The Area of ​​Interest, by Jonathan Glazer | On the other side of the fence

In The area of ​​interest, a chilling adaptation of Martin Amis’ novel by Jonathan Glazer, Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller play Nazi officer Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who spent quiet days with their children in their house adjoining the Auschwitz camp. Interview with the two actors.

Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, The area of ​​interest strongly marks the return behind the camera of the all too rare Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast, Under the Skin). Adapted from the novel by Martin Amis, who died the day the film was presented in Cannes, this chilling drama plunges us into the intimacy of Rudolf Höss, a Nazi officer who designed the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, his wife Hedwig and their five children.

To play this couple, Jonathan Glazer called on two high-caliber German actors: Christian Friedel, notably seen in The white ribbonby Michael Haneke, and the series Babylon Berlinby Tom Tykwer, and Sandra Hüller, star ofAnatomy of a fall, by Justine Triet. Met by videoconference, the actors did not hesitate to admit that what attracted them most to the English filmmaker’s approach was to shoot at a good distance from the cameras, to play continuously, without knowing if they were being filmed. in close-up or wide shot.

“From the beginning, I wanted to act in this film; I was fascinated by its staging, says Christian Friedel. When I approach a role, I am first interested in the nature of the character, but in this case, it was really the technical aspect that interested me. When I first saw the film, I really grasped the full scope of Jonathan’s vision. Shooting a film involves several technical aspects that must always be kept in mind; for this one, we had the freedom and luxury to experiment with several things without worrying about cameras. »

“It was very liberating,” adds Sandra Hüller. There are so many things to worry about while filming that acting almost becomes secondary. With Jonathan, it was completely the opposite. This helped us a lot to approach our characters, to bring us back to the essence of theater. Obviously, on stage, we are aware of the presence of the spectator; there, we were focused on what we were doing, on our playing partners as if we really lived in these places. As the team members hid, all our attention was on the action, we were in the present moment. That’s what I liked most about this experience. »

The horror, so close

If the life that the Höss lead seems idyllic, on the other side of the fence the worst horrors take place. While thick gray clouds regularly invade the sky, we hear the rolling of trains, orders shouted by the SS, gunshots and the cries of pain of the prisoners. And yet, Hedwig Höss claimed that she knew nothing about the work of her husband, director of the largest extermination camp.

“Have you ever heard a Nazi admit the wrong he did?” asks the actress, approaching the camera. What strikes me so far is that no one has apologized for what they did. Person. Everyone says that they only did part of the work, that everything was compartmentalized, that they only obeyed orders. Hedwig knew what was happening, she was not at all oblivious to her husband’s actions. »

“We weren’t able to shoot much in the Höss house because it’s too old and a family lives there, but I was lucky enough to shoot a scene there,” says Christian Friedel.

Apart from the chimneys spewing out the ashes of the bodies of the prisoners, Jonathan Glazer never shows what takes place in the camp, leaving the viewer the task of reconstructing the facts from archive images and fiction already seen and from what ‘he hears.

“There were several noises that reached the Höss house,” explains Sandra Hüller. Sound designer Johnnie Burn and Jonathan did meticulous research: all the sounds heard in the film reproduce those that were heard at the time. So it was impossible to ignore what was happening behind the fence. »

“All these scenes are based on the testimonies of survivors, therefore those of a woman, who died before filming, that Jonathan met. The scenario, which is adapted from the novel by Martin Amis, bears the trace of his memories,” reveals the interpreter of the Nazi officer.

A marriage of convenience

Praising her partner’s performance for having found a particle of humanity in this man who loves nature and is concerned about the well-being of his family, the actress claims to have approached her character by focusing on the impact of household chores, gardening, pregnancies and the weight of guilt on the body. To maintain a distance between herself and Hedwig Höss, she preferred to imagine her as a kind of Lady Macbeth: “In the play, she is really the driving force behind her husband. As a feminist, I thought this was the right direction to take. »

“With Jonathan, we also discussed a lot about the sexual aspect of the couple,” continues Sandra Hüller. Did we really want to see these two in bed? Not really. So we focused it on the friendship between them. What mattered to them was to lead a peaceful life like before the war. While there was all this violence around them, while millions of people were dying, they never reprimanded their children or raised a hand against them. In fact, they seemed like a very modern couple, which is very disturbing since it brings them even closer to us. »

“Everyone who worked in the house knew that Rudolf and Hedwig Höss were having extramarital affairs. I think it was more a marriage of convenience than love. She was the queen of the garden and the hearth, and he was the king of this horrible kingdom that he himself had designed,” says Christian Friedel.

In theaters on January 19 in Montreal and January 26 elsewhere in Quebec