Michael Glover and Robyn Rosenkrantz, "Go With Le Flo"

A tale of love and lunkheadedness set in Berlin, "Go With Le Flo" isn't your typical foreign film. For one, it was made by two Americans, Michael Glover and Robyn Rosenkrantz, and is both in German and French...neither of which Glover and Rosenkrantz speak.

Glover and Rosenkrantz have made five films together and are active musicians. Oh, and they've been married for 22 years.

Their whimsical tale of romance plays the Heartland Film Festival (for schedule and tickets, click here). Glover and Rosenkrantz talk about their film, about the challenges of being a married couple working together, and on making a film when you don't speak the language it's being filmed in.

What was the genesis of this project? What inspired you to make this movie?

MG: I had written an English language script for a romantic comedy. We were planning to shoot it in Los Angeles. Then a director friend of mine, Michael Schultz ("Car Wash" etc.), suggested that we shoot in Berlin, as we have a lot of industry friends there. That idea rang a bell so we started looking into it and found it was doable. We had meetings with a German writer friend of ours, Mea Machrowiak, who agreed to do the German version of the script with me. Once we got to Berlin, we fell in with actors from Bertolt Brecht's theatre, the Berliner Ensemble, and the cast filled up quickly with excellent players. True to the film's title, things really flowed.

RR: It was the perfect way to spend the summer, shoot a movie in Berlin! They say it's like Paris in the 1920's, full of artists, super cheap, with lots of street life. I adore it; a truly inspiring place. Finding locations was a dream come true, the whole city is like a movie set, very romantic, the magic flowed, all doors opened!

Talk about your choices with language. The dialog is mostly in German with some French, but there are a few touches of English in there too (the singing and the sign at the end). Why include so many different elements of different languages?

MG: The French language part of the film came because we wanted to use the French actor, Denis Aubert, in the lead. The German part came because his character has a best friend who is German, wonderfully played by Marina Senckel. Also, Berlin is very multicultural, so the multi-language approach fits well there. When you walk in the city center you'll hear several languages—and not necessarily German. I liked the idea of using multiple languages as each one has a different feel to it. I also wanted this to be a "foreign film" for my fellow English speakers. I thought it was an interesting idea for Americans to go over there and shoot a film in German and French rather than having all the characters speak English.

RR: And what's really wild is we don't speak German or French! But it's all in the intention, what's behind the words, so it wasn't hard for Michael to direct or for me as producer to feel when something wasn't working. Our last movie, “Lose With English,” had lots of Italian dialogue and we really enjoyed making it, so it was time for an entire Foreign language experiment!

How do you do that? Do you have an interpreter on set, or are your actors all bilingual? It seems like not speaking the language would create a host of challenges.

MG: The actors were all bilingual, which helped a lot. The script was printed in dual-dialog format - the English on the left and the German/French on the right. This was a good reference for everyone. For the dialog, I rely on the German or French script supervisor to be sure the actors are hitting the lines; for the "acting" part, meaning the emotion and intention, I watch the actor's energy, their body language, their tones and what's behind the eyes. It's actually easier in a way to see a "true" or "false" performance when the words don't get in the way. After the movie wrapped, all the main actors were interviewed for a behind-the-scenes documentary and they all commented on how I was able to call them on the moments when they were "cheating" or giving false performances.

RR: And editing in a foreign language was a really interesting process for me. Michael didn't add the English subtitles until a month in. He would cut a scene and I kept watching it, not understanding what they were saying but I could easily feel when the edit wasn't working. The words didn't get in the way, I could focus on performance, the way it looked and the rhythm of the scene. When Michael did add the subtitles I was laughing out loud, made it even funnier, I discovered yet another level. And in the end it was fun to pick up a few words of German & French because I watched it so many times!

You've injected a fair amount of whimsy into the film. Can you talk about the movie's overall attitude toward love and the subject matter?

MG: I wanted a romantic air to the film and not necessarily a hard-cold look at life. When you're in love the world seems sort of gauzy, birds seem to sing louder, people seem nicer, the sun seems brighter and the air clean and good... The central character, Florian, is head-over-heels in love as the movie starts and we're sort of seeing the city through his lovestruck eyes. Not a bad way to view the world if you ask me.

RR: Our goal has always been for people to leave the cinema feeling better then when they walked in. There's already enough darkness in the world. Why not celebrate the joy? And after 22 years of marriage and creating together as a band & filmmakers, we're still in love, still best friends, the movie reflects our own life movie.

Talk about being a married couple on set. I've been married for 13 years, so I know that over time love kind of becomes this mix of "I can't stand to be without you" and "I can't stand to be around you for another minute." Do you guys have that dynamic between you when you both work and live together? Does that spill into the filmmaking process at all?

MG: We've not only been married for 22 years, we've been on-the-road for 22 years! So, we worked out most of the relationship issues in the first few years. Being essentially in the same room together 90% of the time is a crucible: it will destroy your relationship or forge it into steel very quickly. Fortunately for us we got the steel. We're friends first and that's the most solid basis for relationships of all kinds. Our cohesion helps the filming process tremendously. If we're calm and at peace with each other, that affects the set and the production. The atmosphere on our sets is joyous and pleasant almost all the time. Occasionally fatigue or some technical issue brings in a problem, but, again, if we're calm and focused then that dissolves quickly and it's pleasant again.

RR: Michael made some great points! In our very first music rehearsal back in 1989 we had a fight! From the beginning we had to learn how to get along. Both being leaders, it wasn't easy at first. But we set some great communication rules right off; no name calling, keep the respect, stick to the issues and focus on a solution. I remember on our movie “Karate Film Café” crying on set, Michael wasn't very relaxed at that moment and I was probably overworked. But “Go with Le Flo” was our best experience yet, very harmonious and joyous. We count our blessings everyday. It's a miracle we found each other and get to do what we love! We're like two big kids playing in the sandbox together, we've learned how to share!

You guys are musicians too. How is making music like making movies?

MG: It's similar in two ways: rhythm and energy. There is a certain rhythm to dialog and to the flow of scenes and story arc in a feature film. It's like a vast and complicated song or composition. The amount of energy and focus and stamina it takes to make a feature film is, to me, equivalent to recording 10 CDs. That's what it feels like. It's a big job but fortunately we love the work so it doesn't really feel like work - though by the end you certainly need a vacation.

RR: All those years of touring, taking trains, planes, trams, boats, guitars on our backs, rolling our suitcases, sleeping in a different bed every night, gave us stamina, so being on set in one location is a piece of cake! Over 3000 concerts later, performing live, you get a feel for what's working or not working, lots of improv going on. Making movies, the unexpected always comes up, so we had some great tools in our bag of tricks after 23 years on the road!