„MAX PECHSTEIN. 

GESCHICHTE EINES MALERS“

Documentary film by Wilfried Hauke
(approx. 80 min / 60 min / 30 min / DVD)

Logline
In his day, Max Pechstein was the most successful painter of German Expressionism. Born in Zwickau, Saxony, in 1881, the worker’s son nevertheless always remained the outsider among the painters of the artists’ group “Brücke”, which today enjoys worldwide fame. For the first time, director Wilfried Hauke’s feature-length documentary tells Pechstein’s adventurous life in gripping images. The film was broadcast by MDR, NDR and 3sat and released on DVD in several languages. Extensive filming took place in Zwickau as well as in Paris, New York, Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin, Kiel and on the Italian and Lithuanian coasts. 

The Film
“Max Pechstein – Geschichte eines Malers” begins in the summer of 1909 on the Curonian Spit. The 28-year-old Max Pechstein has his breakthrough as an artist and soon afterwards finds his first great love, his model and wife Lotte. His further ‘rise’ from working-class child to leading painter of German Expressionism is accompanied by the crises and catastrophes of the 20th century. The film also shows the painter’s pleasure-loving and notorious escapades and his love for his second wife Martha.

Content 
The film follows Max Pechstein’s path from his modest origins in Zwickau to leading painter of German Expressionism, repeatedly focusing on his outsider position among the painters of the “Brücke”: their joint painting adventures with nude models at the Moritzburg ponds, prosecuted by the police, with the consequences falling particularly on Pechstein; or their falling-out and Pechstein’s exclusion from the “Brücke” because he exhibited in 1912 with the arch-enemy, the Berlin Secession. Nolde and Kirchner accused Pechstein of betrayal and of being a weak character. Yet only a few years later he would have more exhibitions and sell more pictures than any of his fellow Expressionists.

Credits and Production
Written & Directed by Wilfried Hauke
Camera Boris Malau
Music George Kochbeck
Editing Maria Hemmleb
Narrators Axel Milberg 
Max Pechstein Nickel Bösenberg
Commissioned by Max Pechstein – Urheberrechtsgemeinschaft, Kunstsammlungen Zwickau
Max-Pechstein-Museum
MDR und NDR 
Production Management Fabian Preuss
Commissioning Editors Alexander und Julia Pechstein, Matthias Morgenthaler (MDR), Christoph Bungartz (NDR)
Production IDA Film & TV Produktion GmbH, Kiel
Premiere 5 December 2019, Filmpalast Astoria, Zwickau
Contact Annika Weise annika.weise@zwickau.de 
Wilfried Hauke wilfried.hauke@idafilm.de
Fabian Preuss fabian.preuss@idafilm.de