In his director’s statement for “LVX,” writer-director Fabian Villiger writes that saying “I need help” is one of the bravest things a person can do. That line stayed with me, and it’s where our conversation began. In a world that can feel so dark right now, “LVX” is a hopeful film, a glimmer of hope and change, and I think it’s a very important one.
The 20-minute short, in German with English subtitles, has its world premiere at the Stockholm International Film Festival in the Sad Girl Cinema short film programme, alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “Flesh Impact,” Saoirse Ronan’s directorial debut “Paper Plane,” Yael Grunseit’s “Daddy’s Little Meatball,” and Jona Schloßer’s “Trance.” Set around 1900, the film follows Lucy (Christina Brandenberg), a strong woman ahead of her time who seeks out Sigmund Freud (André David Winter) and, over the course of their session, comes face to face with her alter ego. Throughout, a red light flickers in and out of frame, blinking SOS: the “I need help” light.
The film is deeply personal. Villiger began writing it while Brandenberg, his partner, was going through treatment for breast cancer, and “LVX” marks her comeback as an actress. The pair made it with a crew of just ten people, designed the costumes themselves, and worked with editor Peter Schmid to find a way to put Eigengrau, the gray we see when we close our eyes in darkness, on screen.
Fabian found his way to Cinema Femme through his friend Katharina Rivilis of “I’ll Be Gone in June,” who sends him our articles. When he shared the screener, he cautioned that the film only truly works in a cinema: it needs the big screen, the sound, and the atmosphere of the room for its “slow burning fire” to take hold, and details like the Eigengrau are hard to spot on a laptop. I couldn’t agree more. As I told them during our conversation, we have to see this on a big screen, and I hope we can bring it to Chicago someday.
I spoke with Villiger and Brandenberg about Freud, Felix Kelly’s surreal paintings, the symbolism hidden in Lucy’s costume, and what they hope audiences carry home with them.
Screenings at the Stockholm International Film Festival (Sad Girl Cinema short film programme, 80 SEK)
- Monday, November 16, 1:30 PM · Biograf Sture, Salong 1
- Sunday, November 22, 4:00 PM · Kulturhuset, Klara
Credits: Written and directed by Fabian Villiger · Produced by Fabian Villiger, Christina Brandenberg, and Peter Schmid · Cast: Christina Brandenberg (Lucy), André David Winter (Sigmund) · Cinematography: Samuel Heuberger Reichert · Editing: Peter Schmid · Sound design: Katharina Pfennich · Re-recording mix: Markus Moll, Katharina Pfennich · Music: Kathryn Criston · Lighting design: Caspar Brog · Makeup: Moira Amstutz · German with English subtitles, color, DCP, 20 min.
Fabian, as the writer-director, what inspired you to make this film? I love how your director’s statement says that saying “I need help” is one of the bravest things a person can do. Maybe you can touch on that, too.
Fabian Villiger (FV): Of course. It’s pretty simple, actually. I was inspired by the world we live in, by our humanity, by us as human beings and how we function on the inside. We live in a world so focused on how we look on the outside that everyone seems to forget we are what we are inside, not what we are outside. I wanted to tell that story, and I found the parallels to the Belle Époque quite striking. That was also a time of so many great things on the outside, so many great inventions, so much that was new on this planet, and all that newness can somehow make you feel so small. I feel that connects very well to today’s world. With social media and everything else in the outside world, we don’t have time to find our true selves.
We also went through some very hard personal times together. Christina was diagnosed with breast cancer. Seeing her mindset through all of that, and mine as well, as her supporter and her boyfriend, it was a lot of “How do we get through this?” In an extreme situation like that, you really have to make up your mind about so many things. You have to change a lot: how you see things, how you think about them. I became very interested in the human mind: how you can change it, work with it, and influence it with good vibes if you want to, and in what we did to get through that time. That took me back to the beginning. Sigmund Freud was one of the first people to really ask: How is the mind connected to the soul? And how can we influence it?
Christina, how did you get involved with the project, but it sounds like you were intimately involved from the very beginning. Can you talk about starting this process with Fabian?
Christina Brandenberg (CB): What’s interesting is that I didn’t really know he had started writing and developing ideas right in the middle of it all, while I was going through chemo, radiotherapy, and operations. He did that pretty much by himself, and it only came together later. I knew it was a huge inspiration, but I didn’t know at the time that this was how he was dealing with it. Even though we were together as a couple, each of us had our own mind. I was in the body that had the cancer, and I had to be fully there for myself, while he was dealing with it inside himself, and this was his way of doing that. So when he came to me and said, “I took some inspiration from all of this, and I have this idea,” I thought, wow, what a blessing it would be to put my craft as an actress into that. Let’s do it.
