Marianne is the new film from Filip Tegstedt (check out the trailer here).
The film was shot on location in Östersund, Jämtland in Sweden. It is almost all filmed in natural light due to the light summer nights that far north. Even better all of the effects are practical – no CGI.
Written and directed by Filip Tegstedt who started his own production company to make it as he could not find a producer willing to shoot it on location.
MARIANNE is a psychological horror drama about a broken family in the small isolated town of Östersund, located up in the Swedish northlands. Among the pine woods, the lakes, the snowy mountains and the midnight summer sun, the story takes place on the fuzzy border where fantasy and reality meet.
It stars Thomas Hedengran (Frostbiten, Jägarna, Den Osynlige), Peter Stormare (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Armageddon), Tintin Anderzon (Tic Tac, Adam & Eva, Håkan Bråkan & Josef ), Sandra Larsson and Viktoria Sätter
Filip was kind enough to answer a few questions about the film.
For those just joining us can you explain what Marianne is all about?
Well, the simple answer is, it’s about a guy trying to keep his family from falling apart after a tragedy, while he’s being haunted.
The more complex answer is, it’s a post modern approach to ghost films. Krister is trying to figure out if the thing that haunts him is actually a physical presence or a psychological one. He doesn’t know really, and I’m leaving a lot up for the viewers to decide. What it boils down to, is that the border between what’s real and what isn’t is both VERY fuzzy and subjective.
Does that answer make sense?
Don’t worry. There’s humor in it as well.
How did you end up making a movie? What is your background in film?
I started doing films back in 1999, when a couple of friends of mine were shooting an amateur movie that was never edited or completed. I was already a film geek going way back (I think I became a geek when I was around 10) so it was a natural transition making a ninja movie.
I studied screenwriting from 2003 to 2005, and did my internship on the set of Corpse Bride at 3 Mills in London thanks to a guy I knew at Aardman who set that up (thanks, Scratch!), and also in Stockholm on some TV shows.
After that I’ve done solo projects, a few simple shorts and a web TV series, but the main goal has always been writing and directing feature films.
So it’s taken long enough.
What makes Marianne different from other horror films?
For one thing, it’s the only film that’s ever really explored the town it’s shot in. There have been a few films over the years with exteriors filmed here (The American, Hjem Til Hjul, Varg (also with Peter Stormare)) but this is the first time the story takes place here in town and explores the local scenery. It’s also the first time a Mare from Scandinavian folklore is featured in a film as far as I know.
From a story perspective, like I said the film is very post modern. It’s actually more of a family tragedy drama with a horror structure than it is, say, The Grudge.
In fact, I would say this is the “Anti-Grudge”. This is what it would be like in absolute real life if a person experienced a haunting. In fact, there’s a scene in the film, it’s my favorite scene (we also get great reactions from people who see it) which is like the anti-thesis of the exorcist scene in The Exorcist.
This is how a movie like that would play out in real life.
So it’s very un-horror-atmospheric and more naturally mystical and in places kind of funny. Because that’s how real life is up here.
That’s why I usually refer to it as American Beauty meets Repulsion.
What films have influenced your work?
I borrowed a lot of the overall structure from Dark Water, which is a brilliant film. I love the way the story unfolds as two simultanious time lines.
Donnie Darko is one of my favorite films, because it kind of forces you to ask questions about what’s happening and figure it out and that makes it interesting. It works, because the film itself is just really fun to watch. It’s got some great drama and a lot of really good humor in it.
The way Don’t Look Now balances on you not knowing if there’s something supernatural going on or not until the end is really great.
That’s another thing I love about An American Werewolf in London too, that David really isn’t sure if he’s crazy or not. Plus the atmosphere is very un-horror-like from frame one and it works great.
I took a lot of visual cues from Ringu (obviously I’m a big fan of Hideo Nakata’s), not that I tried to copy what he did, but more like I wanted to figure out what made Dark Water and Ringu work so well and try to use those techniques for the horror scenes in MARIANNE.
The Shining also has a lot of interesting camera work.
Finally, Murnau’s Nosferatu was a major visual and thematic influence as well.
Overall, I would say Nosferatu, The Shining and Ringu are probably the three most well made and thought through horror films from a craftmanship perspective.
