France’s Woody Allen is looking for a dialogue
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FIVE of the award-winning director’s films will be shown at Premier Cinema, China Art Museum and Shanghai Normal University until May 8. Many of his movies have won nominations and prizes at the Cannes and Venice film festivals, among others.
“The Chinese film market is quite complex. And the Chinese audience doesn’t really get to watch a lot of French movies in the cinema except for retrospective screenings or film festivals,” the director told Shanghai Daily during his visit.
“The good thing is we can see increasingly more collaborations between Chinese and French filmmakers. For example, Jia Zhangke, Liu Ye and Tsai Ming-Liang all have done works with French agencies or filmmakers. This kind of dialogue between Chinese and French filmmaking is excellent.”
Born in 1960, the director grew up with the masterworks of the French New Wave — movies from Francoise Truffaut or Jean Luc Godard, among others. He often cites from these legendary filmmakers and gets excited when talking about their works and ideas. And he still follows that tradition of auteur cinema.
The auteur traits of Desplechin are clear — elegiac tone, intelligent dialogues, enigmatic scenes, the context and references of Cold War.
“I’m not into realistic social films, but I grew up at a time when Europe was divided into two sides and then it came back to unity. And naturally, it is reflected in my films,” he explained.
Having worked in various jobs in filmmaking, Desplechin directed the 1996 “My Sex Life … Or How I Got into an Argument,” a drama following the struggle of a young intellectual and the choices he has to make in life. The film won many awards and he was soon called the “French Woody Allen” and the Eric Rohmer of his generation.
Now in his 50s, he delves back into the protagonist’s teenage days in “My Golden Days,” often considered a prequel to the 1996 drama. Along with this movie, the screening also includes his first feature-length film “The Sentinel” (1992), his first English-language film “Esther Kahn” (2000), “Kings and Queen” (2004) and “A Christmas Tale” (2008).
“At this stage of my life, I no longer think too much about the box office of each film I am making. I just hope to try something new and to become a better artist in every next project. For me, that is an ambition more ambitious than making a movie that sells better than Hollywood blockbusters,” he said.
“Because the destiny of these movies is out of my hands. And all I can do is to keep trying, and to keep making films.”
The director gave examples from his own filmography.
“Esther Khan”(2000), his first English-language film, a coming-of-age story about a stage actress, was little known at the time even though it won him a nomination of Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. “But now it is considered an important film,” he said.
And in “Kings and Queen” (2004), the divorced protagonist seeks out her ex-husband, who is forced into a mental hospital and tries to escape. “The film was a hit when it came out, but people rarely talk about it today,” the director said.
Today, many young French filmmakers are headed in the wrong direction, caring more about popularity than the movie itself, he said.
The French audience, he said, is very curious about foreign films, including works from China.
He cited Jia Zhangke as one of his favorite living filmmakers, adding that he was utterly impressed by “A Touch of Sin” (2013), a drama inspired by four crime cases in China in the past few years.
“It was very violent, and I think such a straightforward and intense reflection of the society we live in is needed. There ought to be a French one, and there ought to be an American one,” he said.
Violence was a recurring topic in our conversation. Truffaut’s violence, he said, was discreet, Lars Von Trier’s is spectacular and even extravagant, and his own is a more sentimental violence.
Such sentiments are explored in movies with completely different plots or genres — even in a metaphysical spy film like his directorial debut “The Sentinel,” in which a socially-awkward forensic pathologist finds a preserved human head in his suitcase.
He is already working on his next movie and expects to start filming in summer.
“It will be set in a very different tone from my previous movies. It will be a comedy,” the director and scriptwriter said.
He took a break from writing last year when the terrorist attack happened in Paris and said that afterward, he had become more prone to satire, and surprisingly turned more comic.
“My reflections about what is happening in Europe are now from a novelist’s perspective, not a journalist’s.
“I’m quite suspicious about the whole idea of the European identity. I feel I know Algerians very well. I know the Swedish quite well, and I know Americans well. I might even know China from Chinese cinema, but at the same time, I don’t know much about Austria.”
He added, “To me, the creation of the idea of a European identity is exclusive rather than inclusive. For example, with the current refugee crisis, the whole idea of a European identity, European guilt, European responsibility excludes the refugees.
“I like Truffaut and Godard, which makes me feel French. I like American movies, which also makes me feel French. But somehow I can’t feel European,” he said.
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