Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani • Directors of Reflection in a Dead Diamond
"We approached the story as if it were a diamond and gave it different facets"
- We met with the inspired filmmaking duo to talk about their latest film effort, a frenetic and psychedelic rereading of the Hero myth
The directorial duo composed of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani is back with Reflection in a Dead Diamond [+see also:
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interview: Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani
film profile], a frenetic and psychedelic rereading of the Hero myth, presented in competition at the 75th Berlinale and now screening in competition in the Luxembourg City Film Festival.
Cineuropa: The film sees us travelling back in time through the memories of an elderly man, but his memory is failing him. It’s anything but a linear experience.
Bruno Forzani: We approached the story as if it were a diamond and gave it different thematic and narrative levels. When you look at a diamond, you see it has multiple facets. We wanted the film to be the same, for people to be able to see it in different ways.
Hélène Cattet: We also turned to op art, which is the art of optical illusion, and that the inspiration behind the set design and costumes.
It’s a fragmented aesthetic, like the memory of this elderly man who’s trying to put the pieces of the puzzle back together?
HC: That’s exactly what it is, the fragmented memory of the lead character, who loses himself in memories as his life flashes before his eyes.
BF: When we were prepping the film, we saw The Father [+see also:
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film profile] starring Anthony Hopkins. It made us think about our approach, strangely enough, even though we wanted to make an entertainment film, with action scenes and chases.
The history of film feeds into the off-camera aspects of the movie. Could you tell us about your film references?
BF: Our main reference was the EuroSpy genre from the ‘60s, the James Bond-style spoofs which were shot in Italy, France and Spain. We wanted to blend that heavily pop and psychedelic universe with Visconti’s Death in Venice to see how it would look. There was also Sunset Boulevard when it came to playing with the mise en abîme side of things, and fumetti: Italian comics like Diabolik which depict baddies who are actually the heroes of the story. We really liked the way James Bond and superhero stories were revisited by the Italian culture. We’re in a grey zone where there’s no battle between good and evil, as you might find in American blockbusters. It’s far less Manichean.
It’s not a pastiche or a parody, it’s more of a reappropriation of those codes and grammar approaches…
HC: Our starting point was spy films, but the aim wasn’t to copy them, they were just a shared language which everyone joined in with. This allows us to lead the audience towards something more unexpected, more surprising. What interests us in this parallel is the fact that these films present a sugar-coated world which we like to juxtapose with the current world, creating a contrast.
The film explores the imminent death of your hero, but also of the Hero more generally. There’s a swansong side to this film.
BF: The story is about a hero who didn’t succeed in saving the world and who finds himself faced with the result of all of the missions he’s carried out, which have actually contributed towards the planet’s destruction. The James Bond-style heroes who comforted us throughout our childhoods have failed.
HC: We need a new image for heroes, and for heroines too!
The film offers a visceral experience in which bodies and materials play a significant part.
HC: We tried to develop the film in a physical way, rather than cerebrally, in order to provide a sensory experience. Sound plays a huge role. We worked on each of the sounds in a very specific way with our sound designer Dan Bruylant, so that he could get inside the bodies. We shot without live sound and reworked it with our foley artist, Olivier Theys. Manu Dacosse’s lighting, Bertrand Beets’ editing, Laurie Colson’s set design… Everything plays a part in this sensory experience: the clothes, the textures, the light.
What was the most important thing for you when it came to this project?
HC: We like it when viewers are able to engage with a film. We don’t guide the audience with explanatory dialogue or tell them what it is they need to understand. We want them to be active. It doesn’t matter if they struggle to find their way through the labyrinth, we want them to enjoy getting lost in it, and for the film to carry on living in their minds. Our dream is for the film to have a long life; it’s not a film for quick consumption.
BF: In my mind, it’s a declaration of love for the cinema. These days, we refer to films as “content”; we watch them on our laptops, and it’s not at all the same experience anymore. What made me want to do the job we do was the cinema. That’s the beating heart of this project.
(Translated from French)
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