The Eyes of Hannah Herzsprung

The first thing you notice in German actress Hannah Herzsprung is her stunning dark blue green eyes. They are like calm yet mysterious twin lakes. During the whole interview, I couldn't help losing myself in them.

I've become a huge Herzsprung fan, ever since I saw her brave performance as a deeply troubled young piano prodigy in prison in her feature debut Vier Minuten (Four Minutes) some years ago. I was really thrilled when I found out that she would be available for an interview for her new film Who Am I: No System is Safe, a stylistic cyber thriller, playing at KINO! Festival, here in New York. I tried very hard not to be a fanboy during the interview and it was very hard. Herzsprung turns out to be the most gracious, warm and open-hearted actress I've ever interviewed so far!

Herzsprung will be on hand for Q&A on Wednesday 4/15 screening of Who Am I: No System is Safe. Please check KINO! 2015 website for more info.

Hannah, I have to tell you that I'm a big fan.

Yeah?

Ever since I watched FOUR MINUTES. What a performance that was!

I'm glad to hear that. You know I am working with the director (Chris Kraus) again after exactly ten years. The shooting starts next month. It's called Blumen von gestern (Flowers of Yesterday). I've been waiting so long...because he does movies like every four years. He did one in between called Poll, have you seen that?

No. I haven't.

Oh you should watch it if you really like his work. It's an amazing movie. Also it was with this amazing young actress (Paula Beer) he found, she was 15 - 16 years old. So I could't play that role. I was too old. (laughs) But she did an amazing job. For Blumen von gestern, he picked Adele Haenel, the French actress?

Oh yeah.

She is great and also plays a great, strong character. I'm very excited to work with him again. But thanks for mentioning Four Minutes. It was such a once in a lifetime opportunity that can never be duplicated.

You've played a lot of different roles. You've done physically demanding films (FOUR MINUTES, HELL), romantic comedies (TRAUMFRAUEN), period pieces (BELOVED SISTERS, HABERMANN)... Do you have any preference in choosing roles?

Honestly, I am just happy to get these great scripts and offers. I count myself lucky getting all different roles after Four Minutes. Getting that range of experience is the best I hope for an actor. And you can pick among all these roles. It's not that I have thousands of offers and I can choose this and that.

Oh I just assumed that would be the case for you.

No no, that's not the case at all. (laugh) I have to say every character I played just came at the right place and the right time. Of course I read a lot of great scripts and auditioned for the roles but didn't get them because there were a lot of great actresses out there. But I love acting. It's definitely my favorite thing in the world. I'm a happy person.

If you could choose a character among you've played, which character resembles the real you the most?

Oooh. You can't hardly compare those characters with yourself. Obviously you play with your experience and all the feelings and emotions. You have to cull it from somewhere within you for sure. Of course it's great if you have a lot of experience where you can pick from. But I wouldn't say it's easier or harder if you have memories for characters all by yourself. It's the first decision you make when you read the script and you have the feelings for the character or not. Then I have to determine 'oh, do I have a feeling now because I am just happy to have it and to use it. I don't really bring myself in the character because it's not necessary really.

How was working with director Dominik Graf in BELOVED SISTERS?

It was amazing. You know in Germany Dominik is known as an actor's director. I don't know how he does it but he is a master of bringing out the best in you. He has that...

Intuition?

That's right. He has that right feeling about someone and he gets it. He doesn't rehearse that much. You talk about it a lot, and in this case because of Beloved Sisters is a period piece and all.

We talked about language, we talked about the film not getting too theatrical. He was very strict about how we said the lines. But then, when on shooting days, of course we discussed everything- what you do and what's happening, but he never really rehearsed the scene perfectly before he shot it. Because he doesn't want to miss those magic moments. And they happen, because he gives you that opportunity to let go.

He creates this base...a room and which he protects you. You know what I mean? You feel so free and you do things as an actor that, for me, sometimes after doing a scene, I was like, "did I really just do this? oh my god." It just happened because he gives you so much space. It's really hard to explain how he does it. It's just...Dominik being Dominik. it's really just him and communication between him and actors. You know, you can feel him what he wants. He protects you and you feel so brave to do so much. And that's why those magic moments really happens in his films. That's why if you watch his films, all the actors are brilliant.

