The new Eberhofer thriller “Guglhupfgeschwader” (theatrical release: August 4) is finally conquering the cinemas. It is now the eighth film adaptation of a book by author Rita Falk (58). Not only have a lot of memories accumulated over the years, but also two amazing photo collections. The Bavarian actor Sebastian Bezzel (51) and his Austrian colleague Simon Schwarz (51) tell what it is all about in a double interview with spot on news. They also revealed what they would do with such a big lottery win as the one that causes a lot of happiness, disappointments and even an action-packed showdown in the crime comedy.
Simon Schwarz: The start of shooting is really like a big family reunion in a tavern. Everyone sits down with someone they have been connected to for a long time. But you also know how everyone else ticks. And as much as we all like each other, there are of course cliques in our film family that are a bit closer together or even travel together to family reunions. Our own families are now coming along on the cinema tour through Bavaria.
Sebastian Bezzel: Not really yet. Slowly but surely they are getting old. They saw one a bit, but in many places with their eyes or ears closed. The new Eberhofer thriller “Guglhupfgeschwader” is still too brutal for small children.
Black: For me it is divided. The little one is still too young. The two big ones are 26 and 22 years old and can of course watch the films. But it is your free decision. I haven’t gotten any feedback from them yet.
Bezzel: Our still photographer always makes little books with nice photos from the shooting. And at the film premiere we always get the photo book from the previous year. That’s a very nice memory. But I haven’t taken anything with me from the set, because we’ve always seen each other again after a few months: We’re shooting a film, then post-production follows, during which you can bump into each other. Then comes the promotion, the theatrical release and the joint press and cinema tour. And then the new Eberhofer thriller will be filmed again. We hang on to each other almost non-stop anyway, so you don’t get that nostalgic. Maybe later, when it’s over…
Schwarz: All in all, the memories and the films remain anyway – and they are the best souvenir anyway. But of course the question is whether these films can still exist in 20 years. You never know whether they are simply zeitgeist or whether they will become classics. We have no influence on that either. What I would like, however, would be good, old, analogue, non-photoshopped set photos of all the films.
Bezzel: I estimate that there are maybe 20,000 photos of the two of us together, just from the cinema tour alone. Probably more. And 19,875 is really bad. But there are very few photos that show us both as we are.
Schwarz: But then they wouldn’t end up in either of our photo collections. Sebastian and I have a photo collection with imaginary film awards. In the photos we hold objects in front of the camera and present them like film awards. We send each other such photos from all over the world. It’s a bit reminiscent of the garden gnome in “The Fabulous World of Amelie” [2001]. The collection is already very large and quite funny. The second collection contains humiliating and particularly unattractive photos of us. We’re big on that, too, I have to say. You can see, for example, ill-fitting smoking shirts, sweaty faces or the two of us next to each other in the bathroom: I have big breasts, so just fat…
Bezzel: … and I can clearly see the bulge one floor down on my stomach. In short, there are really many photos of us in which we lack any kind of aesthetics. But that also keeps us very much on the ground (laughs).
Schwarz: I don’t play the lottery because I don’t believe in that kind of luck, so my answer is very theoretical. But I think that I would mainly take care of my children with it. And would also make sure that my wife and I are looked after in old age. In contrast, pure luxury items would be the very last thing I would buy with so much money. Time and enough space are the real luxury.
Bezzel: For me, time and especially time with my family is the greatest luxury. I would use the money for that. What I wouldn’t try to do is make money because I’m just not a businessman. I wouldn’t buy cars or gold chains or anything like that either.
Schwarz: But what I could imagine is inviting friends to vacation in a nice holiday home.
Bezzel: That’s a good idea. I know a beautiful, very stylish and large finca on Mallorca. We got married then. If you rent it for a whole month for yourself and your friends and also hire a chef, it will be expensive, but it will also be really nice. That’s a real luxury for me… But overall I think that winning the lottery means a lot of stress.
Simon Schwarz: The next film will definitely be shot in autumn…
