Whether it’s dating or streaming films – our leisure time behavior is firmly in the hands of algorithms. Every swipe, every click generates data that makes the consumer a little more transparent. And yet, in the end, disappointment often prevails. The human being remains an unfathomable being, preferences cannot be broken down into fixed criteria.
That is why the offer sounds like in the third season of the Starz series “The Girlfriend Experience”, the neuroscientist Iris (Julia Goldani Telles), who performs the fantasies of her rich customers at night as a luxury escort lady, the tech guru of a London start-up Submitted, so tempting: an algorithm that better than humans understand their individual wishes and desires. In other words: the perfect dating app, smarter than the user.
“Of course I wrote that with a wink,” explains Berlin director Anja Marquardt in an interview with Zoom. The association “dating streaming” was obvious, even if she didn’t want to overstep the joke. As a director, you are more concerned about optimizing our consumer behavior.
“One can only hope that there will be a course correction at some point, when we are all bored with the films that the algorithm selects.” Because the numbers are relentless, explains Marquardt. The industry has recognized that series have already generated the maximum number of subscriptions after two seasons. That is why a third season is being commissioned less and less. In this respect, too, “The Girlfriend Experience” is an exception.
Between Berlin and Los Angeles
Marquardt has a coffee next to him, it’s early morning in Los Angeles. Not unusual for the native of Berlin, her parents and brother still live in Berlin. The perceived life in two time zones is normal for them. Although she has lived in the United States for 15 years, connections back home have never been broken.
On the contrary, interest in the 41-year-old has increased in recent months: Who can claim to have been personally chosen by Steven Soderbergh? The director had seen her debut “She’s Lost Control”, which premiered in the Berlinale Forum in 2014 – and posted it on his recommendation list online. At some point the call came.
Soderbergh is close to Anja Marquardt, she too sees herself somewhere between European author and American genre cinema. Films from these two worlds would have inspired her. But the road was rocky. She spent her apprenticeship years at the Berlinale, remembers Marquardt: “That was a dream come true, six films in a row from retro to graduation films – at some point you see a scene for the third time a day in which an animal almost causes an accident. That taught me vertical vision. At the time I thought there was a reservoir of images and ideas that were accumulating in me. “
Berlinale as a school of vision
But no German film school wanted to take Marquardt. The dffb didn’t even invite her, during the interviews at the HFF Munich she felt like at a military academy, she recalls with a laugh. She only made it to the second round. “It was a stroke of fate that I ended up at the Tisch School at New York University,” says Marquardt.
The training at NYU is more about American auteur cinema, Anja Marquardt likes this tradition. She wrote the script for the third season of “The Girlfriend Experience” and directed all ten episodes, thus embodying the series functions of showrunner and writer’s room in personal union. This way of thinking out of the box is what Marquardt appreciates in her sponsor.
“Steven Soderbergh always wanted the series to be coherent and every season to look like one piece. That also helped me to see the season like a long film in principle. ”In retrospect,“ She’s Lost Control ”can almost be read as a calling card for her first series, the story of a young behavioral psychologist who also works as a sex therapist and between them Both identities are increasingly isolated from their surroundings, she told in cool, distant images.
She is simply fascinated by the world of “transactional relationships”, according to Marquardt; That’s what Soderbergh’s 2009 film “The Girlfriend Experience” was about, on which the series is based.
US film production is becoming more global
Marquardt takes this premise further in the third season by relocating the story to the tech industry in London. “The US streaming producers are now paying a lot of attention to the global potential of a story – or a filmmaker,” she says. This development would suit her, who has lived between two continents for years. “German director, American protagonist, British setting: this way of thinking is relatively new.”
The Berliner sees the streaming industry as a pioneer in the US film industry. At the moment Hollywood seems to be discovering German women directors: Nora Fingscheidt (“Systemsprenger”) is shooting with Sandra Bullock, Julia von Heinz (“And tomorrow the whole world”) was able to win Lena Dunham (“Girls”) for her first international production, Maria Schrader will soon be filming the Weinstein research by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. “The need for new materials is much greater today, so as a director it is an exciting time to push projects,” says Marquardt.
The decisive factor here is that a generation change has taken place with MeToo. “People who think differently sit in the decision-making functions of broadcasters today. The awareness to advance this cultural change together is very pronounced. The power structures will continue to develop in this direction. ”Nevertheless, she remains skeptical of how sustainable the development will be against the background of the pandemic. “The important questions – who chooses the fabrics? How can we further develop the language of cinema? – posed long before Corona. “
Marquardt says that she feels a personal responsibility here. It has always been important to her to find a good mix in front of and behind the camera. Ultimately, the question is: “How do you see yourself in the world, like other people?” Anja Marquardt intends to do her part. (The full third season will be available on Starzplay starting July 4th.)
I am a technology author with 8 years of experience in journalism. My writing covers the latest technology advancements and trends, drawing on my expertise in news journalism and social media platforms. I have contributed to major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.
