Theo Van Gogh- maverick, sensationalist and brilliant!

Theo Van Gogh- maverick, sensationalist and brilliant!

 

 

The great grandnephew of Vincent van Gogh,Theo Van Gogh ( Director of “ Interview: Original” – showing on Wednesday @ 10 pm on NDTV Lumiere) would probably rank right up there when it comes to the most controversial filmmakers of all time.  Not just controversial, but brilliant, sensationalist and in a lot of aspects, pioneering as well.

 

A strident and vocal critic of religion, he published many inflammatory articles. A writer of polemic prose, his often aggressive tone and personal animosities saw him involved in a number of public lawsuits. As a well-known critic of Islam, particularly after the September 11 attacks, he rejected every form of religion and strongly felt that political Islam is an increasing threat to liberal western societies.  In his book ‘Allah Knows Best’ (2003), van Gogh’s presents his views on Islam in his typically cynical, mocking tone.

 

In November 2004, Mohammed Bouyeri assassinated Theo van Gogh in the street in Amsterdam, leaving a five-page note pinned to his body. The note threatened Western governments and Jews.

 

At the time of his death, Van Gogh was working on a project to direct three version of his films in English. After his death, the producers Bruce Weiss and Gijs van de Westelaken decided to continue the project as an homage to him. Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci and Bob Balaban pay tribute to the work of the Dutch director in a trilogy called ‘Triple Theo’. Interview (2008) was directed by Steve Buscemi, starring Sienna Miller and himself. Stanley Tucci directed Blind Date (2008) and Bob Balaban is to make 1-900 Sex Without Hangups (06, 2004).

 

A high-priority for the producers of Triple Theo was replicating Van Gogh’s unorthodox triple camera shooting system. For each scene, Van Gogh would shoot with three digital cameras: one camera focused on the male lead, one camera focused on the female lead, and one master camera which captured both actors and the set.

 

One critic wrote that Van Gogh had invented a new film language. His technique created a dramatically different feeling on set, and ultimately an untraditional final film, as the three digital cameras provided them not only with a very short shooting schedule but also with an abundance of shots. Van Gogh’s system allowed him to stay within budget, keep his actors on their toes and end up with a massive amount of footage for the editing process. “The quantity of footage enabled us to edit the film to feel as tense as in real life,” said Westelaken. “Also, the actor does not have to follow the camera and the light anymore. We do it the other way around, the actors act, and the cameras follow”.

 

Stanley Tucci, who directed the remake of Blind Date, comments, “I loved working with the Van Gogh system and the whole Van Gogh crew. You can shoot a lot of stuff simultaneously, and therefore shoot a full-length film in a very short period of time and it still looks beautiful.” He did find the process exhausting and adds, “Even though our shoot is only seven days, it’s still incredibly intense and you’re shooting 15 pages a day, with a lot of set ups. It takes a lot out of you and I can’t imagine doing more than seven days!”

 

Actress Patricia Clarkson (Blind Date: Remake) had her own take on the shooting process explaining, “I have shot on 35 with two cameras before, but this is really a dream for an actor. You don’t have to keep repeating to get the close-ups, to get everything in one shot, and you really can work very quickly with an enormous amount of freedom. That freedom is rare when you are shooting in 35 in a very structured way. There is no acting required here, we can just play!”

 

 Rohan Jayasekera, the Associate Editor of the magazine ‘Index on Censorship’, concluded Theo Van Gogh’s death as: “A sensational climax to a lifetime’s public performance, stabbed and shot by a bearded fundamentalist, a message from the killer pinned by a dagger to his chest, Theo van Gogh became a martyr to free expression. His passing was marked by a magnificent barrage of noise as Amsterdam hit the streets to celebrate him in the way the man himself would have truly appreciated.”

 

For those looking for something less controversial , head for “ 2 Days in Paris “- starring Adam Goldberg  and Julie Delpy, it releases tomorrow at PVR Cinemas in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

 

Marion, a French photographer and Jack, an American interior designer are a New York based couple whose relationship seems to have lost its spark. In an attempt to rekindle their romance they plan a holiday in Europe. As their trip goes disastrously wrong, their only hope lies in the two days they will spend in Paris. Nominated for Best First Feature at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards.

