20/02/2025 - BERLINALE 2025: The Swiss director unpicks his understanding of fiction and his artistic approach to the literary source of his feature, an autobiographical novel by Christophe Boltanski

(© Ulysse del Drago/Bande à Part Films)

Swiss director Lionel Baier has premiered The Safe House [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lionel Baier
film profile] in competition at this year's Berlinale. Based on the autobiographical novel by French author Christophe Boltanski, his film emerges as a playful tragicomedy set in France in 1968. We spoke to the director about his artistic approach to the literary source and his understanding of fiction.

Cineuropa: How did you come to choose this novel by Christophe Boltanski?
Lionel Baier: It was suggested to me by the French distributor of my film Vanity [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lionel Baier
film profile], when it was released in 2015. She thought it might interest me. I read it, and it really moved me. I asked myself how I could adapt it because the book spans more than a century. It takes place in every room of a house and tells the story of everything that happens in those rooms over 100 years. I could see a lot of points of reference with things that were also close to my family. It also allowed me to talk about the Holocaust without having to make a historical film.

You combine several creative elements. What were the most important aspects of the film's visual concept?
I chose 1968 because I thought it was a time for which I could write in a more pop style. It was an era when comics, jazz and contemporary art were a big part of popular culture. These are things that find their way into advertising and newspapers. I chose a form of writing, a form of representation of reality, which is less Cartesian. What's more, the story was inspired by the writer's childhood memories, so I had to find a form of writing that was as discontinuous as children’s way of thinking. We, who have lived a long time, have created a continuity in our lives, with causes and consequences. But the protagonist isn't yet at the age to feel that time is a kind of thread that unwinds in a linear way.

What about the sets? You've used the family's flat as a base, while many of the others are obviously stylised backdrops. How did you make this choice?
The flat was completely reconstructed in the studio – everything was shot in the studio. The courtyard, too, and certain things within it. We used the flat as a realistic set in order to show that, for the child, it's not mysterious. It's the place he knows. It's a familiar place, in the truest sense of the word. As for the rest, the family was very afraid of the outside world. They didn't get out of their cars; they hid inside them. So, for me, everything around them had to be an oddity. The medical academy is scary, the brewery is scary and the subway is scary. These are places where there are other people, so it's terrifying. All of this is in stark contrast to the apartment, which is a safe space.

You attempt to rewrite a part of history: de Gaulle makes a different decision in the film.
It's not in the book, obviously, but it has always amused me. General de Gaulle disappeared for a short while on 29 May. He leaves the Elysée, doesn't say where he's going, and nobody knows that he's going to Villacoublay to take his helicopter to Baden-Baden. I've always found that crazy. It's unthinkable, today, to imagine Macron disappearing for even 20 or 30 minutes. We always know where he is. And I asked myself, “What must have gone through this man's mind?” We knew he was incredibly depressed and that he probably didn't understand anything about the situation any more. I like the fact that it opens up a possibility. In one version of the story, he went to see the Boltanskis. As I believe that fiction is as strong as reality, at some point, we staged the impossible.

You mentioned that you shot a lot of the film in a studio. Could you tell us more about its production?
Most of the film was shot in Luxembourg. The first major location we used was the apartment on Rue de Grenelle, which still exists today. Christophe Boltanski asked me to have a look at it, but I didn't want to. The flat we built was a mix between my parents' apartment, my memories and the things I had seen. We had it reconstructed over 500 square metres, with nine rooms inside. It was incredible because there were tons of books in there. It smelled of old paper and parquet. Even the parquet squeaked, and the doors didn't close properly, just like in a real house. As for the rest, we shot the scenes on the streets of Paris, but it was just before the Olympic Games, so it was complicated. It was simpler to shoot part of it in Switzerland instead.