Dennis Fischer

Feature-length screenplay complete...in English AND German..

Personal Details

Name: Dennis Fischer

Last visit: Aug 20, 2008

Interests

Filmmakers, actors, editors, cinematographers, film producers, film distributors, screenwriters, novelists, playwrights, artists, visionaries, agents (William Morris, ICM, CAA, UTA, Endeavor, AAA,...).

Books

Outstanding screenplays and...

Joachim Hammann: Die Heldenreise im Film (The Hero's Journey in the Film)
Burkhard Driest: Poetik des Filmdramas für Drehbuchautoren (Poetics of the Photoplay for Screenwriters)
Eugen Vale: Vale's Technique of Screen and Television Writing
Robert McKee: Story
Linda Seger: Making a Good Script Great
Christopher Vogler: The Writer's Journey
Christopher Keane: How to Write a Selling Screenplay
Syd Field: The Screenwriter's Workbook
Jean-Claude Carrière / Pascal Bonitzer: The Practice of Screenwriting / On Storytelling
Gottfried Müller: Dramaturgy of Theatre and Film
Semjon Freilich: Dramaturgy of Film
Lajos Egri: The Art of Dramatic Writing
Lajos Egri: The Art of Creative Writing
Gustav Freytag : The Technique of Drama
Aristotle: Poetics
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Hamburgische Dramaturgie
James Frey: How to Write a Damn Good Novel I + II
Georges Polti : The 36 Dramatic Situations
Sydney Lumet : Making Movies
David Mamet : On Directing Film
Claude Chabrol : How to Make a Film
François Truffaut : Hitchcock
Lee Strasberg: Acting
James Monaco: How to Read a Movie
Joseph Campbell: The Hero With a Thousand Faces
Robert von Ranke-Graves: Mythology
Fritz Riemann: Basic Forms of Anxiety
Erik H. Erikson: Identity and the Life Cycle
C.G. Jung: Archetypes
Abraham H. Maslow: Motivation and Personality
Paul Watzlawick: Pragmatics on Human Communication
Erich Frank: Philosophical Understanding and Religious Truth
Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death
Fritjof Capra: The Turning Point
Aldous Huxley: The Doors of Perception
Timothy Leary / Ralph Metzner / Richard Alpert: The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
Mahabharata
Dirk Blothner: About the Unconscious Impact of Film
Dirk Blothner: The Secret Screenplay of Life - Cinema as a Mirror of the Human Soul
Elisabeth Frenzel: Stoffe der Weltliteratur
Elisabeth Frenzel: Motive der Weltliteratur
Romy Schneider: A Life in Pictures
Liv Ullmann: Changing
William Goldman: Adventures in the Screen Trade
William Goldman: Which Lie did I tell: More Adventures in the Screen Trade
Peter Biskind: Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
Peter Biskind: Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film

