How Volker Bertelmann Created the Scary, BAFTA-Winning Music for ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’

Naman Ramachandran After the triumph of Edward Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” at the BAFTAs, Netflix has revealed a surge in viewership for non-English language titles. New Netflix data shows that in the U.K., viewing for non-English language stories has increased by 90% over the last three years. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is now Netflix’s fourth most popular non-English language film ever, with over 150 million hours viewed since its release on Oct. 14, 2022. It has been on Netflix’s global Top 10 Non-English Film list for 14 weeks and has reached the Top 10 Films in 91 countries, including Germany, the U.K., U.S., Australia, France, Mexico and South Korea.

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For the first time since2020, just before Covid dealt a devastating blow to the industry, exhibitors and awards season, it feels like this year’s Oscar show may return to some sense of normalcy. And with box office hits mixed with acclaimed indies among the 10 Best Picture nominees, this could be the turning point in the recovery of the Academy Awards. At the nominees’ luncheon, in fact, Steven Spielberg was overheard telling Tom Cruise that he may have saved the movie business with Top Gun: Maverick, 2022’s No. 1 movie and a billion-dollar rescue for the industry. On Maverick’s tail came Avatar: The Way of Water, which became the third biggest global-grossing film of all time. And shock of shocks, both of those long-gestating sequels are Best Picture contenders with 10 nominations between them.

.“These are big shoes for us to fill with our film. I don’t mean to compare our film to what some of our predecessors went through, but it is very moving to be even remotely connected to this history that “All Quiet” has,” Grunert told TheWrap. “We’ve managed to capture something that is obviously horrific, and we tried to come to what we can only imagine is an emotional truth of our main character, and how it could possibly feel to him,” Grunert said.

While doing research for his work on All Quiet on the Western Front, production designer Christian M. Goldbeck was excited to find rare non-propaganda photographs of the battlefields and trenches. These images were pivotal in the design process to show the reality of the war. “We decided in a very early stage to make it visceral and physical, to show what we can lose in war,” he says. “To beautify war would be propaganda.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Netflix’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” has surpassed over 150 million hours viewed since its release on Oct. 14, 2022. The film, which dominated the BAFTA Awards in London with a record-breaking seven wins, including best film, director (Edward Berger), adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound, original score and non-English language film, climbed up to No. 2 on the global list, according to numbers released by Netflix. Berger’s World War I epic tells Paul’s (Felix Kammerer ) journey from being a young, enthusiastic school boy wanting to join the army to a tired, worn soldier. It has been on the global Top 10 Non-English Film list for 14 weeks and has reached the Top 10 Films in 91 countries, including Germany, the U.K., U.S., Australia, France, Mexico and South Korea.

Tim Gray Senior Vice President Oscar voters rewarded “All Quiet on the Western Front” with nine nominations, including best picture and international film. But aside from the great work seen onscreen, the film is notable for what it doesn’t do. There are no heroic acts, no sense of adventure, no cheering when the enemy dies. It’s a true anti-war film. Producer Malte Grunert says: “There are a lot of things that do not follow the normal dramatic structure that you would expect in a war movie.”  He and director Edward Berger discussed the depiction of violence, since Erich Maria Remarque’s 1927 novel about World War I vividly describes atrocities. “We wanted to keep it violent because a war film has to be. It’s about young boys, just out of school, going to the Western Front and being thrown into violence and pain,” says Grunert. “But we never wanted it to be exploitative. The violence was always to have a purpose, to show the horror through the eyes of our protagonists.”

Edward Berger says he didn’t realize the BAFTAs were going his way until the final award of the night, when Best Film became the seventh trophy to add to his film’s haul. If he’d known that All Quiet on the Western Front, his adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s First World War novel would do so well, he might have taken the next day off. Instead, he left the Netflix party at around 2am for a flight to Rome, in time for a 9am call at the historic Cinecittà Studios and a full day of shooting on his follow-up.

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A version of this story about “All Quiet on the Western Front” first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.   The first German-language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic anti-war novel about World War I, “All Quiet on the Western Front” is second only to “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and tied with “The Banshees of Inisherin” for the most Oscar nominations, nine.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content The power of an important story told with passion and unflinching clarity always transcends the bonds of time. This explains the durability of Shakespeare’s plays when they land in the right hands, and it explains Edward Berger’s adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s fierce anti-war novel, “All Quite on the Western Front,” which is nominated for the best picture Oscar.  Nearly a century ago, director Lewis Milestone triumphed in one of the first Oscar competitions with his Universal Pictures version of the 1928 tome, filmed, remarkably, completely in and around its Hollywood Studio home.   Today, “Front” is registering with voters who are seeing the horrors of war in Europe live and in color as it sadly unfolds again with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

Todd Gilchrist editor Even with predecessors such as  “Paths of Glory,” “A Very Long Engagement,” “1917” and of course Lewis Milestone’s 1930 best picture winner of the same name, director Edward Berger’s adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s bestseller “All Quiet on the Western Front” conveys the meat-grinder brutality — the violence, the blood, and the mud — of trench warfare unlike almost any film in the history of the medium.  “These kids are chewed up by the merciless war machine,” says Berger. “They sign up for this war full of hopes and ideals, but very quickly they realize that they have lost everything in the mud, especially their innocence and their youth.”

