In “Where’s Mike?”, Actress Dagmar Manzel is again investigating Commissioner Paula Ringelhahn. In the interview she talks about the love life of the commissioner and the culture as an education of the heart
The Franconian “Tatort” is the jewel of the indestructible series, and not because of the magnificent Bamberg old town: Dagmar Manzel, Berliner, anti-diva of the Komische Oper, celebrated actress at the Deutsches Theater, gives the “Tatort” in the role of Commissioner Paula Ringelhahn brittle glamor. Since spring 2015, she can be seen once a year at the side of her fellow investigator, played by Fabian Hinrichs. If you didn’t know too much about the private life of the sharp-tongued but consistently weaponless commissioner, Dagmar Manzel shows a new facet in the latest episode.
Ms. Manzel, as Commissioner Paula Ringelhahn, you show great feelings in the new Franconian “crime scene”. This is surprising because the Commissioner has so far not disclosed too much private information. How did that happen?
Paula falls in love. She hadn’t expected that anymore because she got along well with her life the way she had arranged it. The older she got, the more she withdrew and hardly allowed love any more. Also because the injuries she has suffered in the course of her life are too great. And suddenly she comes into conflict between a tender love that is developing and the responsibility that she bears in her job. This creates a great height of fall that is more familiar from feature films. I’ve worked with director Andreas Kleinert many times. He has a keen sense for nuances and loves his actors and actresses. There is a lot of trust between us.
Sylvester Groth plays the superintendent’s heart. Almost 40 years ago you were seen as a couple on “Fronturlaub”, which was shown on GDR television in 1983.
It was a film without words, a very strong black and white film. We actually didn’t shoot with each other in between. We have had a nice friendship for years. Sylvester Groth is a strong personality and for me one of the most extraordinary actors in Germany. He doesn’t invite you, he doesn’t want to please, like so many, but he manages to keep you from getting away from him.
They also play very intimate scenes with each other. Is it harder or easier when you’re so good friends with each other?
That is certainly easier. But we’ve both been doing the job for almost forty years and can separate between work and personal life. If I had had another nice colleague, I would have liked to kiss him too, because Paula likes to kiss.
“Where’s Mike?” Tells a lot about domestic violence, in different ways. Is the film moving close to reality?
Absolutely. Many children live in families in which their needs are not recognized or neglected by their parents. In this crime scene you see parents who cling too much, you see children who panic out of fear of their parents. And on another level it is about trust and perception. What happens if false information is released and the person concerned cannot refute it? And even if it is refuted, the accused still has a flaw.
In this case, a teacher is accused of sexually abusing children. He becomes a leper before anything is proven. Is that also a hint of the dangers that a movement like #MeToo harbors?
In our time, in which so much takes place virtually, the risk of stigmatization is great. Hatred and threats on the internet have increased. Young people bully each other with manipulated cell phone videos. Somebody presses the send button, remains anonymous, and for those who are affected, a world is destroyed.
There have recently been more accusations of sexism and abuse of power in the theater. As a hierarchical institution, is the theater particularly prone to abuse of power?
You can find it everywhere in society. Despite equality and emancipation, women are by no means equally represented in the higher levels of the economy. And of course there is this unequal balance of power in the theater too. I did not have to experience abuse of power on my own body at all. All of my directors were men, including many of the directors, but I never got into such situations or conflicts.
What do you attribute that to?
There were respectful connections on an equal footing, and maybe I just got to the point verbally. If it gets too tight for me, I say so. But of course that doesn’t mean that the women who experience abuse of power are themselves to blame. If a young actress who’s just graduated from college is beaten up or turned on by a director, it can ruin her entire life.
Sensitivity is a prerequisite for being an actress, but it also makes someone vulnerable. A dilemma?
Naturally. You have to be ready to surrender your body and soul, but that also makes you vulnerable. You stand up there, you cannot withdraw and you are absolutely vulnerable. If you open certain roller drawers, you may be able to protect yourself better, but that’s boring. In this job it’s about penetrating the abyss, repeatedly creating feelings. You have to acquire techniques with which you can catch yourself again. Nevertheless, you are not left out – it is always an internal process. A commissioner who is constantly confronted with violence in her job or a nurse in a hospital who experiences illness and death every day must also be able to switch off.
Does a knowledge of human nature combine the two professions of commissioner and actress?
