Recently screened at the Palm Springs International ShortFest and also getting a July 2019 screening at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Eileen Byrne’s thought-provoking drama short TOUCH ME, which focuses on the effects of Breast Cancer on a loving couple’s relationship, is another example of what can be achieved with limited resources.
Film and TV Now recently interviewed the director, Eileen Byrne about the short film.
Film and TV Now: Alice and Moritz’s relationship is a very intimate, if troubled, one given the circumstances and the consequences of Alice’s condition. Your lead actors.,Kristin Suckow and Max Bretschneider convey the right balance of emotional and physical requirements to a far more intimate extent than we have seen in a cancer-based drama. Tell us about the process of rehearsal and filming that went into achieving the very specific sexual requirements of the film.
Eileen Byrne: Max, Kristin and I had a first read through a month before shooting and it was during that meeting that I realised I had made the right choice in picking them both. They are both incredible and truthful actors and because they already knew each other before, I could feel a strong bond from that first moment onwards. So when we started rehearsing three days before the first day of shooting, we were able to start on a very profound level. We had talked a lot about the characters on the phone before. And then we started the rehearsal process with a “fake” diagnostic consultation led by an actress/gynaecologist friend of mine. I think that this moment, which was very emotional for both actors and created an even stronger understanding for both their characters and their relationship with each other, helped them in the continuous rehearsal process. We used the rest of the time to build the couple’s history through improvisations and exercises. On set the acting then was very intuitive.
FTVN: How have cancer specialists reacted to the depiction of the condition in the film?
Eileen Byrne: To be honest I haven’t had the chance to talk to any cancer specialist so far. But the reactions of people who have been confronted with breast (or another) cancer on a personal level or through a person close to them have been really positive and moving. And that is a big relief for me. We were also sponsored by the underwear brand Anita which creates underwear for women who have had breast cancer. And they seem to like it a lot as well.
FTVN: What is the significance of the dancer at the outset of the film?
Eileen Byrne: The dancer had a much bigger part in the original script actually. She used to come back in Alice’s dreams and kind of helped her to overcome her fears in the end. Unfortunately those scenes were thrown out in the final cut because they seemed to take away some of the strength of the “real” story between the couple. Butoh is a dance style that was created during the 50’s in Japan. Contrary to traditional dance forms it wasn’t supposed to be beautiful and light but instead focused on the floor and the earth and topics like death, illness and sexuality. The script writing process started out with my co-author Elodie Malanda’s idea to write a story about a dancer who has breast cancer. She was also the one to come up with the butoh idea and I found it very fitting for our story.
FTVN: There is a quote towards the end of the film “For you. As a tribute to your fighting spirit, your vitality, your love”. Was this directed at the audience, or at a specific individual?
EB: The quote was directed at two very close friends of mine who were diagnosed with cancer during the last few years. Both have a boyfriend who accompanied them all the way through treatment and the ups and downs that come with it. I wanted to dedicate the film to those couples and also to every other couple that’s fought its way through difficult times. I am in awe about what people are willing and able to do out of love and that was my way of honouring this.
FTVN: Tell us about your evolution as a Director from your time as a Script Supervisor and how has your experience in the latter helped shape you as a Director.
EB: The Script Supervisor jobs started out as a way to earn money and still work in the movie business. I continued doing it during my directing studies at film. It’s actually been a great way to be on set regularly even if not directing myself. And being so close to the director has definitely helped me move on as a director. During the past few years I’ve worked on feature films that were directed by close friends of mine who also let me work with them very closely on a directing level. That was a great exercise and has definitely helped me to sharpen my directing skills, especially in the work with actors.
FTVN: Tell us about your composing team.
EB: Marc-Sydney Müller and Carolin Heiss have a band called Superstrings and I had heard their film music before in other films and really liked it. I got to meet them through common friends of ours and was really happy when they agreed to work on my short. We got on really well and the work was easy and uncomplicated. We have been good friends ever since, which is wonderful.
