interview with Roland Reber

Roland Reber author and director

interview with Wolfgang Seidenberg

Actor Wolfgang Seidenberg, known to millionens of tv-viewer as 'Frank Töppers' in the ARD sequel 'Marienhof', took over the main part in 'My Dream or Loneliness never walks alone' and plays the role of the MAN.

INTERVIEW WITH WOLFGANG SEIDENBERG (Role: MAN)

Why did the script appeal to you?

Already when I first read it, I had the feeling: I know that, this is related to me. And the way the story is told is extraordinary, because it is not packed in common storytelling patterns, but in an associative style which allows everything. And how on earth do you play that? How do I dream myself?

How was the work with Roland Reber and the team of wtp with its special working method?

The wtp-team assured me ever again that for this project there was a script only because I was to act in it and was used to this. After 12 years of TV work this is certainly true. The complete creative freedom that marvelously exists there, is not easy to cope with

Roland Reber realizes his directing credo consequently: not to dictate anything but to guide the work through talking and creating the „right“ atmosphere. In the final product really each participant can find himself and I rarely experienced such a harmonious production.

What is special about the role of the MAN? Are there parallels to your own life?

As I said: many thing seemed familiar to me (or at least I read it this way): the ongoing crisis of a man in his mid forties between all the requirements of life, the own demands and finding of identity. The thoughts about escape and the longing for a new beginning. The realization, that you take yourself everywhere you go and mix up a new beginning with an escape. And the character is annoying, like I annoy myself sometimes.

At first one thinks: the poor man, how everybody is harassing him. Little later you would like to shout: if you don’t like it open your mouth! Change something, stop playing the victim and wallowing in self-pity. This is the viewer reaction I would wish.

One can see that the MAN has tried to do self therapy: one recognizes logotherapy, psychoanalysis or family constellations, whereby the experiences from these therapies rather increased the chaos, didn’t sort the garbage of memories, but only shifted it. The identity suffocates under this mass of impressions.

For you, which is the key subject of the film?

Loneliness. Perhaps more precisely the self-isolation of the human being in the age of media. Because the crisis of the MAN isn’t merely weakness of character, in the flood of pictures of his life, he lost the picture of himself.

Is there an anecdote of the shootings?

During the nightly shooting at the pond for the sequence at the end of the film, the unpleasant experience how loud frogs can be in their pairing time.

Was there a difficult scene for you?

I don’t smoke anymore since 2 years, and then this! So the MAN rarely ends up smoking because he interrupts himself before lighting the cigarette. And then the ongoing question: where did I have the cigarette in which moment during the last take?

Do you have a favorite scene?

The harmonious togetherness with GODOT on an inflatable island in the sea of shit in the canalization.

How do you interpret the end of the film?

How I interpret the end of the film should remain my secret at first. But I’ll tell everybody who reveals his version.

Your counterpart GODOT is not explained in the film. What is GODOT for you?

At first the dialogue partner who leads the MAN through the night and nearer to himself with insistent follies. During the work I saw her as a sort of Fay, a woman who has something unreal, that’s why he can open up to her. He can’t talk to women otherwise – not really with men either. Well...

The interpretation of this character is also something I look forward to in the discussions with the audience.

Did this role enrich you personally?

As I already admitted that I know many of the behaviors of the MAN, the work on the role was also a work on what sometimes makes me despair of me. Although I don’t want to misunderstand my profession as a therapy, therefore you need distance. I can laugh about him, shake my head about the clumsy man in his turtleneck. Not only when I meet Mira, I often think: NO EMPTY PHRASES!  And certainly a work far away from the usual production constraints. The enthusiasm, which was present in this team, carries me somehow.

interview with Mira Gittner

Mira Gittner, who was awarded several time as actress, director and editor, was playing leading roles in the successful wtp-production '24/7 - The Passion of Life' as dominatrix and myth researcher 'Lady Maria', as well as in 'The dark Side of our inner Space', 'Pentamagica' and the awarded feature film 'das Zimmer/the room'. In 'My Dream or Loneliness never walks alone' - like in the other wtp-movies - she was also responsible for editing.

INTERVIEW WITH MIRA GITTNER (Role: GODOT│editor)

Which is the key subject of the film for you?

MG: Everything can be reduced to one single question, that’s why it reappears constantly in the film: Why? I often ask myself why do people do this or that, why do I do this or that or also the big Why related to life. In the reflection one might sometimes find an answer –but every answer raises a new why, it is an eternal cycle around a tiny little word which you can’t escape. This is the MAN`s situation in that night.

