Charlotte Roche: "The accident should shock, that relaxes me!"
In her novel "Lap Prayer" published in 2011, Charlotte Roche processes the "complete catastrophe of her life", the tragic accidental death of her three brothers on June 30, 2001. The story about the neurotic wife Elizabeth Kiehl, which can only be properly dropped during sex, was after "Wetlands" Roche's second novel. Now comes the film adaptation of the bestseller with Lavinia Wilson and Jürgen Vogel in the cinemas. How is that, to see your own trauma suddenly in the movie?
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: "Schoßgebete" is already your second novel adaptation. How much were you involved this time?
Charlotte Roche: Not at all! I do not want the movie industry to blaspheme about me and say, "She's megalomaniac and went into scriptwriting."
Was not it difficult to let go of such a private substance?
Basically, my attitude is that they should make a new work of art based on my book. In "lap prayers", of course, I was afraid of certain scenes.
Film scene "Schoßgebete"
© Constantin Film Distribution / Tom TrambowThe car accident of your mother and siblings plays a central role in the film. What is it like to see these scenes on the screen?
Unfortunately, the story of my life, the most important thing that happened to me, is a tragic calamity. I live with it every day and still struggle with the consequences. The reality is so much more exhausting for me than watching the movie. From the book to the screenplay to the film, it slips away from me.
The accident scenes are pretty much on the kidneys.
If that gets you going, if someone else is shocked by it, it relaxes me. Then I managed to make someone else feel like it.
The film is surprisingly good at the same time. The sex scene with which you start the book has been canceled.
Since the people will be surprised, who are already sitting in the cinema with open trousers and think: "I know how the film begins". Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that!
Why does not sex play such a big role in the movie?
The producer Oliver Berben has explained to me that it is more of a relationship film than a sex movie for him. It annoys all this scandalization of sex totally. Of course, many viewers expect stark pictures - and there are also explicit scenes. For example, one of my favorite scenes in the brothel.
In which the couple pays a prostitute for a threesome.
I find it totally funny, as both are very good and are completely subordinate to the prostitutes. So you should just behave as a suitor!
Is Lavinia Wilson your desired Elizabeth Kiehl?
When I saw Lavinia's casting tape for the first time, I immediately got goose bumps and sweats. I thought, "Oh God, she speaks like me." My second thought was: "I hope my husband does not see them, afterwards he falls in love with them."
Last year you told us that you are working on another book.
: I'm still writing, but I'm really lahmarschig. The publisher occasionally asks by SMS "... and how are you?" Which means something like, "When will the book come, you stupid pig?"