Obviously Baran Bo Odar is a different director.

He is also amazing but in a different way. He is different but the same because he picks you and he knows what he wants from you. His scripts are very exact so you feel you know what exactly you have to do. But you can ask him everything. And if you do something and if it's not right, he immediately tells you. Then you change it and that's it.

He has such a watchful eye. Our job as an actor is being seen. But I don't want to see myself from outside, thinking what I'm doing, never. I just wanna let go and go crazy on my little stage where it says, "actor".

When I first heard that you were gonna be in Baran Bo Odar's film. I was hoping that you'd be the protagonist. I thought, wow, it would be cool to see Hannah as this cool hacker.

Haha, that would been cool. I'll talk to him about a sequel that there is another twist that it's all Marie (her character)'s doing.

Thinking about the technological world in Who Am I, how techno savvy are you?

Oh no, it scares me. That's why I loved playing Marie. I learned so much more. Jantje Friese who co-wrote the script with Baran did an amazing job. She was like, "I really want my mother to understand how this all works." I said, "Not only your mom but me also!" (laughs)

I mean the underground cyber-world and envelope exchange and masks - it's such a great idea. And just visualizing it, Baran really did a great job.

Living post-Edward Snowden era, how worried are you about your personal information being stored in some virtual cloud?

Yeah I mean, of course, if you read all the news and you get to hear what's happening, it really scares me. But I think you just have to be careful. And you just have to hope that you will never be too famous that people will care about you so much that they will try to find out everything about you. (we both laugh)

The State We Are In: Christoph Hochhäusler Interview

One of the leading figures in Berlin School (Berliner Schule) movement, Christoph Hochhäusler (I am Guilty, The City Below) is known for creating psychologically complex characters in an imposing environment. His new film, The Lies of the Victors, a taut conspiracy thriller in post-Snowden era, then, can be seen as the director charting a new cinematic territory.

He is in town for KINO! festival and I was lucky enough to snag an interview. I have to mention that the interview took place in Silversalt PR office in Soho to give the context in part of our conversation.

The Lies of the Victors plays part of KINO! 2015 which runs 4/9 - 4/16. For more info, please visit the festival's website.
 
After directing THE CITY BELOW and ONE MINUTE OF DARKNESS  for DREILEBEN TRILOGY, you decided to make a political thriller, THE LIES OF THE VICTORS. What made you to do this film?

I have a relatively complicated back story about that. But I can tell you. You can choose to use it if you want to. Long before the two films you mentioned, I wrote a thriller centered around a journalist. But I never really found the right approach. The level of realism and obstruction was shifting due to what was happening at that time. Eventually I never used the script for anything. But I showed it to my co-writer, Ulrich Peltzer (co-writer of The City Below), who is at the moment doing a writer's residency at Cornell by the way. We decided to keep only the name of the main character. (laughs)

Fabian Groys?

Yeah and his profession - journalist, everything else changed. But I always liked the idea of journalists as heroes in films. That's a genre that is especially well developed in American cinema. There are not so much in European films dealing with journalists.

You mean ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN and so on?

I mean also from the 30s. His Girl Friday is a favorite of mine and in all Howard Hawks films. The Lies of the Victors is pretty much a hardboiled detective story but a detective with a different agenda you know.

It does play out like a film noir without any gun play or car chase scenes.

And no explosions. (laugh) Yeah, that's what hooked me. And then I was searching for the ways to deal with what you could call modern problems. I mean like media industry and lobbyists and things that are not really personal stories but more about structures and so on. So that's how it got started.

What is your working process like with your co-writer, Ulrich Peltzer?

Usually I approach him with broad suggestions for a story. And then we write it together, meaning we seat in the same room and discuss everything. and usually he types. It's typing reading correcting typing reading correcting... it's a beautiful process.

