Interview with Enki Bilal, member of the Feature Film Jury

Enki Bilal - Member of the Feature Films jury © Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

 

Comics are the reason he became famous. But Enki Bilal's has also expressed his talent through theatre, ballet, opera, painting and cinema. The visionary artist, author of the recent graphic novel Bug and member of the Feature Film Jury has created a unique body of work with a cult following - influenced by science fiction and the duty of remembrance - in which cinema features prominently. He looks back on his cinema story.

 

When did you first discover the power of cinema?
Watching an American western, whose name I've forgotten. My mother took my sister and me to see it in Belgrade. I was seven or eight years old. I was amazed by what I was seeing on the screen and by the fact that I could watch an American film. America was a fantasy. I realised that day that I was in an exceptional place.

That was a very particular time in Yugoslavia.
It was Tito's time. A small dictatorship run by a war hero who had beat the Nazis. Paradoxically, there were many shows, theatre plays and films for children.

How did your arrival in France change your relationship with cinema?

It was as though I rediscovered it. Partly on our family trips to the local cinema in the Paris suburbs every Sunday, but also at high school, aged 16 or 17, in a film society and at arthouse cinemas I would often visit with friends.

Which film had the most influence on you as an author?
Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It's a cult film which opened many avenues for me, including in my approach as an author and comic book artist. That questioning, that slow rhythm… it was an incredible journey of discovery for me. There were other films of the same genre which also made an impression on me, such as George Lucas' THX 1138 (1971), but 2001 was seminal.

“I was seeking excitement and inspiration from cinema.”

How did cinema contribute to your imagination?
Cinema made me realise that I was interested in a time zone in our near future: more so than in reality, or in the past. Although I know that the two are connected.

So cinema was a driving force even before you started out?
Absolutely. But I didn't realise that. When I began to be published in Pilote, I moved away from comic books. I kept myself up to date with them, but I was seeking excitement and inspiration from cinema. I saw a hundred times more films than I read comic books. I watch an enormous amount of films, around fifteen to twenty a month.

What distinction would you draw between comic books and the cinema?
Collaboration. Cinema is a process which involves others. The thing I like about cinema is that it allows you to produce a collective piece of work, even if the director remains the only captain of the ship. Being a comic book artist is all about solitude.

From the 1980s onwards you began to work for directors: Jean-Jacques Annaud and also Alain Resnais
Jean-Jacques Annaud had asked several comic artists to choose two scenes from the script of Der Name der Rose (The Name of the Rose, 1986) and to make an image from them. He based his filming on those designs. With Resnais, I drew part of the scenery on glass for La Vie est un roman (Life is a Bed of Roses, 1983). Alain was a great lover of comic books, a real connoisseur. His dream was to direct Dick Tracy for the cinema. But he never managed to convince the producers. He was frustrated, but he did laugh about it.

Any others?
Emir Kusturica wanted to bring me on board for Underground (1995). He sent me a screenplay in Serbo-Croat: a great, fat, tome. I turned it down in the end. There was also Michael Mann, who sought me out because he wasn't happy with a creature from The Keep (1983). The same day he contacted me, I caught a plane and travelled to the depths of a mine in Wales where they were shooting the film. I spent three days there. I've kept in very close touch with him.

Your last film dates back to 2004. Why don't you make films any more?
I make less films, but I would have preferred to make more. Four or five years ago I worked on a project based on my comic Animal’z (2009), but in the end it wasn't made. It was an ambitious film, but we didn't manage to get it financed. It is very difficult to produce works of the imagination in France. It is very difficult to get away from comedy or realism.

Have you got any ongoing projects?
I've got two ongoing projects: the film and series adaptation of my comic book Bug, and an original project for a series that I am going to direct. A universe like mine can develop more easily and more deeply in that format.