Aichholzer Filmproduktion
presents

KISS ME, PRINCESS

a film by Michael Grimm

	

visit
www.kuessmichprinzessin.at
for downloadable press information and press photographs

Cast

Susi					Hilde Dalik
Horst					Gregor Seberg
Julia					Isabella Campestrini
Gernot					Stefano Bernardin
Grandma				Michou Friesz
waitress				Katrin Reisinger
Erika					Tania Golden
Cleaners chief			Silvia Wohlmuth
Toni 					C.C. Weinberger
Boss					Horst P. Klaus
Fredi					Christian Regelsberger (1962 – 2003)

etc.

Crew

director				Michael Grimm
based on the screenplay by		Manfred Rebhandl
camera				Robert Winkler
editing					Emily Artmann
set design				Verena Wagner
costumes				Alexandra Trummer
make-up				Helene Lang
sound					Peter Utvary
assistant director			Inka Geisberger
stills					Petro Domenigg
music					Adrian Vonwiller
					Paul Wallner
					Andreas Grimm
producer				Josef Aichholzer
production management		Monika Maruschko

technical data

year of production: 2004	produced by Aichholzer Filmproduction 
country of production: Austria	funded by:
running time: 78 minutes			Austrian Film Institute	
screen ratio: 1 : 1,85				Film Fund Vienna
sound: DTS					Land Oberösterreich

						© Aichholzer Film 2004

Synopsis

"Aren't you that boxer who went to jail?"
"I'm not a gangster. I'm a part of the wonderful Greater Whole."

Summer 1997: the whole world is stunned at the news of Princess Diana's sudden death in an underpass in Paris, just when love seemed to be blossoming for her again. Susi weeps with the rest of the world: Diana was her idol. 

Susi, single mother of six-year-old Julia, gets her ideas from trashy gossip magazines. She dreams of romance, love and passion in the arms of a wonderful, exciting lover. But so far Fate hasn't sent any princes her way. And soon it could be too late anyway, or so Susi thinks. After all, she is 27.

Susi longs for a fairytale ending; all Horst wants is a normal life at last. He's failed as a boxer and wants out of his life of petty crime. He's thinking about doing one last job when Fate makes him run into Susi – literally.

Susi and Horst fall in love. However, there are several complications before they even get to kiss for the first time. 

Kiss Me, Princess is about two people who learn the hard way that one has to take responsibility for one's own happiness. 

A film about love with elements of screwball comedy and gangster story.

Story

Horst (Gregor Seberg) is in charge of the towels at a gym. They're supposed to be folded neatly. The boss promised him he'd be a trainer within a month. But that was more than a month ago.

Susi (Hilde Dalik) lives like Princess Di. In her dreams. In reality she's in a relationship of convenience with Gernot, an insurance salesman (Stefano Bernardin), because a young woman with a small daughter (Isabella Campestrini) needs a little basic security.

Two years ago Horst was still a boxer. Then for just one fight he listened to the wrong people. Paid to lose in the fourth round. Horst has served his sentence. Now he's going his own way. But the underworld won't let him out of its clutches.

The Boss (Horst P. Klaus) is a seemingly squeaky-clean entrepreneur with dodgy sidelines. Horst is to smuggle a diamond to London for him. A risky business. If it goes well, there'll maybe be enough to open a gym of his own. It'll go fine.

Susi's mother (Michou Friesz) was once wooed by a real live prince. But who knows where the winds of Fate will blow one? Now she's a housewife in Vienna instead of a grande dame on the Côte d´Azur. And Susi is no princess either. But at least she's found a job at a cleaner's.

Susi and Gernot's relationship's in trouble: all he wants is a quiet life while she longs for excitement, variety and adventure. 

Whoever's in charge of laundry is bound to fetch up at the cleaner's sooner or later. After they happen to run into each other Susi ends up wearing Horst's bracelet. However, he didn't exactly come by it honestly. Now Horst has to hide from Toni (C. C. Weinberger) as well.

Horst is fed up with talking to his pot-plant at home. Susi pawns his bracelet at a jeweller's. For far less than its true value. But Susi doesn't know that. For the money she gets for it she can at last afford to have a bit of fun without having to ask Gernot for money. They quarrel and Susi moves back to her mother's. Not for the first time.

