An avid reader of newspapers online each morning, director Rudolf Thome came across a series of articles early last year about an American woman who had founded an Insitute for Philematology to research into the phenomenon of kissing and measure the changes in the hormones in the blood and saliva before and after the act of kissing.

"I thought that it would be fun to make a film about this subject and set to work on a screenplay in the spring of 2009," Thome recalls. "The process of writing screenplays can be followed `live` on the Internet in my online diary and I often get reactions from people about the script. On this project, Cora Frost - who had appeared in Tigerstreifenbaby wartet auf Tarzan and Paradiso - wrote and said: 'But, Rudolf, we've already made this film!'"

"I'm not worried if the subject matter and characters are similiar to previous films," he explains. "In fact, during the shooting, I have discovered my screenplay anew through the actors as they give the characters life and through my work with the crew. I now know that the film will be very different from everything I have done before. My other films have often had light comic touches, but this film will be extremely comical. It often happened that we were laughing out loud on the set during the shoot!"

Das rote Zimmer ("Red Room") centers on the philematologist Fred Hintermeier whose obsession for his research leads his wive to file for divorce and to mobbing from his colleagues at the institute. A chance meeting with the young Luzie in his favorite bookshop sees him accepting her invitation to come to her "laboratory" in her house, which she shares with her friend Sibil. It is only once he has arrived there, that Fred finds that he will become a subject of analysis for Luzie's new book which is exploring men's souls. And, at some point, the red room of the film's title will play an important role.

While there are some Thome "regulars" in the supporting parts such as Hanns Zischler, the three lead roles of Fred, Luzie and Sibil are cast with three actors - Peter Knaack, Katharina Lorenz, Seyneb Saleh - working with the director for the first time.

Moreover, another innovation is that Thome is working for the first time with the RedOne digital camera. "It is an incredible experience," he enthuses.

"Despite me being a computer freak, I had always held off taking that step and continued working on film stock. But now I can see what is possible: it opens a whole new world for me and saves me a lot of time because I can see the result straightaway."

Martin Blaney, German Films, 4/20107