“Spaghetti for Two” is one of the short films this year that has a simple story that is told through an inspired grandiose fashion. A man is looking to have lunch with the limited money he has but he keeps being distracted by his imaginative daydreams. German writer/director Matthias Rosenberger talked with us about what it was like to film those sequences and the storytelling perspective he took to make this movie.
Heartland Film Festival: You’ve created this wonderful film without any dialog. Did you enjoy that challenge of storytelling?
Matthias: Yes, I did enjoy it. I was inspired by music-videos and musicals – I always wanted the film to become some kind of “symphony” – where of course the music helped a lot!
Heartland Film Festival: At what stage of production, did you have an idea of the music that will play during the short? Did you ever have it play during filming to guide the actors?
Matthias: Max Jetzinger, our composer, got our script in the beginning of our preproduction and I asked him to create one song for Finn, the main character and one for one of the daydream. And with these songs in mind we produced the movie. After all, Max did improve and finish his great score frame per frame – but the three “old” main songs still made it in the final cut.
Heartland Film Festival: The short is filled with imaginative scenes of daydreams Finn has. What was it like capturing those on film, especially the one involving the beautiful girl he has a crush on?
Matthias: For me as a filmmaker these daydream-scenes were a lot of fun because the shooting was very big, with remote cranes, a huge set and many extras – and with Mia (who is a number one singer from Switzerland) it was nice to shoot these “special” scenes.
Heartland Film Festival: The character of Finn is on screen for almost the entire short film. What was it like working with that actor, Johannes Silberschneider, to craft that character especially considering so much of the movie relies on him to be sympathetic and endearing?
Matthias: Johannes Silberschneider is a very professional and also famous actor who normally plays in big feature movies. For our movie he also prepared very well for his role and almost “lived” it during all of our 9 shooting days.
Heartland Film Festival: Are you working on a next project?
Matthias: Yes, I’m in Australia at the moment to prepare my first feature movie – a big international adventure-film. 
Heartland Film Festival: What are some of your favorite movies?
Matthias: Back to the Future / Almost Famous / The Fifth Element / and lots more!
You can buy tickets for “Spaghetti for Two” which will play in the short film program “Interesting Individuals” on the following days…
– Saturday, October 20 at 5:30 p.m. at AMC Showplace Traders Point 12
– Sunday, October 21 at 2:45 p.m. at AMC Castleton Square 14
– Monday, October 22 at 12:15 p.m. at AMC Showplace Traders Point 12
– Friday, October 26 at 3:30 p.m. at AMC Castleton Square 14
Interview conducted by Austin Lugar