FTVN: Tell us about the team behind the make-up and prosthetics.
EB: Philipp Rathgeber and Katharina Grethlein were introduced to me by my DoP Rebecca Meining. And they were just utterly amazing! The prosthetics had to be prepared a month in advance. They made an imprint of Kristin’s upper body (front and back) and modelled a 3mm skin made out of silicon which had to be put on in the mornings during 4 hours of very meticulous make up work. Kristin was standing and wasn’t allowed to move. As the prosthetics were tight and breathing became difficult we had to shoot all the shots with prosthetics first thing in the morning and do the rest later. This wasn’t the easiest task for the actors but they wonderful and uncomplicated.
FTVN: Where did you shoot the film?
EB: We shot it entirely in Munich. The apartment belongs to one of the producer’s friend and we loved the many perspectives and views across the rooms and through the kitchen windows.
FTVN: Touch Me, we understand, was a finalist at the 2018 Student Academy Awards and won numerous awards including Best Student Director at the 2019 European Cinematography Awards. Tell us about your relationship with your DP and what did those awards mean to you and your team?
EB: Being a finalist in the Student Academy Awards was indeed a huge honour. I was already very happy when my professor chose the film as last year’s representative for our school but I would never have thought that we’d get as far as the finale. That being said it is great that the film was screened at festivals like the Camerimage International Film Festival in Poland, the Max Ophüls Preis in Germany and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. We make films because we want to tell stories and we want people to see and be moved by them. And festivals are the best (and only) opportunity for short films to do that. Awards are really important for your career as a director though because it gets the attention of more people in the industry so careerwise it would be great to win more prizes.
(Annotation: The European Cinematography Award was actually just a monthly prize which qualifies for the yearly awards).
FTVN: You come from a mixed-race background and cultural identity, we understand, is a crucial part of your humanity. What genres and subjects are you keen to explore in the future?
EB: Yes, my life has been strongly marked by the four cultures I grew up with (German, French, Scottish and Luxembourgish). Apparently, when I was about seven, I slipped into my parent’s bed one night, crying that I didn’t know who I was. Although now I see my mixed identity as a richness and I would most likely define myself as a (Western) European, it wasn’t always easy as a child not to know where I belonged. Cultural identity and culture clashes have played an important part in my earlier short films and I am sure that the topic of identity will always find a way into my narratives, even if not always on a cultural level. It would be a dream come true for me to make use of my mixed background and work as a director in different countries. International and European co-productions could be a way of achieving that.
FTVN: We understand you are working on two feature film projects. Tell us more about these.
EB: Well I’m not yet allowed to talk about them too much. But I am currently writing the screenplay for a children’s movie which will be produced by a German and a Luxembourgian production company. I am also developing a script for a tragicomedy (with German screenwriter Evi Prince) about the generation Y and their struggles to come to term with being in their mid-thirties. I want to write a road movie for my two actors Max Bretschneider and Kristin Suckow, because the work we did on the short was so fruitful. But that is still at the very beginning of the development process.
FTVN: Were Alice and Moritz based on any real-life people and points of reference?
EB: No, the characters aren’t based on any real-life people. My co-author and lifelong friend Elodie Malanda was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago. So with her help I think I was able to develop a realistic story about the struggles of a young couple who has to deal with the effects of that illness. But the characters of Alice and Moritz are purely fictional and Alice’s way of coping with the situation is just one way that I think a person could react.
FTVN: Finally, what are your hopes for Touch Me, both as a short and as a potential springboard for future projects?
EB: Well, I hope that the film will have many more opportunities to be shown to audiences around the world. I think the topic is quite universal because people around the world are unfortunately affected by cancer or similar illnesses. But I can’t deny that I also hope that it will be seen by people in the movie industry who like the directing work I did. It is not easy to follow up on a short with a feature film But I am working on several feature projects and just hope that producers and financiers will trust me with the directing work because they have seen the short.
