An Interview with Jaschar Marktanner, Director of Für Elise

by Mike Haberfelner

March 2026

Films directed by Jaschar Marktanner on (re)Search my Trash

Your new movie Für Elise - in a few words, what's it about?

Prioritising your own wants and needs.

What does the tune Für Elise - and Beethoven in general - mean to you personally?

I probably shouldn’t say this, but the answer is “absolutely nothing”. I’m a Mozart guy through and through (there is a tiny hint to that in the movie actually), but now I have two movies featuring music by Beethoven. The first one being Turing Test, where you can hear Moonlight Sonata, which is an excellent piece of course, the first movement anyway. With Für Elise, I’m torn between Elise’s and Ludwig’s opinion about it. They might sound mutually exclusive, but I think they can still be both true at the same time.

The cock-and-bull story about the creation of Für Elise Ludwig tells in your movie - have you made this up specifically for the short or is this part of the larger Beethoven-lore?

If it didn’t exist, I’d have had to make it up. But yes, it was largely based on an actual hypothesis about the origin of the piece. There has been scholarly debate about whom it was dedicated to, with names such as Elise and Therese in the mix. The part involving another man was a later addition I think, outside the musicological discourse, and probably just a joke. I stumbled upon the debate by accident and didn’t read too much about it, because I immediately had to write the whole movie. In the first draft, Ludwig said he read the story on the internet. But later, I wanted to place the movie in the late 1980s. That’s not too clear now in the final movie, but it’s still timeless I think.

(Other) sources of inspiration when writing Für Elise - and is any of it based on personal experiences?

It mostly came from me learning about the origin hypothesis. I immediately saw a man sitting on a piano, playing the piece, and a woman named Elise entering from the sleeping room, ready to do what she will do. The movie doesn’t draw inspiration from my personal life at all, but of course I am invested in the protagonist. I’m happy Elise made the right choice and will have a great life.

Für Elise is set in just one room for the entirety of its running time - so what were some of your techniques to keep things visually interesting throughout?

I really don’t think about these things too much. In pre-production, I create the shotlist that makes the most sense to me. On set, I place the camera where I think it fits and I trust that the gaffer will light everything well. In post-production, I edit it the way I envisioned as much as possible, depending on how the shoot went. This time, I graded it myself, because it’s in black and white. That’s all the visual techniques I use that I can think of. There is the blocking also, but I feel that’s dictated by the story here anyway. At the end of the day, it’s all about the acting for me.

Do talk about Für Elise's cast, andhy exactly these two?

I have talked extensively about Marlene Fahnster in the past I feel, so I don’t really know what else to say without looking like a glazer as the kids call it. This woman is just an absolute blessing for my scripts and my movies.

Finding Ludwig didn’t seem so easy at the beginning, because it needed to be someone who is able to freely play the piece, especially the difficult part, in a live setting, on top of being a good actor of course. When Tobias Mosig applied, it was obvious very quickly, that he would be the best fit for the role. Every note you hear in the movie was played by him. We even used live recording when you see him play the difficult part, which I’m pretty happy about. Amadeus is the best movie of all time (I’m a Mozart guy, remember?), and Tom Hulce plays the piano for real also, but they still added the sound later.

What can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?

I helmed the photography myself this time, so that put a bit more stress on me on set than usual. Given the circumstances, I think the atmosphere was pretty good. I actually didn’t notice too much about it. That is all thanks to my assistant director Clara Schamp, who managed the set, took care of the whole team and did everything she could so I would be able to focus on my work. We wrapped up earlier than planned, as is the case with most of my movies, and we got all the shots done I wanted, so I don’t think anybody has a reason to complain.

The $64-question of course, where can Für Elise be seen?

I’ll try to get it into festivals. Given the unsuccessful runs of Turing Test and Vielleicht besser so, or most of my movies really. I’m not too hopeful, but you never know.

Any future projects you'd like to share?

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Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?

I want to thank the person without whom I would have never made a single movie.

Thanks for the interview!

© by Mike Haberfelner

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