If you could have made any movie what would it have been?
There are a lot of ideas I’d like to do. I guess at the moment what I would love to do most is an Excalibur / Conan the Barbarian type raw viking film about the about the Norse Gods and a young viking who seeks his father in Valhalla. I’d love to do it in ancient Scandinavian tounge and cast great Swedish actors. I’ve got great casting ideas (which is never a good thing to reveal prematurely) for that, stuff that would blow you away and say “holy fuck I wanna see that film right now” but I’d need money to make it and that’s a tough sell in Sweden because it’s not a criminal cop drama and it’s not a relationship comedy and with a few exceptions, those are the types of films that are made the most here.
But there are other films I want to make as well, that could be done on a ridiculously low budget like Marianne was. I’ve got an idea for a time travel film (kind of like a nightmare version of Back to the Future meets Somewhere in Time), a post modern paranoid cyberpunk noir thriller… stuff like that.
If, you know, there was money for it.
How did you assemble such a great cast?
Luck, mostly. Thomas (who plays Krister) was a friend of my script analyst. Peter Stormare happened to be in Sweden when we shot the film, and he was on his way north to shoot Jägarna 2, which is the sequel to what is probably Sweden’s best thriller ever (Jägarna, which is a really good cop drama).
Tintin Anderzon, who plays Sandra’s mom and Krister’s wife, is my favorite Swedish actress and has been for a long time. She won a Guldbagge (which is like winning an academy award in Sweden) for her role in Adam & Eva, and that’s one of my favorite Swedish films ever (it’s a relationship comedy).
I really wish I could have given her more to do in the film, but it was important for that character to be a small beacon of light in an otherwise very dark reality. She has a very small role, but it’s also very important and her presence is felt throughout the film because she is missed by the characters. It’s like after someone you care very much about dies and you can’t call them anymore. Somehow they don’t exist anymore. It’s that feeling.
She was nice enough to do this little film because she does a lot of stuff like this. I think she enjoys it. Also, she and Thomas know each other.
Sandra was one of those rare finds… I had been looking Everywhere for a girl around the right age who could act and had the right accent. That was impossible to find. I couldn’t even find anyone to audition because none of the actresses at the film forum I was looking had updated their profiles in forever so they didn’t get my emails.
Then, on a whim I changed the search settings and apparently there was a bug in the system because I found Sandra. She looked the part, except she wasn’t goth, but she did have the look in her eyes. I sent her an email and she called me up two hours later. When we shot the pilot she worked hard as hell and she’s great in the film. It’s her first major role, but she’s really talented so I hope she’s going places.
Dylan, who plays her boyfriend, and is sort of a mentor character to Krister, was the only sure thing in the film. He’s an old friend of mine and we did the web-TV thing together. I wrote the character with him in mind and he’s the kind of guy who goes in and delivers a scene without being an actor. He’s got great natural comedic timing.
First film you remember watching?
I don’t remember the first film I ever watched.
But the first horror film I saw was Draugasaga, which is an old made-for-TV horror film from Iceland directed by Viðar Víkingsson (it’s not on IMDb).
It’s a ghost story that takes place at a TV station, and one of my inspirations for Marianne.
Favourite film of 2010?
I didn’t get to see that many movies this year because we shot the film. I try to watch at least a few hundred films a year but there’s been a lot of work lately.
Watching True Grit, The Fighter, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Le Samourai on 35mm at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin (which is hands down the best movie theater in the world) in one day (together with a bunch of other great, great films) and ending it with a trip to the Imax for a preview screening of Tron Legacy was the best film watching experience at least in 2010.
What are you working on next?
We’ll see. I just need to sell Marianne first and pay back a loan I took to make it. But I’m looking at a few things.
What will you do differently on that one?
I won’t write, direct, produce AND finance it. I’d love to just write a screenplay for my next directing job while I produce someone else’s film.
Where and when can we see Marianne?
Not sure yet, but if you join http://facebook.com/MarianneMovie you’ll be sure to not miss any updates. Also, keep a lookout on our twitter ( @MarianneMovie ) and help us retweet links and stuff because this is a really low budget film. Our entire production budget was 150 000 USD, so we can’t really afford buying ad banners and stuff. Word of mouth is important to us so we need help spreading it.
