You’ve been working pretty quickly, with three Cannes competition slots in four years, which is pretty impressive.
My first film was here 20 years ago, then I went through a period of my life, as everybody does at some point, of losing your parents. When one of your parents is gone, you feel you’re going to be next, so there’s a sense of urgency, which is not bad. It’s true that I’ve been working a lot and I just love what I do. It’s also a really exciting time in cinema. People might complain but I think there’s so many different possibilities.
It’s a really good year for big swings too. You’re coming into a year where people are playing with genre in a really interesting way.
Just that we’re allowed to be here is great. There was a moment where genre was not very respected at Cannes. This is really exciting. Did you see The Substance?
I did, yes. And you’ve got a Jacques Audiard musical.
Bold, bold, bold. That’s the thing. We need bold. What are the elements that we can do to keep this art alive? How can you make sure that somebody wants to leave their home to go to see something in the movie theater? That’s also something we need to take into account. It was very funny because when I was making my movie, I was thinking, “Oh, this is all too OTT.” But yeah. I am OTT and I think the movie should be. I’m like, “What do I have to lose?” There’s this idea that Latin Americans should produce drama because people are obsessed with reality. I was very free during this movie and I think that’s why there’s so much sex and so much color. I didn’t know what it was going to be.
You mentioned feeling very free making this. With something like Firebrand, you’re working with bigger stars and a larger budget—more people to answer to, I’d imagine. What are some of the fundamental ways that losing all that changes you as a director?
This was the challenge of Firebrand. At moments I remember going into rooms with those actors, and we had the best costume designer I could have imagined in my life. He was a historian. I would say, “Take the hats off.” Then he would say, “No, no. At the time, people didn’t take their hats off even if they were in the castle.” I was like, “When they’re going to the toilet, they’re going to take their hats off.” [Laughs] No matter how much I changed history, it was a historical film and it’s a historical film about an empire. All of that comes with a price. It’s not my history…. The actors in Firebrand were extraordinary. Not only Jude and Alicia, but all the supporting cast were incredible. Simon Russell Beale, Eddie Marsan, all those guys, they were just a dream. Here, my main actor [Iago Xavier] had never been on a plane. He’d never been on a movie set.
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