{"id":631903,"date":"2026-08-11T16:03:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/631903\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T16:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:03:16","slug":"rose-markus-schleinzer-on-his-sandra-huller-historical-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/631903\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Rose’: Markus Schleinzer on His Sandra H\u00fcller Historical Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the strongest films of the year \u2014 in years, honestly \u2014 stars 2026 MVP Sandra H\u00fcller as a 17th-century German soldier who\u2019s survived a bullet to the face and disfigurement around the end of the Thirty Years War. In \u201cRose<\/a>,\u201d she\u2019s also learned to disguise herself as a man to move more fluidly through the world, in a life where there\u2019s \u201cmore freedom with trousers.\u201d It\u2019s an earth-shatteringly good, career-best turn from H\u00fcller in a body of work built on career-best turns. At one point, her performance deliberately invokes Maria Falconetti in \u201cThe Passion of Joan of Arc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directed and co-written by Markus Schleinzer<\/a>, \u201cRose\u201d won H\u00fcller the Silver Bear Best Actress, the prize that last year went to eventual Oscar nominee Rose Byrne, back at the Berlin Film<\/a> Festival in February. A deeply gifted filmmaker with rigorous control of the material but also a great deal of empathy, Schleinzer comes to this year\u2019s festival circuit as a third-time feature director, after breaking out of Michael Haneke\u2019s tutelage as his casting director to make 2011\u2019s \u201cMichael\u201d and his 2018 follow-up \u201cAngelo.\u201d \u201cRose,\u201d however, will put the director even more widely on the map this fall with a New York Film Festival debut and an expected (if you\u2019re doing the math on premiere status) Telluride bow.<\/p>\n

\"'The<\/a> \"Gentle<\/a> <\/p>\n

While this gorgeous film, shot in black-and-white, looks like an austere arthouse offering on its surface, Schleinzer delivers it with a tender touch that makes for one of this year\u2019s grandest emotional statements. And one that belongs in this year\u2019s awards<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

As I wrote out of Berlin<\/a>: Not since Sally Potter\u2019s breakout feature \u201cOrlando<\/a>\u201d has a film explored gender privilege so effectively through a historical lens and via a singularly astounding European actress (then, it was Tilda Swinton). Playing Rose as a kind of gender-bending Joan d\u2019Arc who will inevitably face plenty of persecution of her own, Oscar-nominated \u201cAnatomy of a Fall\u201d and \u201cThe Zone of Interest\u201d star H\u00fcller is tremendous in a role that allows writer\/director Schleinzer to transcend the\u00a0it-puts-the-austerity-in-Austria\u00a0trappings of his compatriots; \u201cRose\u201d is nothing short of shattering, and the centrifugal force of H\u00fcller will, by the end, suck you into all her protagonist\u2019s hurt. It\u2019s an achievement built entirely upon emotional elisions, in almost imperceptible modulations of gesture and expression \u2014 especially in a final scene that cuts to black like a guillotine.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the fall festivals, IndieWire sat down with Schleinzer for a wide-ranging chat about the making of \u201cRose,\u201d his relationship with Michael Haneke, and where Haneke\u2019s at currently given that he hasn\u2019t made a film since 2017\u2019s \u201cHappy End.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The interview below has been edited for brevity and clarity. Mubi will release \u201cRose\u201d in theaters for a qualifying release in November with a wider theatrical rollout beginning in 2027.<\/p>\n

IndieWire: How does your experience with working with Michael Haneke inform your filmmaking now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Markus Schleinzer:<\/strong> I started working for him, I think at the age of 24 or 25. I became a casting director myself very early in the age of 21. Then there was a period of time where no one wanted to work with him anymore, the Austrian casting directors, because of his reputation. So they asked me and I knew little about him. We met, and it was a constant friendship. \u2026 I never studied filmmaking. So what I know about filmmaking, what I know about how to direct, what I know about this profession is what I learned from all the actresses and actors in front of my casting camera throughout the years.<\/p>\n

How to organize a set and how to fight for the things you believe in is what I learned from Michael Haneke. Because my job was not only to do the casting for his movie, I was always on set and working on set. In some early movies I was directing the extras. On \u201cThe White Ribbon,\u201d I had an upgrade, I was allowed to direct the children. It was in this period of time when he said, \u201cOK, now I have the feeling I\u2019m stealing from you. You really have to go out and become a director yourself,\u201d and this is what I did. But it was never a pupil-and-teacher situation, and we are really good friends. But I never sent my scripts to him, and I never show him rushes because I really want to make my own mistakes.<\/p>\n

