Interview with Maren Ade
Director and Screenwriter of The Forest for the Trees
Catherine MacLennan spoke with Maren Ade during the Vancouver International Film Festival.
CATHERINE MACLENNAN: You mentioned at the Q&A after the screening that German audiences laughed at the accent in the film. Why? And do all the characters have that accent?
MAREN ADE: All the characters have that accent. I wanted that because for me, it must be a part of a realistic film and I was interested in that because in most of the German films people are not speaking in accents. It is a little bit funny because the accent fits very well with the character and supports the character very well and some scenes are really more funny with that accent.
CM: Did you know the lead actress (Eva Lobau) before you made the film?
MA: No, people are asking that a lot of times because it fits so good together. And at a certain point it really felt a lot of times that I wrote that for her. I sent her the script and she called back immediately and she said, "Oh I feel so close to that, I want to play that, I want to play that," and we met.
CM: Do you get more feedback from teachers or people who went through a period of difficulty?
MA: Both. There were more women coming and saying, "Oh, I know that, I know what..." So, that's interesting...but I also got feedback from teachers like the teachers at the school where we shot it. We showed the film there, in a theatre, and most of them thought it was very realistic, but some of them were saying "Oh, that's not me, definitely not me at all, I've got nothing to do with that..." And I got a very nice letter from the rector of another school, he wrote that the film hurt him in a certain way because he remembers all the people that you couldn't help in his whole career (he was an old guy), you couldn't help, you didn't know what to do, or maybe you're looking away because they have to go into that classroom on their own. We had a very emotional reaction. In Germany, when we had a screening they reacted very emotionally to the film.
CM: Do you think people have no sympathy for a lone, wounded person the way animals attack a lone, wounded animal?
MA: I think they have but maybe they don't know how to deal with it at a certain point because it gets to close - that's what a woman said after the film - that they feel that she needs something. So because of that they hide or step a little bit back from people like that. But, friends, real friends, care about when someone, a friend of yours is in a situation like that. People who don't really know her are not really interested. Maybe they see it and feel there's something wrong but they have their own problems and don't care about that so much.
CM: Did you have a difficulty finding an ending?
MA: Yes, I tried several endings and I didn't have an ending, like two days before I started to shoot, so I was really, really nervous, because I recognized after a while that the story happening to Melanie doesn't have a natural ending. It would maybe take two or three years until she got over that a little bit, or I don't know, if maybe she should have changed schools, or go back, I don't know...but it wasn't like a crisis or a breakdown with an ending, with a point at the end. So I didn't find an ending in realism, in reality, so I felt like I had to leave reality...On the other side, it was like when we were rehearsing for that film, I was, like, "Oh, I need an ending, I need an ending..." And I look at her, and with the actress Eva Lobau, the character got so lovely and I liked her so much, I didn't expect that I would like her in that intense way, the character, so I just sat down, me personally, what would I like, what would I wish for that character to happen, and so I came to that point that it must be something big. So I wanted her to have a - it's kitschy - a miracle or something like that, something that is a thing that is bigger than the whole bullshit she has to go through. And then I drove around with the car and I got that idea. And for me, I wanted to find a relieving, a warm picture at the end. Choosing a car, and where someone gets his hand off the steering wheel. I should have thought a lot of people will think it's a suicide but actually it wasn't the issue for me. For me she's not a character that kills herself. I was so sure about that, that you would feel that because she stands up and stands up and it's not like that happens. I don't know if for some people that story is so dramatic and tragic the situation for them, the solution for them in this situation, somebody must kill themselves. But I don't know - it's ok, people can think what they like.
CM: Did you get any feedback from the children who played the students?
MA: We showed the film to the kids we were working with, to the fifth and ninth grades. They were in the cinema together. And after we showed the film, Eva, the actress, and I, we went into the classroom to talk to them. "We're finished, we made the film, you saw it, now we're talking about it..." And it was really an amazing difference how they took the film. Everybody understood everything - I was astonished. I didn't expect the smaller kids to really understand, but they know what's going on there, they know from their own lives, they know, not in that dimension...and the whole fifth grade was completely on the side of Melanie. They were like "This other Tina, she said to her that she doesn't want to have the boyfriend at the party, and why can't she play tennis with them, you can play tennis three also, that was so sad when she had to leave." They didn't feel like she was a nerd, because they are not trained on looking on that. And the ninth grades they said like, "Aw, she was so embarrassing" and "Oh, what a nerd" - they had a lot of words for that character.
CM: So they weren't as sympathetic, the ninth graders?
MA: No, not at all.
CM: Is it the pressure of the ninth grade - that you can't publicly admit...
MA: Sympathize - Yes - but that was very interesting because Eva said, "Don't you know that, when I was your age I knew it was the time I had a lot of those feelings, like finding me at home and crying alone on my bed, not knowing why. So this is the age you are in actually." Then you saw in the faces that they can't admit but they know what she was talking about because actually they are in a very woundable age. But the fifth graders were really like, "No that Tina, and she was so dressed up!" So that's what they don't like at that age. It was nice.
CM: You said your film school knows about the Vancouver International Film Festival. Why is it known there?
MA: It likes quality things and it's not a festival like Toronto, you can't reach really. And it plays good movies, independent movies, and that's something. It's not that far away, you can get there but it's something very big for a film student. It makes no sense dreaming of Cannes but it makes sense dreaming of Vancouver.
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CM: Do you have any upcoming projects that you're thinking about?
MA: I want to make a documentary. To try something else. But we still need money for that. I tried to write something new...I would like to make a documentary so I can have a fresh head, a fresh view...Now I'm always comparing. When I started writing, I'm always going 'Is that too close to Melanie? Is that too close to the film?' I always want to make something different.
The Lamp. November 2004