“The Investigation”: DoP Guido Frenzel stages the cinema adaptation
by Timo Landsiedel, September 26, 2024
The writer Peter Weiss created the sober and shocking play “The Investigation” from the records of the first Auschwitz trial. Almost 60 years later, director RP Kahl is bringing a four-hour adaptation of the material to the cinema. DoP Guido Frenzel based his visuals on the formal rigor of the play. We spoke to him about the intensive five days of filming, the technology he used and the rules that were important in the stylization. The complete article is now available for free download here!
The play is very similar to the screenplay in terms of form. Lots of dialogue, few stage directions, plenty of room for interpretation. The structure organizes the action on a time level, particularly in the linear sequence. In the theater, this can take a while with long texts. In 2000, Peter Stein managed to complete a complete performance of Goethe’s “Faust I” and “Faust II” in 21 hours. But if you leave a text at its original length, you have
usually good reasons for this.
Director RP Kahl presented “The Investigation” for the festival
tival evaluation of the cinema adaptation of the play by
Peter Weiss presented a four-hour version. Surprisingly, the length of the work is not noticeable at all. In the theater, you see a long shot, subject to acting and staging. RP Kahl and his producer Alexander van Dülmen bring another level into play in the cinema: the visual design.
The road to LA
DoP Guido Frenzel was responsible for the image. He was amazed when van Dülmen called him in 2022 with the request for “The Investigation” from his hometown of Los Angeles. Frenzel has lived and worked here for 30 years. He has worked in documentary series such as “Surviving R. Kelly”, has credits as a camera operator on films such as “Thor” and made a name for himself in studio productions such as the US version of “The Voice”, for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy a total of twelve times. [15467]
