Producer
Leopold Hoesch
Director
Jobst Knigge
Producer
Thorben Bockelmann & Peter Wolf
Genre
Culture
Broadcaster
ZDF
Length
1 x 30'
Editor
Aron Roos
Year
2015
VIPs up close

A star, a soldier and a king - Diane Kruger, James Blunt and King Constantine of Greece. They are big names, known on the international stage and from the world press. But we know little about the reality of these celebrities' lives. In filmic portraits, "VIP's hautnah" presents the people behind the big names.

Diane Kruger is currently the hottest German star in Hollywood. She has been around as wet as probably no Hildesheim woman before her: from Lower Saxony to the catwalks of Paris, via Wolfgang Petersen's blockbuster "Troy" to the side of the big stars. Next to them she is particularly radiant. What private and professional goals has the actress set for herself next? What drives her?

James Blunt is known as a smooth talker and is currently the most successful British pop musician. But few know that Blunt once fought in one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent European history - as an elite British soldier in Kosovo. He then served in the Royal Life Guards and was one of Queen Mum's pallbearers. Life in uniform has shaped him. Is that the secret of his success?

Constantine of Greece was the last king of the Hellenes; he was only able to hold onto the throne for three years. The young king's lack of experience proved fatal and plunged the nation, already struggling economically at the time, into a constitutional crisis: after a military coup in 1967, Constantine had to leave the country with his family. He only returned after 46 years. In "VIP's hautnah" he provides moving insights into his life.

As the author and director of numerous documentaries about European royal families and notable families of contemporary history, Julia Melchior has gained a lot of experience in dealing with prominent personalities.  In the extraordinarily intensive interviews for "VIP's hautnah", she succeeds here in eliciting astonishing confessions and self-reflections from the celebrities.

FIRST BROADCAST: Saturday, 11.04.2015 at 18:00 on ZDF

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