Ludwig promises to settle the affair of the bracelet with Toni if Horst will smuggle his diamond to London. Horst agrees. Maybe this will mean he'll be able to get his life under control at last.  

Then Princess Diana dies. She's dead at last, triumphs Gernot. But that kills the relationship stone dead too. This time for good.

Susi wants to go to London for Princess Diana's funeral. Horst has to go to London because of the diamond. But Gernot isn't giving up without a fight. So how does Fate arrange things this time? At the airport everything culminates in a showdown. The police arrive. Now Susi's got the diamond. And in the end nobody flies to London.

But Horst has finally grasped how matters stand: he's got to take responsibility for the love he feels. He appears at the door of Susi's apartment. True, it's also because of the diamond, but mainly because of Susi.

Julia swallows the diamond. Now they all have to wait until nature takes its course. But the diamond gets flushed down the toilet. Lost for ever. There's nothing to be done. But Horst's had enough anyway. The only thing he needs is a good story for Ludwig.   

If love's for real, then everything falls into place. At last Horst's no longer a gangster. That's what a happy end looks like. It would take a car accident to change everything at the last moment.... 

Michael Grimm interviewed by Peter Krobath

A fairytale in a real setting

Michael Grimm talks to Peter Krobath about two people who almost overlook the happiness that's right under their noses.

Peter Krobath: Could one call Kiss Me, Princess a crime caper?

Michael Grimm: I wouldn't. For me it's a romantic film with a gangster story in the background. 

Even if the male lead, the ex-boxer Horst, who's kind of slipped into a criminal demi-monde, keeps emphasizing that he's not a gangster?

Michael Grimm: Horst is an ex-boxer who deliberately went down in his last fight. When the betting scam came to light he even had to go to jail for a short time. Horst was naive, he listened to the wrong people and it didn't occur to him that his actions could have consequences for him as well – serious consquences, all of which he was then promptly confronted with. Horst has a criminal record, but that doesn't mean he's a hard-boiled criminal. 

Why does Horst have to be a boxer? Does it have anything to do with that fact that the genre figure of the failed boxer is one of the icons of cinematic history? 

Michael Grimm: Horst was a celebrity in the boxing ring. Not only in sporting circles; he even achieved a certain degree of celebrity in the media. This contrasts with Susi's enthusiasm for Princess Diana – Susi worships celebrity but then she meets one and fails to recognize him. Our ideas revolved around how celebrities are treated, along the lines of: what do we want to see of them, what do we see and what do the media allow us to see?

What sort of person is Susi?

Michael Grimm: Susi's a young woman who longs for a happy relationship with a man. But she doesn't work and this leads to her slipping into a relationship of dependency. And that means she's not really happy. 

She's someone who wants a different life for herself ...

Michael Grimm: But at the same time she's not really willing to do anything about making this different life happen. It's a similar situation to Horst. He's got himself a low-paid job at the gym to try and escape from his circumstances, and she starts working at a cleaner's because she at last wants to start taking control of her life a little. With the money she earns she's trying to buy a feeling of independence.

So they both just want to get control over their lives and then suddenly find themselves involved in a turbulent affair of stolen bracelets and smuggled diamonds ...

Michael Grimm: The essence of the story is that frequently in life one fails to see what's right under one's nose. We prefer to let ourselves be dazzled by other things, such as the diamond in the film, which then lead us into a trap. In a situation like that there's no direct, short route to achieving one's goal. Kiss Me, Princess is a snapshot of a brief moment of happiness. And that's what appealed to me about this film.

That explains the basic mood of the film, which despite all the problems of the protagonists remains light and cheerful?

Michael Grimm: Kiss Me, Princess is a genre mix with a strong slant towards comedy. I would even say it contains elements of screwball comedy; for example in the scenes set  in the cleaner's these elements are very pronounced. Working with this kind of material has interested me for some time now because I feel there's a potential there that's not being exploited in Austrian films at the moment. Of course it's not easy, as you have to stage it at such a pace that you sometimes have problems with the actors who just aren't used to the speed. First they have to get away from the realistic approach that's so popular at the moment.

