FEATURE

Götz Spielmann: Comments on REVANCHE

Revanche is an emotional piece, like all my movies. The characters are searching, are infused with subconscious feelings of love, grief, revenge, longing, loneliness, affection, and compassion." Götz Spielmann on his new film Revanche

 

 

THE MOVIE’S THEME
I keep going back and forth: Is it about revenge? Is it about reconciliation? The
search for identity? These are all just catch phrases that don’t really say anything.
That’s not the way I work. Revanche is a story ? not theory enhanced by images.
Maybe what my films are trying to do is to get to the bottom of life by focusing
not on a social context but on existential questions. That’s my passion, what
sparks my curiosity, impels me: tracking down the substance of life, its essence
deep down inside. There is, behind all the conflicts and painful things I show in
my films, a fundamental spark of optimism – the conviction that life isn’t a
mistake, that it all somehow makes sense.

EMOTIONS
Revanche is an emotional piece, like all my movies. The characters are
searching, are infused with subconscious feelings of love, grief, revenge, longing,
loneliness, affection, and compassion. I like emotional movies, and I loathe kitsch
and sentimentality. They are manipulation, escapism. Emotions are not the
opposite of lucid thought and formal precision.


THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICT · PROSTITUTION
Behind the scenes in the red-light district everything is about making a profit,
about making a little money here, a lot of money there, or maybe even about
making really big money. Just about everything else takes a backseat. That’s the
essence of our society, the society we have created and in which we live. And it’s
also the basic problem. The red-light district is just a condensed version of our
civilization. Prostitutes sell their bodies; many so-called successful people sell
their consciences. They are respected figures in society, when in fact they are the
bigger prostitutes because they act out of greed rather than need. Instead of
abusing themselves, they abuse others, the environment, and the world.

NATURE IN REVANCHE
This is my first film in a long time where nature plays a key role. The woods, the
trails, the secluded lake, but also the light, the weather ? all these things are
important elements in the film. Revanche starts out with momentum, with a
strong plot, and gradually flows into a kind of silence: a powerful silence, I hope.
In my mind, nature represents the silence behind the conflicts. Not as an idyllic
refuge one can run to for relief, but as a force, an energy with its own almighty
intelligence.

THE LONELINESS OF THE CHARACTERS
Loneliness is probably an inextricable part of our modern lives, and yet I consider
it an illusion. We always think of ourselves as being separate from the world, and
in this way we deceive ourselves. This separation is just an invention of our
imagination, in many ways we are constantly and directly interwoven in a larger
whole. Loneliness is an attribute of our limited awareness, not of life itself. From
the outside, the old man appears to be the loneliest character, but I think he is the
least lonely of all. He has a clear identity, even if outwardly this makes his life
difficult. It is an identity nevertheless. And he has his faith. And he isn’t afraid of
death. He may be alone, yes. But he isn’t lonely.

THE FATEFUL INCIDENT/COINCIDENCE
I don’t believe in coincidences. Coincidence is just something our intellect can’t
understand. We only see pieces of the whole, never the entire picture. That is the
crucial challenge in narration: to take the “coincidence” that sets the story in
motion and embed it in such a way, condense it in such a way that it emerges in
a deeper context in the end. Ancient mythology is a great source to draw from.

THE MOVIE’S FORM
Working with cinematographer Martin Gschlacht is very intuitive, very precise,
without a lot of talk or discussion. Before getting started, we don’t really go into
resolution, concrete scenes, technical stuff, etc.; instead we talk a lot about the
story, its hidden meaning, about the formal basic conception of the film, about
rhythm, about style. We think these things out in detail before we start, then when
we shoot, we can work intuitively and precisely. I want to make movies that don’t
manipulate the viewer with effects. My style, the form of my films, which is
something I am constantly working on, aims at simplicity and clarity. That may not
sound spectacular, but it is difficult to do and I think that ultimately it has the
greatest power. I believe that the form of the film is where its individuality lies, and
this individuality is where true beauty comes from. Not in the “moral” or the
“criticism” or in vain demonstrations of “abilities.”

WORKING WITH THE ACTORS
I believe that acting is best when it combines vitality with precision. I try to help
actors with this, to guide them in that direction. All actors are different, each has
his or her own approach. That’s why I don’t have any one method either, but
various ones. It all depends.

PREPARATIONS
Irina Potapenko spent a few nights “incognito” in a brothel, drank champagne
with the customers, pole danced, familiarized herself with the job. Andreas Lust
spent almost a week at the police station in Gföhl, did alcohol testing, received
training at the shooting range, got to know the police officers and their lives.
Johannes Krisch spent several nights driving around the city with a brothel driver.
The actors incorporate this knowledge into the story, into their parts. The result is
a different kind of self-assurance and naturalness in their acting: true-to-life,
authentic.

THE MOVIE’S “HAPPY ENDING”
My movie doesn’t have a happy ending. Why should it? That’s just kitsch,
something that might make you feel giddy today, but tomorrow everything is back
to normal again. Despite all the terrible things that happen in the world, despite
all the problems and conflicts, I believe that life is right the way it is. That’s why
I’m only interested in art that is life-affirming. This gives it force and urgency. And
in this way it goes beyond mere reason.