{"id":14052,"date":"2016-07-07T12:13:03","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T10:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/berlin030.de\/?p=14052"},"modified":"2016-07-07T12:13:03","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T10:13:03","slug":"die-deutschen-haben-durchaus-humor-interview-mit-maren-ade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/2016\/07\/07\/die-deutschen-haben-durchaus-humor-interview-mit-maren-ade\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Germans Do Have a Sense of Humour\u201d – Interview with \u2018Toni Erdmann\u2019 Director Maren Ade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor her debut \u201cThe Forest for the Trees\u201d, she received the Grand Jury Prize at Robert Redford\u2019s renowned Sundance Film Festival. With her second venture \u201cEveryone Else\u201d, Maren Ade launched at the Berlinale\u2014and walked away with two Bears straightaway. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNow the coup at Cannes: the tragicomedy \u201cToni Erdmann\u201d, which tells the story of a father and his adult daughter, was celebrated as rarely before for a competition film. It unexpectedly missed out on the Palmes d\u2019Or, but went on to become a commercial success, the likes of which German cinema hadn\u2019t seen in some time. [030] contributor Dieter O\u00dfwald spoke with the director.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMs Ade, three films, each featured at an important festival\u2014things could hardly be going better\u2026<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde:<\/strong> After the invitation to the Sundance Festival, I thought: well, that settles it, this is my profession, I\u2019ll just keep making films. Then I heard, \u2018Yes, Maren, but it\u2019s the second film that really counts.\u2019 And after that it was: \u2018Actually, your career is only decided by your third film.\u2019 That\u2019s why I\u2019m pleased about Cannes, because from now on I reckon I\u2019ll be able to keep making films at a certain level.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you anticipate this tremendous enthusiasm in the cinema?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde:<\/strong> I only finished the film four days before the premiere\u2014an absolute nightmare. To me it kept getting more depressing, in the end I thought: \u2018Never mind, I promised a comedy, but now it\u2019s turned into something rather melancholy. Main thing is, it\u2019s finished.\u2019 That\u2019s why I was honestly thrilled that the comedic aspect worked so well. A full cinema is simply wonderful. It\u2019s like theatre, where the audience reassure each other, check in with the person next to them, and become almost a single being.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t

\"toni
Lead actress Sandra H\u00fcller and her brilliant colleague Peter Simonischek.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s surprise in the international reaction that the Germans apparently have a sense of humour after all. Have we really laughed too little in German film?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde:<\/strong> I don\u2019t actually think the French are particularly humorous either. There are all sorts of people everywhere. I do believe the Germans have a sense of humour, but sometimes it\u2019s just a bit hidden.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tToni Erdmann\u2019s costume is reminiscent of a Loriot sketch. Is this a little homage?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde:<\/strong> My inspiration for the costume actually comes more from the American comedian Andy Kaufman. In his show he transformed into a character called Tony Clifton\u2014hence the first name for our Erdmann. The idea with the false teeth and the wig was there earlier, but when I discovered Kaufman and the radical nature of his transformations, it was a perfect fit. Loriot is, of course, a legend, referenced by many, but anyone who deals with comedians inevitably comes across the name Andy Kaufman at some point.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite the transformation your heroine undergoes, at the end she still carries on in her career. Did you ever consider having Ines drop out altogether?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde<\/strong>: No, that was how it was always meant to be. For me, that\u2019s precisely where the joke lies. In his odd way, the father gives his daughter the courage to quit her job. But Ines only changes company, and it continues in such a way that his values or his approach end up completely reversed.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t

\"toni
That wasn\u2019t intentional.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of expectations: without giving too much away, in one hotel scene exactly what everyone expects doesn\u2019t happen\u2014and even beforehand it gets a lot of laughs.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde<\/strong>: (Laughs<\/em>) Some people have already congratulated me on how clever that is. In fact, that effect wasn\u2019t planned at all. You get these moments every so often when watching your own films: it\u2019s like water finding its way through sand. I was surprised myself\u2014but of course, I was delighted by the reactions.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHow much of Maren Ade is in your heroine Ines? <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde<\/strong>: Particularly with the theme of family, it was interesting how little I could escape my own family when writing. Nothing is as familiar as your own background. You only have one family, the parent-child bond is lifelong and you can hardly escape it. That\u2019s also what happens with Ines in the film. She thinks it no longer matters where she comes from, she thinks there\u2019s nothing left to be gained from that. Everything runs according to ritualised routines. Everyone plays their assigned role.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIs it true you shot 120 hours of footage?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde<\/strong>: I had 56 days of filming, with two hours\u2019 worth shot each day. When you deduct the digital takes, you\u2019re left with 90 hours of real film footage. We just kept the camera running, even during rehearsals. It\u2019s important to me to play the same scenes with different nuances. Then, in the edit suite, you have to deal with all that material. But quantity isn\u2019t a problem for me. Because I\u2019m also my own producer, I know I can see the editing through to the end.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tYour leading lady Sandra H\u00fcller says you averaged 30 to 40 takes per scene\u2014that\u2019s starting to sound like Stanley Kubrick. Are you a perfectionist?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde<\/strong>: Yes. When making films you have to set the bar very, very high. For the actors, it\u2019s a tough process, repeating the same thing in various ways without losing the emotion or the precision.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe issue of a quota for women is always raised at Cannes. What\u2019s your view of the gender debate?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAde<\/strong>: I get asked about that a lot; since the film was released, it\u2019s become a bit more about \u2018Toni Erdmann.\u2019 At first I thought I\u2019d be wading knee-deep through the gender swamp at Cannes, surrounded by a thousand pitfalls. Clearly, there are too few women directing. We have to work out the best way to change that. For me, it was always important to know strong films by women, such as Andrea Arnold. These are role models, showing you what is possible.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tCinemas release: 14 July 2016
\n<\/h4>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For her debut \u201cThe Forest for the Trees\u201d, she received the Grand Jury Prize at Robert Redford\u2019s renowned Sundance Film Festival. With her second \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview-kino","category-kino","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}