So what place does realism have in your film?

Michael Grimm: I see Kiss Me, Princess as a fairytale that unfolds in a real setting. So in this case exaggeration is as important as credibility. That's why relatively speaking we had to have so many rehearsals with Susi and Horst until we arrived at the characters. And in any case I think the two have their strongest moments when they're silent. Too much talking isn't always good. 

How did you find the actors?

Michael Grimm: For me, the deciding factor with the character of Susi was how she acted with the child. I wanted it to come across as really banal and casual; the two are good friends on the one hand but also mother and daughter on the other. I didn't want any faked caring attitudes or social romanticism, but a relatively casual way of dealing with each other. In this respect Hilde Dalik really stood out from the other actresses at the casting session. She was the one who interacted most casually with her 'daughter'.
I first saw Gregor Seberg on stage and knew immediately he was the right one for the role. I didn't want someone with typical good looks in this role. That was important for the symbolism of the characters. Susi only recognizes Horst's attractiveness later on.

But at the same time she's attracted by his gangster image. It's almost like a kind of defiant flirtation when she keeps telling him he's a gangster....

Michael Grimm: In this sense "gangster" represents adventure. In the simple world the film is set in people have to supply themselves with a bit of action so they can still feel that they're alive. That's what Susi really longs for: she wants to feel she's alive. And that's the feeling she gets through Horst.

Why isn't the gangster milieu made to look darker? Despite all the seemingly hard-boiled characters it looks quite cosy really...

Michael Grimm: The gangster milieu is a problem in that no gangster film genre actually exists in Austria. And if you do some research into gangster life in Vienna, you soon land in a really squalid, seedy milieu. You'd have to make it abstract, on the model of Pulp Fiction, but especially with a film like mine this would immediately make it unbelievable. I think that the stark contrasts between Susi's world and that of Horst's provide enough tension without having to include cool orgies of violence in order to underscore it. They both need a basis to encounter each other. If Horst lived in an ultra-brutal world of murderers they would never have met.

The music's also used to make the action even lighter and fluffier so to speak...

Michael Grimm: I asked myself what sort of music Susi would listen to, and eventually decided on this Mallorca club sound. We often used the music deliberately to offset the action, so as to avoid melodrama at all costs. There are several scenes where I asked myself quite deliberately – and not only with regard to the music – how far can I tease this out in the direction of kitsch? We shot several scenes that were a bit over the top in this respect, verging on the ridiculous, which I was concerned to avoid at all costs. So all they ended up on the cutting-room floor.  

Hilde Dalik interviewed by Peter Krobath
 
Total, round-the-clock commitment

Hilde Dalik explains to Peter Krobath why shooting a low-budget film is often a very intense experience. 

Peter Krobath: How do you relate to Princess Diana?

Hilde Dalik: Before I got hold of the screenplay of Kiss Me, Princess not at all. I knew who she was, that was all. When I was preparing for the role of Susi I had to struggle through piles of trashy gossip mags like Neue Post and Bunte. But that didn't really provide me with any special insights except that the poor thing was ripped to shreds by the press.

Is this your first leading role in a feature film?

Hilde Dalik: Yes, it's my first leading role. Immediately before Kiss Me, Princess I was in a film directed by Reinhard Schwabenitzky but that was only a small role, and before that I was still studying at the Conservatory [for Performing Arts]. During this time I also had minor roles at the Burgtheater and several roles in short films made at the Film Academy or TV work in things like Kommissar Rex and Julia - Eine ungewöhnliche Frau. 

How does it feel to be the centre of attention on a filmset? Does it put creative pressure on you?

Hilde Dalik: I didn't feel under pressure. The only difference was in the tension generated by the work, because of course you prepare yourself for a main role quite differently. We rehearsed intensively for five weeks so by the time we started shooting there were hardly any unresolved issues. 

Do you think that the light-hearted mood of the film is due to this intensive period of rehearsal?

Hilde Dalik: Could well be. We mainly worked on the relationship between the characters, developing their individual positions, taking our time to build up scenes. Michael Grimm is a very open, straighforward person; he wanted to try the scenes out, to see whether they worked as written in the screenplay, or whether one of the other thousand possible ways of doing it might not be better. That's typical of Michael Grimm. He questions simply everything. And that's how he makes his actors aware of things that normally hapen automatically. 

