Flightplan (2005)

Flightplan - Ohne jede Spur

The Interview with Robert Schwentke (Director)

Jodie Foster didn't make it to the European premiere of Flightplan at the Zurich Film Festival. The film's German director Robert Schwentke showed up at the red carpet instead and proved what a smart man he is. Exactly the person you would imagine Foster, a person able to select projects and the people involved on her own, would like to work with as a director. The man seems to have various interests besides making movies. No wonder the Hollywood star praised the Stuttgart-born as a "renaissance man" in recent interviews.

Schwentke started to study philosophy and comparative philology in Tübingen before going to the US for his bachelor and a masters of Fine Arts at New Yorks Columbia College and the American Film Institute (AFI) respectively. His intention always was to get the know-how over there and come back to make European films. Flightplan is his first US-film after the semi-biographical Eierdiebe and Tattoo. The latter winning awards at the Fantastic Film Festivals in Porto and Lund.

With OutNow.CH the director talked about his influences to become a filmmaker, the Airbus A-380 and the first edition of the Zurich Film Festival. The interview ist not completely free of spoilers. So you might want to skip it if you have not seen Flightplan yet.

» Deutsche Übersetzung

OutNow.CH (ON): How did you end up in Hollywood?

Robert Schwentke (RS): Because I couldn't get a job in Germany. (laughs)

ON: Did you you go there to "develop some stories" or were you first approached by Brian Grazer?

RS: I went to the US with a specific project that I have been offered. It was a Disney project that didn't get made because we had trouble casting it. The person we wanted to cast wanted too much money. It didn't happen for that reason.

ON: You wouldn't mention any names, though?

RS: No! They had the script of Flightplan, which was a very different story back then. They gave me that and said we would like you to do this instead. I read it, had some thoughts and talked to them about it.

ON: Was Brian Grazer already attached to it at that time? Has Grazer ever told you where he saw Tattoo or did he see Eierdiebe?

RS: He saw Tattoo. Tattoo was also the movie, the Disney people saw which got me the initial offer in the first place. That really was the movie.

ON: Do you know where he saw it?

RS: I think he had a private screening. They usually do.

ON: Since you started studying philosophy I'm wondering if you always wanted to become a director? When did it first occur to you?

RS: I found a camera when I was eight or nine years old. I've always exposed film in a way or the other, cut it together. In the beginning I was just fascinated by the fact that you have a very narrow strip of celluloid that you then put into a projector, turn it on and all of a sudden the little strip becomes huge and you can project it onto walls. That was what got me into that kind of game. I started with experimental films but most of the people in my family have academic careers. To go to university was what we did. And I didn't have anyone in the family who was involved in the arts in any form. Not even the ubiquitous uncle who did landscape painting in his spare time. Directing or even writing of films never was a profession that I even considered a profession. It was never on my radar as an option. So I started pursuing an academic career. Studing also subjects that I knew wouldn't lead to do what the rest of my family does, which is to be a teacher. But I kept making films on the side. At some point I realised that I was really studying my hobby and that I was pursuing what I really wanted to do as my profession as a hobby. It was a sad day in my familiy when I announced that I wanted to be a film maker because as far as my family is concerned these people are about a notch above circus folks.

ON: Marc Forster mentions Apocalypse now a the movie that made him want to become a director. Do you have a movie as well that influenced you very much?

RS: With me it was Alice in den Städten by Wim Wenders. In Stuttgart I was so far moved from any kind of film making that I considered films also something that wasn't done in a cultural context known to me. Films were things that came from France, from Spain, from Hollywood but certainly not from Stuttgart. I saw Alice in den Städten and for the first time I had the feeling that I was watching a movie that was born out of the exact cultural context that I moved in. It was not shot in Stuttgart but I knew the cities, streets and houses and the people. I knew the journey to go some place else and coming back. It's fair to say, that when I grew up at least, Germany was a cultural colony for American Culture. So I discovered a lot in that movie that rang truthful to me and that felt very real and I realized that film is not something that you can't do whereever you are. You can find stories in your own life.

ON: Speaking of colonies. There is this German colony in Hollywood with Petersen, Emmerich und Zimmer as the biggest names nowadays with a german origin. Is there some feeling of belonging together among the Germans working in Hollywood?

