“I love music – and that’s why I leave it out.” Says director Christian Petzold, who is presenting his new film at the Berlinale.
Director Christian Petzold (62) has a hard time with music in films. “I have big problems with film music,” he said on Wednesday at the presentation of his latest film “Red Sky” in Berlin. “Maybe that’s because we’re surrounded by film music. We die in film music. We go into the elevator, music is playing. Music is playing in every shitty pub,” explained Petzold. “I love music – and that’s why I leave it out.”
In “Roter Himmel” film music is only used very sparingly, such as the song “In My Mind” by the Austrian band Wallners. He accidentally heard it on the car radio when he was still writing the screenplay. A few days later he got the single and knew that it should be the song for his film. The wonderful thing about not streaming, watching normal analogue TV or listening to the radio is that you are surprised. “And don’t pick out what you want to hear, but something that you didn’t have on the screen.”
“Red Sky” tells the story of several young people who are staying in a holiday home on the Baltic Sea and are threatened by forest fires. He came up with the idea for this, among other things, through fever dreams during a corona disease in spring 2020. Petzold said he lay in bed for four weeks and during this time had dreams that all happened in summer in clearings. The devastating forest fires in Turkey also played a role in the development of the story. At the time, he and his wife visited the affected areas.
For “Red Sky” Petzold worked again with actress Paula Beer. Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt also play. The film is in the running for the awards at the Berlinale along with 18 other productions. (dpa)