Quotes

[on the Anna Bronsky character in The Audition (2019)] You see that she is someone who looks for a special tone and not the technique. She says I hear something in a man. There is something special that is so beautiful, it opens the room up to something. You say, oh that's a great teacher. That's what you look for. Then, when she doesn't succeed herself as a musician, she falls back on the old world like all the others and goes work, work, work. It's what you know. Always in moments of insecurity, you fall back into the old patterns; where at least you kind of know what is going to happen. So, you go back to this room and are stuck with this opinion that you just have to work hard. It's not about feeling "forget it", because she punishes herself. It's all against herself.

[on conceiving The Audition (2019)] It was a long process. Layer after layer, we just started with a woman who's torn, trying to find her place in life. It was very clear she was a musician and a violin teacher and then step by step, we built out the family and the conservatory. Some scenes I knew years ago, so it's not only one moment that's a story. It comes to concentrate.

[on shooting The Audition (2019)] We had a flat and two days later they say, 'No. We can't use the flat.' I thought, 'Oh, no.' I had worked with my cinematographer Judith Kaufmann and the crew. I said, 'We can do this here.' This process we did three or four times. People do not want the shoot because there is no place for the car anymore. The school was a big thing. It's not a story about we're here at one point and another point and action. Everything must be believable. It's a film about work not art. What is art? I wanted to show musicians working. Sometimes Judith would say, 'It's so beautiful here.' I said, 'No. It's too beautiful. I need something not too real and beautiful.'" The visual language was influence by Ingmar Bergman and French cinema. I like François Truffaut because of his characters and the warmth in his films. But not in every film. It is the same with Bergman. I enjoy his humanity and films such as All These Women (1964). I can't say that I want a movie made like that. Sometimes it is a point of view. It comes together from many things."

[on her collaboration with Nina Hoss in The Audition (2019)] Nina Hoss has made the character of Anna her own through intensive work. She also practiced on the violin, which was of course time-consuming and complicated. Working together was a wonderful experience for us.

[on screenwriting] I like to write together with somebody because I can hear your thoughts and share mine. We put them together into something new. If you're always alone you're like an amoeba. Sometimes it's necessary to be alone. It's always about the idea. I love to work with Daphne Charizani; to find a good co-writer is like having a close friend or husband.