Movies

Favourite genres: Neorealism, Nouvelle Vague, New Hollywood, New German Cinema

Films: Il portiere di notte, L'important c'est d'aimer, Le Trio infernal, Ultimo tango a Parigi, Hiroshima mon amour, A Bout de Souffle, Le mépris, Roma, città aperta, Fanny och Alexander, Persona, Tystnaden, Smultronstället, Det Sjunde inseglet, Le Samouraï, La régle du jeu, La Strada, La Dolce Vita, Accattone, The Shanghai Gesture, The Night of the Hunter, Voyager, The Public Enemy, The Godfather I + II, Lucky Luciano, Chinatown, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, A Rebel without a cause, Johnny Guitar, On the Waterfront, Run of the Arrow, The Tall T, Cat on a hot tin roof, A Streetcar named Desire, Plein soleil, La Piscine, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, Full Metal Jacket, The Big Sleep, Death of a Salesman, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Some like it Hot, Stalag 17, Kramer vs. Kramer, Witness, All the President's Men, Harold and Maude, Hair, Alice doesn't live here anymore, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The Last Waltz, Raging Bull, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hair, Tommy, Lawrence of Arabia, Annie Hall, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, What's up Doc?, Bronenosets Potyomkin, Alexander Newski, Blowup, Zabriskie Point, Professione: Reporter, Easy Rider, An Officer and a Gentleman, Three Days of the Condor, The Verdict, American Graffiti, The Wizard of Oz, Midnight Cowboy, The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon, The Third Man, Shaft, The French Connection, The Birth of a Nation, Moulin Rouge, What's eating Gilbert Grape, My own private Idaho, Arizona Dream, Gas Food Lodging, The Straight Story, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Tarnation, Pardonnez-moi, Gerry, Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, Rope, I confess, North by Northwest, Dodesukaden, Dersu Uzala, Kagemusha, Shichinin no samurai, Ai no corrida, Star Wars, Raiders of the lost Ark, Back to the Future, The West Side Story, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, Rocky, Rambo - First Blood, Bambi, The Lion King, Nemo, Brother Bear, Ben Hur, Scarface, Singin' in the Rain, Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol, O Dragão da Maldade contra o Santo Guerreiro, Zorn's Lemma, Ordinary People, Wavelength, La Région Centrale, The Great Train Robbery, The Life of an American Fireman, Intolerance, Rescued by Rover, Alice in den Städten, Der amerikanische Freund, Paris, Texas, Der Himmel über Berlin, In weiter Ferne, so nah, Don't come knocking, Heimat, Liebe ist kälter als der Tod, Katzelmacher, Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte, Angst essen Seele auf, Deutschland im Herbst, Die Ehe der Maria Braun, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Lili Marleen, Lola, Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss, Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes, Stroszek, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, M, Metropolis, Die Blechtrommel, Pickpocket, The Immigrant, The Kid, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, The Goldrush, A River Runs Through It, A Perfect World, Tin Cup, Crna macka, beli macor, Brokeback Mountain, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Barfly, Cry Baby, Factotum, Crash, Drugstore Cowboy, The Big Town, Badlands, Days of Heaven, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Heaven's Gate, Year of the Dragon, Brazil, The Mission, Cléo de 5 à 7, La femme publique, Max et les ferrailleurs, César et Rosalie, Clair de femme, Garde à vue, La Passante du Sans-Souci, Les Choses de la Vie, Un amour de pluie, Boccaccio '70, Les enfants du paradis, Et Dieu... créa la femme, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli, Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe, Koyaanisqatsi, Jaws, Duel, The Sugarland Express, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Klute, Stanley and Iris, Jésus de Montréal, Goya en Burdeos, Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom, La Ragazza con la valigia, Un chien andalou, Belle de jour, Witness for the Prosecution, The Maltese Falcon, The Manchurian Candidate, Forrest Gump, Good Will Hunting, American Beauty, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Being John Malkovich, The Big Lebowski, The Matrix, Blade Runner, The Terminator I+II, Total Recall, 12 Monkeys, The Running Man, Abre los ojos, Vanilla Sky, Strange Days, Alien, Aliens, Solaris, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, V for Vendetta, The Truman Show, Brazil, Fight Club, K-Pax, Devil's Advocate, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento, The usual Suspects, Les diaboliques, The Sixth Sense, Gattaca, Children of Men, Logan's Run, Cube, Finding Forrester, Smoke, Blue in the