Buddenbrooks

Thomas, the oldest son of the Buddenbrooks, a respected merchant family, is contracted to organize the supply of grain to his home city of Lübeck. If he doesn’t deliver on time, he runs the risk of a considerable contractual penalty. When his brother Cristian, who is more of a playboy than a merchant, fails to make an important money transfer, the downfall of the bourgeois family’s personal and business matters can no longer be averted. Shot based on motifs from the Thomas Mann novel of the same time, the plot of Gerhard Lamprecht’s BUDDENBROOKS (Germany 1923) was transposed into the present and thus mirrored the experiences of the audience in the 20s with upheaval in society.

The world premiere of the digitally restored version with newly composed music is the start of the Gerhard Lamprecht series, which is entitled “Losers & Winners”. 50 years after his death, the Deutsche Kinemathek invites audiences to rediscover his oeuvre with five selected films showing in six Berlin cinemas from November 18^th to 24^th, which take a fresh look at themes such as class, milieu, urbanity and mobility. (Diana Kluge)