\"Rose\"\u2018Rose\u2019Mubi<\/p>\n

Has he seen \u201cRose\u201d? We haven\u2019t heard from him in a while, so I\u2019ve been worried.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He retired. He\u2019s 85 years old now, and then he retired, but he\u2019s still happy. We met two weeks ago, and he was cooking a very fine dish for myself. He has done his 10 movies like his all-time idol, Robert Bresson. He did what he could do, and he\u2019s happy now. He was there at the premiere in Austria, and he\u2019s such a very protective and very sweet friend. When I was in Cannes with the first movie \u2026 he was calling me every other minute, \u201cHave you won a prize? Do you know something right now?\u201d So it\u2019s a really sweet friendship. And \u201cRose,\u201d he said, \u201cThis is a masterpiece.\u201d He does not say this easily, which doesn\u2019t make it easier for me to handle a compliment like this from him. But he\u2019s happy. He\u2019s happy with the work. He\u2019s happy with the result.<\/p>\n

You co-starred as Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria with Sandra H\u00fcller in \u201cSisi and I,\u201d where she played Empress Elisabeth. Is this how you met?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I knew her as an actress \u2026 but we finally met in person on the set of this movie, \u201cSisi and I,\u201d and this is where we found friendship and respect. I already had started to write \u201cRose,\u201d and I already was considering her for the main character. So I took this opportunity to work together with her on set as an actor. Maybe it was a bit weird for her because I was observing her the entire day when she was acting, and I was like a stalker. I ordered all the pictures she did before, and I just watched everything I could find. I was traveling, I followed her around the world and was watching what she\u2019s doing on stage just to get an idea of her talent.<\/p>\n

Because for \u201cRose,\u201d it was so important to find someone who connects so brilliantly in these very little, very small possibilities given by the story, given by me. I never told her that I had written this for her. It just came out at the Berlinale premiere when I said this because it would\u2019ve been embarrassing to say to someone, \u201cI\u2019ve written this for you,\u201d and maybe the person disliked it. Why not? I mean, it\u2019s a free choice to do. She liked it very much because I write in prose always \u2026 She said she has never read something like this before, that\u2019s not a script, that\u2019s a poem. I think that was what made her very interested in doing it. A side of maybe an interesting character she was interested to portray herself.<\/p>\n

So if she said no, you would\u2019ve had a problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, definitely. Can I say this? I would\u2019ve shot myself. I don\u2019t know. I would\u2019ve put it away, locked it away, and would\u2019ve started writing something else. Because I would never do something if I\u2019m not completely sure about this. Being a casting director for 17 years had given me the opportunity to see what outcome it takes when the person you really believe should do this is not going to do it out of various reasons. <\/p>\n

How did you land on this particular story? You read about a woman who lived in Prussia in the 19th century disguised as a man.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was a birthday \u2026 a friend of mine called me saying congrats. At the end of the call, she says, \u201cI just finished reading about a trial \u2026 about a woman in Germany who had been executed, who had been killed because she was wearing pants and then pretended to be a man. And this was exactly 250 years before your birth.\u201d [\u2026] I was starting trying to reach out to experts and was reading about this woman. But very soon I gained more interest in women in pants. And so finally \u201cRose,\u201d the script, [became] this culmination of centuries of real women who adopted male identity to claim autonomy or to survive \u2026 I think at least 300 women I came across and read throughout three different centuries. The reasons why they stepped into the pants had always been different. Some of them hoped to avoid marriage, to marry the guy they did not want to. Some of them hoped to avoid violence, aggression. Some of them wanted to achieve education. There had been patriotism, women who wanted to fight for their own country and had not been allowed to because they were women. So they pretended to be men to go to war. Of course, there had been lots of lesbian desire and maybe a trans person \u2026 But what they all had in common was the goal to live a bit more free[ly]. <\/p>\n

This touched me very much because I think this is something that we can all find in ourselves \u2026 So it started with a woman in pants, and it ended up for me as a very open reading, possible readings about the idea of what is freedom, what is your own story, and then the authorship of your own story. Who held the authorship of your own story? Are we shaped by the society we actually live in? Who are we at the end of the day? And do we want to be that person?<\/p>\n