Face, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?, Lenny, Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides, Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, The Kentucky Fried Movie, Don't Look Now, Angel-A, The Fifth Element, Subway, Le dernier combat, Le grand bleu, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, The Fog, The Exorcist, The Haunting, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, Suspiria, Carrie, The Hills Have Eyes, The Evil Dead, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Poltergeist, Child's Play, Hellraiser, Army of Darkness, Braindead, The Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Ring, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark, Face/Off, Great Expectations, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Leaving Las Vegas, When Harry met Sally, My Best Friend's Wedding, Notting Hill, Love...Actually, About a Boy, Music and Lyrics, Must love Dogs, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Addicted to Love, French Kiss, City of Angels, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, A Fish Called Wanda, America's Sweethearts, The Mexican, Erin Brockovich, Prêt-à-Porter, I Love Trouble, Flatliners, Pretty Woman, Mystic Pizza, Something to Talk About, City Slickers, Forget Paris, Analyze This, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Chicago, Reality Bites, Flirting with Disaster, Meet the Parents, Zoolander, Along Came Polly, American History X, Love Story, The Getaway, American Gigolo, Breathless, Dr T and the Women, The Lake House, Sweet November, Speed, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, I Love You to Death, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Dangerous Liaisons, Point Break, Miss Congeniality, The Aviator, California Suite, Nickelodeon, The Driver, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, That Old Feeling, What Women Want, Hudsucker, Bitter Moon, Sirens, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, Waking Ned, Mickey Blue Eyes, Sneakers, Sexy Beast, House of Sand and Fog, The English Patient, Groundhog Day, Hudson Hawk, The Object of Beauty, The End of Violence, Heartbreakers, Cop Land, Unlawful Entry, Field of Dreams, All the Pretty Horses, The Hi-Lo Country, BiG, Splash, 1941, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, The Fisher King, Nothing in Common, Joe Versus the Volcano, Philadelphia, Grosse Pointe Blank, Dragnet, J.F.K., Thirteen Days, Basquiat, The Ice Storm, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Woman in Red, Taking Care of Business, Only You, Natural Born Killers, Wonder Boys, Heart and Souls, Colors, New Jack City, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, From the Hip, Wag the Dog, The Island, A Life Less Ordinary, Red Rock West, Closer, True Romance, Birdy, Raising Arizona, Moonstruck, Wild at Heart, Honeymoon in Vegas, Bringing Out the Dead, I am Sam, Marathon Man, La Science des rêves, Liebesleben, The Syrian Bride, Bacheha-Ye aseman, Auf der anderen Seite, Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô: Gozu, Rapa Nui, Primary Colours, Big Fish, Tideland, L.A. Story, Big, Splash, Kolja, Vratné lahve, La petite Lili, La cicatrice intérieure, L'Équipier, Bikur Ha-Tizmoret, Woman on Top, Tortilla Soup, Amores Possíveis, Cidade de Deus, Los lunes al sol, Mar Adentro, Rocker, Taxi nach Leipzig (Tatort), Tote Taube in der Beethovenstraße (Tatort), Reifezeugnis (Tatort), Duisburg-Ruhrort (Tatort), No country for Old Men, There will be Blood , Into the Wild, Sweeney Todd, Charlie Wilson's War, Damage, Die Venusfalle, Die flambierte Frau, Sea of Love, Frankie and Johnny, Z, L'aveu, État de siège, Clair de femme, Missing, Music Box, Amen, My left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown, My beautiful Laundrette, Dekalog, La Double vie de Véronique, Trois couleurs: Bleu, Trzy kolory: Bialy, Trois couleurs: Rouge, Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, Viaggio in Italia, Le carrosse d'or, Sommarlek, Gycklarnas afton, Sommaren med Monika, Till glädje, Kvinnodröm, Törst, Le notti di Cabiria, Le notti bianche, Nanook of the North, Hell's Angels, Strangers on a Train, Way Down East, Orphans of the Storm, Stop Thief!, Fire!, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Death and the Maiden, Dead Poets Society, The History Boys, Tell Your Children aka Reefer Madness, Psych-Out, Man Trouble, Blood and wine, The Postman always rings twice, Brubaker, Five Easy Pieces, Head, The Salton Sea, Griffin & Phoenix, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, A lot like Love, Syriana, Babel, Pirates of the Carribean, The Way of the Gun, Sweet Home Alabama, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, Good night, and Good Luck, Wonder Boys, Palmetto, The Hot Spot, Alice's Restaurant, One Plus One, Marie-Octobre, The Sound of Music, Living in Oblivion, The Crying Game, The Thirteenth Floor, eXistenZ, Disclosure, The Game, Pi, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Hierankl,...

