04/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: The debuting director has crafted a film that’s constantly moving, following two guys who have everything and yet have nothing

Shown in Venice’s Orizzonti Extra, Olmo Schnabel’s Pet Shop Days [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olmo Schnabel
film profile] is cameo galore, featuring everyone from Willem Dafoe to Emmanuelle Seigner and Peter Sarsgaard. But it’s all about Jack Irv and Dario Yazbek, cast as two guys who have everything and yet have nothing, so they hit the road.

Cineuropa: Watching this film makes you nervous: these two keep on running. They are on the edge, all the time.
Olmo Schnabel: I wanted to make a movie that was constantly moving. I didn’t want things to be stagnant. When I got the first draft, it was a page-turner; I read it so quickly. But how do you translate that into a film? I didn’t want to bore people. I wanted to feel exactly what these guys are going through, and they are losing control. It’s a real downward spiral. I am glad that you felt like that.

You don’t always explain who these people are or what their stories are.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder is one of my favourite directors, and he didn’t do it either. It’s a movie: if something needs to happen, it needs to happen. If someone’s going to win the lottery, I am not going to explain how they did that. New York was like that, too, when I was growing up. Things would just… happen. But once you realise what you did or didn’t do, everything comes crashing down. In the film, everyone is selfishly experiencing their lives, and then they come to a realisation of who they really are.

It's interesting you would mention Fassbinder because he wasn’t afraid of ugliness in his characters. I guess you aren’t either?
I love Fassbinder, I love Herzog, and I don’t have a problem with my characters being flawed human beings. For this particular story, it made a lot of sense. Still, I also wanted to deal with certain serious situations with a sense of humour. Why not, right? I didn’t want this movie to be censored. People can agree or disagree, love it or hate it. I just want them to react.

What’s the relationship between them, do you think? Is it love, friendship or some kind of twisted attraction?
It’s a lot. For Jack, Alejandro is everything he has never experienced before. It’s the forbidden fruit. He is attracted to something that’s completely different because at the beginning, his life is at such a standstill. He is this empty vessel who is just naïve and going through life. Then he meets this person, and there is a chance for something spontaneous. It’s a different taste, a different flavour. It’s desire.

They are lonely, and obviously, they are both privileged. But they are extremely miserable. This society thinks that if you have certain things – money, opportunities – it makes you happy. And these are broken people! There must have been a moment when things were good for these families, but when we come into their lives, the seasons have changed, and everything is rotten.

Like in “the state of Denmark”. You actually play with Shakespearean conflicts here, with hatred between fathers and sons.
Sometimes, when we are comfortable with a certain situation, we stay in it even when it’s bad for us. It’s a natural instinct because you don’t know anything better. Something drastic needs to happen, a moment that breaks everything and leaves everyone with their pants down. Only then do they go: “Okay, we can’t be in denial any more.”

When you decided to have all these cameos from famous actors, weren’t you afraid they would overshadow your protagonists?
We thought about it, but everyone who was coming in was supporting them, too. I wanted them to be excited that they would be working with all of these actors they had been looking up to. I wanted it to empower them. It was more of a support system than something distracting, and these boys did a beautiful job. Dario is nothing like [his character] Alejandro; he is a thoughtful, kind person. It’s amazing he could transform himself like that.

Many people are afraid of showing unlikeable characters. Alejandro and Jack are privileged and violent, but you seem to enjoy them?
Sometimes, we are attracted to things we don’t want others to know. This movie is always ready to take a 180-degree turn, and I do get a kick out of it. When I see something strange, something that makes me uncomfortable, I often enjoy it. I don’t want to feel good all the time. It makes things less interesting.

When I think about the different projects I am working on now, I am not working on anything subtle [laughs]. This film is a portrait of where I am now, but maybe one day, I will be in a different mood? Maybe later I will look back, thinking: “What the hell was I doing?” I am interested in making sure that people have different experiences. This movie is a dark, twisted fantasy, and I want to hear all the feedback: the criticism and the praise. I am open to all of it.