The film struck me in very similar way as Costa Gavras' Z, probably because of its bleak assessment of what's going on around the world. But unlike THE CITY BELOW or ONE MINUTE OF DARKNESS where antagonists or antagonistic presence were kind of hidden, in THE LIES OF THE VICTORS they are more pronounced. Why is that?

It's probably because out of all my films, The Lies is the most typical 'genre' film I've done. I'm not saying that conspiracy genre is a very hard genre to do. There aren't a lot of rules that need to be established. It's a pretty blurry tradition. So it's not very limiting. But at the same time, there are some expectations in it that I tried to respect them more than in my other films. I'd say from all my films, this is the closest to a genre cinema I've done.

But it's also the nature of the story that antagonism plays a big part- there is no antagonists in The City Below other than the people themselves.

True.

The worlds that resemble our world in both THE CITY BELOW and in THE LIES OF VICTORS are very dystopic in nature. Do you share this bleak assessment of our world in real life?

Yes and no. Of course I'm not trying to be someone else when I make a film but I see life with a lot of optimism actually. (laughs)

Of course there are a lot of things I worry about. But I doubt that our time is worse than others. You know what I mean? Probably it's always the same shit all over. (laughs) But as always, there are possibilities for goodness, beauty and grace, you know. Then I have to agree that it's pretty bleak. If you look at the headlines of last couple of years, it's really a mess.

Then again what era was ever a good era? It's always the past we are fond of for some reason.

Another thing that interested me was that characters in your films often deal with being admittedly guilty or perceived as guilty but it's not clear in Fabian's case. I am wondering, if anything, what Fabian is guilty of?

Well I'm not sure if guilt is such a big theme for me personally, but of course it is in German culture in general. What he is guilty of is the same as we are all guilty of, carelessness. For example how news are being made, you know. Fabian is obliged as a journalist to question everything, that more skepticism is needed. He is an easy prey for those in power.

I mean old school journalism is quite unprepared for the possibilities of surveillance and new technologies. It's amazing what they can do now. They can even change source material without you ever knowing about it. It's really easier to get away than ever. And of course we are so concentrated on the state surveillance but we all know the companies do it. Discussions that have been going on so far post-Snowden, there have been too much focus on the state surveillance. NSA is a state organization, but there is enough proof that NSA contractors, like the one Snowden was working for, are working for other powers including the US industries.

All the telecommunication companies that all complied to the government since the Patriot Act...

They comply to the government but if you want to know what your competitors are doing, there are ways to find it out. The thing is it's being done already. They do it and there is not enough attention getting paid to it.

Following up Berlin School conversation I had with Christian Petzold and last year's MoMA coverage by Ben Umstead, how do you feel about being grouped in this kind of movement?

I don't have any problems with it. I think it's a critic's job to describe what's happening. There is a certain... family of filmmakers so to speak. We are in touch and there are discussions taking place and there is no money attached and there are no rules. I don't want to define who's in and who's out. But it's true that there are unusual amount of solidarity and interest for each other. So why not call it a name, Berlin school or otherwise.

Of course the implication of the label is sometimes harmful. For example, when it comes to financing a film I've heard many times that they say 'we don't want to finance Berlin school films'.

Wow, really?

Because the industry is full of expectations - 'they (the berlin school films) are too slow' or call it  whatever else you can think of when you don't like something. So there is always a problem being labeled like that.

I see.

It's probably the same in journalism. You are labeled as someone who only like this or that.

'You only cover genre films' or something like that.

Yeah exactly. It's limiting.

You mentioned in an essay that Berlin School is not limited to Germany but you see it happening everywhere.

I wouldn't say that Berlin school is everywhere. I think it's the same spirit in filmmaking whether it's Argentina or Korea or Austria or Portugal. It's international interest in certain tropes and modes of state it's on. I'm not saying that we influenced them.

Where do you think this similarities in spirit comes from?

It's the reaction to having too much formulaic. Every wave in film history is trying to regain a certain believability or to refresh things, you know. Every wave tries to regain something that is lost - if you look at neo-realism or nouvelle vague or free cinema, it's all about getting over the cliché of what's come before them.

