Edward Berger’s war movie “In the West Nothing New” is currently a hit on Netflix around the world. The hell of the trenches of the First World War is transcribed with rare intensity. To achieve such a degree of realism, the actors went through a particularly trying shoot.
In the West nothing new: the hard-hitting war film to see on Netflix
Since it went online on October 28, In the west, nothing is new tops the top 10 most-watched movies on Netflix. In France as in the worldit ranks first among non-English-language feature films with over 31 million hours viewed.
This is the third film adaptation of the eponymous bestseller written by Erich Maria Remarque published in 1929. We follow a young 17-year-old German soldierPaul Bäumer, who volunteered to go to the front during the First World War.
With his comrades, he quickly discovers the hell of the trenches and the horror of this war which cost the lives of million young men. Directed by Edward Berger, the film is particularly immersive and realistic during the fight scenes. To achieve such a degree of realism, the shooting was done under complicated conditions for the actors.
Actor Felix Kammerer talks about the shoot
The 27-year-old Austrian actor Felix Kammerer was chosen to play the young Paul Bäumer. In an interview given to the German media NetflixWochehe confided in the trying filming of In the west, nothing is new.
Before shooting began, all the actors joined a boot camp to prepare physically. Four months before filming, Felix Kammerer remembered running ten kilometers three times per week for four months with a ten-kilo weighted vest. To prepare to support the equipment:
It was too optimistic. When we first weighed the suits, full of mud and wetness, they weighed 45 pounds. And we had to run with about 14 hours a day.
A physical feat in a hostile environment, where the temperature did not exceed ten degrees:
Everything that seems exhausting in the film was actually exhausting. We were really exhausted. It was wet and dirty, my hands and arms were worn, especially from the clay and grains of sand scratching us. The temperature was 4 to 10 degrees.
For footage from the shoot, check out the impressive video below:
