‘Meet the Directors: Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel’

For their Carte Blanche, which is part of the Close-up we are dedicating to them, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel present Jacques Becker’s Le Trou (‘The Hole’). The director’s approach – working with professional and amateur actors – and the choice of protagonists – a marginalised section of society – are similar to their own film-making. Before the screening, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel will talk about their work and explain why they chose Le Trou.

Marc Michel, the only professional actor in the Le Trou, plays a prisoner who joins his new companions who have come up with an escape plan – to dig a tunnel – but is soon suspected of being an informant. The audacity and modernity of Le Trou, the screenplay of which was inspired by the testimonies of prisoners involved in a famous escape in 1947, are still astonishing today, making Becker’s thriller a must-see in the genre.

Born in Paris in 1906, Jacques Becker was that rare film-maker who was at home in every genre, from crime films to comedies, period dramas to modern romances. His most memorable films include Casque d'Or (‘Golden Helmet’), Rendez-vous de juillet (‘Rendezvous in July’), Touchez pas au grisbi (‘Don’t Touch the Loot’), and Le Trou.

Born in Bolzano in 1971, Tizza Covi lived in Paris and Berlin before studying photography in Vienna. She then moved to Rome, where she thrives as a photographer. Rainer Frimmel was born in Vienna the same year, where he also studied photography. Sharing his passion with Tizza, they combined their talents in 2002 to found Vento Films, an independent production company. Since then, their collaboration has been crowned with success, with their films winning numerous awards at prestigious festivals such as the Berlinale, Locarno, Cannes (Directors' Fortnight) and Cinéma du Réel Paris. In their work, which ranges from documentary to fiction, photography has a special place. Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel also regularly work with non-professional actors, who are invited to take part in a fictional story while playing themselves.