What is special for you about the character of GODOT?

MG: GODOT is the only character who has a name in the film. All the others have or are mere descriptions: the MAN, the WIFE, the FRIEND, the MOTHER, the TALKMASTER etc. Only in the fairy tale they get a name. Names which the child gives them, for example the fantasy name „Rumpelstilkin“, who is then being instructed / programmed how it has to be called: Rumpelstiltskin, with -ts-. Gone is the fantasy and the BOY becomes a MAN.

GODOT detached herself from the human role play („no empty phrases“), became authentic and lives the freedom of someone who became insignificant. Ignored or not understood by any fashion or trend, GODOT has given up to follow anything else than her own lonely way.

How was the preparation for this role? Are there parallels to your own life?

MG: When I have to play a role like GODOT, I have to find the approach first. With GODOT the approach was there from the start. I subscribe to the words GODOT says, I liked to scrabble in garbage dumps as a child and I also believe that what comes out of people in the bottom is more honest than what comes out in front.

So in contrast to my preparation for the role of the Dominatrix in 24/7 THE PASSION OF LIFE, where I stood in 3 nights in an S&M Studio to assist to get a relation to this, the preparation for MY DREAM or LONELINESS NEVER WALKS ALONE were reduced to the learning of the complete dialogues and the choice of an overall under which I could wear many pullovers, because of the cold temperatures.

In your opinion, what is the meaning of the character of GODOT? The MAN asks at the end of the film: „GODOT, who are you really? “

MG: „Think about it. “ –GODOT would say.

I don’t think about the meaning of a role beforehand, this would mean to force the role into a preconceived corset and it would remain technical. I hope I left GODOT enough room so that each viewer can have his own thoughts. To some people this may seem incomplete, but if the viewer wants a complete character described in every detail, he should look at a fashion catalogue.

Perhaps there is no meaning of the role, of life or no meaning at all. Perhaps the quest for a meaning is a survival mechanism, to give our life importance, because we are afraid of the insignificance. Perhaps we found the meaning in the moment, where we stop searching for it.

You don’t only play a main part, but were also responsible for the artwork and did the editing. What is your procedure for the editing? And how did the partly unconventional pictures develop?

MG: For me the best time begins with the editing. I can run free creatively during 3 months approximately. With the last shooting day Roland gives over the raw material to me with all artistical freedom and I try to unite it to a choreography of picture, word and music. And then I simply start, the ideas come and go and I am surprised every time about the accomplished film resulting.

In MY DREAM or LONELINESS NEVER WALKS ALONE on one hand there are the scenes in the night, between MAN and GODOT, they just had to be put together. On the other hand there are the thoughts of the MAN and I thought the distorted pictures with the stage or the screen in an empty space were an appropriate picture for the projections that we make in our life.

There will certainly be some people who have their difficulties with the fragmentation of the picture, particularly with the multiple screens or the virtual spaces that sometimes remind of expressionism or paintings. But I think one should always try new ways of expression if they suit the story. The perception in life is not reduced to a square, which a passive audience stares at in a dark room either. For MY DREAM or LONELINESS NEVER WALKS ALONE the viewer has to enlarge his viewing patterns, has to get into something unusual, has to turn into an active, rather than a passive viewer. I think there is enough passive entertainment and who is curious about something different, will enjoy this film a lot.

What was the special challenge for you in this film?

That there was a script beforehand this time – for us a totally new experience – and that I, being someone sleeping a lot, had to be awake all night and being cold quickly, I had to sit still in a sofa for hours at 5 °C.

interview with Marina Anna Eich

Marina Anna Eich, awarded with the Best Female Actor Award 2002 for the short film 'Call it love' who took over the role as THE WIFE in 'My Dream or Loneliness never walks alone' was already playing a leading role as 'Eva' in Roland Reber Film '24/7 - The Passion of Life' she played main casts in 'The dark Side of our inner Space', 'Pentamagica' and 'the room' as well as in other movie and TV-productions and shorts.

INTERVIEW MIT MARINA ANNA EICH (Role: WIFE│Production and Distribution)

Why did you like playing the role of the WIFE? Are there parallels to your own life?

In the last film 24 / 7 THE PASSION OF LIFE I played the role of the naive hotelier’s daughter Eve who begins to explore her sexuality trying to get closer to herself. A role which was often very revealing. It was very important to me to play a completely different character in the next film, to show that I know more than one way of acting.

