An interview with director Florian Froschmayer:
"I'm interested in people and their abysses"
A director who makes both a suspenseful crime thriller and a funny comedy, that's what characterizes him - Swiss director and screenwriter Florian Froschmayer, who lives in Berlin. His comedy "Lovin' Amsterdam" will soon be shown on ARD's evening program. What fascinates him about movies? Why did he choose this path? DAS MILIEU talked to him about successes and lows, what makes a good actor or actress for him, and his entrepreneurial activities at the start-up SCRIPTtoMOVIE.
DAS MILIEU: Japanese director Akira Kurosawa once said, "I think a director always makes his movies for himself. If he says he makes it for the audience, he is lying." Do you agree?
Florian Froschmayer: Yes, I agree with that (laughs). I would say that I only try to make movies that I would also like to watch myself.
MILIEU: Mr. Froschmayer, you are a director and screenwriter. For what reason did you decide on this career?
Froschmayer: That's a very good question. To be honest, I can't give you a specific reason. The passion for film is simply inside me. Maybe that was also the decisive point why I failed the entrance examination to film academy - because I couldn't name a specific reason. Somehow there was no other alternative for me: This is what I always wanted to do. Since I was twelve. And I somehow could never explain that. I've also had phases in the course of my career where I asked myself what else I could do besides directing. But somehow I always came back to the conclusion that, although I have many interests, I'm actually doing exactly the job that I love.
MILIEU: Many young people dream of becoming a director. How does the dream differ from reality?
Froschmayer: The dream is much more glamorous to begin with, I think. It's a bit like a soccer player who has to train hard for the 90 minutes on the field. In reality, it's just very labor-intensive. But if you have that kind of inner drive, then this workload is no problem. I enjoy doing it, which is why I don't notice my 80-hour week. In principle, I never know what day of the week it is, because one is constantly working. I like to be inspired and then I'm already thinking about the next project. Many people who want to become directors or actors are surprised at how much work is involved because it looks so appealing from the outside. That especially if you want to do it professionally and at a certain level, you need this inner drive. Otherwise, I think it's just not enough. There are enough others who have this special motivation - you're in competition with them. And you have to want to go the extra mile so that you can basically make it your profession and make a living from it.
MILIEU: Your personal favorite childhood movie - And why?
Froschmayer: "Back to the Future" because the day I saw the movie I knew I wanted to be a director.
MILIEU: Watching movies as a kid, watching movies as an adult. How has your personal view of it changed?
Froschmayer: I always claim not at all! I am still a consumer and can very well let myself fall into a movie. It may be that if a movie doesn't catch me, I used to just sit there more bored than I am today, because then I start thinking, why doesn't it catch me - I just slip into an analysis like that. But that really only happens to me with movies that don't catch me.
MILIEU: In your experience, what factors make an actor or actress a performer of the highest quality?
Froschmayer: As an actor, you need talent, of course. But the profession of acting also requires a lot of skill. For me, the best actors are those who don't lose their gut feeling. I prefer to work with those with whom I notice that there is the skill, the spot-on brand, who can repeat something over and over again without losing the emotional aspect of a situation and an attitude. That's why I'm not such a fan of the method-acting approach. I understand the approach, but the bottom line is that film is also a lot of repetition and sometimes very technical. For me, the most fascinating actors are those who create an emotion and can call it up again and again when needed. There are great stage actors with whom I was able to shoot, for example Pauline Peters, or film actors like Mišel Maticevic. Both have mastered the art of acting and at the same time are great gut people. Mišel is an actor with whom you often discuss "It feels wrong to me" when working out a scene, when something is not yet right. With me, it works exactly the same way. With me, on the one hand, it's very analytical. On the other hand, when I see a rehearsal for the first time, for example, and the actors read for the first time what I've read a thousand times before, it feels wrong - then you have to get to the bottom of it. I really like actors who come along on that quest. I see my task as a director is to open a door for the actor and to open the way to emotions for him. He then has to create it himself.
MILIEU: So rather interactive actors …
Froschmayer: Yes, who are basically ready to open their soul, to look in there, to get something out and also to share what they have found. That can be, I think, for an actor, a very intimate and also painful process. As a director, I have to make sure that I give them the best bed possible so that they can let themselves go.
MILIEU: Your career path was certainly not without hurdles and obstacles. How do you look back at the difficult moments today?
Froschmayer: Well, there always will be some. Part of my job is also waiting and enduring not working. There are also phases where there is a zero-hour week. You have to endure that, too, especially if you are an active person. And I'm still learning, even after 20 years. That's something that still isn't easy for me. Of course, experience tells me that after a break, there's always something nice to come back to. But these breaks do exist. And you have to get through them. That's also something you don't think about at the beginning of your career. You really only think about doing things, but you don't know yet that you can't always do that.
MILIEU: In 2001 you decided to turn your back on Switzerland, despite fulminant reactions, with the reason: "There is no movie industry in Switzerland... I don't want to make a movie every six years, but six movies a year." Why did you no longer see any hope in your home country as far as the movie industry was concerned?
Froschmayer: So Switzerland has the problem of trilingualism in terms of the movie industry. And the audience is simply too small to be commercially successful. That means you are totally dependent on film funding. But their resources are also limited. There's also a lot of politics involved. And I tend to make films that are in the entertainment field, which makes it a bit more difficult to get financed. In the meantime, things have changed a bit. But back then it was the case that mainly heavy material from arthouse cinema was funded. That has changed a bit in Switzerland in the meantime. In television, they only produce their five movies a year in German-speaking Switzerland. Therefore, if you want to make a living from it, it's not really possible in Switzerland, unless you do advertising. But that didn't interest me that much when I started, so I went to Germany.
