MovieChat Forums > Michael Kohlhaas (2013) Discussion > Why German in places?

Why German in places?

posted 10 years ago by FredCDobbs
13 replies | jump to latest

The vast majority of this film is in French but in a few places it breaks into German. Why?

[–] Userro 10 years ago

It's Occitane, not German.

No definitely German and not occitane, I was wondering about that too...I guess the older priest visiting him was Luther and Kohlhaas is a German name and he has an accent and he could speak German, supposing the young priest was originally from Germany too well then they could speak German to each other...What Germans would be doing in the Cevennes...I really don't know. The princess was Marguerite de Navarre so they where definitely in France. Maybe they where just paying homage to the source material.

[–] jeroenstobbe 9 years ago

Actually, Kohlhaas is a Dutch name.
For instance, Rem Koolhaas, a famous Dutch architect.

[–] Lucy9596 9 years ago

Like others said before the film tells a story we know from Heinrich von Kleist, a German writer who himself got inspired by the fate of Hans Kohlhase, a historical German figure. I guess Kleist changed the name for legal reasons but he still set the novel in Germany whereas the film plays in France. I have no idea why the filmmakers decided to do so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Kohlhase

Will Graham: I don't find you that interesting.
Hannibal Lecter: You will.

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] fredrik-henningsson-1 10 years ago

The source material is a german story, so I guess they just wanted to aknowledge that.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] gabridl 9 years ago

Excellent question—I wondered that myself. Perhaps it implies that Kohlhass is a Protestant refugé from a German-speaking territory who remade a life for himself in a Calvinist part of southern France (most likely Cévennes). There's the suggestion that the pastor played by Denis Lavant knows Kohlhass already and wants to bring him back into the fold. If my hypothesis is right, Kohlhass is triply rebellious: leaving his homeland, leaving his congregation, and leaving his lord.

[–] FredCDobbs 9 years ago

Thanks for the intelligent responses. They certainly make a lot of sense to me now.

[–] rprescot-2 9 years ago

If I'm not mistaken I heard a bit of Spanish in the early-on scene where the wanna be rebel comes to the rebel camp bearing a pig for a present. It's referred to as "regalo", for instance. (Did anything else think Bruno Ganz' French was a bit bad?)

[–] gwen_christie 9 years ago

I bought the DVD from Amazon.co.uk. There was an interesting interview recorded in Cannes of the Director. I recommend listening to this interview for those curious about these questions.

[–] psdhart 8 years ago

If I'm not mistaken I heard a bit of Spanish in the early-on

I think that is in fact Occitan