Bild zum Radiointerview: Leon mit Harmonium

Radio Interview for the SWR

Olga Morskov · October 15, 2016 · Presse · 0 comments

The radio station SWR2 interviewed Laurenz and Leon and created a nice contribution for our presentation in the Cinémayence. Definitely worth a listen 😉

A couple of extracts:

“The harmonium was standing in the hallway of the art academy. We carried it up to the room we built our set in and simply used it as a prop. Then someone actually played on it. In the short film we too have a scene with a song in it which was accompanied by this harmonium.”

Leon Pietsch

“You have the doctor who meets a talking monkey. And this confrontation results in the doctor’s crisis. I think, he goes mad in the course of the film, he himself, brutal and totalitarian.”

Leon Pietsch

And here the interview (transcribed in English):

Leon: The harmonium was standing in the hallway of the art academy. We carried it up to the room we built our set in and simply used it as a prop. Then someone actually played on it. In the short film we too have a scene with a song in it which was accompanied by this harmonium.

Saloon Nothingness: (soundbit)

Interviewer: Leon Pietsch, 21, author of the short film “Saloon Nothingness”. The harmonium, the bar and a couple of glasses. There was no need for more setting to create the atmosphere of a surreal western.

Saloon Nothingness – Lone Traveller:“My motorcycle is broken, but I have to go on.”

Saloon Nothingness – Bar Visitor: “Listen, fifty bucks and your ride will drive again!”

Laurenz: The story of the biker who loses his way into a saloon was inspired by Che Guevara’s biker diaries.

 Interviewer: Lauren Lin Sill, painter at the academy of art in Mainz created an extraordinary look for the 15-minute long animated film. A look that convinced Cannes’ entry jury this year as well. The film looks like a moving oil painting with dark, earth-like colours and broad brush-strokes. To create this effect the film team first recorded actors in front of a green screen in Mainz. Later Laurenz Lin Sill digitally animated the scenes with hand drawn pictures in China.

 Laurenz: I’ve been there before for a lot of internships. Eventually we ended up in Suzhou where I worked with 30 students for two weeks. We drew 5500 single frame pictures for the film.

 Interviewer: Its the second film for the young filmmaker duo from Mainz. Their debut “In the Pit”, a grotesque Film Noir with 90 animated ink drawings, dared to pose existential questions as well.

 Within the Pit: “A monkey, who slept unclothed in his filthy stable. This monkey settled down in the cellar of my hospital.” 

Leon: You have the doctor who meets a talking monkey. And this confrontation results in the doctor’s crisis. I think, he goes mad in the course of the film.

 Interviewer: The film had also gotten Leon Pietsch and Laurenz Lin Sill invited to Cannes’ “Short Film Corner” in 2015. This meeting place for aspiring filmmakers from around the world was like an achievement on its own for them both but also a reminder not to rest on their laurels.

 Laurenz: We were sitting at the beach at the edge of the festival’s German pavilion, looked over to the people there, skipped some stones over the water or simply talked to a couple of people, hoping to be where where they are someday.

 Interviewer: In order to accomplish this, Laurenz Lin Sill continues to follow up on German-Chinese art projects and Leon Pietsch starts to study at the Film Academy of Ludwigsburg. To share their experiences with others, both of them founded a collective for artists in Mainz. A collective of two dozen creative people who practice their skills in acting, painting, music and digital media. They are calling themselves “Leviathan”. A name that invites one to realize even grotesque and monstrous ideas.

You can also enjoy the original german interview:

The movie of art collective Leviathan will premier today in “Ciné Mayénce”

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