When he told me the idea, I said, “If you want somebody else…” and he said, “No, it has to be you. Of course it has to be you.”
I love that story. I had no idea; I thought you’d just been hired on. That adds another layer to the film. Christina, your emotions are so present, and I loved how close the camera was to your face while you were talking to Freud. I’d love to hear about the DP and the crew you worked with. Fabian, I don’t know how hands-on you were with the cinematography, but I’m curious about that collaboration and how you captured those raw emotions.
CB: It helped a lot that we were such a tiny production.
How many people were on set?
FV: Ten.
Wow.
CB: That was a blessing for this movie and what it needed to be. It was so intimate, and every one of those ten people understood that. It was such a respectful, calm environment. We were under a lot of time pressure, but Fabian managed to let me know I had all the time in the world: “Let it really evolve in you. Give it time and just try to be there.” That intimate setting was so helpful. I hadn’t done much work with such long takes, where I’m just talking and talking without a break. But everything was as it was meant to be, and that helped me so much.
Can you talk about the actor who plays Freud? I love the choice not to show him until the end. What was that back-and-forth conversation like?
CB: It was the first time he’d done anything like it. He’s usually an author. He writes books.
Oh, wow. Interesting.
CB: Fabian had him in mind because of his looks; he had the perfect look. And I don’t know if it’s that author mentality, but he was the best Freud I could have wished for. He had such calmness in him. I really felt like I was talking to a father or a grandfather. It was so intimate and comfortable, and so easy for me to open up to him. I don’t know what it is about him, but he’s a really unique, special guy. He totally understood how to ask the questions, and it was easy for me. He gives you this warm, familiar feeling. He has it in his voice; I think you can hear in the movie how warm and welcoming his voice is. It was a great match.
Fabian, you talk about “Eigengrau” scenes and that whole concept? I thought it was really interesting.
FV: Of course. I found out that in the very beginning, Freud also worked with hypnosis. Then I read about Eigengrau in a book, and I was blown away by it. It’s so unique. It’s literally what you see when you close your eyes in darkness. I felt it was so magical for this story: there’s no real darkness; there’s always something you can see. I see something different than you do, and Christina sees something different than both of us. That’s so special. At first I just wrote it into the script with no idea how to show it on screen, because it’s so unique. Then my editor, Peter Schmid, came up with the idea of very bulky, volcano-like movements that we slowed way down and drained of color, so it’s a grayish, blackish mixing. That’s the whole thing: this very slow movement you can see.
You also mention Felix Kelly in your director’s statement. I looked up some of his paintings. Was he the inspiration for the scene where Christina walks down the path, with those colors?
FV: The house you can see, the bridge, and all the symbols: the whole mind-and-soul connection, the bridges, the butterflies you see that she talks about later. His paintings have this surrealism, and I wanted to bring the feeling I get when I look at his pictures into the film. The goal was to make viewers feel something like that.
The film is set around 1900, when psychoanalysis was such a big thing, and cinema was born around the same time. I know you talked about how that era inspired the film and connects to the times we’re in. But maybe the best way to ask it is: What do you hope audiences take from this film, based on what you were trying to capture?
CB: I just hope to leave something in them, and that can be unique for every single person. It’s basically like psychoanalysis, which wants to enter your subconscious mind. I think that’s what we want with the movie, and that’s what I was trying to do as an actress: connect with people, maybe connect with their subconscious, and bring up some questions in them about themselves, the way they’re living, how life feels for them at the moment. Is this right? Could there be a possibility to change something? I just want to leave a little something behind. That can be just a question. It can even be confusion at first, but that’s already something. If they go home confused and think about it, that’s already good. I think that’s what we’re both trying to do.
FV: Yes, the humanity, especially now, with AI coming up. I think this film is very raw and simple in a way. There’s not much going on on the outside, but I want to reach the inside of every viewer. That’s so human. I think that’s what we have to do in film: hold on to the humanity. That’s the only thing we can do. AI can’t do it, so we have to hold on to this.
CB: For me as an actress, this film also marks my comeback since I had breast cancer. It’s like, “I’m back.” I’m so proud of this project, and it means the world to me because it’s such a personal one. The whole cancer experience changed the way I approach acting, and I hope I already delivered that in the movie. Before the cancer, it was more about what acting gives me, what I can get out of it. Now it’s about what I can give: how I can reach people, how I can get access to them. This was the most beautiful project to try that with. It all came together so beautifully. It’s a blessing.
