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12
The light at the end
of the tunnel
DIRECTOR ANNO SAUL
VisionARRI: For your new film, The Door, you
surrounded yourself with many familiar faces.
How did the project come about?
Anno Saul: Ralph Schwingel, Jan Berger and I always
wanted to do a follow-up project to Kebab Connection,
which Jan and I had co-written. At some point Jan
pitched a project to me that Björn Vosgerau – a
producer at Wüstefilm – had approached him with. That
project was The Door, based on the novel Die Damalstür
by Akif Pirinçci, and I immediately responded to the
material. Now all we had to do was convince Ralph
Schwingel at Wüstefilm, who had some concerns.
Among other things, he thought that the main character
in the novel wasn’t likable. But we made the necessary
changes and also altered the ending of the film.
VA: What is The Door about?
AS: It’s the story of a man who has made a big mistake
in his life. He had a beautiful home, a lovely wife and
an adorable daughter. But returning from the house of
a neighbour with whom he has just had a sexual
encounter, he finds his daughter dead in the pool; she
has drowned. In the events that follow he loses his wife
and their home, and then we fast-forward: four years
later he’s completely washed up, very unhappy and
wants to die. During one of his futile attempts to take his
life, he by chance discovers a tunnel behind a bush and
goes into it. He walks towards a light at the end of
tunnel and finds a door. Opening it, he steps into a
world that looks very much like his old life – a time
when he was still very happy. He watches the younger
version of himself walk over to the neighbour’s house
and realises that he has a chance to make up for his
mistake and rescue his daughter. Then, in a fatal turn of
events, he encounters his younger self.
VA: So, the basic theme of The Door is
redemption; the opportunity to revisit one’s
past and alter the course of one’s destiny?
AS: Exactly. The film contains two separate yet parallel
worlds. The characters in both are the same, but
displaced by four and a half years. One of these worlds
– that of the older, suicidal character – is a wintery,
extremely cold and dark world. The world that existed
the day of his daughter’s death is a bright and sunny,
summery world.
VA: Did you create the bright and the dark
worlds in-camera?
AS: No, we could only create this duality during
grading. The wintery world was graded normally but
the summery world we cross-processed, to get more
contrast. The light parts came out even lighter and the
dark parts even darker. Overall, the colours came out
more desaturated; we got a grittier look that way, an
effect we increased the further we got into the story.
That was our visual concept. We also picked up the
pacing. The Door’s structure escalates; everything in
the film escalates over the course of time.
VA: Florian (Utsi) Martin was your colourist on
The Door. What do you consider an ideal
collaboration during grading?
AS: Ideally, the colourist makes an effort to understand
what it is the director and the DoP want to accomplish,
and then implements that vision technically and
creatively. Grading is an important part
of the creative process and therefore of
the language of film. This language, as
well as the entire range of technological
possibilities, has to be put to use in the
service of the story the film is trying to
tell, not in the service of current trends in
terms of what is ‘hip.’ The collaboration
with Utsi Martin was fantastic and
mutually enriching. Colour matching was
very important on The Door. First came
the broad strokes, then we went in and
worked out the details.
VA: Was this your first
collaboration with
cinematographer Bella Halben?
AS: Yes, and I enjoyed it very much. Bella
is an extremely competent DoP – highly
talented and a great person; very
creative and effervescent. Hundreds of
her ideas made it into The Door.
VA: After directing comedies such
as Where is Fred? and Kebab
Connection, how did you end up
in this genre and with such a
serious story?
AS: Prior to the two comedies, I made
Green Desert, which is also a drama.
When Ralph Schwingel submitted
Kebab Connection for funding, he was
asked why he had chosen me to direct
the film because they considered me to
be a drama director. Now I’m only good
for comedies? No, I like to dabble in
different genres and to play with their
parameters – that’s what’s challenging.
VA: Have you ever shot digitally or
are you planning to?
AS: In the last couple of years I’ve
watched several student films that were
shot in HD and I was impressed by how
great they looked. But students have a lot
of time to fiddle with things and to work
on the look they are going for. Personally,
I still feel that film has an imperfect yet
vibrant quality. And there is something
else that’s essential for me: I have to be
able to rely on the equipment; for
example, I shot three TV movies in
Sweden and learned that cameras can’t
ever malfunction – period! It’s a
catastrophe when they do. You’ll lose
three days of shooting if you are in
Gotland or somewhere in the backwoods.
To me, that means taking equipment that
has been refined over the last 30 years;
that just keeps running and won’t quit
when water gets in or when it gets
extremely cold; equipment that won’t let
you down – like the ARRI cameras. Sure,
when I’m in Cologne I can get another
camera within an hour, but not in Gotland.
VISIONARRI
VA: Why do you like working
with ARRI?
AS: When I was in film school I worked
with ARRI and I made my first feature
there. I went to ARRI whenever I could.
It wasn’t always possible, but if I had a
say, I chose ARRI. I prefer it because it’s
where I get the best support. At ARRI
you’re surrounded by people who not
only know what they are talking about
and support the filmmakers and their
projects, but they also love cinema! The
people at ARRI always do everything
possible to ensure that your film comes
out as good as it possibly can and the
size of the budget never matters – their
dedication is always equally high!
VA: We wish you the best of luck
and a great turnout for the fall
release of The Door.
The Door is a Wüstefilm / Wüstefilm Ost
production co-produced with Senator Film
Produktion. The film was released
theatrically on November 12, 2009.
For more information, please visit Senator
Filmverleih (www.senator.de). ■
Katja Birkenbach
13
Photos © Senator Film