In Brad and Matt's footsteps: A tour of Berlin's film shoot sites

Dec 8, 2009, 9:28 GMT

Berlin - There are times when entire streets in Berlin are blocked off for on-location film shoots. That's when spotlights illuminate the night skies and a tangle of cables cover the sidewalks.

Each year, more than 100 films - or at least some scenes from movies - are shot on location in the German capital. Most prominent of such recent flicks was the major Hollywood production 'Inglorious Basterds' with Brad Pitt.

And this has opened up a new attraction for tourists visiting Berlin: a tour of the film sites to follow the movie stars' footsteps.

The first major international film which in recent years once again put the spotlight on Berlin as a movie setting was 'Around the World in 80 Days' with Jackie Chan. In the early scenes, the architectural landmark Gendarmenmarkt square in the heart of eastern Berlin serves as the slightly-altered setting for what in the film is to portray 19th-century London.

And it happens over and over again that Berlin becomes another city in the film version. For example, Matt Damon in his action-thrillers 'The Bourne Identity' and 'The Bourne Ultimatum' is supposed to be racing through the streets of Moscow - even though the chase scene was shot in a traffic tunnel beneath Berlin's Tiergarten park.

Then there was the case of how Tom Tykwer, in the film 'The International,' used Berlin's gleaming Sony Centre at Potsdamer Platz to depict a bank building in Brussels.

But Berlin is also allowed, often enough, to play itself in a film. In 'Lola Rennt' (Run, Lola, Run), Franka Potenta not only raced through the streets of the German capital, but in the process also accelerated her international film career.

While many of Lola Rennt's street scenes rush by in a blur, visitors who now head to the Bebelplatz square can get a better picture of what happened when the red-haired Lola races into a bank to steal a whole lot of money in order to save her friend Manni. But the building which in the film had the name 'Deutsche Transfer Bank' above the entrance in actuality is one of Berlin's most expensive hotels, the Hotel de Rome.

A bit further in the direction of Alexanderplatz square, film director Dani Levy and comedian Helge Schneider shocked many tourists in the spring of 2006, when, in the final sequences of their film 'Mein Fuehrer' (My Fuehrer) - a parody on Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler - they had huge swastika-decorated flags hanging in the Lustgarten park.

Hollywood star Tom Cruise also created a big stir and lots of debate in the filming of 'Valkyrie' about the plot on Hitler's life led by German army colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. Amid the controversy, director Bryan Singer was allowed to shoot some key scenes at what is today the Federal Finance Ministry - which during the Nazi regime was the Reich Air Ministry.

More recent episodes of (East) Berlin's history came to life on the big screen in the highly-acclaimed 'Goodbye, Lenin' which was filmed in the Berolinastrasse near Karl-Marx-Allee, and the Oscar-winning 'Das Leben der Anderen' (The Lives of Others) in the Wedekindstrasse.

But everyday life also is a matter of fascination for directors. For example, Andreas Dresen, in his flick 'Sommer vorm Balkon' (Summer in Berlin) used the colourful eastern Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg as the main setting.

Then there was the hit film 'Herr Lehmann' (Berlin Blues) taking place in the seedy western Berlin district of Kreuzberg before the 1989 fall of The Wall. Director Leander Haussmann and his film team shot in various Kreuzberg locations, with leading actor Christian Ulmen shown drinking away his frustration in the 'Zum Elefanten' bar on the Heinrichtplatz square and regularly visiting the 'Weltrestaurant Markthalle' in the Puecklerstrasse.

All of this, and more, are offered on the 'Videobus tour' of film settings in Berlin, with screen displays on the bus showing the film scenes. For further information: www.videobustour.de