 

Below are the show-timings…

 

Mumbai

 

PVR GOREGAON – 4.10 pm, 11.35 pm

 

PVR JUHU – 7.05 pm

 

Bangalore   

PVR FORUM Mall

3:15 PM & 10:00 PM.

 

Delhi

PVR Selectcity Walk 10:00 pm

 

Also, don’t miss out on the brilliant The Edge of Heaven by Fatih Akin showing at Fame Cinemas from tomorrow in Mumbai and Kolkata.

 

Mumbai-Fame Malad - 7.10pm

Kolkata- Fame South City Mall- 7.20pm

 

NDTV Lumiere – A 24 hour World Cinema Channel is now available on Digital Cable. 

Contact your cable operator to get the digital set-top box and receive NDTV Lumiere.

"Treat for world cinema lovers in November "

November, replete with international movie festivals, DVD launches and theatrical releases promises to be a real treat for world cinema lovers in India.

The Kolkata Film Festival kicks off on 10th Nov with some really amazing films to watch out for- don’t miss the NDTV Lumiere Kim Ki duk retrospective with four of his gems playing at the festival - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.. and Spring, Time, Breath and The Coast Guard. Really expecting fireworks here!

The other award winning movies picked from the NDTV Lumiere catalogue include Three Monkeys, Samaritan Girl, Ulzhan, The Edge Of Heaven and Duska.

‘ Three Monkeys’ which won the 2008 Festival de Cannes for Best Director was also released in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata barely a few months after it won the award !

For those who can’t attend the festival, there is plenty more happening – Some of the best Jaques Tati titles like Playtime, Jour De Fete,Mon Oncle and Mr Hulot's Holiday will hit the DVD shelves all over India apart from Fatih Akin’s In July, Solino, Short Sharp Shock and other great titles like Caramel, Persepolis, Goodbye Bafana, Crossed Tracks, 8 ½, Tuya’s Marriage and La Dolce Vita !

If that’s not enough, wait for ‘ 2 days in Paris’ – releasing on 7th Nov in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore…. Starring Adam Goldberg and Julie Delpy , this one for a change is without any twisted plots/identities/ fatalities and the like… the movie was screened at the Berlin International Festival and bagged a host of accolades elsewhere as well.

Also releasing soon in theatres are The Secret of the Grain and Page Turner….

Meanwhile, Days of Glory got a tremendous response here in India and the movie is now running for another week in Mumbai and Bangalore!
PVR Juhu, Mumbai – 9:05 pm
PVR Forum Mall, Bangalore- 10.00 p.m

Days Of Glory!

The movie which enforced the French President Jacques Chirac to change laws in France is now in releasing on 24th Sept in India at PVR Cinemas in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore !

‘Days of Glory ' is a true war story directed by Rachid. It has won a handful of awards including Best Actor at the Festival de Cannes and Best Film at the 2007 Lumière Awards. Probably one of the most influential war films, the story revolves around four Algerian men who join the French army as soldiers to liberate France from the Nazi enemy.

For those interested in watching it, here are the show-timings –
Days of Glory:
PVR Juhu, Mumbai – 8:30pm
PVR Forum Mall, Bangalore- 7.40 pm
PVR Saket, Delhi- 9pm

The director was even selected as the jury member at the Festival de Cannes 2008- below is an interesting interview of Rachid Bouchareb – courtesy Films Distribution

Interview with Rachid Bouchareb , Director, Days Of Glory:

Q. Good Timing…

There comes a time when things have come together and matured. For me, that moment came when I finished Little Senegal.

I’ve always been caught up in the history of immigration. It’s my family’s past. One of my uncles fought in the Indochina war. We lived through the Algerian war and I even have a great grandfather who fought in World War One. I’ve always been at the intersection of the colonization, decolonization, immigration and all these men who made French History.

Olivier Lorelle, my co-screenwriter, and I did over a year of research. We started off going through the army documentation department. I even found Defense Ministry documents in the names of Naceri and Debbouze, who were the ancestors of the ones we all know today. We also worked in libraries but above all, we met with people who had lived through the period. We wanted to hear what they had to say. We went to Bordeaux, Marseilles and Nantes as well as Senegal, Morocco and Algeria. We fed off their experiences and feelings. This was when I realized the film could not be the story of one man. It had to encompass the African continent.