For us, we are gunning beyond formula, beyond what's become as a commodity. There will be a lot of movements after us and there are already, I'm sure, with very different stylistic approaches. But I don't believe in stylistic revolutions. I really don't think it's about style. The style is what follows.

Do you still watch a lot of works of other filmmakers and follow what they are up to?

Of course. but I don't watch as much as I used to. I have two kids now. (laughs)

You used to be a film critic, no?

Yes and no. I co-founded and edit a film magazine called Revolver. We founded it in 1998. It's a magazine that mostly publish interviews. I'm still doing that.

So who do you like?

I mean one of the directors I admire the most is her (pointing at a La cienaga poster on the wall, by Lucretia Martel).

This is La cienaga, her first film and which might be her best film overall. But when it comes to form I'm a big fan of La mujer sin cabeza.

Headless woman. Yes, of course.

She is now making a new film and I'm very excited.

It seems that's where things are happening right now, Latin America.

Yeah, there are many. Lisandro Alonso, and few Mexican directors too.

What's next for you?

Among other things I am preparing a French film set in 1941, a period picture. It was initiated and starring Isabelle Huppert. But the financing is not there yet. As you can imagine, it takes a while. I don't know if it will happen.

Let's hope it does because it sounds awesome.

Thanks. And the other project is some sort of a gangster movie. I have ideas for all kinds of films. I'm also writing a new Dr. Mabuse film. so we will see what happens.

KINO! 2015 Contemporary German Film Festival

KINO!, a celebration of contemporary German films, returns to New York for its 36th edition, setting up shop at Cinema Village in the West Village for the second year, April 9 - 16.

Selected from across the great expanse of different genres and from seasoned directors and newcomers alike, this year's edition features 10 features and 8 shorts, including new works from Christoph Hochäusler (The City Below, I am Guilty), Christian Zübert (Three Quarter Moon) and TV veteran Uwe Janson, as well as from rising stars Baran bo Odar (The Silence), Philippe Lienemann, Stephan Altricher and Neele Leana Vollmar (Vacation from Life).

In addition to the screenings, there will be panel discussions at Goethe Institut and Deutsches Haus for Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery and The Lies of the Victors with filmmakers attending.

KINO! 2015 runs April 9 - 16. Please visit Kino! 2015 website for more info and tickets.

Here are samples of five films I was able to catch:

The Lies of Victors

Christoph Höchhausler's latest is a sleek, taut political thriller in the vein of All the President's Men and Z. Florian David Fitz (also representing Tour De Force in the series) plays a hotshot reporter named Fabian who had established himself with his Afgan war coverage for the fictional Berlin magazine Die Woche (The Week).

He is digging up some dirt about PTSD and toxic poisoning in vets returning from tours in Afghanistan. He is assigned a new perky intern Nadja (Lilith Stangenberg) to help him out by his editor-in-chief. Fabian who has always worked alone, resents her company at first and throws some unrelated story at her to investigate. It turns out that the story of a man who threw himself into a lion's cage has a connection with his PTSD story. But is he getting played by everyone? Is Nadja really who she says she is?

Without ever using car chases or gun fights, Höchhausler creates an engrossing thriller. Fabian doesn't really know that a powerful firm representing a big German chemical company which has ties with the politicians, is watching his every move and feeding false leads, every step of the way. And when Fabian realizes the fact, it's already too late.

With stylish back and forth dolly shots and 360 pans and a Howard Shore resembling, tense soundtrack (expertly arranged by Benedikt Scheifer), The Lies of the Victors is a sumptuous neo-noir experience.

Beltracchi: Art of Forgery

This documentary tells an exciting story of master art forger, Wolfgang Beltracchi, who claims to have forged over 300 paintings by 20th century masters - Max Earnst, Heinrich Campendonk, Fernand Léger and others over 35 years. He's no mere copy artist. What's impressive about this long haired, affable aging hippie is his ability to convincingly forge 'new' paintings of those said artists' 'gap years' through meticulous research and craftsmanship thus tricking even the scholars and specialists of the art world.

