Lenny and Harpo Guit • Directors of Heads or Fails
"We wanted to create an anti-heroine that people love, despite the dirty tricks she plays on everyone"
- The Belgian duo talks about their second feature, revolving around a young generation fighting to keep their heads held high and their eyes smiling in spite of their precarious lives
Discovered in 2021 via Mother Schmuckers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Harpo and Lenny Guit
film profile], a joyfully messy and provocative comedy, Lenny and Harpo Guit are now making their return with Heads or Fails [+see also:
film review
interview: Lenny and Harpo Guit
film profile], presented in competition at the Namur International French Film Festival (FIFF). This second feature film sees the brothers’ particular brand of cinema opening itself up - without really mellowing - to a surprising heroine, a beautiful loser and compulsive gambler who drags us along in her wake through the streets of Brussels, a figurehead for a young generation who are fighting to keep their heads held high and their eyes smiling in spite of their precarious lives.
Cineuropa: How did the project come about?
Lenny Guit: After Mother Schmuckers, Harpo and I took our time to think about the story we wanted to tell. We knew there were subjects we liked, like talking about resourcefulness and hustling. We imagined lots of different scenes and situations, and we tried to think of a story on that basis. We drilled down deep into the subject and identified our characters. Until we painted the portrait of Armande, a young woman who’s struggling in Brussels. We felt she was a character we hadn’t much seen in French-language cinema. I think we were quite inspired by American films which revolved around heroines who were a little bit lost and who roamed the streets of New York. We really liked the idea of going down this track, even if only remotely.
Can you tell us more about your inspiration?
LG: We watched lots of old American films: Smithereens by Susan Seidelman and Girlfriends by Claudia Weill; films about female anti-heroes struggling in the city, like Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha too. They were like beacons for us, women with lots of people around them but also very alone, but they always find some kind of lightness in their struggle. Then, when we discovered the Safdie brothers’ cinema, we also found ourselves inspired by its really nerve-wracking side, which is a really speedy way of moving the story forwards, where you don’t have the time to stop but where it’s also really funny.
Is it strange for you to be managing the ultimate other that is a heroine?
Harpo Guit: Maybe that’s what creates the contrast. Generally speaking, we really like anti-hero characters, we can allow them to be a little bit disgusting and behave badly towards others, but we still forgive them. We wanted to create a female version of this, an anti-heroine who people like despite the dirty tricks she plays on everyone, and who’s still this really cool girl. The person people want to be mates with. We also had this idea of deconstructing the injunction to be beautiful that’s often thrust upon women, actresses in particular, and which fits with the political discourse Maria Cavalier Bazan promotes as a feminist and an actress.
LG: When she saw Mother Schmuckers, she said: "It’s good but it’s a shame they’re not women". We took her very seriously.
Armande is characterised by her love of gambling, and it feels like it might be because she’s at a time or place in her life where she has nothing to lose. Why did you choose gambling as your guiding line?
HG: We’ve always fantasised about gambling. We’re not addicts but we have a taste for it, we like the adrenaline, the rush of excitement you feel when you start to gamble. For Armande, it’s as if Brussels were a huge casino where everything is a potential game, a place to have fun in.
LG: And we also like dark spirals; gambling characters often find themselves sinking, but they also keep the faith that something good can still happen. They carry around this internal contradiction which brings a kind of magic to their characters.
You really like depicting the little trivial things in life, dirty and ugly things like hair in plugholes, bodily fluids…
HG: They’re little things that amuse us. We like films which provoke a reaction, of an almost physical kind, which make people laugh and scare them. We really like it when people go: "urgh", "arghhhh". It creates an immediate connection with the audience.
(Translated from French)
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