Film cast © FDC / TD
UN CERTAIN REGARD RENDEZ-VOUS – L’Inconnu du lac by Alain Guiraudie
For the first time Alain Guiraudie is in the Official Selection, with his fourth full-length feature. L’Inconnu du lac marks a break with his previous films, which were more offbeat and fantastical, treating sexuality with a certain reserve. In L’Inconnu du lac, the French film-maker wanted to deal frontally with love as passion, with what it means to “have someone under your skin”. The film takes places against a single backdrop, a gay cruising spot on the shores of a lake.
Which kind of cinema influences you?
I like to quote Fassbinder, Nanni Moretti, Almodovar, because they are film-makers who have meant a lot to me in terms of their individuality and energy and also in what they say. I also like going back to Bunuel, Glauber Rocha, to film-makers that I discovered as a teenager; it was with them that I discovered that an alternative cinema could exist.
Then, it’s more difficult to explain but people like Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, Bruno Dumont or Joao Pedro Rodrigues have a real influence on what I do. I’d find it hard to explain how it works, but what they do always lights me up inside a little (or a lot) and in a way I feel like I’m having a conversation with them.
Finally, as a film-maker, I’m not just influenced by the cinema. I always like to refer to Hergé, to the Famous Five, to Brecht, to the Pieds Nickelés, Pierre Desproges, Bernard Lavilliers…
Can you tell us about your next project?
It’s a film about a dairy taken over by a cooperative of farm workers and smallholders in the French countryside (I’d quite like it to be in the Lozère). And against this revolutionary background, there’s a love story between two men.
What question would you like to ask the movie director of your choice?
I really would like to know what Léos Carax did to get Denis Lavant to stay so hard for so long in Holy Motors. And I’d also like to know what they moulded Vincent Gallo’s prosthetic sex on in The Brown Bunny.
SCREENINGS
Friday 17 May / Debussy Theatre / 11.00am – 4.30pm
