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Posted: 5/26/2012
Abschied von den Fr schen -- FAREWELL TO THE FROGS is a portrait of the late filmmaker Ulrich Schamoni († 1998) by his daughter, the renowned photographer Ulrike Schamoni, adapted from her father s film diaries.
Suffering from terminal leukemia, Ulrich Schamoni filmed his life up until only a few days before his death in March 1998. A total of 170 hours of uncut, unedited film diary were recorded on mini-DV material.
Working with the diaries as well as excerpts from his oeuvre and biographical documents, Director Ulrike Schamoni and editor Grete Jentzen created a 92-minute documentary dedicated to the goal of preserving the legacy of this great filmmaker. Schamoni s farewell is a powerful, touching chronicle that bears witness, despite his illness, to the full extent of his vigor and love of life. In a mercilessly realistic presentation, it portrays the man who confronted the challenges and the tragic effects of his terminal illness with creativity and a very personal brand of laconic humor. It is a film about a strong attitude toward life and thus also an appeal to love it and live it to the fullest to the very end.
The film diary and Ulrich Schamoni s films are closely interwoven. He shot three films at his house in Berlin-Grunewald, often playing the lead role himself. In a certain sense, the film diary is a kind of real-life sequel to his film CHAPEAU CLAQUE (1974, with Rolf Zacher, Karl Dall et al).
Thus with its combination of personal insights and film clips from Schamoni s oeuvre, such as ES (1966, with Sabine Sinjen, Bruno Dietrich et al), FAREWELL TO THE FROGS is both a collage and a historical documentary about a leading exponent of the New German Cinema who played an instrumental role in the development of the German film as a writer-director.