Brezel Göring is an irreplaceable figure within Berlin music and art. Through the early 90s way into the 2010s, Göring was one half of Stereo Total, the beloved band he fronted with his partner Françoise Cactus. The duo garnered a cult reputation everywhere from America to France (Cactus’ birthplace) through their excitable DIY mentality and synergy of cross-genre experimentation. Since Françoise Cactus tragically passed away in 2021, Göring has been honouring his partner’s maverick artistic sensibility. She was an avid writer, and Göring soon stumbled upon one of her unpublished books. Out in cinemas this August, Forever 16 is Göring’s elegy to this uncovered work in film form. It’s a raw, tripped-out fever dream soundtracked by Stereo Total that leaves you wondering why there aren’t more films like this out there. We sit down with Brezel to find out how Forever 16 came to be.
How did you get into film?
It was by accident. When we were touring with Stereo Total, we once got asked to play in a theatre here in Berlin. I said to Françoise, “Well, we need an opening act.” So my response was to write a screenplay about Patty Hearst that lasted 30 minutes (the perfect time for an opening slot) and afterwards we played the Stereo Total concert. This play, well, it was not rehearsed, to say the least. Afterwards, I got a Bavarian radio station to make a radio play out of it, and that was the first time I wrote a proper script: one hour of Patty Hearst and how I imagined her story. It was called ‘Sooner, Later, We All Become Terrorists’.
So there was always a cross-pollination of other art forms?
Yes. Françoise started writing books. One time, her editor asked me if I wanted to write a book, and I said yes. I mentioned five funny things that I could make, and one of them was theatre plays for children about things you shouldn’t tell them. They liked the concept. There, I really fell in love with making dialogue. After Francoise’s death, we found this complete novel. I remember she was writing this thing for 15 years, but it never was released. So we took several parts of it, simultaneously looking for an editor, then put it out. I was also thinking, ‘Maybe I should go into the film business and make a movie out of this book!’ So I asked Stephan [Holl, co-managing director of Rapid Eye Movies, producer of Forever 16 and a dear friend of Göring].
How did you meet Stephan and get into the Rapid Eye universe?
He contacted Stereo Total about creating the music for the Japanese Pink Movie musical Underwater Love (2011). We had no idea about the outcome. A guy sent us the lyrics, we made the songs, then he completely changed the script, so a lot of the lyrics didn’t make sense. It completely added to the vibe of the film. From then on, I always contributed to movies that they were making with music and producing. So I asked him if he would produce a film based loosely on a story within Françoise’s book. I wanted to film it completely with a Super 8. He agreed, and with his producer’s head suggested trying to apply for money to get it financed. I said, “We don’t need that much. I can do a little borrowing and I can finance it on my own,” and he said, “Brezel, maybe we’ll add a little financing if we can.” Which was a wise decision!
Was it hard to do?
The novel is big but my script was 50 pages so I left a lot out. Just kept the bits that zing for screen.
I work intuitively and very fast. I already had in my mind how the people were going to talk. So it was easy for me just to write from their perspective. Also, it helped that every person in Françoise’s book was based on real people, and I knew them all. So for me, it was very easy. I decided to change a lot of things so they’re not overly reminiscent of the real ones. The novel is big, but my script was 50 pages, so I left a lot out. Just kept the bits that zing for screen. It was important to me that the psychology Françoise wrote showed – that reasonable characters and extreme characters can all behave in the opposite manner. I thought the way they talk was really important.
The film is incredibly sonically immersive. It has an overdubbed effect, like a scrambled radio station. Was that purposeful?
I didn’t want to do rehearsals, so I met every actor two by two and set up microphones. I went through the script with them once and let them read it out however it came to them. I recorded them, and this is basically what’s heard in the film. Then we went straight into filming, so they were doing the talking before the movie. Every day of filming, we replayed the scenes that we filmed and dubbed it the same day. So I had a second version of everything and then when I went to cut, I let them watch the movie and tried to get them to move their mouths in sync. So basically I had three tracks: one before filming, one right there on set and one afterwards.