For translations: www.imdb.com

Television

The Wire, The Sopranos, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Twin Peaks, Twilight Zone, The X Files, Max. Headroom, Taxi, Tour of Duty, M.A.S.H., Magnum P.I., Miami Vice, The Wonder Years, Crime Story, Wiseguy, Hill Street Blues, Moonlighting, Columbo, The Rockford Files, 21 Jump Street, Kojak, The Streets of San Francisco, Ally McBeal, Nip/Tuck, 24, Quantum Leap, Deadwood, Friends, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Married with Children, Dharma & Greg, Cheers, Seinfeld, The Cosby Show, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, ALIAS, The L-Word, Dark Angel, Simon & Simon, Riptide, The Fall Guy, Starsky and Hutch, CHiPs, Baywatch, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, The O.C., Medium, Ghost Whisperer, Girlfriends, ALF, MacGyver, Knight Rider, The A-Team, King of Queens, Fantasy Island, Hart To Hart, Cagney &; Lacey, Matlock, The Heights, Party of Five, Time of Your Life, Everwood, Felicity, Emergency Room, General Hospital, Gilmore Girls, C.S.I., Six Feet Under, Matt Houston, Vegas, Las Vegas, The Persuaders!, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaii Five-0, The Avengers, Tropical Heat, Suddenly Susan, Silk Stalkings, ABC Sneak Peek with Step by Step, Full House, Commissaire Moulin, Sous le soleil, Coeurs caraïbes, Little House on the Prairie,Spin City, Quincy M.E., Trapper John, M.D., Parker Lewis can't loose, Malcolm in the Middle, Two and a Half Men, Freddie, According to Jim, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Boston Legal, Mork and Mindy, The Muppet Show, Love Boat, M*A*S*H, Mister Ed, The Munsters, I dream of Jeannie, Here's Boomer, Sledge Hammer!, Beavis and Butt-Head, Krtek, ...

About Me

I. Screenwriting

Every screenplay should be unique. The individuality of a story is the author's individual point of view of life, of the understanding and the importance of stories and of the writing itself. Any author creates with any new story a unique fictional reality which stands for his exemplary idea, his vision. The story structure as well should be unique and above all consistent - however there is only a limited number of basic structures, which are similarly comprehensible in all civilizations. The important story subjects are limited as well. The structure ranges between being mainly dramatic or epic. A story has to be developed outwards from the center and accords to a climactic interior and /or exterior battle of the protagonist - a battle from the status quo of the traumatized me-personality to the holistic self. In the course of the story the protagonist tries to break new ground of self-awareness to overcome the suppressed trauma of the past and to return to the original paradisiac state he comes from. The battle of the protagonist is equal to a healing process. The path of the protagonist and the ending of the story has to belong to the author's vision. The battle of the protagonist causes the viewer's identification with the protagonist by reflecting the viewer's own traumatic past and his quest for a chance of healing. Every story should concentrate on certain psychological effects on the viewer so at best the story causes a deep, emotional and / or intellectual reaction which is highly entertaining. The story message ranges between a holistic and a completely open point of view of life. A idea can be found anywhere and anytime and it can be anything. There are no limits of the author's creativity. Stories are dynamic and flexible. A story wants to be told by the author - it is not the author who controls the story, the story always controls the author. But an author who listens carefully and patiently will be awarded. Screenwriting deals with the auhtor's intuition and his courage to display an individual expression. Also screenwriting deals with failure and learning, trial and error. Primarily writing should be individual freedom, collective truth, fantasy and communication - and it should disobey fixed formulas.

In the main writing a screenplay is about the individual and clever arrangement of information.

II. Responsibility

Each author / (screen-) writer has to assume responsibility for his stories. He has to decide if his stories - and his marketing efforts - are ethically maintainable. That means particularly that he has to question himself if he wants to follow common morality blindly by disclaiming reflection on it.

III. Teachers

There is no omniscient and only true approach. But all serious teachers deserve the authors' respect. The main accomplishment of the teachers is not screenwriting itself, it is the brilliant analysis of thousands of screenplays and their generosity to share with us what they found out. Fortunately each teacher presents a different focus - which is not confusing, on the contrary it is an enrichment for each author. Their subjective points of view help the auhtor to understand the depth and wide range of story structures. The more the author knows about the serious approaches the more he gets a complete and holistic mosaic of story knowledge. Finally the author can identify his own approach - the only true approach which is of course dynamic, too.

IV. How to get the essence of film

I think this is a good access to what film is about and how it works:
Watch films, read screenplays, read books on screenwriting, directing, the dramatic function of the camera, on acting and filmmaking on the whole, analyze films and write down everything what is important to you in notebooks, write down your own film critics, develop your own universal and true stories permanently and find your own voice and style. Also read novels and books on novelwriting, read plays and books on playwriting, read books on art and find out the common grounds and the differences with film.