Stop the Presses and Hold the Phones – Burda’s Making a Movie?!?!?!?!???

Posted on by DoctorTDesigns

Clearly, I’ve not been paying attention to things going on in the world because a German film about the life of Aenne Burda has been in production for over a year now, and I just found out about it today:

There’s even a trailer…

I can’t understand a thing they are saying, but holy shit it looks good, and I’d totally watch it without subtitles just to see all the fantastic period costumes and vintage pattern drafts.

There seems to be a lot more info available at this website, which, thanks to the magic of Google Translate, we can learn that they’ve got a director who is interested in making a period accurate film, they have to clothe over 1250 extras, the star has over 30 costumes, they build a set specifically for the Burda workshop, and they had to cook period accurate food for the film.  While all of this is interesting, we all know we are mostly here for the costumes:

And they are absolutely gorgeous! It’s also pretty interesting to see the behind the scenes of the costume shop for the film:

Racks and racks of gorgeous period costumes!

A bit more sleuthing led me to IMDB, which informs me that this will in fact be a mini-series and not a single film, coming to Germany next year, but this article tells us that November 20 will be the official premier, and that the two-part films will air on December 5 and December 12 of this year.  This articles gives us the juicy bits – the backstory of how Anna became Aenne, and how she went from not knowing how to sew to running a publishing empire.  There looks to be a fair bit of drama between her and her husband as well, which always makes for good TV.  Also, I love how none of these articles can translate “Wirtschaftswunderfrau,” the subtitle of the film.  When I pop it into the Google Translate box directly it comes back with “economic miracle woman,” which seems about right.

Overall this film looks like it has a lot – personal struggles, a look at how quietly subversive some acts of feminism can be, and how this all played out against the backdrop of the war reconstruction efforts in Germany in the 1950s.  I’m totally sold, even though I still have no idea what they are saying in the film.  I’m just left with a few questions…

(1) Will there ever be a version with subtitles?

(2) Will it come to the US?

(3) If not, do we have any friends in Germany who can hook us up? 

I need to see this film!  If anyone has any other useful information please feel free to discuss in the comments, because I’m sure I’m not the only one who is crazy excited about the release of this film/mini-series.

18 thoughts on “Stop the Presses and Hold the Phones – Burda’s Making a Movie?!?!?!?!???”

  1. Hey there 🙂 I live in Germany and I was exited as you when I learnt about the film! I cannot answer your questions 1 and 2. However, usually these films are available for a few weeks after emission in the so-called „Mediathek“ of the TV station website. This will still be in German, but at least you might see the pictures…

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  2. That red jacket is amazing- the buttons and bound buttonholes.
    My so-so understanding of German tells me that the actress was working hard to get the role and she is excited to show the passion AB had for her work. The trailer shows a bit where she is upset with her husband for stealing her idea; in the workroom she is sharing her vision and passion to employees- but I think that is somewhat easy to figure out without knowing German.

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  4. Ha, I was just watching in my December Burda ( the German edition ) and realized that the vintage pattern has as a model the actress from the film….and there is also an article about the film…duhh I never read those articles :))

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  8. Hey, another German here who only learned of this from you! 😉
    The TV premiere will actually be 5 & 12 December as per the article you shared. The November date is just for a live premiere. So for at least one week after that the films will be public on the ARD Mediathek, the German public TV’s free streaming service. (Since this is a public TV production, it will probably stay online for longer, they have licensing issues for other stuff) normally, it should be viewable from everywhere in the wield, but you can check out now if you have troubles with any of the programs.
    For the subtitle: that is actually an untranslatable term, I’d say. Google has it right, literally. Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) is a term coined to describe the boom years in the 50s in west Germany, when suddenly the post war scarcity turned into prosperity, new cars, fancy clothes, and even regular Italian vacations for most of the population, courtesy of the Marshall plan and the efforts of European cooperation. So to call Anna Burda a woman of these miracle years is just a catchphrase to clue viewers in to what period they should expect 😛 and also probably wonder about whether that makes her a women’s advocate…
    Should you need any help navigating the website or researching stuff in German, I’d love to help.

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  9. Here it is. Two parts, I just saw the first one and it is amazing, I hope you can understand some German 🙂 Here are the links to the ARD station part one: https://www.ardmediathek.de/ard/player/Y3JpZDovL2Rhc2Vyc3RlLmRlL2Flbm5hIGJ1cmRhLzhjYTk2MmFiLTgyOTctNDE4Yy05YzUxLTdlN2Y1Mjg4ZWY5ZQ/

    part two :https://www.ardmediathek.de/ard/player/Y3JpZDovL2Rhc2Vyc3RlLmRlL2Flbm5hIGJ1cmRhLzhjYTk2MmFiLTgyOTctNDE4Yy05YzUxLTdlN2Y1Mjg4ZWY5ZQ/

    xox, Camelia

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  11. Pingback: Burda Movie Update – Watch it Now! – Doctor T Designs

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