The title, “LVX,” is really interesting. Can you talk about why you chose it?
FV: LUX and LVX are the same. The Latin meaning is light, but more the spiritual light than light bulbs. The whole film is about our inner light, and it’s connected to the red light you see throughout. It’s like the red thread running through it. I think every viewer should form their own opinion about what the red light really is. It could be a heartbeat, a symbol of hope, or whatever it is. But at the very beginning, the light is actually blinking SOS: three, then three slow. So it’s basically the help I’m talking about. The “I need help” light. And LVX is also a Roman numeral: 65, which stands for new beginnings, or change. That connects to the butterflies in the film and the transformation of a butterfly.
This is such a hopeful film, because we need hope right now. Just as a side note, in America we just had our midterm elections, and I think there’s hope for change. The world seemed so dark, and I’m glad there are some glimmers of hope and change. I know a lot of that is happening all over the world, so I think this film is very important.
What are you excited about for the festival? You’re about to go through it, but how exciting to be part of this group. I don’t know who’s coming, but Maggie Gyllenhaal and Saoirse Ronan?
FV: The festival is treating us so well already. The communication is great with the team, and they’re treating us just like a big movie, like a feature film. We feel so taken seriously.
CB: We were already so excited to see the movie in a women’s section. It’s in the Sad Girl Cinema section. We were so proud. We felt like they understood the movie, because I had a fear that someone could think, “Oh, here’s this desperate woman, and the wise old man says something, and she’s like, ‘Oh, thank you, wise old man, for helping me.'” No, no. This movie is about a strong, powerful woman who is ahead of her time and so brave, who says, “I feel this, I don’t want it to be like this, and I want to fight for it.” She even challenges him during the session from time to time.
I know! I thought it was a great choice of not having her lie on the couch. It’s “I’m looking at your face; I’m looking in your eyes.” That’s the way to do it, and it looks great on camera, too.
CB: We also had some little touches, like in the costume. You probably won’t notice it, but she’s not actually wearing a skirt. She’s wearing trousers that look like a skirt. From the back, when she goes up the stairs, if you look closely, you can see she’s actually wearing trousers.
That was Fabian’s idea, because during that time, first of all, a woman would not go there by herself. She would not say, “No, I’m not doing what you’re telling me. I want something from you. I’m here because you have to give me help.” So we built that into the costume, too. She wears rings…
Such great touches! You must have had a great costume person helping you with the clothes and everything.
CB: It’s us! We were the little production team at the same time. We gathered all the resources, and Fabian wanted to give it a little something extra to emphasize that she’s ahead of her time, and that led to these decisions. There’s also a lot of symbolism in the costume. During that time, you would usually only wear black to funerals, but she’s wearing that black jacket because she feels like her life is a funeral, like her inner self is very close to a funeral. That’s why she goes there: it’s her last hope, because she’s empty and dying on the inside. So she wears the black jacket. But underneath there’s a white shirt with a white collar. There’s still hope. We put a lot of thought into the costumes. There’s symbolism almost everywhere.
FV: Yes, there’s a lot of symbolism. The film’s title, “LVX,” means light, and her name, Lucy, means light as well, just in another way.
My final question was going to be what’s next for each of you, but I know you’re focused on the beginning of your festival run. Do you want to touch on any other projects?
FV: I have other projects written, and I’m ready to pitch them: short films and a feature as well. I wanted to be prepared, to have everything together when it finally starts. It’s been a while since I worked, so I had time to write. I have projects I’d love to make as soon as possible, and to work on with great people, of course.
That’s amazing. And you’re going to the right place with Stockholm, and the Swedish Film Institute. Years ago, I interviewed the woman who used to be the Executive Director, Anna Serner, and their commitment to gender equality studies was so impressive, like the Geena Davis Institute. So I think you’re going exactly to the right place to kick things off.
And Christina, you mentioned this is your comeback, so I’m sure you’re excited to get involved in new projects, too.
CB: Yes, I’m hungry for things now. As I said, I couldn’t have wished for a better comeback than such an amazing project, and to be in such amazing company is so inspiring and motivating. It’s going to sound cheesy, but “LVX” literally gave me back some kind of light that maybe got a little lost during my cancer journey. I feel that light so strongly now, and I’m hungry to go out there. I’m ready for the next project.
