Fiction Factory’s next feature-length documentary will be devoted to a rare film by a legendary director: RETURN TO BEETHOVEN STREET: SAM FULLER IN GERMANY will cover the making of Fuller’s 1972 crime caper DEAD PIGEON ON BEETHOVEN STREET from script to screen. The recently rediscovered director’s cut of DEAD PIGEON (running time: 123 minutes) prompted the production of this in-depth documentary, which will feature new interviews with star Christa Lang, supporting actors Eric P. Caspar and Hans C. Blumenberg, executive producer Günter Rohrbach, fellow directors Wim Wenders and Dominik Graf (both ardent DEAD PIGEON fans), composer Irmin Schmidt (CAN), Fuller’s daughter Samantha, and film scholars Janet Bergstrom and Bill Krohn. RETURN TO BEETHOVEN STREET, produced and directed by Robert Fischer, will be ready for delivery in early 2015.

Production just ended on Fiction Factory’s latest documentary, PERSPECTIVES ON »OTHELLO«: JOSEPH McBRIDE ON ORSON WELLES. In early  July, Welles scholar McBride was interviewed  for this 45-minute documentary by Robert Fischer in Berlin. In it, McBride talks about Welles and Shakespeare, the tumultuous production and the different versions of OTHELLO, and how to place this stylistically dazzling work of art within Welles’ oeuvre. PERSPECTIVES ON »OTHELLO« will first be  published in France on Carlotta Films’ DVD and blu-ray of OTHELLO, due out on November 5.

The latest Fiction Factory production is TOUCHING DEATH, a 40-minute documentary in which acclaimed Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar (THE OTHERS, THE SEA INSIDE) discusses his debut feature, TESIS (1996). Amenábar was interviewed last January in his Madrid home by Robert Fischer. TOUCHING DEATH will be included as a special feature on Paris-based Carlotta Films’ DVD and blu-ray release of the restored TESIS on 25 June.

Fiction Factory has finished production on a 40-minute documentary called INSIDE RUPERT PUPKIN: THELMA SCHOONMAKER ON MARTIN SCORSESE AND THE KING OF COMEDY, in which Schoonmaker, one of the world’s leading film editors, discusses her ongoing working relationship with director Scorsese and reflects on the making of one of their finest collaborations. The interview was filmed in London last February and will first be available on Paris-based Carlotta Films’ DVD and blu-ray of THE KING OF COMEDY, out in France on May 14.

Im Auftrag der Stadt Landsberg am Lech realisiert der Filmhistoriker und Dokumentarfilmer Robert Fischer die erste abendfüllende Filmbiographie über den Maler, Komponisten und Filmpionier Sir Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914), die pünktlich zum 100. Todestages des Künstlers ihre Premiere erleben wird.

Der Film unternimmt eine spannende biographische Spurensuche, die von Herkomers Geburtsort Waal bei Landsberg über seinen Wohn- und Arbeitsort Bushey bei London bis nach Südwales und wieder zurück nach Landsberg führt. Dabei entsteht ein fakten- und anekdotenreiches filmisches Portrait Herkomers, in dem führende Kunsthistoriker und Herkomer-Experten aus Deutschland und Großbritannien zu Wort kommen. Am Ende wird klar: Herkomers Visionen sind heute noch lebendig und haben nichts von ihrer Faszination verloren.

Mit Anne Blessley, Sonia Fischer, Christoph Hartmann, Else Herkomer, Hugh Lewis, Patrick Mansel Lewis, Ulf von Malberg, Hartfrid Neunzert, Dr. Michael Pritchard,  Claudia Sepp, Gavin Stamp u.v.a. Eine Produktion der Fiction Factory Robert Fischer Filmproduktion, München. Länge: ca. 95 Minuten.

Uraufführung am Samstag, 5. April 2014, im Stadttheater in Landsberg am Lech.

Fiction Factory’s latest feature-length documentary SWAN SONG: THE STORY OF BILLY WILDER’S FEDORA has just completed production. SWAN SONG features exclusive interviews with FEDORA’s stars Marthe Keller, Michael York and Mario Adorf, cinematographer Gerry Fisher, production supervisor Harold Nebenzal, and Paul Diamond, son of scriptwriter I.A.L. Diamond. Rare on-set footage allows an insider’s glimpse of Billy Wilder at work. Click on the video below for the first four minutes of SWAN SONG, which has already been licensed to Carlotta Films, Paris, for their DVD and blu-ray release of the restored FEDORA, announced for February 2014.

SWAN SONG was produced in association with Bavaria Media and Global Screen and runs 87 minutes. It covers every aspect of the filming of Billy Wilder’s acclaimed drama FEDORA (1978) and is divided into ten chapters: 1) A Change in Hollywood, 2) Adapting “Fedora”, 3) Money from Munich, 4) Finding Fedora, 5) Shooting in Greece, 6) Shooting in Munich, 7) Shooting in France, 8 ) The Fate of FEDORA, 9) After FEDORA, 10) FEDORA Reborn.

Here’s an excerpt from the Fiction Factory documentary BLOOD ON THE LENS: RICHARD H. KLINE ON BRIAN DE PALMA’S THE FURY, available now from Carlotta Films in France (on DVD and blu-ray) and Arrow Films in the UK (on Blu-ray).

Here are the first three minutes of Fiction Factory’s latest production RUMBLE ON THE LOT: WALTER HILL’S STREETS OF FIRE REVISITED. The 80-minute making-of includes brand-new interviews with director Walter Hill, stars Michael Paré and Amy Madigan, and art director James Allen (scroll down for screen shots). In the UK, Second Sight Films’ blu-ray of STREETS OF FIRE will come out on November 18. In Germany, Koch Media’s street date for the blu-ray is November 8.

Fiction Factory has completed production on three new documentaries on the making of Brian De Palma’s supernatural thriller, THE FURY (1978):

• BLOOD ON THE LENS: An interview with Cinematographer Richard H. Kline (26 min.)
• SPINNING TALES: Fiona Lewis on starring in The Fury (13 min.)
• THE FURY: A LOCATION JOURNAL – An interview with Sam Irvin (48 min.)

In the UK, Arrow Video will bring out THE FURY on October 21. In France, Carlotta Films have announced the film for October 23. Both releases will contain the above bonus features, and much more. Pre-order now!

THE TARNISHED ANGELS, Douglas Sirk’s spellbinding chronicle of personal obsession, romantic longing, and irreconcilable desires, now appears as one of the most extraordinary films to come out of 1950s Hollywood, evoking Depression-era New Orleans with glorious black-and-white CinemaScope photography. On August 26, the film will have its international blu-ray premiere as part of the Masters of Cinema Series in the UK.

Three Fiction Factory bonus features will be part of the package:

• INFERNAL CIRCLE, a video interview with critic Bill Krohn

• ACTING WITH DOUGLAS SIRK, a collection of archival interviews with Douglas Sirk, producer Albert Zugsmith and actors Rock Hudson, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone, incorporating a new interview with director and Sirk afficionado Allison Anders

• TALK ABOUT THE BUSINESS, a video interview with supporting actor William Schallert