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| VIFF ’06 Interview - Four Windows director Christian Moris Mueller |
Four Windows now at the 25th VIFF (www.viff.org) |
by Jason Whyte
“They want to get away from each other, but they clasp each other even more firmly. They seek to save appearances at all force. The more they laugh, the quieter it gets around them. The cracks in the family picture widen until an inescapable secret reveals itself.” – Christian Moris Mueller, director of “Four Windows” at the 25th Vancouver International Film Festival (Sep. 28 – Oct. 13)
What is behind Four Windows?
I wanted to look into the question of what family really means. On the one hand, it’s a place of love and devotion and on the other one of abuse. I’m thinking of abuse of power structures. I wanted to observe the family that you occasionally meet in lifts and that you don’t normally learn much more about than what is on the surface. I have tried to describe this surface very precisely and to ask about the relationships that are below that surface.
Lastly it’s also about the longing for love and the longing to be touched. In the family there are firm structures within which everyone uses certain strategies in order to get love. Very often the very image of love is enough. We’re constantly creating these pictures of love. Actually I only examine this surface: the image of the happy family that is consistently honoured.
Is this your first film in the VIFF? (Or the first film you have) Do you have any other festival experience? If you’re a festival veteran, let us know your favourite and least-favourite parts of the festival experience.
Four Windows is my first film in the VIFF. It was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, Filmkunstfest Schwerin (Germany), Cinema Jove International Film Festival (Spain) Milano Film Festival (Italy) and the International Film Festival of Young Filmmakers (Cinefest, Hungary). After Vancouver it will be shown at the Festival de Cine de Bogota (Columbia), Internationale Hofer Filmtage (Germany) and the
Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival (Ukraine).
Could you give me a little look into your background (your own personal biography, if you will), and what led you to the desire to want to make film?
I began my creative career as a student of the Heinz Bosl Foundation’s Ballet Academy in Munich. My photographs were concurrently on display at the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. After I graduated as a Communications and Fashion Designer at the Deutsche Meisterschule für Mode, I studied acting and theatre directing at the Herbert Berghoff Studio in New York City. Since autumn 2000 I have been studying film directing at the Hochschule für Fernsehen and Film in Munich.
What was the biggest challenge in the production of the movie, be it principal photography or post-production?
The most important challange in the production was in finding the famous cameraman Jürgen Jürges who had already worked with Rainer Werner Fassbinder Fear Eats the Soul, Fontane Effi Briest), Michael Haneke (Code: Unknown, Cache”) and Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Faraway, So Close!). This was a dream that had finally come true for me. I looked for him in the telephone book, called him and asked him if I could send him my script. One day later he called me back and said that he wanted to do the film. It was an awesome experience for someone to agree without even having made sure what the conditions of production are but instead allowing his decision to depend entirely on the script. Jürgen enquires precisely what story you want to tell. His images are the answer to these questions. The two of us have a kinship in visual language.
Please tell me about the technical side of the film; your relation to the film’s cinematographer, what the film was shot on and why it was decided to be photographed this way.
I wanted a very direct visual language, focused precisely on what was important. I made a decision for long shots that were not edited in order stay with the characters for as long as possible. I have a problem with hyperkinetic editing. The viewer forever has to concentrate on a new picture and a new rhythm. This has a scattering effect and destroys the moment. Apart from that, it’s a visual language that takes very carefully into consideration: what can I see and what can’t I see? We often filmed people who reacted and less often those who acted. In listening faces there is often more to be read than in those that are talking. This has to do with our behaviour as humans. The moment we speak we take on a particular poise and begin to play a role. The direct reaction to this is more immediate and true.
How far do you think you would want to go in this industry? Do you see yourself directing larger stories for a larger budget under the studio system, or do you feel that you would like to continue down the independent film path?
Right now I am preparing a film for a bigger audience and at the same time another dirty little film for a special interest audience. dirty little film means a very personal story that still keeps spaces open for the audiences imagination.
If you weren’t in this profession, what other career do you think you would be interested in?
I would love to be a composer or conductor.
Please tell me some filmmakers or talent that you would love to work with, even if money was no object.
I would love to work with the French actress Isabel Huppert. And I would love to work again with my cameraman Jürgen Jürges. Jürgen, do you hear me?
Do you think that you have “made it” in this profession yet? If you don’t believe so, what do you think would happen for that moment to occur?
When Isabel Huppert calls and asks my secretary to send my new script, I know that I have made it.
Do you have an opinion on the issue of “A Film by (Insert Director Here)” ? Is this something you use? Many people collaborate to make a film yet simultaneously, the director is the final word on the production.
My films want to make the audience happy, yet differently as you would usually expect. I go for a mid term effect. The audience should feel that my descriptions have something to do with his own life. I want him to see people in my films that have the same fears, longings and hopes that he has himself. I want him to see human beings as ugly and nasty as he is. I want him to see human beings that are as beautiful and loving as he is. I want him to see a world that has a lot to do with his own world. I want to show the audience that he is not alone.
What would you say to someone on the street to see your film instead of the latest blockbuster playing at the Paramount?
If you want to risk, having a look into your own eyes, come and see Four Windows.
This film scratches at the surface of everyday reality. This is a consistently enthralling and at the same time painful cinema experience.
No doubt there are a lot of aspiring filmmakers at film festivals who are out there curious about making a film of their own. Do you have any advice that you could provide for those looking to get a start?
I would advise them not to focus on filmmaking too fast. It is important to keep your eyes open in many different directions. The time before you start the camera is the time where you find the story you want to tell. Don‘t go to film school to early. If you just finished high school, take your time to travel and explore the world. If you are over 30, build up a network of people that are still in search of different perspectives and avoid people that are “settling down to build up their life“.
And finally…what is your all time favourite motion picture, and why?
I adore Ingmar Bergman’s film “Cries and Whispers“, a portrait of three sisters that are all longing for each other but don‘t succeed to break the barriers between them. It is a film of cineastic volume and tender silence.
The 25th Vancouver International Film Festival runs from September 28th to October 13th, 2006. To see when this film is playing, and for more information on other screenings, happenings and what is going on at this year’s VIFF, point your browser to viff.org. – Jason Whyte, jasonwhyte@efilmcritic.com
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=1953
originally posted: 09/28/06 04:31:32
last updated: 10/31/06 20:39:15
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