Beltracchi and his accomplice/wife Helene, played the art market well, and made millions without getting caught until recently. Beltracchi not only illustrates the brilliant conman's career but also tells the sweetest love story ever told.

King's Surrender

A taut police thriller starring Ronald Zehrfeld (Barbara, Phoenix) and Misel Maticevic (In the Shadows). They play members of a tight knit special unit SWAT team. The country under austerity measures, things are tightening up even in the police headquarters. Some of the special unit resort to taking bribes.

After a bungled raid, team members are dropping like flies in what seems to be execution style revenge killings. Hot-headed Mendez (Maticevic) calls for blood while Kevin (Zehrfeld) digs deeper into corruption inside their unit and up the chain of command.

These testosterone filled, wayward cops involve themselves inadvertently in a conflict between local gangs and that proves to be a fatal mistake. With great cast, tense atmosphere and heart pounding suspense, King's Surrender is a gripping policier that rivals any Hollywood production.

Schmitke

Stephan Altricher directs a modern day retelling of Don Quixote in Schmitke. Schmitke (Peter Kurth) is a middle aged wind turbine engineer who dreams of being in the forest, away from his city life filled with jack hammers and traffic noises. Every morning he listens to the news of the discovery of a man who's been living in the forest alone. This so called Bear-Man is apparently refusing any help from authorities and only longs to go back to the forest. But being a prototypical German engineer who takes pride in his work and efficiency, Schmitke doesn't really buy into spiritual mumbo-jumbo that his daughter who just got back from India, talks about or the Bear Man.

He gets a chance to go into the mountains in the Czech Republic for maintenance work on a wind turbine, a model he practically designed, which stopped working. With his young, slacker assistant Tomas (Johann Jügens) in tow, he drives to the small mountain town.

Upon arriving, they notice an unending loud noise that sounds like a constipated dinosaur coming from the mountain. It turns out to be coming from the creaky wind turbine in question. But whatever he tries, the turbine is not responding. After getting icy receptions from the townsfolk and sleepless nights at the local inn, our engineer discovers that Tomas has disappeared. From a sexy local business woman Julie (Helena Dvorakova), Tomas was last seen talking about some mystical power of the forest and Bear Man. Schmitke's wild goose chase begins.

The yearning for nature and the process of giving into something bigger than yourself against reason takes a center stage in Schmitke. Kurth's plays the title character straight with his stone face and matter-of-factness which works well in this droll comedy. Shot beautifully by Cristian Pirjol in the Ore mountains of the Czech Republic, and with amazing sound design by Paul Wollstadt, Schmitke is a great surrealistic comedy.

Who Am I: No System is Safe

In the wake of North Korean hackers scandal, Baran bo Odar (The Silence) offers a fast paced, slick cybercrime thriller Who Am I: No System is Safe. It starts out with our unreliable narrator, Benjamin (Tom Schilling, looking like young Edward Norton) turning himself in to authorities, telling how it all started. Ben is a socially awkward, self-admitted misfit, who grew up in front of the computer. He is recruited by a group of fame seeking hackers and together they build CLAY (acronym for Clowns Laughing At You) with clown masks from his grandma's house.

They hack into various financial systems and pharmaceutical buildings, mostly for laughs. But more than anything, they want their cyber idol MRX's approval, whose driving mottos are 1. No system is safe, 2. Aim for the impossible, 3. Don't limit your fun to the virtual world.

They hack into German cybercrime unit to impress MRX but it turns out that MRX has other plans when it comes to eliminate the competition. Now the crew doesn't think the fame is worth risking their lives.

Co-scripted by his writing partner Jantje Friese, bo Odar creates a tension filled, cat-and-mouse thriller with lots of twists and turns. Elyas M'Barek (The Wave, City of Bones) plays charismatic Max, Hannah Herzsprung (4 Minutes, Beloved Sisters) plays Marie, the love interest and great Danish actress Trine Dyrholm (The Celebration, A Royal Affair) rounds up the top notch supporting cast as the seasoned Europol investigator. Who Am I is a superbly created entertainment. Hollywood should recognize bo Odar's talent sooner than later.