Did you and Françoise watch movies together?
We were both obsessed with watching movies. It was a big time commitment, like sometimes three movies in a row. We had a contract with Videodrom Verleih, so I could go every day and pick up films. Françoise had lists outlining what she wanted to see, so I was there constantly. We would go on director deep dives, watching everything from one director.
I love doing that. Any favourites?
Maybe Cassavetes. I enjoyed his work very much and how loose it is technically. Also, we were watching films from Andy Warhol. I remember Buñuel, all his phases. I enjoyed how he showed people on so many levels. And Françoise, she was very into Truffaut. I also liked that a lot. She watched the French guys, Chabrol, and I’d say from all these, Goddard was the least favourite, although I do remember Weekend. We made our own soundtrack to that film. I removed all the musical parts and just let the dialogue stand out and some of the car noises. Then we played a completely new soundtrack to it.
Did you know which songs to pick for Forever 16?
I recorded some songs beforehand, then I watched the movie. The movie is completely made by me but the initial story was Françoise’s, and within this work, she describes herself and how she imagines being old and inviting friends to go on holiday. There are a lot of her thoughts and her universe within. At that point I thought I would like to let the voice of the ones who can’t be here anymore be heard. So I started to put in Stereo Total songs with Françoise singing, so that her voice is an additional character. I threw out the score I’d made already, putting in more and more Stereo Total. Plus it’s my band, my music. I have all the rights!
Why Palermo? Is that where Françoise’s story was set?
In the 90s, we went to Lanzarote. At this time, the island was a little bit more run down. That’s where her story’s located. Then I looked at photos of it now, and it had got more upmarket with beach condos, not as rough and tumble as we needed. When I got the idea to make this movie, I was on holiday with my girlfriend in Palermo. She was reading me the beach guide threads from the internet; there were certain beaches, reviewed by Germans, saying how gross and rough they were, and she was laughing very hard because they were saying mean things about how dirty it is. We were like, “This is the place. This is the beach I want to go to.” And when we were there, it was even worse than they described it!
And did you do a script? Storyboarding?
We didn’t even have lights. Most of the time, it’s just that beautiful sun.
No storyboard. I went into one room, put everything in where I thought it should be, then I asked the others in, played the scene and sometimes even while they were filming the scene, I went to the next room and started decorating there. Stephan would roll the camera, find the right light, the right composition and make it happen. I mean, we didn’t even have lights. Most of the time, it’s just that beautiful sun.
What about costumes? Everyone looks great.
There are a lot of self-made costumes. No one can make it look as original as the people who were part of the project. Two days before we went to Palermo, I asked everyone to come over and bring about five costumes: for travelling, the cold, the beach, a party. These numbers were connected to the scenes in my script. It was very hard for the cast because they had to get dressed on the street; there was no film crew setup. But they didn’t care.
A real communal effort?
Lilith [Stangenberg] has a lot of knowledge about theatre and film and she helped me a lot. For example, she said, “There’s always a red dress when there’s tragedy.” That’s true. Then I said, “Okay, because you’re mad at the others, you go into your room.” She said, “No, I’m not going into my room. I’m going into the cupboard of my room.” That’s brilliant. I would have never thought of it. Also Stephan was a big help. I saw him filming from really weird angles and said to him, “Can we film this scene again?” So we went back the next day, which is a lot of work because we have only four days, and filmed it again from my perspective, from two metres high. So calmly he agreed with this, even when he thought I was stupid. Later when we cut the movie, I saw the one that I had perceived, which looked really boring. Then the one from Stephan, shot from underneath, you could see all four faces in the frame at a really good angle, and you could see some of the city behind, the light was beautiful and there were little details. I thought, ‘Wow, without him, there would be nothing’.
It’s great that it’s released in summer. It’s a hot summer film.
Stephan said the same and I thought, ‘Why not in winter? Warm people up’. But I totally see it now.
Forever 16 is in Kinos from August 27.
