Watch a Short Film for Marcel Dettmann's 'Seduction' feat. Emika

Berlin-based director Parker Ellerman has teamed up with techno producer and Berghain resident DJ Marcel Dettmann for a nine-minute film illustrating Dettmann's new single, the ambient 'Seduction' feat. Emika. It's not your typical music short; rather a dark, twisted story about lust, fetish, loss of control, fear, and disorder - and duly, a reflection of Dettmann's sound.

Watch the video, and read our full interview with Ellerman and Dettmann below.

Parker Ellerman and Marcel Dettmann. Photo by Gergana Petrova (VICE, 2014)

THUMP: Parker, Marcel, how did the two of you meet, and how did you approach this movie?

Marcel Dettmann: We've known each other for six years. My wife and Parker are very good friends. That's why the families Ellerman and Dettmann are good friends, too. When I was working on my album Dettmann II, I had the idea to start collaborating with Parker.

Parker Ellerman: The whole idea was born last summer. We spent the holidays together. Marcel had to work, and I was on vacation.

MD: Two families inside one lodge, - that was great.

PE: The sun was shining most the time, then Marcel played me the album he was working on. It all got very dark.

Did you agree to work together on 'Seduction' at that point?

PE: It just happened. I liked that the track already. It sounded like a musical score, but the corresponding movie was missing. Emika's vocals add so much emotionality to 'Seduction', and it feel very surreal overall.

MD: I like the term "soundtrack" a lot. You listen to a piece of music, and your brain starts to play an imaginary movie. In this case though, it wasn't just an idea. The movie actually happened. I find that incredibly exciting. I've never been involved in this kind of process before.

PE: I've already approached Marcel in the past about contributing a soundtrack for one of my short movies, but because of his travels that was difficult to piece together. This time, we've done it the other way around.

All Photos: Stills from 'Seduction' | © CZAR Film 2014

Music video, or short film?

PE: I think that every music video with a narrative is a short film, too. At the end of the day, this isn't a classic short film, that gets presented at film festivals and sinks into obscurity afterwards. I also like that this film's being presented on VICE  - with the music of an artist who has his own fans, who mostly know him as a DJ and producer.

It would work as a short film in regards to length, set design, cinematography, and the story line itself. How did you develop the script - especially since the pictures tell their own story, rather than simply illustrating the music?

PE: I had the initial idea ready within a day. I tried to avoid those typical Berlin clichés that are connected to the city and Marcel - Berghain and all that.

Movies about Berlin usually use at least one shot from Warschauer Bridge.

PE: I wanted to dig deeper. The golden 20s and expressionism, black and white - I wanted to pick up on all of that.  I knew that it would be a short film with a cast of actors. We shot most of the film in West-Berlin: Ku'damm, Fasanenstraße, Kranzler Eck. The movie also shows the entrance of Hotel Atlanta, but the inside shots took place at Pension Funk.

The famous silent movie star Asta Nielsen lived there during the 20s, and the room's interior is still in the style of that time. The same was true of the costumes - they also dipped into the 1920s - but at the same time, modern cars were driving around town. That wasn't a matter of budget, but a conscious stylistic inconsistency. To carry the surreal feel, and make a connection to the present day.

The film also shows a record player. Next to it there's not only the Dettmann II album, but also a vintage shellac record.

PE: That's a detail from our set designer Isabella Ott. And there are even more references. The dancers in the roof top scene are wearing costumes inspired by expressionist mask dancer, Lavinia Schulz. She was living in Berlin until the 1920s. Schulz killed her husband in an Absinthe frenzy, and then shot herself. Her costumes are being shown at Hamburg's Museum of Arts and Crafts, and we've recreated them one-to-one.

Another central element of the movie is the loss of control. On one side as there's the sexual play, later as an accident and the fall from the roof.

PE: It's not just an accident. The defining scene shows an epileptic seizure. I'd talked to a friendly neurologist in advance. Initially, I just wanted to learn more about delusions of persecution. But that itself was pretty disillusioning. He told me: "Such complex things as in A Beautiful Mind, that's all Hollywood bullshit. Those people are rather hearing voices. Just take your pick…" We then got talking about temporal lobe epilepsy. Patients usually experience bad-ass religious visions.

And that's why there's an angel in the room.

PE: Precisely. The trigger is the epilepsy. That death isn't because of an accident. That's what you hear a lot: Somebody lost the keys to the handcuffs, stuff like that. But you still won't understand what the angel stands for. That's the story within the story. Contrary to the majority of German movies, you don't need to explain every little detail.

Marcel, how did you like the plot to go with your music?

MD: Well, of course we talked about Parker's ideas in advance.

PE: Our wives were shocked, but we liked it.

MD: We liked it! To me, it was fitting. I had no precise visual imagination of the track, but Parker's script worked like pieces of a jigsaw. I liked the idea until I saw the first edit of the shoot… I thought that nine minutes without much of a dialogue might be too lengthy. We'd even stretched the original version of 'Seduction' for about two more minutes. But being capable to absorb you in that time, that's what makes a good movie.

Marcel Dettmann's Seduction EP is out on Ostgut Ton on May 26th.

Walter is an editor at THUMP Germany. Follow him on Twitter: @wwwacht

Video credits: 

Written and directed by Parker Elleman

Producer: Munir Abbar

Cinematography: Albrecht Silberberger 

Editor: Rob Myers

Casting: Eva Vollmar

Starring: Cleo von Adelsheim, Sevn Gerhardt, Stefano Cassetti