera is the most interesting thing about this film. He chooses to be dull: It's a guise mostly, a means of avoiding any discussion of things intimate. He comes off as a man not given to introspection, and were he to indulge he certainly would not share such introspection with anyone else, even those closest to him.
Christopher Buchholz and co-director Sandra Hacker make little attempt to survey Buchholz's extensive career on stage, screen and TV. There is more discussion of roles turned down -- astonishingly, roles offered by such luminary directors as Visconti, Kazan and Wenders -- than about his successes. He shrugs off these poor decisions, saying, "I never have regrets".
Asked about his drinking problem, he murmurs, "I drink too much water". Asked about his bisexuality, he grows evasive. His wife, former actress Myriam Bru, is much more open, but even she is at times elusive -- or simply mystified. The movie is a study in ambiguity.
Christopher basically interviews himself -- mostly a reflection of his relationship with his dad as he walks through the empty Berlin flat his father occupied until his death -- and his sister in Los Angeles, who is now an American Sikh who calls herself Simran Kaur Khalsa. Each tries to puzzle out the enigma who was their dad.
It is a pity more effort wasn't spent on his films. None of the scant clips is identified. His genuine talent, especially in youth roles that had him labeled the James Dean of German cinema, barely is hinted at.
As a boy, Buchholz suffered through the horrors of war. He later searched for his biological father, knew many film greats, enjoyed a chaotic love life and seemingly was bent on destroying his own talent. The film never delves into any of this.
Of course, securing rights to film clips, interviewing people other than family members and really searching for the key to an inscrutable personality are not easy things. But they are what documentary filmmakers owe to their subject.
HORST BUCHHOLZ ... MY PAPA
Say Cheese Productions
Credits:
Producers/directors: Christopher Buchholz, Sandra Hacker
Director of photography: Christoper Buchholz, Olivier Distel, Sandra Hacker, Arthur Boisnard
Music: Arnaud Jacquin
Editor: Jean-Marc Lesguillons
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 93 minutes...
- 2/16/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The youngest star of the Magnificent Seven, Horst Bucholz, is starving himself to death in hospital. According to his wife of 33 years, Myriam Bru, the 68-year-old now weighs less than 126 pounds and is refusing to eat, despite undergoing psychological counselling in Berlin. She says, "It's like he's starving himself to death - I believe it is anorexia." Bucholz played quick-tempered gunfighter-wannabe Chico in the massively popular Western.
- 1/8/2002
- WENN
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