WRAPPED REICHSTAG
A film review by Wolfgang Pietsch
Copyright 1996 Wolfgang Pietsch
This article in English for better understanding with international audience. Deutsche Newsgroups, bitte um Entschuldigung. Dieser Artikel in Englisch besseres Verst=E4ndnis mit internationaler Leserschaft.
Berlin, Germany, August 31st 1996
Our Berlin century event of June/July 1995, the "Wrapped Reichstag" by Christo and Jeanne-Claude had it=B4s resurrection ceremony yesterday evening in the "Waldbuehne" open-air stage. Together with about 8.000 spectators, Christo and Jeanne-Claude watched the world premiere of their film, "Dem Deutschen Volke" ("To The German People") produced by the brothers Wolfram and Joerg Daniel Hissen from Germany. All the people were lucky that no rain disturbed the performance, although it got rather cold at night, but that didn=B4t prevent the visitors from enthusiastic cheering to the artists, their project and the really well done documentation about it.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude arrived at about 9.30 PM at the "Waldbuehne" and because of Jeanne-Claude's red hair, the people recognized them immediately and started an avalanche of cheering. Before that, the percussion group "Les Tomtoms" were playing African music which is also used in the soundtrack of the film, but, perhaps of the cold weather, the "Reichstag-Feeling" didn't spread at that time. The critical weather and the fact that the Track & Field event ISTAF with many stars from the Atlanta Olympics happened at the same time probably was the reason for only 8.000 visitors.
After the arrival of the artists there was also a short period of real angryness, people giving loud whistles against then playing commercials on the screen. Due to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's opinion about No Sponsoring the people were more than a bit confused and sent the Marlboro Man to hell ... ;-)
Everything was peaceful and happy again when the artists entered the stage and spoke to the Berliners. Christo and Jeanne-Claude were very happy to come back to the city of their big event and excused a little delay. The reason was that Rita Suessmuth, President of the German Bundestag Parliament, good friend of the artists and most important driver of the project, was late. But Jeanne-Claude told the people: "We will start now, Rita Suessmuth is an intelligent lady, she will understand ...", the film started and Rita came just 5 minutes later.
The film is an excellent collage of pictures and scenes from the long period of preparation, the decision phase, construction and presentation of the "Wrapped Reichstag" project. The first pictures show "young" Christo in the late 70's, walking over the snow on "Platz der Republik" (the big square in front of Reichstag), collecting impressions and imaginations about the realization of the project. Michael S. Cullen talked about his (historic, W.P.) postcard to Christo and Jeanne-Claude with the proposal of wrapping this building. B.t.w., I really missed Mike Cullen at yesterday's film event, he was not introduced with all the other important guests, so I guess he was absent, don't know why. Back to the film, especially the preparation and decision period is documented with a sensible focus on feelings during this hard time of convincing the German Bundestag members. If you read the books before, watched the fotos of that time and see those live pictures now, you can really go inside what happened. A lot of funny situations change with very serious aspects and the (preliminary) happy end is Christo's face on the Bundestag gallery, just when the vote count was published by Rita Suessmuth. I enjoyed this first part most and the people gave big hands to important words told and whistled against the project opponents, we had great atmosphere. B.t.w. the film didn't gloss anything, the arguments of the opponents were widely covered, although, while repeated in the final sequence of the film, those arguments got a slight ironic touch.
After decision, the "Hardware Phase" began. Christo also named the preparation period the "Software Phase". We saw and listened to many of the working people, producing the fabric and ropes, constructing the scaffolding, transporting the big rolls of fabric to the Reichstag and finally rolling them down. The problems of big winds during first days of final construction can be much better recognized in the close camera shoots than in June 1995 as we were standing beside the building. There were so many things not running well, Christo and Jeanne-Claude tried to manage and the workers were not always happy about that. Christo and Jeanne-Claude often had different opinions about details, sometimes "fighting" them out, the spectators were very amused.
The presentation period was (of course) the most artistical part of the film. People often gave big hands to the exciting views round and above the wrapped building. A "Helicam" camera on a small, pilotless helicopter was used for the aerial views. The visitors felt the happiness which Christo and Jeanne-Claude felt about their dream came true.
This historic document is worth to be seen twice or more often. The "Wrapped Reichstag" film "Dem Deutschen Volke" will be shown in German cinemas, probably around the world, after the Frankfurt Book Fair in autumn/fall. You can find details about festivals where the film will be presented at and more about the "Wrapped Reichstag" project on the website authorized by Christo and Jeanne-Claude at Kulturbox Berlin http://www.kulturbox.de/berlin/reichstag/ .
Latest News (of Sa. Aug. 31st 1996): During their Berlin visit, Christo and Jeanne-Claude made a contract with the Berlin Senator for Culture, Peter Radunski, to hold an exhibition of published and actually unpublished works, "Wrapped Reichstag", their coming works and more in about 1 + 1/2 years at the "Martin-Gropius-Bau" in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
This rewiew can also be found at http://www.snafu.de/~wpi/Reichstag_Review.html .
An image of the ticket for this event you will find at http://www.snafu.de/~wpi/Reichstag_Ticket.html .
Wolfgang Pietsch, Berlin, 1996 http://www.snafu.de/~wpi/index_eng.html
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