17/03/2005

Raoul Ruizhas just finished shooting the film he started in the beginning of this year in Vienna to then move to Cologne. For this new film entitled Klimt he chose his Marcel Proust in Le temps retrouvé, the actor John Malkovich. The film is ‘a waltz, but more like Ravel’s Waltz, starting with a lugubrious music which intensifies until it reaches an apex and suddenly collapses, almost absurdly. In a nutshell, this film is made of ecstasy and vertigo.’explains Ruiz.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

The films is set in Austria in the beginning of the Century. It is about Klimt’s memories of his last twenty years : the scandal raised by his allegories and his crazy platonic passion for Emilie Floege, played by the German actress Veronica Ferres. The film also stars Nikolai Kinski, Klaus Kinski’s son, in the role of the Klimt’s disciple, Egon Schiele. The film stays faithful to History by using real quotations from the painter and from the painter’s friends. It is a very thorough work as a period movie.

Postproduction will probably take place both in Cologne and Paris. For the moment, the international rights are still being discussed, and the agreements with the Austrian and the German distributors are still being negotiated. What we already know is that the film will been shown at the Mostra in September. The €6.6M budget of Klimt is mainly covered by the Austrian producer Epo-film which also produced this year’s Golden Fipa (Mein Vater, meine Frau und meine Geliebte by Michael Kreihsl) and is known for being involved in many documentaries and many European coproductions. The other producers are Film-Line (Munich, Germany), Lunar Films Ltd (London, England), and Gémini Films (FR) (Paris, France). The film was also supported by, amongst others, the Filmfonds-Wien, the Austrian Film Institute, Media-Funds1, Eurimages, and the French CNC.

(Translated from French)