Kiss Me, Princess is a low-budget production. Was this noticeable during shooting?

Hilde Dalik: The shooting was very harmonious. It was the first time I'd experienced the various departments – camera, costumes, make-up, lighting and so on – working in such a relaxed way with one another. But of course the limited production budget was noticeable – above all from the fact that everyone participating worked with total, round-the-clock commitment. The less money there was the more enthusiasm people showed. There were a lot of young people on the team who saw this as an opportunity for their future careers and worked with the corresponding commitment.

How does Kiss Me, Princess fit into the contemporary Austrian cinema landscape?

Hilde Dalik: Michi didn't want to make a typical Austrian film. I mean, I respect any film that gets made, but that typical depressing image of people living a life without hope in a satellite town – we wanted to avoid that. In those films there's no solution. In ours there is. We wanted to tell a fairytale.

Every fairytale has a message...

Hilde Dalik: The little girl, Julia, says at some point: "Mummy, if you really want something then you have to dream of it as hard as you can". And my character, Susi, does just that. She dreams of a happy relationship. She longs for a partner who will accept her as she is. With all her naivety, with all her escapades. That wasn't possible with Gernot, the insurance salesman, who she was together with before. That relationship was full of frustration and quarrelling.

This insurance salesman is played by Stefano Bernardin, who's your partner in real life. Did you find yourselves bringing the aggression home from the set with you after a day's shooting? 

Hilde Dalik: It's great. You can practise quarrelling at home beforehand. And yes, you do take it home with you. Not a hundred per cent, but when you start rehearsing in detail you slip into these patterns. A lot happens subconsciously. Yes, certain patterns did get transferred, I have to say. But it's not as if it put our relationship to the test. Stefano rather enjoyed it. 

I think it was Alfred Hitchcock who said there was nothing worse than shooting with children or animals. You were spared the animals, but not the child...

Hilde Dalik: But that wasn't difficult at all, quite the opposite, it was love at first sight. Isabella, who plays my daughter in the film, was absolutely outstanding even during casting, despite being the youngest there. She's a very clever tactician. At first she stays quietly in the background, watching and waiting, but when her moment comes she strikes. Like a real professional. 

Gregor Seberg interviewed by Peter Krobath

A beautiful little picture-book

Gregor Seberg tells Peter Krobath why he only wants to act in romantic films after making Kiss Me, Princess.  

Peter Krobath: From Robert de Niro to Sylvester Stallone, the boxer belongs to the stock inventory of cinematic history. Did base your character on any of these models?

Gregor Seberg: Not really. The screenplay was changing constantly; it was a kind of work in progress. And while I was going round all the gyms trying to find a trainer who could – at least as far as my figure was concerned – turn me into a boxer within four weeks, Michael Grimm phoned me: "I take it all back, he's an ex-boxer. The best thing would be for you to put on as much weight as possible". For that I didn't need to look for any models to base my character on. If I had anything in mind at all it was the loneliness of the individual competitor. But one shouldn't make too much of that aspect. The film isn't about boxing.

Of course it's not about boxing. But simply the fact that Horst is introduced into the story as an ex-boxer indicates that this character stands for a certain type of adventure... 

Gregor Seberg: Horst is a boxer who's been in prison. But he's not a villain. Here and there a bit of petty thieving, yes, he's capable of that, but he's not really malevolent, he wouldn't hurt anybody. I was concerned to achieve that balance; that on the one hand you'd believe he was capable of anything, but on the other that you see immediately that he's rather a likeable bloke. 

Is he a typically Viennese figure? 

Gregor Seberg: He's a big-city type but not Viennese at all. For that, Horst would have to talk in that typically Viennese manner – a sort of malevolent, whingeing snarl. He's a city-dweller living an anonymous life.

Do you think Susi thinks he's dangerous?

Gregor Seberg: Susi lives so much in a world of her own that at first she doesn't even really notice Horst properly. She can't even say what he's really like. Later on she gets to know him. I don't think she realizes that he might be dangerous even then, but she does realize he's a lovable type. 

What does he find attractive about her?

