Bruno Ganz (1941-2019)

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Calvin · #1 Post by **Calvin** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:28 am

MichaelB · #2 Post by **MichaelB** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:29 am

Cue the inevitable Downfall parody of Hitler hearing the news of Ganz’s death. I daresay it’ll
go live in the next few hours.

colinr0380 · #3 Post by **colinr0380** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:58 am

That is very sad news but it is great that he was able to go out on a recent high profile note with The House That Jack Built. Apparently he is also playing Sigmund Freud in the upcoming film The Tobacconist!

Of course Wings of Desire (reprised in Faraway, So Close) is his supreme role along with Downfall, but he also had a great role in the Australian film by Gillian Armstrong The Last Days of Chez Nous.

He is also in two films by Theo Angelopoulous Eternity And A Day and The Dust of Time.

Calvin · #4 Post by **Calvin** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 11:05 am

Ganz will also (provided he makes the final cut) have a role in Malick's upcoming Radegund.

I think that his performance in Angelopoulos' The Dust of Time is one of his very best and I recommend people seek it out if you haven't already seen it.

Mr Sheldrake · #5 Post by **Mr Sheldrake** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 11:41 am

Ganz had a remarkable string of hits on the vintage US art house circuit of the late 70s including The Marquise of O, Herzog's Nosferatu (streaming free on Prime), Knife in the Head, and my favorite, Wenders loopy Ripley, The American Friend.

FrauBlucher · #6 Post by **FrauBlucher** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 3:57 pm

Calvin wrote: Sat Feb 16, 2019 11:05 am Ganz will also (provided he makes the final cut) have a role in Malick's upcoming Radegund.

That would be a real shame. Hopefully, he got his scenes out of the way before his health declined, although with Malick I guess that's still not a guarantee.

jbeall · #7 Post by **jbeall** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 4:45 pm

MichaelB wrote: Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:29 am Cue the inevitable Downfall parody of Hitler hearing the news of Ganz’s death. I daresay it’ll
go live in the next few hours.

This image would probably be more appropriate. RIP.

Big Ben · #8 Post by **Big Ben** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 4:46 pm

I think one of the most remarkable things about Ganz was how broad his career was. He worked on so many films from so many countries with so many great people.

denti alligator · #9 Post by **denti alligator** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 5:07 pm

He was apparently one of the finest German-language stage presences. I never had the chance to see him, but by all accounts he was stunning.

Calvin · #10 Post by **Calvin** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 6:37 pm

Ganz was the holder of the Iffland Ring, as "most significant and most worthy actor of the German-speaking theatre" as willed by the previous owner. He was preceded by Josef Meinrad and, before him, Werner Krauss.

denti alligator · #11 Post by **denti alligator** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 6:49 pm

To whom did Ganz will the ring?

Calvin · #12 Post by **Calvin** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:01 pm

Unknown at this point, though this Der Spiegel article says that Ganz's original choice was Gert Voss up until Voss' own death in 2014.

whaleallright · #13 Post by **whaleallright** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 9:36 pm

This guy was in a remarkable number of extraordinary movies, and at least in my experience he was uniformly excellent in a wide range of performance styles. A few of them should be better known, including Peter Handke's The Left-Handed Woman, Alain Tanner's In the White City (which, like Chris Petit's Radio On, feels very much like a Wim Wenders film directed by someone else), and Rudolf Thome's System without Shadow. He's intensely charismatic, even sexy, in The American Friend despite his character being so glum the entire time, and in The Marquise of O (one of my very favorite films) his basic magnetism is essential to the part.

colinr0380 · #14 Post by **colinr0380** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:30 pm

I also had not realised until now that he was in that recent Sally Potter film The Party!

dda1996a · #15 Post by **dda1996a** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 6:29 am

I think everyone rather forget that one...
Still need to catch up on his Wenders, but Angelopoulos' Eternity and a Day is one of my all time favorites and while he's dubbed, his performance there is just beautiful

Aunt Peg · #16 Post by **Aunt Peg** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 11:37 am

Little known casting trivia: He was Nicolas Roeg's first choice for the role that Harvey Keitel ended up playing in Bad Timing. The only reason Ganz (and Sissy Spacek who ended up being replaced by Teresa Russell in the lead) dropped out was it took nearly two years to get the financing and they both had other commitments by the time filming was to commence.

Such a great actor that I have been a fan of since the 1970s. Knife in the Head and In the White City need English friendly releases now! I so much want to revisit them.

headacheboy · #17 Post by **headacheboy** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 7:58 pm

Speaking of The Party, I see that today marks the first day you can stream it on Amazon Prime in the US. Ganz is quite funny in this!

Roger Ryan · #18 Post by **Roger Ryan** » Mon Feb 18, 2019 1:11 pm

MichaelB wrote: Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:29 am Cue the inevitable Downfall parody of Hitler hearing the news of Ganz’s death. I daresay it’ll
go live in the next few hours.

...and here it is.
This manages to be quite touching as well as funny. A proper tribute, really...for the internet, anyway.

Persona · #19 Post by **Persona** » Tue Feb 19, 2019 6:55 pm

Wonder if Malick's Radegund will be the final released Bruno Ganz performance?

MichaelB · #20 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Feb 19, 2019 11:33 pm

Roger Ryan wrote:
MichaelB wrote: Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:29 am Cue the inevitable Downfall parody of Hitler hearing the news of Ganz’s death. I daresay it’ll
go live in the next few hours.
...and here it is.
This manages to be quite touching as well as funny. A proper tribute, really...for the internet, anyway.

And here’s another one, which doubles as a tribute to Ganz (again, surprisingly heartfelt) and an attack on vacuous meme culture.

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