RS: I don't think there is big colony. I know Roland Emerich since we are both from the same town. There is a common denominator there, we have mutual friends and we know each other. But outside from Roland I don't know Wolfgang Petersen. I don't know Hans Zimmer.

ON: Let's talk about Flightplan then. The airplane plays a major role in the film. It is a specifically designed plane for the movie. But it still share similarties with the Airbus A-380. Was Airbus ever aproached to participate in the film?

RS: No. Because we pretty much knew that they wouldn't want us to do what we had to do with their airplane. We knew that we have to design our own but we took the idea of a double decker airplane large enough to lose a child in from Airbus. We could stay away from a purely sci-fi concept for the film and sort of rooted it in a true-to-come reality.

ON: It's a common fact that airlines don't like their names to be seen in movies. Why do you think that is?

RS: I think it's copyright. The names are taken.

ON: But they had FedEx very prominently in Cast away. A movie where the plane crashes twenty Minutes into the film.

RS: I don't know.

ON: Are you a special fan of planes?

RS: No. But I like the idea of a story that takes place in a contained single environment. This is an interesting proposition for any film maker - how to make that work and how to keep that interesting.

ON: They never go out of the plane in Flightplan. There usually are some scenes from the tower and other places on the ground in those kinds of movies. Not so much in Flighplan.

RS: It was a conscious decision to never leave the plane. There is one shot of the outside of the plane when it is in the air. For a long time that wasn't even there. We stuck it in to make sure that people knew it wasn't going down when the air masks are falling down. Altough the movie was obviously shot in a studio environment we made the decision never to have the camera outside of the actual tube of the plane. Because I believe that if you remove a side wall and you put the camera ten feet away and you put a long lense you still have a close up or you still have a medium shot but the audience without even knowing why questions the integrity of the space.

ON: You said after Tattoo "A script is not the bible but a preliminary structural design." Would you still agree after making a big budget Hollywood movie?

RS: Same thing.

ON: You can still shape things the way you want it to?

RS: You have to. How do you know it's going to work if you have never seen it with actors? You have to adjust. It has to come to live. Just because it reads well doesn't mean it plays well. You have to constantly rewrite. The last line, when the girl says "Are we there yet?" was something we did right there on the spot. We needed to see the people smile. Can they crack a joke? So we put that line in.

ON: How much did 9/11 influence the making of this film?

RS: I don't think you can pretend 9/11 didn't happen. Especially if you shoot a movie on an airplane. In fact we saw it as an opportunity to comment on the xenophobic sentiments and the fact that we now live in a world that you have to look over your shoulder when you board a plane.

ON: What was your reaction on the boycott messages from the Association of Professional Flight Attendants?

RS: You know, my best friend from grade school is actually married to a flight attendant. So I know her very well and I know her colleagues very well. And about 95 percent of things they say in the film is directly from them. As far as the other stuff is concerned that goes beyond quotes I think that the audience we'll be able to discern what is fact and what is fiction.

ON: Were you not mad that they spoiled the movie for the Europeans who haven't seen it yet?

RS: I don't know. There is nothing I can do about it I guess.

ON: What was your impression of the the Zurich Film Festival after the premiere yesterday?

RS: I thought it was terrific. I had a great time. And I think everybody else did as well.

ON: What are your expectations for working with the Jury?

RS: I don't have any because I haven't really done it. So it's all going to be new to me. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to seeing movies. I love watching new movies, discovering movies. This is an opportunity for that.

ON: Honestly. What was your first reaction when you heard of a Film Festival in Zürich?

RS: My first reaction was: "What do you mean, they don't already have one?" (He laughs).

ON: To finish this up I would like to give you some keywords and you just tell me what pops into your mind first.

RS: Good that I am sitting on a couch.

ON: Jodie Foster

RS: Wonderful actress and wonderful human being.

ON: Swiss Films

RS: I love Alain Tanner. Where is he from? From Lausanne?

ON: He's from Geneva.

RS: Godard who now lives and works in Switzerland. Das Boot ist voll which I really like a lot. And then I think Mike Eschmann went to the same film school as I did a couple of years after me.

ON: Lot's of new movies and a wonderful retrospective of Fassbinder movies.

ON: Movie sites on the web

RS: Mmmh.

ON: Do you have a favourite one?

RS: I don't. (He laughs)

ON: So it might be OutNow.CH soon.

RS: Exactly. I will log on to it! Today!

ON: Thank you very much.

06.10.2005 / rm