spotlight
make sense—considering what the characters were doing to each other,”
explained Andreas. “In terms of the specific ending, it was something I was
debating for sure. But I figured it was a dramatic ending to a dramatic story.”
Adding to the fine acting and script work, there is a great deal of original
music that dances in the viewer’s head long after the credits roll. While An-
dreas doesn’t take credit for writing the songs, he did ask some of his personal
friends to lend a few tracks and provide their take on a few European classics.
“They had a lot of songs that had never been professionally recorded,” said
Andreas. “While I was re-writing certain parts of the film, I was thinking, ‘I could
put this song here over this montage.’ A couple of the songs were actually
big hits in Sweden in the ‘80s. It’s actually the actors who are singing on the
soundtrack. When we were casting, [singing] wasn’t something we listed as
a requirement because Kyle was a very specific character anyway. But then
during a callback for Simon Miller, who plays Kyle, he started singing and he
was great. He loved recording the songs and being on stage and having all
these extras pretending they loved him (Laughter).
The soundtrack officially becomes available in May, in connection with the
DVD release (May 5th). Aside from its accessibility on iTunes, CDs will be on
sale on Andreas’ website,
www.casperandreas.com.”
Equally memorable are the cast members—especially Rob Harmon, who
plays Kyle’s manipulative but fragile transgender sister April/Cole. Even while
portraying a thoroughly self-serving individual, Harmon captures such de-
spair when making the wounding transformation from female back to male.
Watching that particular incident, it’s very hard to stay mad at the character.
“That was a really good scene,” admitted Andreas. “Rob could only shave it
once, so we put him in front of the camera and basically told him, ‘Whatever
happens in terms of emotion, if you start laughing, just stay in character be-
Simon Miller and Justin Tensen in Between Love and Goodbye.
cause we can’t do it again!’ (Laughter) I know that people who want Marcel
and Kyle to stay together at the end do hate April. But at the same time,
without spending too much time exploring her character, I wanted to show
that she had a lot of problems on her own and it’s not all her fault that things
go the way they do.”
The film’s title perfectly captures the surplus of emotion that’s crammed
into the concept of the gay relationship. As the love guru-du-jour, Andreas
has a rather mature personal outlook when it comes to coupling.
“My ideal would probably be more stable. I love getting caught up in a rela-
tionship on a level where it’s all or nothing, like Marcel and Kyle go through—
where the relationship takes over your entire life. It’s a great place to be for a
while, but I don’t think it’s sustainable. It’s easy for it to turn ugly. In the film, the
characters are very much codependent. In a real relationship, you have to be
able to let each other grow and change. Both people have to be complete in
their own ways without leaning too much on the other person to make them
happy.”
If all the protagonists’ stories are translations of Casper’s past relationships,
it looks like he’s had more than his fair share of heartache. But has he learned
to successfully navigate the waters of love?
“Yes, I do live with my boyfriend of two years,” revealed Andreas…Darn! “He
actually even has a small part in the film. He’s the third band member. He has
like one line and he sings on the soundtrack. He’s so excited. It was good to get
him involved because when you’re making a film it’s all-consuming.
Being an expert at the top of his game, Andreas knows his territory well…
but he’s still open to radical ideas from beyond.
“I guess I like making films about relationships. It’s more interesting to me
than…zombies (laughter). I don’t know. I might make a gay zombie movie
one day.”
Simon Miller
40 RAGE monthly | MAY 2009
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112