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Christian Bauer - An Obituary
Christian Bauer - Reverse Angle
It was a warm and gentle summer day on Friday, the day of Christian’s funeral on the cemetary of St. Johann, overlooking lake Ammersee, in Diessen, a town south of Munich, where Christian had once been baptised. If Christian had watched us gathering to witness our farewell to him, where would he have stood on that cemetary? I imagined him standing somewhere on the side of the action, with a knowing smile on his face, sometimes tempted to take over as master of ceremony. Maybe he would have been tempted to make one or two remarks, firm and clear, but never losing his quiet voice.
Christian loved observing and questioning. In 2004 he completed „The Ritchie Boys“, a film about a secret special intelligence unit of the US Army during WW2, made up mainly of German Jews, who had managed to escape Nazi Germany, only to return to Europe, to the battle front to demoralize German soldiers, and to obtain precious information from captured Germans. „The Ritchie Boys“ reveal a lot about the strategies of interrogation and inquisition. And, the film reveals how Christian loved the stories of these old men, and how they manipulated their targets, mixing play and keen interest. Christian would have enjoyed to be one of them, when they were young.
One of the „Ritchie Boys“ in the film says, for him it was like a second birth, when he joined the unit. Christian may have had a similar experience, when he realised, after training to be a teacher, that he should in fact become a filmmaker. He got so much more out of asking questions, than by telling people how things are. He enjoyed himself so much more by using his talents to lure other clever people into revealing things to him.
It’s painful to slowly learn, that Christian’s unique interest in people, their story, and in our ever changing trade of documentary filmmaking is gone. And as we know, how every interview creates a unique relationship between two people, we come to realise that nobody can replace Christian’s way.
Most of us had our routine occasions when we met Christian. Maybe in Leipzig, maybe in Cannes, but I deeply regret now, to have fallen victim to the illusion of these international events perpetuating themselves again and again forever. Too many questions to Christian remained unasked. For example, I would have liked to better understand, what made the United States so special for Christian, that his best films always dealt with that country.
For the moment it’s tough to escape that feeling that Marco Visalberghi described last week after learning about Christians massive heart failure: Despite the heat of the Italian summer, he saw everything freezing around him. Time, and the smile on Christians face, hopefully will help to unlock us from our grief.
by Dr. Patrick Hörl
Head of Board, Documentary Campus
(visit www.tangramfilm.de, click „Kondolenz“.
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