All Quiet on the Western Front‘s Daniel Bishop and Ozark‘s Dave Chameides and Cristian Trova were named Camera Operator of the Year in film and TV, respectively, by the Society of Camera Operators.

Zoe Hewitt It’s not often in a career that having your hard work go by unnoticed is actually the ultimate compliment. Movie crews, almost uniformly across any filmmaking disciplines, find themselves in this nebulous zone where the less their work stands out, the more accolades they get from critics, peers and audiences. If costumes stand out, the characters feel a bit off. If set decoration draws attention, it doesn’t seem like the story is grounded in a real-life environment.   Stunts may be the only exception to the rule. Seeing daring escapades on screen becomes the bait to get audiences into seats. Who didn’t have great expectations of what Tom Cruise and company would pull off in “Top Gun: Maverick”? 

Naman Ramachandran MUBI has revealed the first look of “Bring Them Down,” starring Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott (“Catch-22”) and BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”). The casting of Abbott and Keoghan replaces the previously announced cast of Tom Burke and Paul Mescal. Principal photography is in its final stages in Ireland on the production, which is the feature directorial debut of Chris Andrews, following his award-winning short films “Stalker” (2019) and “Fire” (2015). The film also stars Colm Meaney (“Gangs of London”), Nora-Jane Noone (“Wildfire”) Paul Ready (“Motherland”), and Susan Lynch (“Happy Valley”).

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Despite representing Germany at this year’s Academy Awards for best international feature, “All Quiet on the Western Front” writer-director Edward Berger doesn’t feel national pride for the country. “I don’t feel that because of the history,” Berger tells Variety. “I could never say I’m proud to be German. Those words don’t fit into our mouths, and rightly so. I would have a hard time thinking I would represent the country because I can’t speak for the entire country.” On this episode of Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast, Berger discusses “All Quiet on the Western Front’s” nine Oscar noms — the second most of the year — and employing the most artisans of any non-English movie in history. Finally, he shares why he feels a responsibility to accurately portray Germany’s role in some of humanity’s most devastating wars. Listen to the full podcast below.

including Best Film, and many are wondering how they can watch the gritty World War I drama.Directed by Edward Berger, whom the British Academy named Best Director, the film is an adaptation of the 1929 novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.A staple of many academic reading lists, the first English language adaptation of Remarque’s novel was made in 1930. The film netted Lewis Milestone his second Best Director Oscar and won Outstanding Production (later renamed Best Picture).

All Quiet On The Western Front was the big winner at the 2023 BAFTAs.READ MORE: All the winners from the 2023 BAFTAsThe German-language film was heavily inspired by the anti-war novel of the same name by former German World War One soldier Erich Maria Remarque. It was nominated for fourteen BAFTAs at the 2023 ceremony and ended up winning seven of them.All Quiet On The Western Front won the BAFTA for Film Not In The English Language, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Director, Sound and the biggest award of the night – Best Film.This run of awards makes All Quiet On The Western Front the first foreign language film to win more than four BAFTAs.“It’s just incredible,” said producer Malte Grunert while picking up the Best Film prize before talking about how the story of a generation “poisoned by right-wing propaganda into thinking war is an adventure” was as relevant today as it was almost 100 years ago.All Quiet On The Western Front was released last October on Netflix and is still available to watch on the streaming platform.A synopsis for the film reads: “All Quiet on the Western Front tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I.

German language film All Quiet On The Western Front was the big winner at the EE BAFTAs, scooping a total of seven prizes.The Netflix anti-war epic, directed by German filmmaker Edward Berger and based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, scooped top gongs including best film and best director. It broke the record for the highest number of Baftas for a foreign language film previously held by Italian coming-of-age drama Cinema Paradiso, which claimed five in 1988.Taking to the stage at the climax of the event at London’s Royal Festival Hall, cinematographer James Friend said the film showed how a generation of young German men were “poisoned by right-wing nationalistic propaganda” and he stressed that the film’s message remains “relevant” nearly a century on.

All Quiet on the Western Front became the big winner tonight at BAFTA, taking not just the awards for Best Film and Best Director, but a total of 7 prizes out of its 14 nominations.