In an interview, Moritz Bleibtreu talks about the background to his directorial debut "Cortex", in which he also played the leading role.
Moritz Bleibtreu (49, "Soul Kitchen") is making his directorial debut with "Cortex" (theatrical release October 22nd). "It was a huge trip and I am very happy with the result," the actor explains in an interview with the news agency spot on news. Above all, he is extremely grateful to the people who made the film with him. "I had to pretend I knew what I was doing and my cameraman Thomas Kiennast helped me a lot."
In the film, Hagen (Moritz Bleibtreu) is plagued by uncontrolled sleep phases in which he can no longer distinguish between dream and reality. The deadlocked relationship with his wife Karoline (Nadja Uhl) suffers and her affair with the petty criminal Niko (Jannis Niewöhner) sets a disturbing chain of events in motion. A nightmare begins between reality and dream. Bleibtreu wrote the script, acted as producer and took on one of the main leading roles.
"The idea of making a BodySwitch film that approaches the topic psychologically and not in a funny way came up about ten years ago," explains Bleibtreu. He has since written and acted on several books at the same time. "At some point I got stuck with the fabrics that I developed. I wanted, as Quentin Tarantino always says so beautifully, to make a film that I would like to see on a screen myself." A great inspiration was also Christopher Nolan's "Memento" due to the narrative structure. "I found it so unique and new, it blew me away and I immediately wanted to do something myself."
Question of identity in society
As an actor, he deals with exchanged identities on a daily basis and thus "pretending to be someone else." At the same time it is a striking social phenomenon and also a problem: "How many people really live the life they would like to live? Many may have taken a wrong turn and do not even do what they really want to do," says Bleibtreu. As an excuse, they then dreamed into other people. As an actor, he himself is "happy when I can be Moritz, I really enjoy being with myself."
Bleibtreus film also deals with lucid dreams in which the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming and can act at his own discretion. It's a science and not something you just do on the side, explains the director. "You start with dream diaries and you become aware of what and when you dream and when not. That can supposedly be controlled at some point. There are people who claim to have parties every night on the beach in Jamaica." And how about his own sleep? He himself is not the best sleeper, says Bleibtreu. "My best resource is work, if you really work out, then you sleep well."
The cast of the main role was unclear for a long time
It was not planned that he would have played a leading role in his directorial debut. "I didn't want to act. I made the mistake of writing the book in the dark without having actors in mind. I'll never do that again. You end up in the devil's kitchen." At the casting, there were only six weeks left before shooting started. "I haven't really found anyone and thought to myself, before I make a half-hearted decision, I'd rather take myself and have to leave the buck with me if it doesn't work."
With the rest of the cast, he won the jackpot: "Nadja's special quality is the silent game, for the film, which is not exactly dialog-heavy, that was perfect. I've had Jannis on the slip for years, an incredibly wild, fine, intelligent player." The conclusion after his first work behind the camera: In addition to acting, he wants to remain loyal to the director's chair in the future, explains Bleibtreu. "I'm working on other things and hope that they will let me continue making films."