Oh, Cate Blanchett. She wasn't with Maischberger, Sandra Maischberger was with her and recorded the conversation, and maybe that was better for the show, which might otherwise have gotten out of hand. There are film journalists who report that they were invited to a press event with Cate Blanchett. And they didn't ask a single question because they realized that they would never have thought of the clever question to which Cate Blanchett's eyes, her smile, her whole cool presence would have known an answer. There are others who report asking a question. But they would not have been able to hear the answer anymore, so much would have roared their ears with shame about their own stupid question.
Claudius Seidl
Editor in the arts section.
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Cate Blanchett and Karl Lauterbach in Maischberger's sitting area: one would have liked to see that because the task of convincing not only journalists, but finally also a Hollywood star of his positions, would have given Karl Lauterbach's rhetoric and perhaps also the whole topic a certain momentum. On the occasion of the end of all mask obligations, it was once again about Corona, a topic on which everyone has already said everything. After all, you could concentrate all the better on the performance, which was obvious in view of the upcoming appearance of Cate Blanchett.
It's not his fists
Lauterbach gave the heroes what may sound like an idiosyncratic, even wanton judgement, since he obviously speaks rather spiritually and a bit nervously. But apart from the Western heroes, there are also the bespectacled city men, and what makes the cinema hero a hero are not his fists anyway. It is the willingness to take responsibility for deeds and omissions, and Lauterbach did what James Stewart, for example, did in American films.
He took responsibility for every mistake, every regulation that later proved pointless, especially for the school closures that had long been recognized as nonsensical. And only after answering questions for twenty minutes did he discreetly point out that he has only been in office since autumn 2021; that he can therefore be held accountable for the time before that, not for his actions, but at most for his opinions. Not a bad word about his predecessor, no malice about the Bavarian state government, which at times even forbade married couples to go for walks together. Lauterbach took it all upon himself, and when he confessed his mistakes, he looked, with his eyes wide open, sometimes at the floor, sometimes at the ceiling. And did not even try to hide behind passive constructions, a "man" or the reference to the errors of most others.
Which was all the more sincere because Sandra Maischberger somehow seemed to notice that she was still under the impression of meeting Cate Blanchett. She is admirable enough in the role of the Maischberger, as she receives, twice a week, the strangest, often also the most chatty and confused people, without ever losing her composure or even losing concentration. Also on Wednesday evening she was more Maischberger than anything else. But she seemed to have copied a bit of Cate Blanchett's invulnerable coolness, the deep unimpressedness. What Lauterbach sometimes felt as strictness, but mostly as a good contrast to his Peter Sellers-like nervousness.
The dullness after Corona
What is otherwise one of the strengths of the show, namely that three guests, journalists or so-called television personalities, comment on the state of affairs, seemed dull and conflict-shy this Wednesday, although Amelie Fried as a friendly left-liberal bestselling author, Jan Philipp Burgard as editor-in-chief of a largely unseen private television station and Kristina Dunz as the winner of a journalistic medal for bravery were not badly cast. But one of the long-term effects of corona is the fatigue that affects everyone involved in corona discussions. And so Sandra Mischberger simply did not succeed in extracting any potential for conflict from the other issues, i.e. Franziska Giffey's weakness for the CDU or the Americans' criticism of Olaf Scholz. And the guests, who were so friendly to each other, were certainly not ready for a showdown.
Then, finally, Cate Blanchett, somewhere at the Berlinale, in an almost girlish and emphatically casual self-staging – if only so that no one confuses the person with the role she embodies in the film "Tár". Virtuosic, how she, who sat opposite Sandra Maischberger, looked to the side in the moments of thoughtfulness, almost directly into the camera, i.e. to the viewers, who were allowed to feel meant by it, so to speak. Experienced, how she knew how to tell not only an answer to every question, but also a little story: for example, that when she was a child, she wished to found a supermarket chain in which there would be no plastic.
Even more routine, as she denied any appearance of routine through her pure presence. And absolutely seriously, how she insisted that where she works, in the film business, the fiction industry, where images and role models are designed, is exactly the right arena to deal with social and political conflicts in all sharpness. And that there are still many conflicts, especially with regard to the rights and presence of women.
Oh, Cate Blanchett. Sandra Maischberger had twenty minutes. Luckily, "Tár" is running in cinemas for 158 minutes.