To person
Dagmar Manzel , born in Berlin in 1958, studied acting at the Ernst Busch Drama School, worked for many years at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, and has also appeared in music theater productions since 2002. Most recently she performed a solo evening at the Komische Oper Berlin (including “Pierrot lunaire” by Arnold Schönberg).
On Sunday , May 16, 2021, Das Erste will show the “Tatort” from Franconia “Where’s Mike?” At 8:15 p.m. Directed by Andreas Kleinert and based on the script by Thomas Wendrich, Paula Ringelhahn (Dagmar Manzel) and Felix Voss (Fabian Hinrichs) are again investigating in Bamberg.
A commissioner has to empathize with alleged perpetrators in order to understand under what conditions and for what motives an act was committed. She doesn’t have to put herself in the perpetrators’ shoes, but she has to get closer to their initial situation and explore the triggering moment, otherwise she won’t find out about them. It cannot be compared with the acting profession: As an actress, you let yourself go, put yourself in a character and then you are on stage or in front of the camera.
What is the difference between working on the stage and working on the film set?
The Komische Oper is my home, and I will soon be playing the play “Gift” for the hundredth time at the Deutsches Theater, together with Ulrich Matthes. I love to shoot, it’s a journey to the other side of my job, and I don’t want to miss it, but I need theater and musical theater. This is my world. In front of the camera you have to catch the moment and then let yourself go. That is not possible on stage, there are so many components that you have to react to, the orchestra, the colleagues, the audience.
You also have a solo evening at the Komische Oper in Berlin with Beckett monologues and Arnold Schönberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire”. A program that was planned long before Corona, you were celebrated by the audience and critics for it.
This is a program that challenges me a thousand times. I play “Pierrot Lunaire” freely, without a score. I’ve learned everything by heart. When we will show that again is in the stars.
How are you doing in the complete culture lockdown that has been in place since November?
I have to do with the crime scene and my audio book recordings. During the first lockdown, I registered as unemployed because everything had really broken down and I had no alternatives. Fortunately, I don’t need that now, the support should be given to others. I see a lot of people around me who somehow managed to get through as freelancers last year and no longer. I understand that a pandemic poses a special challenge to everyone – and in the end we probably won’t know how to do it right for a few years. Nevertheless, the perseverance slogans are slowly making me crazy because they are constantly changing.
There are big differences in status in the cultural sector. Who will the closure hurt the most?
It hits particularly hard freelancers and young professionals who have nothing to control because they are just starting – for them everything falls apart. It’s hard for the employed musicians, for the actresses in the theaters and opera houses, because they don’t play in public, but they at least get their money every month, and they know that things will go on again at some point. But everyone else?
Does politics ignore the efforts of culture? The theaters, concert halls and opera houses have invested a lot in the safety of the public.
Unfortunately, culture doesn’t play a role at all at the moment. But it is not enough to go to the supermarket and pack your shopping cart full. People need to communicate and theaters are places of communication and exchange. We cannot communicate with each other solely through screens. We have to meet, talk to each other, laugh with each other, look each other in the eye, that is a basic human need. The culture that is so important, that enables heart formation and education. That has been completely forgotten. Theatre? What was that again?
The cinema makes do with laboriously video-on-demand offers. A replacement?
No. We made a wonderful film in 2019. “The great freedom”, the debut of the young director Wendla Nölle. My dream came true to play with Rolf Lassgard once in my life, this incredible Swedish actor. We have a world distributor, but it is completely uncertain when the film will be released in theaters. It’s horrible for me because I love this movie, but it’s a disaster for the director who made her first big movie. I complain at a high level. I have a job and can make a living from work. But my colleagues and friends have completely different problems.
Is there solidarity with one another?
Yes, we help each other. You suggest someone who doesn’t have a job, you also work for free so that a certain film is finished and can be shown at some point. And despite all the trouble, you have to acknowledge that, for example, the Berlin Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer and Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters are very committed to cultural workers and try to get support for them.
Some very well-known musicians have founded the initiative “Stand up for art”, which is now before the Federal Constitutional Court. The opera singer Christian Gerhaher accuses politics of not having understood what culture is and of dealing with it under leisure and entertainment.
To dismiss art and culture as leisure activities leaves me speechless and shows a poor understanding of what art can do at all. She can educate the heart. Money can’t do that. And so I spontaneously remember the beginning of Hyperion “That’s how I came under the Germans. I didn’t ask much and was prepared to find even less. “Well, what else can you say …
Interview: Christina Bylow
