Donnersmarck found the quote frightening, while he also knew that Lenin had done much more than smashing a few skulls. There would not have been a Stasi or an equivalent secret police in other countries but for the spying process Lenin had started, leading to the creation of the KGB in Russia.
"So I thought: What if Lenin had been somehow forced to listen to the Appassionata just as he was getting ready to smash someone's head?"
Donnersmarck, about 6 feet and 4 inches tall, smiles sadly as he discusses Lenin, but soon gets back to his film. "I set out to create a Stasi official who is spying on an important couple because they both are prominent artists. I saw him in a depressing room with earphones, waiting to listen to the words, but when it gets to hear a music so beautiful and powerful he starts rethinking his work, his ideology and his place in he society."
It took him three hours to write the bare bones of the story. "But it also took me three years to research and write the screenplay," he continues. "I wanted to make sure that I had a draft that I was fully satisfied with."
The film is truthful, he offers, but is not based on true incidents.
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Donnersmarck found the quote frightening, while he also knew that Lenin had done much more than smashing a few skulls. There would not have been a Stasi or an equivalent secret police in other countries but for the spying process Lenin had started, leading to the creation of the KGB in Russia.