Im Wartesaal
Together with the Bavarian satirist and cabaret artist Christoph Süß, jangled nerves produced an elaborate film in Munich for the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte. “Waiting Room – Bavaria in the 1920s” brings the 1920s in the Free State to life – a time of waiting, uncertainty, and major technological innovation. A period with surprisingly many parallels to today.
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In addition to Christoph Süß, who also wrote the screenplay, many well-known actors took part: Max Uthoff, Luise Kinseher, Christian Springer, and Helmut Schleich. Marc Schleiss (jangled nerves) directed the film.
The 20-minute film opened the special exhibition “Tempo, Tempo – Bavaria in the 1920s” at the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte in Regensburg. The exhibition aimed to convey the politically and socially charged era in an atmospheric way, particularly engaging audiences who are usually distant from museums.
Christoph Süß’s clever and ironic screenplay follows an inspiring approach combined with an unusual cinematic concept: the camera accompanies Süß as a witty narrator through artificial scene settings, so-called “virtual display cases,” which open up views into various environments of the time in Bavaria.
The scenic design was created as a hybrid of physically built sets and digital set extensions on a large LED wall. The digital set was generated live during filming using the Unreal game engine. Thanks to a tracking system optimized by jangled nerves, the camera could move completely freely, allowing actors to perform directly within the virtual stage set. Depending on the camera position, the background adjusted perfectly to the perspective.
For the first time, jangled nerves did not use a traditional green-screen shoot with extensive post-production, but instead produced a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” film. This way of filming also echoes the cinematic art of the 1920s – only with today’s technology.
Conceptually, several genres come together: theatre, film, and documentary. At the center is always narrator Christoph Süß, who travels through the turbulent decade and brings the spirit and people of Bavaria and Munich in the 1920s closer to the audience – sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic, but always with a wink.