There was the LOVER or the WIFE to choose. I didn’t have to think long. The WIFE represents the cliché of a deserted wife: disappointed, lonely, frustrated, withdrawn and sad. She misses the deeper communication and the sexual attention of her husband.

The role let me slip into a character different to me. What is nice about our working method is to participate in creating the role. Whether it is costume or make-up, every actor suggest how he sees his role and how he wants to play it. As the clothes of the WIFE are rather conservative and high-necked, some of my clothes were used, that otherwise wouldn’t have left the cellar again.

How did the production of MY DREAM or LONELINESS NEVER WALKS ALONE differ from the other wtp productions?

From the proceeding up to the completion of the film everything was different this time.

Our former productions were characterized by the fact that there was no finished script at the beginning, only a basic story. Day by day the story was developed, scenes were written, changed, completed. This is a long creative process.

This time there was a finished script of MY DREAM or LONELINESS NEVER WALKS ALONE. Another difference was the fact, that there was a big part of in-studio production. As we had set ourselves a time limit, we had to work with a shooting schedule this time. The idea to turn the former theater play into a film arose at the end of February. Until mid of May the shooting had to be accomplished as we were pressed for time. So we had about four weeks to cast the other roles and organize all the preparation: fix the shooting schedule, find a studio, find different shooting locations and get the shooting permit for them, get requisites, make-up artists, a technical crew and equipment etc. The outdoor shooting required a greater technical effort. With a lot of enthusiasm, daily work and little sleep we managed to get everything required. 24 shooting days without any day off were scheduled. Obviously this is exhausting, but this denseness was important and is reflected in the film.

Including the 3 months of editing the entire production time, from the preparation to the completed film was only 5 months.

You are not only actress, but also producer and line producer and responsible for the distribution and public relations. How do you cope with these multiple tasks?

Distribution and public relation work starts when the shootings are finished.

Obviously it was very stressful to prepare for the role in the quite short time of 8 weeks, to play it, and at the same time to be responsible for the locations, the logistic disposition of the crew and the whole shooting schedule, as well as for the well being of the other actors.

But as one can see it worked out marvelously without harming the atmosphere on the set. I can’t tell myself how this works. Sleep definitely came off shortly. But this was not so bad. I think you should do the things you do with your whole heart and dedication and full of joy. Then more than you might initially have presumed is possible.

Another positive aspect is certainly the film team, which consisted of only few very capable people so that a calm, quick and effective shooting was possible. In any case I can honestly say that the preparation and shooting period for MY DREAM or LONELINESS NEVER WALKS ALONE was very intense, pleasant and funny. I was absolutely sad when this time was over.

Do you have a favorite scene?

When FRIEND and WIFE meet under the tree, he walks away and leaves her behind alone on the red sofa, in order to rehearse a joke in front of a mirror but then breaks out in tears. This is added by the wonderful music by Wolfram. This is a very touching scene, which reflects the real loneliness of the characters.

Were there difficult scenes?

The shooting at the garbage dump initially appeared difficult: when we arrived to set up the equipment there was a huge truck parking exactly where our frame was supposed to be.

It was not easy to reach the responsible persons on a Sunday evening. The truck had to be driven away so that we wouldn’t have to postpone the shooting day. After having searched the local pubs with the „concierge“ of the garbage dump I was told by phone, that the driver of the truck went home to Chemnitz for the weekend and would return to take the truck only on Monday. I came back one hour later to the location. Meanwhile luckily another solution was found: a living room was built up in another frame, with utensils, which were found on the garbage dump. In the end, not taking into account the strained nerves, this alternative was a better picture and a special note for this scene.

How do you say: nothing is so bad, that it’s not good for anything.

For you, which is the message of the film?

The film is a journey to one’s self. For me GODOT symbolizes the unconscious of the MAN. The MAN lives through the most important aspects of his life again and turns into an observer, with a look from the outside, detached from society.

In my opinion the film shows the last minutes of the MAN before his death. But in the end, like for most of our films, it is up to the viewer how he interprets the film. There are several alternatives.

Did the role enrich you personally?

One draws out one thing or the other for the own private life from every role.

In this film it was rather the way how the film was made that enriched me personally: to make a wonderful film with few people, little resources in a very short time. The multi- functional tasks that I took over this time challenged and enriched me. You can do more than you might initially believe.

keit der Figuren widerspiegelt.