Cineuropa chatted with veteran Danish director Bille August about his new film The Kiss [+lire aussi :
interview : Bille August
fiche film], a 1913-set drama revolving around a military officer who is too compassionate for his own good. The Kiss, which is loosely based on Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, celebrated its world premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival, where it is participating in the International Competition.

Cineuropa: The script you co-wrote is based on Beware of Pity. But pity is not a very spectacular or cinematic emotion, so why did you decide to make a film about it?
Bille August: I think it’s the way the story is told, which obviously comes from Stefan Zweig’s side, but he turns that into sort of a love story, on how pity or compassion leads to love or can lead to love. That is the big question he asks in a very sophisticated, dramatic form. That’s what I liked about this book, but it’s also the way we made the film – so that it would be unpredictable. [The audience] doesn’t know which way it will go. And what I also like about it is that all the people have the best intentions. They’re all good people, but because Anton, especially, is such a good person, his big problem is that he has too much compassion. He feels sorry for people, and that doesn’t work in this society that he comes from. Also, of course, he is in the army, so there is a lot to do with honour, and for him, falling in love with a disabled girl, Edith, is not possible. At the same time, this pity he experiences is such a strong feeling, so he is very confused. And I think that’s very beautiful.

Actor Esben Smed, who plays Anton, rarely expresses any emotion with his face until he starts lying to Edith, whom he pities. It’s an interesting concept for a protagonist – one who is a puzzle for the audience.
We were thinking about how much he would actually be in love with the girl. And it was always a balance in terms of the way we made the film because we could increase or decrease it. Because if Anton was really in love with her and expressed it, the film could easily become sentimental. Actually, it’s only when the doctor character says to Anton, “Could it be that you have stronger feelings for her?” that you can see he has his doubts. But in general, he is confused, and I liked that balance.

Anton is a second lieutenant, and his relationship with Edith would jeopardise his military career. It seems like a very modern dilemma between work and one’s private life. Did you think about a contemporary context while writing a film set in 1913?
Yes, very much. When we made the film, and after it, it was important for me to make sure that I understood Edith. I had a lot of meetings in Denmark with the Association of the Physically Disabled, where I met mostly with women who had spent most of their lives in a wheelchair. They told me how they saw themselves and that it felt like they needed to earn other people’s love. And that’s horrible. Non-disabled people take love for granted and see it as something they have a right to.

In one of your previous films, A Fortunate Man [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Bille August
fiche film], Esben Smed also plays the lead. That character and Anton from The Kiss are polar opposites: the former is very self-absorbed, while the latter exhibits too much pity. Was that a deliberate casting choice?
Not at all. I just think that Esben is such a wonderful actor, so he could play a part in The Kiss as well. I didn’t want him to play the opposite of the previous character. But it’s interesting that you compare it with A Fortunate Man because in this film, Esben’s character never got love in his childhood, so being an adult is all about being confirmed all the time. It’s about the society that we live in now, which is all about “me”.

So maybe The Kiss is about what society could be like if people were not just to focus on themselves?
Exactly. We did test screenings of this film with young people, and they said it was amazing to see a story about a man who has so much compassion and is able to not think only about himself all the time. Rather, he has this extra ability to empathise. And that, unfortunately, is becoming rarer and rarer today.

But apparently Anton hasn’t learned the lesson from The Little Prince – that he is responsible for what he has tamed. Responsibility is also not very cinematic, but it’s another theme you examine in The Kiss.
When he says that he will be totally responsible for what happens to Edith, he doesn’t really know what it means. I will repeat: Anton is a very good person, and that’s his big problem.

So maybe it’s not such a good thing to be a good person!
At least not if you are unable to tell the truth.