Mit Dogma 95 fing alles an.
Klar habe ich als Kind Filme gesehen. Und natürlich habe ich als Jugendlicher mir Hollywood Filme reingezogen. Aber so richtig interessiert war ich nicht. Das fing erst später an…
Und wenn ich mich recht erinnere, war „Das Fest“ der erste Film, der mich wirklich richtig mitgenommen hat, auf eine Reise in die Welt des Films. Danke Thomas, dass Du nicht im Abspann warst – sonst hätte ich nicht knapp 20 Jahre behauptet, dass ich Lars von Trier Fan wäre. Und ich habe mich die ganze Zeit gefragt, warum ich Das Fest so toll fand, zu den anderen Lars von Trier Filmen aber so garkeinen Zugang gefunden habe. Hahaha…
Gefühlt sehe ich seit damals so gut wie jeden Kinofilm. Was natürlich nicht wirklich stimmt, aber irgendwie hinkommt. Ralph ohne Filme? Gibt’s nicht…
Ich habe heute ein paar digitale Notizen gemacht, selten erlebe ich jemanden, dem ich so gerne zugehört habe, wie heute Thomas Vinterberg. Da kam sehr viel Weisheit aus seinem Mund heraus.
Mein Favorit:
Working with actors:
T“ake them out of their comfort zone and bring them back in“
Ein Plan:
Sollte ich wirklich mal diese Konferenz (die ich schon eine Weile mit mir herumtrage) Realität werden lassen, dann möchte ich Thomas Vinterberg unbedingt als Speaker haben.
Here are my notes with some annotations – thank you Thomas for this awesome insight!:
About working with actors:
Take them out of their comfort zone and bring them back in
Everybody needs rules
I had to invent rules „You freak out 50 percent, Empty a glass of water and go to 100%“
I invent rules and games
If you talk about collaboration clarity is the most important thing
If people are not sure about their competence but about who is in charge for what, that is liberating for them
My job is not to tell them exactly what to do
My job is to listen and to set limits
„Try to hide it“ and through the cracks of the surface the audience will see it (he brought the example of a drunken man. People tend to act drunk, which is boring. His take would be to let the actor hide, that he is drunk, and by nearly falling over a chair, he shows it for a second, and everybody knows what’s up)
About us people, and life:
We are irrational
Awkwardness, irrationalities, After the third rewrite they disappear, life disappears
(he gives the example, that after a long party someone says „I need to go now“ and then sits around for another 30 minutes. This is something you would normally edit out in a script, but this is how life is happening in his opinion)
about good stories:
If it stays with us, we have succeeded
What always saddened me, while working in the theatre: When the last curtain falls, it’s gone
About his main theme:
Inpermanence of being
A way to make yourself curios is to put yourself in danger. If you are too safe you become preoccupied. Go to where you are not sure what is happening.
What binds people together is risk.
Someone in the audience asks, how to be a good/strong director, without acting like a dictator. Before this questions Thomas Vinterberg was already stressing his take on responsibility on the set. It seems a great deal to him, to make responsibilities clear from the beginning.:
If everyone knows at the end of the day it goes over your table, you could be really open to suggestions.
And it helps if you define the space (where options and opinions of the others could play a role)
Show me, and if I like it, I will take it
