Madonna Calls Fassbinder

 
Anta Iliopoulou, Go / Style Code, September 2008

My ticket fell from my hands ... And while everyone is desperately waiting for Madonna here in Greece... before appearing in her concert, she "appears" in a Greek film by Dimitri Athanitis’s, "Madonna Calls Fasbinder" and " Anda Iliopoulou calls Dimitri Athanitis as a guest star.
 
After "No sympathy for the fuck" I suppose you do not like nor Madonna?
"I prefer Marylin Manson or Nick Caye.

You always have so black humor in your films... why so sarcastic to life?
-I am sarcastic to false values ​​and hypocrisy. The story of doping is indicative. The athletes, like modern gladiators, are thrown into the arena, they offer a spectacle, they are discarded, and then they are eventually sacrificed by those who have made them stars.

Is there anything Madonna could ask from Fasbinder? They are so far opposite persons from so different worlds ...
-Maybe, his magic touch. She knows well that a star needs life injections. And a director what else is from a magician. But I consciously put two characters from opposing worlds as a challenge to the common logic and clichés.

Finally, can you tell us what exactly is Madonna Calls Fassbinder?
-A film about what a star does when the end seems to be inevitable. And at the same time a film on the illusions of whom we consider to be a star.
 
Do you think realism is unbelievable at the end instead of just being called cynic?
-We call cynicism, the faces of reality that we do not want to confront.

How did this project appeared while preparing the “Three Days Happiness"?
-As I was writing the "Three Days Happiness" I started the shooting of Madonna. I like working two projects at the same time. There was, of course, something common.

Did I notice that both films refer to women? So much do you love them or all women hide for you an unexpected myth that deserves to be familiarised?
Of course I love them a lot. And this unexpected myth that you say, I try to get out of my heroines. Not to be familiarised, but to taste it. Of course like in cinema. Although for me cinema and life is one thing.

At some point you hit the subject of the agents ... are they finally creating the star system?
-The agents are part of a much broader mechanism. But we have to admit that humans need some archetypes, some "ideal" faces, to portray themselves and their desires. This need exploits the star system.

Consequently, do we all patronize our own life to the point where we do not know how much we imagine our own life and how much do we really live in?
- That's for sure. And when you get to live with the star as a point of reference and not the people around you, you are in fantasy, far away from the "game" of real life.
 
Do you believe in universal synchronism?
I ask you why at an unsuspecting time you told me you started filming a year ago. Of course, there was no chance that Madonna might come - and to be honest if I do not see her coming, I still do not believe she will come. Do you have no worries about being accused of being a handler of current affairs?
- I have no worry that I'm taking advantage of the news, because Madonna is just the cause of my film, it's not the point. But it is a very nice, almost striking coincidence for the film, that Madonna is coming to Greece now, and for the very first time. Of course, there is also a second, almost incredible coincidence. The film's editor is the only person here in Greece who has worked with Fassbinder. And he told me that, much later!

Have you ever heard ‘If Madonna calls I am not here’?
- No, but I would sing it, even out of tune.

Finally, is there something that would make you personally call Madonna?
-I would call to ask her what the film looks like. I'm afraid there's no such chance with Fassbinder.

Madonna calls Fassbinder, an Athanitis film, trailer from Dimitri Athanitis on Vimeo.