Karl and Marilyn (2003)

Priit Pärn

At the beginning of millennium you directed Karl and Marilyn with a new motif of superheroes and their two faces, public and personal. How was the world in this time changed in comparison to the beginning of nineties? Does this new motif, so typical for West, signify that western culture already ruled the East?
Priit: Maybe you shouldn’t try to find any kind of East-West connections in this film. It was done fifteen years after soviet times and there was nothing about past in it. I made a film about man and woman. Man was called Karl, you can find Marx in it, but it’s not political. It’s just a man who is famous. Not because he’s Karl Marx, but because he’s great in jumping from a bridge. And then there’s Marilyn, a village girl who would like to become famous.
Actually, I saw the idea of this film in my dream. I was in a cinema and somebody showed me the script, it was a feature film. At the very beginning of it Karl Marx went to a hairdresser to shave himself. Nobody knows how Karl Marx looked like without beard. And then nobody knew that it’s Karl Marx. I woke up and found it just very funny, but later I told this to some of my friends and suddenly got that there are something maybe for my next film.. This was just the beginning of story. Marilyn came later.
Olga: For me it’s the film about loneliness. They never met. They are both alone.
Priit: I didn’t want to make a sad film, but Olga is not alone who said it is like that. I made this film – it’s quite personal thing – in a period when my wife was very ill. She had Alzheimer and she died in November 2004. But I still think that it is funny film and it surprised me that such many people told it’s sad. Now when I’m looking back I understand why I made it in this year – 2003 – and not in 1987 or 1995. If you’re looking from distance you can see the things in some context and you understand the real reasons.
Olga: In Gabriella we have a sequence (the one with the neighbors) that is in feeling similar to this film. Could I ask how you understood it?
Ivana: For me it was a kind of feeling that somebody is still observing and leading our lives. And we can not to do anything about it. You want to find who is it, who is observing, who is making decisions about our lives but we can never find the answer. And it’s very frustrating for me.
Olga: It’s exactly what you said in fact.
Priit: Plus there is another level. We’re looking out through some window of pub or café. You can see someone coming and giving something to another guy and they move out from the frame. You can continue with thoughts. Who they are: the criminals, or somebody with the present… You can never see the whole story, only fragments, so you can build out. You know, when you’re making film not all things mean this and just this. To keep the double level you have to think of the best ways to explain. Animation is special good for working with double meanings. I’m saying that something is really white. But at the same time there are hints that maybe it’s totally black. This is the best thing if you can do film like this. And also to do some very funny thing and when you stop laughing you understand that it’s really tragic.

Ivana Laučíková
HFJ Priit Pärn - Homo Felix, http://homofelixjournal.com/onlinefulltexts/priit-parn (06.06.2014).