Express interview with Marc Recha

What is your very first memory of the movies?
As a child, I used to go to the cinema every week-end with my brother.  In Barcelona, at the time, they had shows with three films. We went in at four in the afternoon and came out at midnight. We spent our childhoods going to the pictures.

How old were you when you made your first short film?
I had a Super 8 when I was eight or nine years old and I made little genre movies: westerns, adventure films, science fiction, that kind of thing.  I was seventeen when I made my first 35 mm film. There was a bunch of us, we saw ourselves as rebels. We used to make short films, not as a way into making full-length films, but as real little works of art in themselves, like Cortazar or Borges in literature.

What is the quickest way of becoming a film director?
Patience. You have to have patience to make movies, and know how to grow with the cinema, because there’s an interaction between the movies and your personal life. For some people it’s very quick, for others it’s very long. For me, it was too quick.

Why too quick?
Because it was all a bit dizzying, but that’s how I am.

Is there anything in life that seems too short to you?
My son is two and a half years old and he is growing too quickly. I would like that to go more slowly so I could see it all better, and learn more from him.

What are your projects?
I am turning back to my childhood. My next films will be genre films, always with a very personal outlook on nature, people or landscapes. I have three projects. The first one will be a science-fiction movie.

Could you go back to making short films?
Yes, of course. I think it would be good to do that.