Marie Kreutzer has had a hand in lots of Austrian movie productions. Her first function movie, “The Fatherless”(“Die Vaterlosen”) (2011), has been proven and awarded at quite a few festivals, together with the Berlinale Panorama Particular. As well as, the movie was nominated for the Thomas Pluch Screenplay Award and the Austrian Movie Award. It was adopted by the function movies “Gruber Is Leaving” (“Gruber Geht”) (2015), “We Used to Be Cool” (“Was Hat Uns Bloß So Ruiniert”) (2016), and the TV movie “Die Notlüge” (2017), which have been additionally proven and awarded at festivals. Along with her work as a director, Kreutzer has labored as a lecturer on the Vienna Movie Academy and as a screenwriter and dramaturge.
“Corsage” is screening on the 2022 Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant, which is working from September 8-18.
W&H: Describe the movie for us in your individual phrases.
MK: “Corsage” is a movie about Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who is likely one of the essential vacationer points of interest in Austria. She has turn out to be a fable, not solely due to her personal story but additionally due to how the well-known movie “Sissi,” starring Romy Schneider, performed with that fable. “Corsage” is a really completely different tackle Empress Elisabeth, a movie about her darker facet, her revolt towards the function she was speculated to play, which included staying younger and exquisite eternally. The story of a lady who has to please as a way to be cherished is common and timeless.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
MK: When studying the biographies, letters, diaries, and so forth, of Elisabeth, I sensed that her silent revolt is a recurrent theme in her life. The whole lot we all know or suppose we find out about her pertains to that. She was a smoker when smoking was considered unhealthy conduct for a lady, didn’t contact any meals when pressured to sit down at official dinners, traveled the world at any time when she may flea Vienna, constructed her personal sports activities gear, and went on in depth hikes or horse rides when being sporty or match was not fashionable or necessary for anybody. She actually lived in a golden cage and tried to broaden her place’s boundaries so far as she may.
I used to be drawn to her advanced character. Each portray of her seems completely different. She performed together with her function, and I’m persevering with that, for her.
W&H: What would you like individuals to consider after they watch the movie?
MK: I by no means make a movie to carry individuals to a sure conclusion. I don’t take into consideration the viewers and what they are going to suppose in any respect, not as a result of I don’t care, however as a result of that will result in assumptions. I can not management the viewers and I might not wish to. I really feel very privileged that individuals determine to take a position two hours of their life diving into my creativeness. I wish to give them pleasure, emotion, inspiration, I wish to fill them with photographs and sound, and I need them to really feel completely free to go away the theater with no matter resonates with them. That may be very various things, as I do know by now. If I could make them take away a tiny factor for themselves, I shall be pleased.
W&H: What was the most important problem in making the movie?
MK: The co-production, as a result of [that process] was new to me. It was my fifth function movie, however the funds was 2.5 instances as excessive because the funds for the movies earlier than. The dimensions was new. There have been so many individuals concerned, with a lot of them new to me. Coping with all their ideas, solutions, expectations, was the most important problem for me, personally.
W&H: How did you get your movie funded? Share some insights into how you bought the movie made.
MK: It’s a European co-production which was funded by varied public establishments in Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, and France, in addition to total European establishments and TV networks.
I’ve not made one movie the place there was “sufficient” cash. It at all times appears like too little. Budgets are a major factor of filmmaking — “How can we do that for much less?” I may discuss this for hours. I at all times say, negotiating is likely to be the most important a part of my work. I really feel like I’m negotiating more often than not — “I really want this, so I is likely to be prepared to surrender that,” and many others.
W&H: What impressed you to turn out to be a filmmaker?
MK: That second if you sit down in an enormous room with individuals you don’t know, the lights happening, solely that massive display screen and also you experiencing one thing collectively, and by no means realizing the place it will take you — in your creativeness, your ideas, your feelings. It nonetheless will get me, each time.
W&H: What’s the perfect and worst recommendation you’ve acquired?
MK: The very best was from my professor at movie faculty, earlier than my first brief movie: “It’s a must to make quick selections. Should you don’t know already, determine anyway, as a result of the crew has to belief that you know the place you’re going.” I nonetheless take into consideration that. I’m superb at quick selections now. It’s all about follow! What it actually says is that you would be able to’t wait till you are feeling prepared earlier than you begin. You by no means really feel absolutely ready, the script by no means appears completely completed, and within the edit you possibly can go on eternally. However there is no such thing as a “proper” approach; it’s not arithmetic. You will need to belief your intestine.
The worst recommendation was the other: lots of people telling me that the script for my first function movie was too “massive” for a primary function movie. “Shouldn’t you do one thing smaller first?” No. You at all times must work on what you are feeling drawn to, not what appears affordable or higher strategically. Not less than that’s what I feel. You want a bit megalomania on this job, otherwise you gained’t get anyplace.
W&H: What recommendation do you’ve for different girls administrators?
MK: It’s a must to cope with the labels they offer you. Some males nonetheless have hassle having a feminine boss, and they’re going to discover a label to placed on you that may damage you. You wish to be favored and brought critically on the similar time, however truthfully, you may’t have that from all of the boys. In the long term, you must discover males to work with who don’t have these points, nevertheless it’s troublesome to know upfront. There’ll at all times be a person to inform you what you can not have or what he thinks he is aware of higher. They’re in all places and it doesn’t matter in case you are a 25-year-old making your first brief movie or a professional who’s 56.
Just a few months in the past, in post-production on “Corsage,” I leaned over to my DOP, who has accomplished about 100 nice motion pictures, and stated to her, “Do you suppose he’d speak to us like that if we have been two guys?” We laughed as a result of the reply was a really clear “no.” The man was youthful than each of us, so that you don’t solely get it from older males.
W&H: Title your favourite woman-directed movie and why.
MK: I feel that’s “Misplaced in Translation” by Sofia Coppola. To me, it’s her greatest movie. There’s a German phrase that doesn’t exist in English, “sehnsucht,” a combination of longing, melancholy, and the necessity for one thing you can not identify, and all my favourite movies have lots to do with “sehnsucht.” “Misplaced in Translation” is a chic, melancholic, but humorous movie, and accomplished with an excellent lightness, as if all the things got here to the director’s thoughts spontaneously. I like that.
W&H: What, if any, obligations do you suppose storytellers must confront the tumult on the earth, from the pandemic to the lack of abortion rights and systemic violence?
MK: To me, an artist doesn’t have any obligations apart from being an excellent individual. However, in fact, I admire it when a narrative touches on topics we’re confronted with in actual life. I desire it to be accomplished in a refined approach, and I don’t suppose you essentially must make a movie a couple of particular warfare or pandemic to say one thing about our world, about humankind, and the way we stay collectively on this planet.
W&H: The movie trade has an extended historical past of underrepresenting individuals of colour on-screen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — unfavorable stereotypes. What actions do you suppose must be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world extra inclusive?
MK: I’m for quotas, not as a result of they’re excellent, however as a result of nothing else works or adjustments something. Filmmakers reproduce stereotypes on a regular basis, principally as a result of it’s the best approach, not essentially as a result of it’s what they consider in. The viewers is used to stereotypes and is aware of learn how to learn them, whereas they’re nonetheless greatly surprised if, for instance, a feminine essential character just isn’t an ideal mom or a 58-year-old with gray hair. We should educate and problem our personal perceptions first as a way to train the viewers and to alter these simplified photographs all of us have in our heads.
Supply: Women And Hollywood
