MÜnchhausen | 1943
The tale of a compulsive fantasist, whose name has been given to a medical syndrome, was turned into a big budget, full colour film in 1943 at the behest of Josef Goebbels, to compete with the best of Hollywood and perk up German morale as the tide of WWII began to turn.
It was made at Europe’s largest film studio – the UFA (Universum Film Aktien Gesellschaft) Studios, known as the Babelsberg Studio, in the Potsdam suburb of Babelsberg, near Berlin.
The reputation of the studios, built in 1917, plummeted from the heights of classic German films of the Twenties and Thirties (Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Metropolis and The Blue Angel), when it was used to churn out Nazi propaganda vehicles like the infamous Jud Süss. More recently, though, it's hosted filming for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, V for Vendetta, The Bourne Ultimatum, Valkyrie, Cloud Atlas and Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The facility now offers tours, as Filmpark Babelsberg.
