GFQ 2-2007 - german films

Watch her shorts and you’ll know she tells the truth when she affirms,
“I love emotional cinema.” But the kicker is that she loves emotional
cinema that derives its power from the script and cast, not directoral
theatricality. “I thought Woody Allen’s Match Point was fantastic,” she
continues. “Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm, The Graduate, Lost in Translation,
too. I like tense, emotional stories that show the characters’ inner
conflicts. They’re plot-orientated, certainly, but the main driver is the
emotional. Personal feelings are most important,” she continues, “I
build on my own experience and build that into the story.”
And then, just when you think we are about to take the Arthouse
Autobahn, she mentions ET as one of her favorites and then cites Star
Wars and suddenly we’re cruising the Hollywood Highway!
“Feelings and moments become part of the fantasy and story-telling.
I’ve read and studied the classic three-act-structure, the story of the
hero – it functions just like the Star Wars principle – and I stay with the
classical narrative methods but I love it when genres get mixed. You
can have crossover with realism, sure.”
And given that the mainstream is also a broad stream, von Ribbeck
also “loves thrillers because they leave so many possibilities open,
such as The Cut from Jane Campion. Match Point is also a thriller but
it tells so much about human relationships.”
So what kind of director is she? She tries “to get the actors to bring
in as much as possible about their own lives. I work long and closely
with them, building up a basis of trust to create an ensemble film. We
talk a lot about role and character. We talk our way into the characters
and create them between us.”
Now, finally unleashed to talk about her latest film, Frueher oder
Spaeter, von Ribbeck immediately expands her definition of teamwork
to those behind the camera, singling out co-author Katharina
Held, editor Natali Barrey, casting agent Bernhard Karl, music con -
sultant Martin Hossbach, first AD Petra Misovic and camerawoman
Sonja Rom for praise.
On the writing process, von Ribbeck says she “likes working with coauthors.
You talk, you get new ideas, you toss them around. It’s less
lonely! The ideas are your own but team working opens new doors,
new opinions, inspiration and confrontation. Katharina made the
whole process very constructive and I’ll co-write with her again on my
next film.”
While some are content to film the storyboard, von Ribbeck is ready
to seize any opportunity that comes her way if it adds to the film,
such as “when you come across a great prop, like this small ballerina
that turns on a box. I took that immediately! I have my plans and ideas
but am ready to change. If rehearsals give the actors the opportunity
to develop the character then I take that as well. Likewise with the
locations.”
She says she also cares very much about the other partner in the relationship,
the audience, “to give them a view of life they might not have
had before. I like it when films stay in the memory, touch and affect
people.”
Then she reels off another list of people, whom she thanks for making
Frueher oder Spaeter happen: Kirsten Niehuus of Medienboard
Berlin-Brandenburg, Lucas Schmidt of ZDF’s Das kleine Fernsehspiel,
Georg Steinert at ARTE, actors Lola Klamroth and Peter Lohmeyer,
producer Steffi Ackermann, Michael Weber and Tobias Pausinger of
The Match Factory, and very much Georges Goldenstern and
Catherine Jacques at the “Atelier de la Cinéfondation” for their support.
Von Ribbeck is now working on the treatment for a thriller about a
young manager who is mobbed and tries to discover who is behind it.
“He’s lost his job, his life and woman,” she says. “It’s about control.
How strong must an individual be? Personally and socially? We live in
a performance-orientated society and I’m interested in what happens
when this society, or the family in Frueher oder Spaeter, falls
apart; that threat in the everyday when the familiar comes under
pressure.”
Now about that name … Yes, lovers of classical German literature
everywhere, Ulrike von Ribbeck is related to the Herr von Ribbeck im
Havelland in the poem by Theodor Fontane!
“Kids had to learn it at school,” she says, “and the name’s always
associat ed with it. He was an ancestor and I get people reciting the
poem to me! It happens a great deal!”
Like all young and new directors, von Ribbeck is “optimistic about the
future. I’d love to work in France as it inspires me, but there is also so
much talent in German film and good stories can and will be told.”
Simon Kingsley spoke with Ulrike von Ribbeck
german films quarterly director’s portrait
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