The fact that Rosalie Thomass’ and Aron Lehmann’s first joint film project “Jagdsaison” is coming to the cinemas of all times follows a plan. At first glance, this has something to do with the time of year, as the film promises light, summery entertainment. You can really use that at the moment. Then it’s also a women’s comedy – and this genre seems to be particularly popular in the German film industry at the moment. There have already been a few of these in the past few months, and even more will be launched in the coming weeks. The humorous worldview of men is not in demand right now, even Germany’s most sought-after movie star Elyas M’Barek recently ventured into queer-feminist terrain in “Liebesdings”.
“Jagdsaison” is also about feminism: the story of three women in their mid-thirties who don’t like each other but go on a weekend trip anyway, doesn’t shy away from gags and silliness, but has a clear stance. And this is built on love and self-respect.
Rosalie Thomass, Marie Burchard and Almila Bagriacik in “Hunting Season”.
(Photo: Tobis Film/dpa)
That’s why it’s worth taking a second look at the film, that’s why you want to meet the two of them: the actress and the director have been a couple for many years, but they have hardly made any public appearances as such. They got to know each other in Berlin, where the native of Munich moved after graduating from high school. She had already played major roles with directors such as Dominik Graf or Marcus H. Rosenmüller, when Lehmann, who came from the Nördlinger Ries, was still a film student in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Ten years ago, she acted in his debut film “Kohlhaas or the Proportionality of Means”, around the same time they moved to Munich. The two had two children and have been married for a few years.
On what is probably the hottest day of this summer, which is full of hot days, we have an appointment with them in the noble Herzogpark, in the Munich offices of Tobis Film. The Berlin rental company has already produced Lehmann’s comedy hit “The most beautiful girl in the world”, so the expectations for “hunting season” are correspondingly high. The premiere was at the film festival in June, the theatrical release is on August 18th. The Herzogpark office is brand new, there are still tradesmen running around outside.
“Can you show the pubic hair full screen?”
Inside you meet a couple at eye level: the tall actress is almost as tall as her husband, the two seem very familiar. She jokes about a shirt that he doesn’t want to wear after all, in the interview both continue the sentences of the other. For example, when it comes to female genitals, “Can you show pubic hair full screen?” was a question they asked themselves, he says. She then: “When you get the freedom to tell something from your perspective, it goes without saying.” For women, conversations about body hair are just part of everyday life, so don’t question it. Therefore, the pubic hair can also be seen in the film. full screen.
You should know that “Jagdsaison” is the remake of a Danish comedy, Rosalie Thomass wrote the German version together with her husband. This is the first time she has been credited as a screenwriter. But the pubic hair thing wasn’t their idea, they took it from the template. If you look at the trailer of the Danish original, which was never released in this country, you recognize a lot. Are there differences or did they just translate? “It was originally a midlife crisis story,” he explains, “but we made it a friendship story.” That was important to Rosalie, he adds. Whereupon she talks about stereotypical role offers, about women who are only allowed to be jealous or envious in films and who would always look for faults in others. “It’s possible that something like this exists in the real world,” she says, “but the question is whether we want to portray it in the same way. Or whether we as filmmakers are leading the way?”
Eva, who she plays, also finds her ex-husband’s new wife (Almila Bagriacik) too thin, too stupid, too superficial. And her best friend (Marie Buchard) too faithless and opportunistic. Eva realizes late that she has to come to terms with herself first. The actress says she’s been waiting for movies like this, where women aren’t appendages or cues, where men aren’t the only thing that’s talked about. There is an audience for that, she says, and producers and broadcasters have now also recognized that. In addition, when it comes to films with burping or farting machos, nobody asked if they felt like it.
The 35-year-old often plays unconventional women, she has no desire for good blondes. As a teenager, she was seen as a self-confident country girl in the “Beste” Heimatfilm trilogy, and she reached millions of viewers with the Lower Bavarian women’s comedy “A very hot number”. Dramas like “Greetings from Fukushima” or “An Outrageous Woman” followed, for which she won acting awards. The snotty, cheeky comedy sequel “The Kangaroo Conspiracy” will be released in August, in which she plays a single and very cool mother for the second time. Her husband is also unconventional, after the acclaimed cinema debut “Kohlhaas”, Aron Lehmann staged a “Komödienstadl” for BR. “I really enjoyed doing it,” he says. Not afraid to be seen as a homeland or folklore filmmaker? Nope, he says and laughs.
With the adorable teenage comedy “The most beautiful girl in the world” he landed a cinema hit in 2018, after which he shot the Netflix series “The Last Word” with Anke Engelke. He likes to focus on female characters and wants to tell stories from their perspective. Of course his wife has an influence on him, he says, but it’s the same the other way around. The extent to which the two influence each other can be seen when the discussion turns to Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather I”: For him, the fifty-year-old mafia epic is a masterpiece, she finds the male image in it strange. “Rosalie threw me in the face with the film,” he says, laughing. She doesn’t think it’s about taking people’s joy out of the films, but she doesn’t have to think everything’s great. “My perspective also has a right to exist.”
Both agree that they would like to continue making films together. If successful, they would also like to continue “hunting season”. For the time being, however, they are working on their own projects again: the 40-year-old has adapted Mariana Leky’s bestseller “What you can see from here”, the film is scheduled to hit the cinemas in January 2023. His wife is currently in front of the camera for a series, next year she wants to direct for the first time. She wrote the screenplay herself, and a production company wants to film it. She is not yet allowed to talk about the project, but one can assume that it follows a precise plan.