Didier Allouch, Thierry Frémaux, Guillermo del Toro, Pawel Pawlikowski - «Cinema: what next?» : Conversation of the 75th Festival de Cannes © Jean-Louis Hupé / FDC
“Cinema: what next?”: the meeting of the 75th Festival de Cannes, Session 2
On the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the Festival de Cannes invites selected filmmakers to share their thoughts on the themes: “What does it mean to be a filmmaker today?” and “What is the future of cinema at a time when digital technology, formats and platforms are opening up all the fields of possibility?
“Roberto Rosselini had organised a series of talks in 1977 to examine the political and social future of cinema. Today, Guillermo del Toro is something of our Roberto Rosselini”, said Thierry Frémaux, before introducing the nine filmmakers invited to present their views on the issue for this second session, led by Guillermo del Toro. Selected highlights.
What is it that makes me a filmmaker? Is it connected to my failures? To my political engagement? In truth, I don’t stop thinking about what can seduce, about what can please people. I want my idea of the truth to win out. I think there’s an urgency: our industry is suffering from not being representative enough. If films only depict the same bodies, the same types of romantic relationships and the same socio-political classes, then we remain prisoners of a single vision. It’s like an environment that we’re destroying when we have something that’s really wonderful to play with.
Today you can direct a film with your phone. But we have the impression that anybody can do it when in reality you need to know how to present a certain point of view to be able to speak to an audience. I’ve always tried to approach all of my films differently. To be a filmmaker, you need to be able to reflect, to rack your brains. Right from the beginning of filming, you have to get a move on, as if someone was holding a gun to your head, it’s a lot of stress. My daughter says, “mom, you shouldn’t make movies anymore, it makes you so sad.” I really like puzzles, and making a movie is a puzzle.
We’re living in a very fragile world, which is in danger, and artists have to be aware of that. We are very privileged. Others have to fight to make a film, whereas I have to fight not to make one. As an African filmmaker, I wonder how we can make a universal art when not everyone has access to it. If cinema should die, it will die because there are a lot of people who are unable to express themselves. When a part of the world doesn’t have the opportunity to express itself, that’s a great loss for cinema. To support cinema, a political vision is needed.
You can only speak from the heart. The camera itself defines the film. Now with smartphones, I always have a camera in my pocket. If people want to watch a film on a mobile phone, that’s fine. The freedom I have in filming is the equivalent of your freedom to choose your format. If I’m relaxing at home watching something, there’s no need to call the movie police because I’m not in a theatre in front of a big screen!
I don’t start a film until I feel that there’s something developing in me. There really needs to something that’s worth the effort of being said. My biggest enemy in cinema is myself, I don’t always have ideas. I’m not a traditional filmmaker who has gone to film school, I’m still discovering myself. I don’t want to make films just to make films. There are so many things to see today that it’s becoming a problem.
To make a film, I don’t need to fight as much as those who are starting out today. I think that fighting shows the value of what I do. I have the feeling of defending this privilege. Personally, I work intelligently with producers. I’ve never had any conflicts. I need this dialogue to be able to progress.
The movie theatre is a sacred space, there’s no doubt about it. With economic liberalism, clicks are what’s important. When you’re in a theatre, you’re connected to yourself and to others. When I watch something on my phone, I feel like an addict with an illness. In a theatre, I feel my own life and sometimes that of others. What the theatre offers is the obligation to feel something.
Humans need stories. Creators and screenwriters, despite the fact that we’ve never needed as much content as today, have never been so poorly treated. The pay for actors/screenwriters/directors…it’s not a party in France. I think that it’s very important that we come together, that we unionise. We do everything faster, for less money and with less time to reflect.
Cinema is something of the poor sibling of the industry. We have an obligation: support independents, passion, art. All that also concerns theatres. Cinema, more than ever, needs people like us to fight, to do new things.
If I had started today, I’d have the feeling that anything was possible. My desire to make a film wouldn’t be tied to any one medium. There aren’t very many filmmakers on platforms. I don’t have the impression that platforms are creating filmmakers. They conceal more than they reveal. Maybe I could have sold La Fracture (The Divide) to a platform and made a series out of it… They’re ahead of the times on a lot of things. We have to wake viewers up. We need to give them a kick in the backside and have everyone come to Cannes, to the Grand Théâtre Lumière. We need to reawaken a desire for the theatre. Going to a movie theatre makes us active participants, when watching a film is something rather passive.
