Lesley Paterson takes us inside the process of writing 'All Quiet on the Western Front' and how she found the key to unlocking the story.
Edward Berger’s harrowing new adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel will represent Germany in the Oscar race for international feature.But there were more problems to be solved. The novel is beautiful but difficult to adapt. It’s narrated with an almost reportage style — a somewhat unemotional, factual telling of events. We needed a cinematic throughline to keep driving the story forward.
Adding the armistice story line solved another problem too — how to historically situate the story for modern audiences, many of whom know little of WWI or its geopolitical context. When the book was published in 1929, the world was blind to a second conflict, only a decade away.
After 16 years of development Tinder, the right timing came. We were approached by German producer Malte Grunert and director Edward Berger with a simple ask: Would we consider doing the film in German? The truth is we had considered it but were frequently counseled against it on purely commercial grounds. But the landscape had changed — Sam Mendes’ “1917” reinvigorated interest in WWI and a foreign-language film, “Parasite,” won best picture at the Academy Awards.
It all sounds rather obvious now, but back then we understood this only on an intellectual level. We’d read enough German trench diaries and historical analysis to try to walk and talk in the shoes of men who felt anything but heroic or proud, but there was something deeper, visceral even, that we simply couldn’t infuse, because … well, we’re not German.
As Edward reminds us — as a German, it’s impossible to think about the two world wars from any perspective other than shame and guilt. As Brits writing about a German experience, this wasn’t just agency and appropriation of voice, it was in everything — tone and soundscape, shot composition, the entire visual telling of the story. Edward imbued the script with this sensibility that wasn’t just morally responsible, it made for a better film.
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