– CANNES 2022: We interviewed the Catalan director, well received with this mesmerizing first film, which he is presenting in competition at Cannes
The first thing you notice about Albert Serra, is that he would make an excellent subject for one of his own films. This reviewer has never been so fascinated by a director’s game of dress during an interview: his dark glasses, his slippers, and everything else. And then there is his way of speaking, full of eloquence and sometimes coarseness. He was in a charming mood during the Cannes film festivalafter the premiere of Torment on the Islands [+lire aussi :
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interview : Albert Serra
fiche film] at the Grand Théâtre Lumière the day before, his most ambitious and certainly the most powerful work of all.
Cineuropa: Would you say that this film is the one you have dreamed of all your life, or at least your entire artistic career?
Albert Serra: I wouldn’t say that, because that would mean I can’t be more ambitious or do something bigger. It’s part of an evolutionary process, it’s true. It opens the doors to something completely different, more ambitious, crazier. For those who know my work in the artistic world, there is even more, what I did for the Biennale. I don’t prepare anything, I don’t have a program. I don’t worry about my career. I focus on each project, the evolution of the images and the aesthetics that I can create.
Could you explain the resonance of the international title?
It’s just Pacific fiction. The idea is that the film is pure fantasy, it deals with politics, modernity, men and human relations too, but at the end of the day, I like the idea that it is exotic, artificial and implausible. All the relationships between this couple, De Rooler and Shannah, border on the grotesque. He is an admiral who also owns many nuclear submarines.
How was the preparation on the different islands prior to filming? What did you think of non-professional actors, like dancers and clan leaders?
I only took one trip, and I was supposed to film immediately, and then the pandemic hit. I prefer the tension of going there, knowing nothing and being with the whole team. Tensions, disputes, shock create innocence and spontaneity. A lot of things get out of hand, it’s an industry player’s nightmare. They want to keep everything under control because it’s a huge industry and there’s time pressure. But by doing so, you can’t have it all, you get some economic comfort, but artistically, you get screwed.
When you spoke about Amos Vogel last year at the NYFF, you talked about what you call “storytelling vulgarity.” Did you have that in mind when doing Torment on the Islands ?
Generally, when you talk about storytelling, you do it as if you were talking to a child. You know, there’s the good guy, the bad guy, or “the Devil, okay, they’re corrupt, thank you.” You pay people to tell you what you already know. You pay them $10 to show you pictures you’ve seen before, experience a feeling you’ve had before. Well in the future you won’t pay anymore, you have hundreds of movies like this on Netflix. It’s cheaper to have 200 examples of the same crap, for the same price, if that’s what you want, I mean. If you want beautiful films, it will be more expensive.
But you said that Chinatown was your inspiration, it is certainly a supreme example of storytelling.
Well, the actors are good, especially John Huston. And then there is the confusion of the last scene, the very dark subject of incest, and that of corruption, with water. The point of view is important, Jack Nicholson is in every scene of the film, and the only information we have is what he has. We are in his head and his eyes are ours. Here, I wanted to do the same thing, but in a more modern way. There is also The Parallax Viewand Cutter’s Way, this feeling of paranoia that reigns over the world. Speaking of paranoia, there were entities called trusts, which were corporate groups. These trusts are now visible, they no longer need to hide. Yet military power is always subject to a darker form of control because the economic power of these societies is indisputable. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, military power is more fascinating. It’s always more interesting to have a sergeant in the army than a guy at the head of a big company.
Do you see De Roller as a reflection of today’s elected politicians, those who, like Macron or Biden, embody the ideology of the center?
He especially reminded me of Donald Trump! With cockfighting and “Aggghhh” (he imitates cockfighting). Okay, he looks likeable, but he leans more to the populist side, and then he becomes sympathetic, even nice. After that, you see him paranoid, then psychopathic. There are smiles, but they are those of a psychopath.
(Translated from English by Karine Breysse)