Film Archive

Something to Remind Me (Toter Mann)

Toter Mann ("dead man" in English and the German expression describing the position of a swimmer floating on its back, legs together with arms stretched out to the side) opens in a thermal spa where a young woman is floating in that very same position. Her name is Leyla. A man observes her. He meets her again and falls in love with her. His name is Thomas and he's a lawyer. But after their first night together, Leyla vanishes. She later re-surfaces in another city, gets a job in a factory canteen and meets another man. His name is Blum and he has spent the last fourteen years in prison and undergoing psychiatric treatment. But now, given another chance in life, he is taking part in a re-socialization program.
Thomas, meanwhile, is looking for Leyla and finds a clue. He pursues it and is led to Blum, who also happens to be his client. As he realizes the connection it is almost too late. Leyla and Blum have disappeared.

Christian Petzold is one of the leading directors of recent German cinema. The German Film Critics Association has twice awarded him Best Film awards, for Ghosts (Gespenster, 2005) and The State I Am In (Die Innere Sicherheit, 2000). He was twice named Best Director at the German Film Awards, for Wolfsburg (2002) and The State I Am In, which also won Best Screenplay at Thessaloniki and the Grand Prize at Valenciennes. Petzold has also received much acclaim for his other films, including: Something to Remind Me (Toter Mann, 2002), Die Beischlafdiebin (1998), Cuba Libre (1995), Yella (2007), and Jerichow (2008) which also screened in Competition in Venice. Born in 1960, Petzold studied German and Theater Studies at the Free University in Berlin, then graduated from the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in 1994.
 

Genre Drama
Category TV-Movie (fiction)
Year of Production 2001
Director Christian Petzold
Screenplay Christian Petzold
Director of Photography Hans Fromm
Editor Bettina Boehler
Music by Stefan Will
Production Design K.D. Gruber
Producer Bettina Reitz
Production Company teamWorx/Munich, in co-production with ARTE/Strasbourg
Principal Cast André Hennicke, Nina Hoss, Sven Pippig, Heinrich Schmieder, Franziska Troegner
Length 90 min, 2,565 m
Format 16 mm
Blow-up 35 mm, Color, 1:1.66
Original Version German
Subtitled Versions English, French, Italian
Festival Screenings Hof 2001, Berlin 2002 (German Cinema), Ophuels Festival Saarbruecken 2002, Rotterdam 2002, Gothenburg 2002, Biarritz 2002, Los Angeles 2002, Sydney 2002, Warsaw 2002 (German Panorama), Singapore 2003, Kolkata 2003
Awards German Television Award 2002 for Best Direction, Adolf Grimme Award 2003

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