\"'Rose'\"\u2018Rose\u2019Mubi<\/p>\n

Talk about the challenges of shooting in the Glasebach Valley in Germany, where you\u2019re dealing with the elements and primarily shooting outdoors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was very, very hard to find this place because I was so eager to shoot this in an environment which can still be called nature and not culture. Meaning something wild, nature that had belonged to itself for some centuries and not been shaped by humans. These places are very little in Europe nowadays, and most of them are protected because there are rare plants or rare elements or rare animals. Luckily we found something like this in Germany near the so-called inner German border, this border where east and west had been divided because we were told there are still lots of landmines, so people should not go there. They have some sheeps and hope that they can get rid of the problem [using] sheep, that one day most of the sheep had stepped on landmines and exploded and things like this. <\/p>\n

We knew that the story takes place in a period of some three years, and so we have to shoot at every season possible because three years do not take place only in summer or only in springtime. So it was very important to find a place where we can build this house or where we can build this church and just leave it there for a year to return and come back and shoot again. It was very cold summer, so it was raining all the time. It was snowing still in May. So I don\u2019t know how we did it. We waited for one hour for this very small window of sunlight that the sun could come out to finally shoot. And then the impression that it\u2019s not only raining all the time. So in my memory, I was wet the entire time \u2026 I was fighting for every piece of grass and every flower. And film teams, this is 40 to 70 people, when they step into grass, it\u2019s done. Everyone had to take this very small path so that we do not disturb nature, not behind the camera. If we want, we do disturb it in front of the camera, but not behind the camera \u2026 It was so peaceful there and so quiet. And then the mobiles did not work. So it was very helpful. The animals were living there, the pigs, the horses, everyone was there. So it was very helpful to get into this idea of the early 17th century.<\/p>\n

How would you characterize Sandra H\u00fcller\u2019s approach to performance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sandra is very hands-on, and this I like very much. What combines us is that we are both not very easily impressed. First of all, not by ourselves. Impressing ourselves is nothing that will happen easily. The script was written precisely in prose. I gave away the idea of dreams, wishes, longings, desires for the character so you\u2019re free to choose if you want. If not, you can find similar things or your own things. We met four to five times. We repeatedly read the entire script over and over again, discussed each and every scene four to five times, and then it happened. So on a day of shooting, little rehearsal.<\/p>\n

We started shooting for some weeks, and then she had to go to meet Ryan [Gosling] and do something [\u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d] with Ryan in London. And then she returned, and then we continued shooting, and then she left to do something with Tom [Cruise] again in London. And then she came back, and in between, she was doing some documentary about Ingeborg Bachmann, an Austrian author who had died in the \u201970s. And then she came back and we finished \u201cRose\u201d [\u2026] I don\u2019t know when she sleeps, or maybe there are three or four of her so that luckily we can do all of our movies. I\u2019m full of praise.<\/p>\n

Where are you at with the Klaus Nomi biopic with Christian Friedel? You recently signed with Cinetic management, so there must be some movement here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I finished the draft this morning [\u2026] What touches me about Klaus Nomi is that you have someone with a very, very, very great talent who is not allowed to share it with an audience. But he finally comes up with the idea to put on a mask. So he does not change his craft. He does not change his talent. He does not even change the way he was performing. He was just changing his surface to get accepted. And this is something I think still very popular nowadays with social media: How do I want to be read? And what is the idea of myself? And then how do I want to be perceived? It\u2019s very stressful, and it became very stressful with the internet because everything will stay there forever. It\u2019s again a story about a so-called outsider and the clash of civilization and society. But after \u201cRose\u201d and after black and white, this time I chose Technicolor and a musical. There\u2019s lots of songs and dance and even animation and things like this. It\u2019s bittersweet and it\u2019s again, of course, an unhappy ending. But again, I try to take on things in this matter of fact way \u2026 because this is how I see life and how the biggest emotions happen to me every day in the matter of fact way. And this touches me the most. And I can only tell stories the way I see the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the strongest films of the year \u2014 in years, honestly \u2014 stars 2026 MVP Sandra H\u00fcller…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[4648,18,117,597,19,2810,17,267054,327,37336,161427],"class_list":["post-631903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-awards","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-ie","tag-interviews","tag-ireland","tag-markus-schleinzer","tag-movies","tag-rose","tag-sandra-huller"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117077725784035401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}