Dinner with Die Besonderen Fähigkeiten des Herrn Mahler (The super powers of M. Mahler)

Interview with Paul Philipp, director of Die Besonderen Fähigkeiten des Herrn Mahler (The super powers of Mr Mahler)

 You’ve managed to solve a crime story in under half an hour on screen. Are you interested in developing feature films? If so, are you interested in any particular genre?
Yes, I am continuously looking for interesting topics, and maybe one of them will be worth telling as a feature film. I am especially interested in topics which inspire me in the field of drama/thriller including the subgenres mystery thriller, action thriller and psycho thriller.

 How did you get into filmmaking?
Since I saw my first live-action movie at the age of 12 I have wanted to make movies. I studied media sciences and commercial film directing. In the last 15 years I worked in the advertising business, directing commercials, copywriting and concept designing. In the past few years, I worked on “Mahler” in my spare time, my first thriller short film.

 Could you tell us about the casting process? 
Fortunately we were supported by one of the best and most famous casting offices in Germany. With them we discussed the options concerning the criteria we had. For our story we needed actors with a very authentic and subtle way of acting, who would fit the period of our historic film. The casting office had direct contact to all our favourite actors, so we could meet face to face and work together on the characters.

 Any future projects you can tell us about? 
So far I can just say: it’s not me searching a topic, I always wait until a topic finds me. And until that happens, I am just looking at everything interesting in my life.

 Any cinematic coups de cœur in the past year you’d like to tell us about?
My “cinematic” recommendations from the past year are more or less TV series, which caught me more than the movies at the cinema, like e.g. Deutschland 83 or Weinberg.

 If you’ve already been to Clermont-Ferrand, could you share with us an anecdote or story from the festival? If not, what are your expectations for this year? 
I have never been to the festival. I have no specific expectations but I am very curious about the other films, I will try to watch as many as possible. And I am looking forward to meet nice people.

More information on your film:

 Are any other releases scheduled? Are you taking part in other events during the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival? (Espressos, Conferences, other?)
The film will premiere at the festival Max-Ophüls-Preis in Saarbrücken, Germany, at the end of January.
For now I am not sure which other events I will take part in during the Clermont- Ferrand festival.

Die Besonderen Fähigkeiten des Herrn Mahler is being shown in International Competition I9.