05/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: The French filmmaker spoke of her debut feature, a surprising work about the new horizons of a man with a Cyclopean physique

(© Natacha Gonzalez)

An unusual and insidiously charming film about other people’s opinions, judgements, monstrosity and art, The Dreamer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anaïs Tellenne
film profile] is a first feature film by Anaïs Tellenne, starring Raphaël Thiéry and Emmanuelle Devos in lead roles. The movie was unveiled within the Orizzonti Extra line-up of the 80th Venice Film Festival.

Cineuropa: Where did the idea for The Dreamer come from?
Anaïs Tellenne: It was a bit of a journey making this movie, because it’s a first feature film which doesn’t follow the usual traditions and customs. I’d already shot two short films starring Raphaël Thiéry and I wanted to carry on filming him, because I find him and his massive body fascinating; he has a really atypical physique, but there’s also something incredibly fragile and endearing about him. I like to highlight all of those things which people wouldn’t necessarily associate with him. During one of our discussions, he floated the idea of a film about a man who lives alone, but who one day has a woman move into the house opposite his. It’s a little far-removed from the film as it stands today, but that was the initial idea which I developed while working on the dynamics of opposites.

Why did you opt for a contemporary artist as your lead female character (Emmanuelle Devos), opposite the Cyclopean caretaker, gardener and handyman played by Raphaël Thiéry?
I’d been wanting to write a fairy tale for a long time, and in fairy tales there are often contrasts between the main characters, especially when it comes to social conditions: the prince and the pauper, the shepherdess and the chimneysweep, etc. This was the kind of contrast I was looking for, and I also wanted to explore the really special relationship which exists between artists. Because, when we’re creating something, our relationship is undefinable: it’s not really love or friendship, but it’s not professional either. As for contemporary art, it’s because I wanted sculpture to feature in the film (I wanted it to be very sensual) and out of a fascination with artists like Sophie Calle and Marina Abramovič, who decided to turn their lives and their intimacy into art.

What about the bagpipes which Raphaël Thiéry’s character plays?
Raphaël does actually play the bagpipes himself, and I’m a fan of traditional music. I wanted his character to be a musician because you can say quite a lot with musical notes which can’t be conveyed through words. One of the challenges with this film was to try to get people to like the bagpipes, because people tend to have strong opinions about them.

How did the golem myth come into the film?
I already had the story in place for the film, but it needed dramaturgy. I came across this golem folklore and I thought that taking inspiration from this Jewish mythology might provide me with a brilliant dramaturgic guide, with its rabbi who shape the earth and who write the word "truth" on the golem’s forehead, but where, if you remove one letter, it means "death” in Hebrew. I tried to echo that, to infuse it into the story. And there was a clear parallel with the idea of this woman sculpting Raphaël.

Why was it tricky to finance the film, in your opinion?
When you’re making your first feature film, when you’re a woman director and when you’re 35 years old, people don’t really understand why the main character is a guy pushing 60 and living in some kind of fairy tale. It’s like people need first films to be about the person who’s proposing it. My film does relate to me in a lot of ways, but not directly. I imagine it was pretty confusing to read. Maybe it didn’t come across as particularly socially engaged on paper, though for me, it definitely is. I don’t know, I don’t have an answer to that. But what I have noticed is a glaring difference in how people reacted when it came to funding the film and how they’re reacting now that they’re seeing it. Maybe I had to make the film in order to show people what this strange blend of laughter, fantasy and mystery actually was.

(Translated from French)