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Simone Bear
Photo:
Sophia Balmes
She has helped find the key actors for many films.
Casting director Simone Bär has now died.
This was announced by the German Film Academy on Wednesday.
Bär died on Monday at the age of 57 in Berlin.
The academy wrote in an obituary that she raised casting to an art.
»She was one of the best people judges in this profession, always looking for a new face, a new inspiration, always ready to throw everything overboard for the perfect group, for the perfect lead.«
Starring Steven Spielberg, Wes Anderson, Christian Petzold
Among other things, the Academy paid tribute to Bär as an expert in major international art house cinema and recalled her collaboration with directors such as Stephen Daldry (»The Reader«), Quentin Tarantino (»Inglourious Basterds«), Steven Spielberg (»War Horse«), François Ozon ( »Frantz«) and Wes Anderson (»The Grand Budapest Hotel«).
For example, Bär also cast the »Babylon Berlin« series and worked with German filmmakers such as Christian Petzold, Matti Geschonneck, Florian Gallenberger and the director Margarethe von Trotta.
"There is no doubt that she was unique as a caster in Germany," wrote Gallenberger, who runs the film academy together with actress Alexandra Maria Lara, on the academy's website.
Bär's gaze never got stuck on the surface, but looked in depth.
»Simone always saw the possibilities where others were fixated on the problems.«
evh/dpa