RENDEZ-VOUS UN CERTAIN REGARD – Beautiful Youth by Jaime Rosales
Jaime Rosales makes his second appearance in the Official Selection with his fifth feature film. The Spanish director returns to Un Certain Regard seven years after Solitary Fragments with Beautiful Youth, the story, set in the present, of a young couple in crisis-ridden Spain. An interview.
Tell us how your film came about.
Just after the release of my previous film, I started to think about a change for my film career. I had worked since my first film with the same crew shooting and thinking in the same way. I wanted to do a film about the young Spanish generation with young people involved. I started to interview teenagers in parks and streets. They told me their stories, their ideas of the world, how they foresee their future. The film is the result of this research and collaboration.
Photo from the film © RR
Working with the crew and cast, especially with Ingrid García-Jonsson, the main actress of the film. I remember the impression she made on me the day I cast her. She was so natural and so confident on herself. I had never cast, seen or worked before with someone as naturally talented as her. During the shooting, working with her was not easy although. She is very demanding. She doesn’t follow directions just like that. She is incredibly intelligent. She needs to have control of the character and the dramatic situation of the scene. She needs to know why the character is doing this or that. And at the same time she is intuitive and naïve. Her method is a mix of consciousness and unconsciousness very unusual. She can be very difficult to control. Quite unpredictable. We had fights. I wanted to squeeze the best out of her and she worked hard. Now, after finishing the film, I think the film is Ingrid. Just her. I could watch her scenes over and over.
When I was resident in la Cinéfondation du Festival de Cannes, ten years ago, Georges Goldenstern asked me the same question. My answer was: “I’d like to meet Jean-Luc Godard” He said: “Oh… I’m sorry… That’s not possible. Godard is not possible”. His new film is In Competition in this years’ Festival. Maybe he comes. Maybe this time I am lucky and I can meet him.
Charlotte Pavard
SCREENINGS
Sunday 18th May / Debussy Theatre / 2 p.m. – 10 p.m.
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