Gregor Seberg: She doesn't want anything from him. He doesn't owe her anything, she leaves him in peace. So at first he doesn't think she's anything special, but later he's drawn to the minor personal anarchy that Susi's lifestyle radiates. 

How was the shoot?

Gregor Seberg: What's stayed with me is the memory of an incredibly committed team that was under enormous time pressure. In those conditions everything goes well as long as everybody involved can channel their enthusiasm. But if just one person tips the balance you realise what thin ice everybody's walking on. In that sense there's a lot of pressure on the actors. But in spite of all that Michael Grimm radiated a huge sense of calm right to the end.

As it were the ideal director for a project like that...

Gregor Seberg: There are always these long pauses when Michi speaks. Once I asked him: "Is it that you're thinking about what you're going to say before you give me an answer?"
He said: "Yes – and if I haven't got an answer then you won't get one. If I don't know anything I don't say anything."
But we understood each other without words. Michi's credo is always: just because the scene's perfect technically doesn't necessarily mean it's any good. Of course, that's a courageous approach for a director who's got hardly any opportunity to reshoot if something goes badly wrong. He took everything off our backs so that we were free to concentrate purely on the acting – that's what I admire about him.

Kiss Me, Princess belongs to a relatively dificult genre: a small Austrian feature film. What expectations do you have as an actor?

Gregor Seberg: A small Austrian feature film. Is that a proper genre? It was the story I liked above all. For me it's a romantic film. A romantic film and nothing else. I'd like to act in nothing but romantic films – it was such a great experience. No, it certainly won't be a blockbuster, that's obvious. But a small film that doesn't curry favour with the audience, that would be wonderful. We didn't want to be Austrian. This story could have been set anywhere. That's why we were very careful to speak neither Austrian dialect nor High German. The language we used lay somewhere in between the two. What do I expect? That people see we made a beautiful little picture-book. And if enough people grasp that, then perhaps next time we'll get a bit more money and can make everything even bigger and more beautiful.

CAST

SUSI – Hilde Dalik
trained at the City Conservatory for Performing Arts in Vienna

Filmographie

CINEMA 

2003		KÜSS MICH PRINZESSIN  director: Michael Grimm 
2001 		AIR SQUARE  director: Marcus Carney, Film Academy Vienna 
		PLAY  director: Michael Ramsauer, Film Academy Vienna 
1999		DER WASCHSALON  director: Natascha Neulinger, Film Academy Vienna 
    
TV 

2003 		FRECHHEIT SIEGT  director: Reinhard Schwabenitzky
 		KOMMISSAR REX  director: Michael Riebl 
2002	 	TAXI FÜR EINE LEICHE  director: Wolfgang Murnberger
		JULIA – EINE UNGEWÖHNLICHE FRAU  director: Holger Barthel
2001 		MEDICOPTER 117  director: Thomas Nikel 

HORST – Gregor Seberg
born in Graz, trained at the City Conservatory for Performing Arts in Vienna
2 Years "Talk Radio" on Ö3, various readings, founder member of the ”Ateatta” theatre group, various TV-productions

Filmographie 

CINEMA (selection)

2004		NITRO  director: Mike Majzen
2003		KÜSS MICH, PRINZESSIN   director: Michael Grimm
2001		DIE WINDSBRAUT  director: Bruce Beresford
1999		DIE ÄLTESTE WIENERIN  director: Houchang Allahyari
1998		HELDEN IN TIROL  director: Niki List
		BLACK FLAMINGOS  director: Houchang Allahyari
1997		SCHWARZFAHRER  director: Nikolaus Leytner

TV (selection)

KOMMISSAR REX
SCHLOSSHOTEL ORTH
DIE NEUE/MONDSEECOPS
TATORT
MEDICOPTER 117
JULIA 
SOKO KITZ
POLT
DER BRIEFBOMBER

GERNOT - Stefano Bernardin 
1999 -2002 City Conservatory for Performing Arts in Vienna

Filmographie

CINEMA
 
2003		AUF WOLKE 7  director: Michael Grimm
 		KÜSS MICH PRINZESSIN  director: Michael Grimm 
2001 		LUST AUF LEBEN / LIEBESLEBEN  director: Christoph Brunner 
2000 		ROCCO  director: Houchang Allahyari 
 		ALL THE QUEEN'S MEN  director: Stefan Ruzowitzky 
    
