22/02/2025 - BERLINALE 2025: Filmmaking master Edgar Reitz returns to the big screen with a stupendous portrait of philosopher Leibniz, offering a reflection on life and art in pure cinematographic form

One of the most interesting films of the 75th edition of the Berlinale was presented by a ninety-two-year-old in the Berlinale Special section: Edgar Reitz, the director behind one of the biggest TV series in television history, Heimat – Eine Chronik in Elf Teilen, is making his return with Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting, a film which, despite the seriousness of the subject explored - namely the thinking of one of the greatest philosophers of all time – also manages to deliver moments of light-heartedness and humour. Through the pretext of Queen Charlotte (Antonia Bill) commissioning a portrait of her beloved guardian Leibniz (Edgar Selge), Reitz delivers a series of discussions about life, art and truth. The inspiration for his work is a distinguished one: a series about a number of artists and philosophers made by Roberto Rossellini for TV from the 1960s onwards, with the dream of turning in the latter into a didactic and pedagogical medium. And it’s potentially no coincidence that Reitz has taken over this endeavour, as another director who’s been an undisputed master of the TV world.

There are two painters who try to depict Leibniz, and they correspond to two conceptions of art and cinema associated with Reitz. When one painter fails in his attempts to capture the philosopher (a French master going by the pompous name of Hofmaler Delalandre - Lars Eidinger), it falls to the Flemish painter Aaltje van de Meer (Aenne Schwarz) to achieve the impossible, but this portrait is concealed from the audience to the very end, as if the act of creating were more important than the work it leaves behind. They have two different ways of understanding cinema. The first artist, Delalandre, for example, is vain, conformist and ridiculous, much like the outfits of his time (it’s the early 18th century, a time of absolute power, not unlike the present, with equally absurd costumes). He’s a painter who embodies the stupidity of some of our modern directors, having the audacity to ask one of the greatest thinkers in the world to try not to think about anything while he’s sitting for him (drawing laughter from some of the more intelligent viewers in the audience). And then there’s the female painter, Van De Meer: an artist in search of the truth, who doesn’t limit herself to the formal conventions of the time. And it’s probably this tendency which filmmaking master Edgar Reitz can identify with.

For this reason, Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting is a lot of things. A film which looks to clearly reveal Leibniz’s thinking and which aims to inform curious viewers. A reflection upon the different ways of understanding art, as previously emphasised, but also a way of celebrating film art. In one magnificent sequence where light takes centre stage, we see a camera obscura on the canvas, onto which the painter, Van Der Meer, is quick to superimpose Leibniz’s seraphic face. It's an astonishing, symbolic image, bringing art and philosophy together; a feat which industrial cinema gave up on a long time ago, according to Reitz. We should thank our lucky stars the old masters are still here among us.

Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting was produced by if… Productions and Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion.

(Translated from Italian)