Film Stills

Directors Note
It was Summer 1997. I was 7 years old and with my parents on a vacation in Spain. If you would’ve told me at that time, that 23 years later I’d be filming my first feature film in the same bungalow that we were living in, I’d probably would’ve laughed.

Very early on in the planing process of my final project in film school I decided to shoot in Spain. I fell in love with the idea of telling the co-dependend relationship of Bruno and Toni on an island. Just as Bruno and Toni are unable to leave the bubble that they’ve created for themselves, this island would make it harder for them to leave or change their circumstances physically. So when I was talking to a friend, I’ve suddenly had the idea of going back to the bungalow that I’ve stayed in before and where I already had personal memories. I think without even realizing, shooting in a place that I’ve already knew, enabled me to shoot the story in a very intimate way.

"BULLDOG" is a description of the main characters outwards appearance to me. I was interested in showing this buff boy from the outside and exploring his softer, sensitive, fragile and emotional core. In this way I was happy to find Julius Nitschkoff who combined both of the aspects I was looking for. Once I had found him I wrote the entire part tailor-made for him. For me as a gay man it was important to have a different approach to the film’s topic. I wanted to show a cis male, whose life is controlled or influenced only by women and/or queer characters and thereby show Bruno in a way usually women are shown in cinema.

Having the chance of doing the camera myself also helped me to interact with the actors in a way I couldn’t have done, if I would’ve been "just" directing. The camera is not just the observer it’s also a character in the room. And I like when the actor and the audience feel the camera. The actor feels observed and sometimes I intuitively came even closer with the camera to intensify this feeling for Julius. I was not just directing the story, I was part of the story and it also gave me the chance to direct in a very special way. Since Julius was super close to me, I could whisper during each take directions into his ear that he could immediately adapt, which also helped to shoot BULLDOG as authentically as possible and give the actors and also myself flexibility. Furthermore we only dressed the set that was Brunos and Tonis Bungalow. All other sets were real. Zoe (the little girl in the movie) actually lives in the resort with her parents who allowed us to film in her real room.

In the end, when we were taking the bungalow set apart and removed everything it was a very hurtful process because it felt like we were destroying the life that we’ve been creating during the shooting. Knowing that this place with those characters will never exist like this again was tough. It was only later in the editing room that I realised that everything was still there captured on film.

Later after finishing the editing of BULLDOG I found some old VHS-C tapes that my dad filmed during our stay and suddenly I noticed that I basically shot the exact same shots of Julius that my dad took of me back then.

2021 - André Szardenings

Credits

Bruno: Julius Nitschkoff
Toni: Lana Cooper
Hannah: Karin Hanczewski
Andreas Völker: Moritz Führmann
Zoe: Zoe Trommler
Co-worker: Cosima Henman

Director & Writer: André Szardenings

Production:  ifs internationale filmschule köln, André Szardenings, Bayerischer Rundfunk
Commissioning Editor: Natalie Lambsdorff
Filmfounding: Film- und Medienstriftung NRW
Producer:  Katharina Kolleczek, Lea Neu

Associate Producer: Julius Nitschkoff

World Sales: Media Luna New Films
Distributor (Germany, Austria, Switzerland): missingFILMs

Director of Photography: André Szardenings
1st Assistant Camera:  Urs Kusche
Gaffer:  Thorben Winkler

Costumes: Kaya Olbs
Hair & Make Up: Lea Reitberger

Original Soundtrack: NOIA
Sound & Re-recording mixer: Lukas Rabl
Editing: Antonia-Marleen Klein

Color Grading: WeFadeToGrey

Still Photographer & Poster: Urs Kusche

Technical Specs
Runtime: 1 hr 35 min (95 min)
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Color: Color
Aspect Ratio: 1.50:1 (3:2)
Camera: RED Gemini
Cinematographic Process: Digital Intermediate (4K) (master format) | RED RAW R3D (5k) (source format)
Printed Film Format: Digital (Digital Cinema Package DCP)

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9253740/
Crew United: https://www.crew-united.com/de/Bulldog__254736.html
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bulldog.film/
World Sales: https://medialuna.biz/programme/bulldog
Distributor (Germany, Austria, Switzerland): https://www.missingfilms.de/index.php/filme//362-bulldog
Official Website: http://www.bulldog-film.de/