Confessions of Felix Krull: Between Zaza and Zouzou

In the 2021 screen adaptation of the classic novel, the main female character of Zaza was expanded and strengthened. "She's a very modern young woman, not as present in the novel as she is in our film," explains Krull producer Markus Zimmer. "She makes a good counterpart to Felix. Together with David Kross, they're an absolutely delightful and enchanting trio, definitely in the tradition of French cinema -- the three-way love constellation was something we particularly worked out."

The production found the perfect actress to play Zaza in Liv Lisa Fries. Fries is one of Germany's great acting talents and was named one of "10 Europeans to watch" by "Variety" in 2017. As Charlotte Ritter in the highly acclaimed TV series "Babylon Berlin," she wowed critics and audiences.

"Zaza is like a weed," Buck describes her role in Krull, "she knows everything about life because she works on the street. Liv's performance is so quick, so free in every take - instead of ordering a tea at a restaurant, she says I want a bottle of vodka. Her character has something of the Lady of the Camellias, of Greta Garbo - she is a very free, modern woman. There are women who need more than one man - she needs two. She knows exactly how men work. Liv is always good for a surprise on set, and if you don't know what's coming from the other person, the other person is also wide awake. Liv fits the combo with Jannis, she puts her foot down."

Liv Lisa Fries adds, "Detlev Buck is open to the complexity of female characters, he gives her and her search for truth space. I didn't want to make the role bigger, but I wanted to show her authentically... It's often a matter in life, and here too, of freedom or security, love or money - Felix or the Marquis. She moves in between. They are important Zaza decisions and existential hardships, from which she wants to break free. She is a free spirit, Felix is a soul mate - would it work? And he is an impostor ... Could he commit and stop being someone else all the time?"

Her character is basically as if merged from two characters in the novel, Zaza, the Parisian beauty, and Zouzou, the innocent 18-year-old daughter of Felix's acquaintance Professor Kuckuck, Fries says. She tried to make the character contemporary and more complex, to give her more space and tension - and a liberated spirit. She also listened to "Mann Reads Mann" in preparation: "You can feel this peculiar man-ness. There's friction there." In addition to Greta Garbo from "The Lady of the Camellias," the director also showed her Jeanne Moreau in "Jules and Jim."

Liv Lisa Fries finds "in Mann a language that delights in itself. When he reads his own texts, you feel the joy of creating a universe in this language." The texts of men, she says, are much more engraved, "with me they are milieu-dependent, lighter." The actress, who studied German literature and philosophy, is very interested in language: "Our job as actors is to make the texts sound so that people understand them today." She sees a great wit in Mann's texts and had to think of the postwar German comedian Loriot. With Buck, the comedy has a serious foundation, "It's never jaw-dropping; there are considerations, intentions, attitudes behind it," she emphasizes.

The perfect addition to the cast of characters is David Kross as Loius, the dreamer: "You can see what he's thinking, he's not on his game," Buck explains of the casting choice. "He's oppressed by his father, he just has to live an aristocratic life, he's bored, he has enough money, but he doesn't live. This woman turns everything around - he has to emancipate himself from the great father. All of that plays into it - the three of them are a super combo."


Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Germany, DFF, © 2021 Bavaria Filmproduktion GmbH, Marco Nagel
Liv LIsa Fries in "Confessions of Felix Krull" (2021)