MILIEU: What distinguishes the German movie industry? Could you name a special feature that is more of a rarity in other industries, such as Hollywood?
Froschmayer: Yes - the type of humor is very peculiar. Especially in the cinema at the moment, comedy appeals to the audience very well. Drama, on the other hand, is having a hard time in the cinema. Crime thrillers are not really produced for the cinema at all, because we have an exorbitant amount of that on television, and genre films like thrillers or horror films are made in this country every now and then, but they find it very difficult to find an audience in the cinema. I think the fact that we have a very high-quality native television landscape makes it more difficult for cinemas to produce films. After all, why would a German go to the cinema to watch a crime thriller, for example, when he can see a first-run movie every night on some channel? On Monday there's a crime thriller on ZDF, on Wednesday and Friday there's usually a nice drama on ARD, on Sunday there's Tatort, and on Saturday there's another crime thriller on ZDF... People are very spoiled with high-quality first broadcasts on German television. The German television market is therefore very large and very stable, even if it has become less so - which makes it more difficult in the cinema per se.
MILIEU: On April 28th, the culture clash comedy "Lovin' Amsterdam," which you directed, will be shown on German TV channel Das Erste. Can you summarize in a few sentences what it's about - and tell us about a special/unforgettable moment during filming?
Froschmayer: It is a material that is very close to me. It's about a man in his early 30s who leaves his home country to find happiness somewhere else - which is what I did at that age. The great thing is that when you arrive in a foreign country, you first have to find and arrange yourself there, and then you fall in love. Everything comes together. Many beautiful things happen that I enjoyed directing, just being there. Especially in Amsterdam - a beautiful city to photograph with extremely warm people. We also had a mixed crew - a large part was Dutch, many of them Dutch actors. I had a lot of fun working with them.
MILIEU: Your cinema breakthrough came in 1999 with the film "Exklusiv". Without a centime of public funding, the film became a reality thanks to your creativity and by means of sponsoring and crowdfunding. In Switzerland, that was an impossibility, so to speak. What was the trigger for this path against traditional conventions of Swiss filmmaking?
Froschmayer: If you go back to that time, I was 25 and my producer Lukas Hobi was 23 - we were practically still kids - we would have had to apply for 3.5 - 4 million francs for our big dark thriller if we had financed it. We would never have gotten that. So in the end, the only way we could do it was to save the energy and effort of these funding submissions and look for other ways. At the beginning of your career, you are willing to work without money in order to realize your dream. The goal was to pay our team minimally. But we saw it mainly as a reference we were creating for ourselves. That's also the beauty of film - even now that I'm a professional - no one is forced to make a movie. These are all very passionate people who are in it. And when you're young and doing your first big project, it's even more passionate. That's why it was possible. Most of the people from back then are still in business today and have benefited from this movie. The one feat was certainly to raise a large chunk of cash cache via the economy in a country where commercial film is difficult in itself. This was at a time when product placement was not yet so socially acceptable. But somehow we managed to raise the capital and had people willing to go along for the ride.
MILIEU: You founded the start-up SCRIPTtoMOVIE out of frustration with the cumbersome processes during film work. The ambitious computer program facilitates communication between director, production team, cast and crew and eliminates hours of administrative ballast. How does a director get started in entrepreneurship?
Froschmayer: Firstly, because there was no such thing, and secondly, because when I did it, I was in a phase where I had one of those well-known lean periods. I kind of had to fill my time and then I thought about what else I would enjoy doing. I'm very interested in IT and then I thought about whether I should program the software myself or let people do it who can really do it, which I always find better in principle. That's why I then looked for supporters. It was basically like a small movie project: there was funding, a little bit of crowdfunding and a lot of personal contribution that wasn't paid for - like a first movie, but with a "first software". It's still insanely fun to me today. I'm very glad I did it and it's become a great product that I use again and again. I also used it to prepare the movie "Lovin' Amsterdam".
MILIEU: You have worked as a director for Tatort and certain other crime series such as SOKO 5113 or POST MORTEM. Is there anything outstanding that fascinates you about such crime series?
Froschmayer: I'm interested in the human abyss - why does someone commit a crime? That is my approach. Why does someone get into the situation where he has to kill his wife, his child, his boss? I find that much more exciting than the actual search for the perpetrator. I always choose the crime novels where the human abysses and the question about why are the focus and less the classic "whodunit". For example, I'm very fortunate that four of my "Tatort"s are exceptional in a way that they were able to deal with the perpetrator's perspective in great detail. In YOU WILL BE JUDGED, we even revealed the perpetrator. After thirty seconds, you know who the perpetrator is. The movie then takes a lot of time to show why he became the perpetrator. In BOROWSKI AND THE IDEAL WORLD, the commissioner takes the blame at the beginning - that's when we experience more of the commissioner's abyss. As a result, my crime novels are usually dark and very serious. But my comedies also function similarly in principle. Take the Amsterdam movie, for example. Our main character is in a big, existential conflict that he has to solve. I take this conflict seriously and the comedy then emerges from this seriousness - so it goes in both directions.
MILIEU: If you look at the film industry today and see what has changed over the years - what advice would you give to up-and-coming directors about the qualities they need to bring to be successful?
Froschmayer: Actually, there's only one quality for me: You have to want it at all costs. It has to be without alternative, because there are people for whom it is without alternative, and if you want to push through, you have to have the inner drive, otherwise you probably won't make it. But if you have that, you'll make it because you won't give up. And then you'll get to the point later where your dream comes true, I'm quite sure of that. If I've made it, others can make it, too.
MILIEU: Thank you very much for the interview, Mr. Froschmayer!