TV 

2003 		KOMMISSAR REX  director: Gerald Liegl 
 		DIE SITTE  director: Daniel Helfer 
2002/03 	SCHLOSSHOTEL ORTH  director: Jürgen Kaizik u.a. 
2001 		MEDICOPTER 117  director: Thomas Nikel 
 		SCHLOSSHOTEL ORTH   director: Ines Anna Krämer u.a. 
 		DIE PARASITEN  director: Clemens Röck  
2000 		KOMMISSAR REX  director:  Christian Görlitz 
 		JULIA - EINE UNGEWÖHNLICHE FRAU  director: Holger Barthel 
 
 AWARDS 
  		ROMY 2003 – most popular male shooting star

OMA – Michou Friesz
Max-Reinhardt-Seminar, Vienna
private lessons in filmacting with Marilyn Fried, New York 
various TV- and theatre-productions

Filmographie

CINEMA     

2003		TÖDLICHER UMWEG,  director: Curt Faudon
		VILLA HENRIETTE,  director: Peter Payer
		KÜSS MICH, PRINZESSIN,  director: Michael Grimm
2003		RAVIOLI, director: Peter Payer
1999		KALIBER DELUXE, director: Thomas Roth
1998		GRÜNE WÜSTE, director: Anno Saul
		UNTERSUCHUNG AN MÄDELN, director: Peter Payer
1996		TEMPO, director: Stefan Ruzowitzky	
		DER UNFISCH, director: Robert Dornhelm
1994		EXIT II – VERKLÄRTE NACHT, director: Franz Novotny
1992		THE LUCONA AFFAIR (engl.), director: Jack Gold

TV (selection)

2004		TRAUTMANN, director: Michael Keusch
2003		SOKO KITZBÜHEL, director: Michael Zens
		TATORT, director: Walter Bannert
2002		KOMMISSAR REX, director: Andreas Prochaska
		JULIA – EINE UNGEWÖHNLICHE FRAU, director: Thomas Roth
2001		BLUMEN FÜR POLT, director: Julian Roman Pölsler
		BRÜDER, director: Wolfgang Murnberger
2000		SINAN TOPRAK, director: Andreas Prochaska
		DER BULLE VON TÖLZ, director: Jörg Grünler
1999		SCHLOSSHOTEL ORTH, director: Karl Kases
1998		FINK FÄHRT AB, director: Harald Sicheritz
		MEDIKOPTER 117, director: Wolfgang Dickmann
1997		DIE NEUE, director: Jörg Grünler
		QUALTINGERS WIEN, director: Harald Sicheritz

JULIA – Isabella Campestrini
Isabella Campestrini was born in 1996 into a family of musicians, conductors, actors, directors and composers.

Filmographie

CINEMA

2003		KÜSS MICH, PRINZESSIN, director: Michael Grimm
		AUSWEGE, director: Nina Kusturica

CREW

Michael Grimm, director
born 1962 in Pasching, Upper Austria.
After working as a mechanical engineer and taking a degree in commercial science at the University of Economics in Vienna, Michael Grimm has been active in the film industry since 1990. He has written screenplays, worked as a scenario editor and made training and industrial films as well as producing photographic work. He also studied acting with Walter Lott and Susan Betson.

Filmographie

CINEMA

2003	KÜSS MICH, PRINZESSIN, (director), feature film
	AUF WOLKE 7, (director),  feature film
1998	SLIDIN’ – ALLES BUNT UND WUNDERBAR, (director), episode
1990	OH, SUSI ! (director, screenplay, production), short film	

Manfred Rebhandl, Buchvorlage 
born 1966, lives as freelance author in Vienna 

Filmographie
 
CINEMA

2003		KÜSS MICH PRINZESSIN, director: Michael Grimm
		AUF WOLKE 7, director: Michael Grimm
2000		TERNITZ, TENNESSEE, director: Miriam Unger

TV

1998		AZURRO,  director: David Rühm
1995		ABGRÜNDE, director: Susanne Zanke