Then we had to digest all the facts collected. I wanted to make a film, not a documentary. A docu-fiction would have been a trap too. Cinema has to consider the viewer. There has to be a dimension that goes beyond historical context to dive into the human heart, to reach out to what moves us all, beyond out differences.

For me, cinema vehicles encounters and emotions. Above all, it makes you feel, even if it also teaches you something. It was the only way I could carry the story and connect with the viewer. I did not want to be didactic. There’s no point. We developed the screenplay over two and a half years. It took us 25 versions to get beyond history and concentrate on the human content, on the small, everyday details that reproduce life better than any message.

During the research phase, I found an article from five years ago about a village in Alsace that had just built a war monument to the hundreds of skirmishers who died protecting the inhabitants. They had held their ground to the end, suffering enormous casualties. This event catalyzed my desire to tell the story of a mixed group that unites in the face of hardship. I was also determined to only use authentic elements. I wrote about the mission of these men that found themselves in a lost village and sacrificed their lives in the name of the Fatherland.

Q. The Actors and Characters…

From the outset, I talked to the actors about it because I couldn’t imagine the film being anything other than collective. I chose my actors for their sensibility.

I knew some of them personally already but I appreciated them all professionally. I went to see them and told them about my project. They were all interested.

I told them we’d meet again when I had a screenplay! They were the first people to be enthusiastic about it. The project went beyond making a film. There was an extra dimension.

To create the characters, I was more than anything inspired by the veterans I met. Yassir, the Goumier, came out of these encounters – I met Yassir in a hostel in Nantes. Saïd, the goat keeper also exists. Other characters are several personalities combined. Abdelkader is also inspired by characters such as Ben Bella, who fought in World War Two, was disillusioned and became a nationalist. I also met three people who met women in France, moved to France and made their lives there.

At first, the screenplay lasted three and a half hours and started in Africa. We had to cut back to the countries of North Africa. I did not write a specific character for each actor. I wanted to feel free when I was writing. Jamel could have played Abdelkader. I didn’t want constraints. The roles were interchangeable.

Since Jamel was going to sink or swim with us and carry the film as an actor,

I asked him to be one of the co-producers. And the adventure began. We met with film financiers one by one, then we went and saw the French National Assembly, the Senate, the regions – even some where we didn’t film. We also met with ministries in Algeria and Morocco. It was a long process and everyone had to work at it but I never had any doubts. The film would be made. The necessity of telling the story was so obvious that there was no alternative! Sometimes the energy of a project gets away from you and carries you along. That what the film was like for me! This certainty moved things forward. The subject was so important that I felt a moral obligation to see it through.

Q. An Intimate Saga: On Location…

For me, the film was unusual in that it combined vast scenes requiring real logistics and more intimate moments between the actors. Both were closely tied, and even in the biggest battle scenes, my aim was to stay as close to the characters as possible.

Before shooting, we storyboarded the 900 shots of the screenplay over a four-month period. Shooting lasted 18 weeks and took place in Ouarzazate, Agadir for the boat scenes, the south of France - in Beaucaire and Tarascon – for the Liberation scenes, then in the Vosges and around the Alsace-Loraine border. The snowy mountain scenes, supposed to be in the Vosges, were shot in Morocco!

We also had many battle scenes that covered several hectares with explosions everywhere, as well as special effects simulating planes in the sky and fleets of navy vessels. I wanted the film to have an epic dimension, for us to feel the numbers, the passing seasons, the movements across countries and the changes in the men. I had to be there on all fronts! Even the set of a village in the Vosges required five months work for fifty people who transformed a hamlet in ruins, reconstructing a group of houses and adding a church and café. It all had to serve as a historical setting.

My first shock was during the costume fittings. Seeing Jamel, Samy, Roschdy and Sami dressed as their characters suddenly gave me a sense of the film’s reality. A soldier’s jacket, a cap or a djellaba suddenly gave the characters an element of truth. They had taken the places of their ancestors! From the outset, we felt that none of them was playing a hero. They were a group of men.

The second shock was on the first day of shooting. For organizational reasons, we had to start with the scene where the soldiers are lined up in front of the camp in Sicily and Jamel is hit with the butt of a riffle. We were immediately at the heart of the matter. Since I hadn’t made a film in three years, I would have preferred getting back into it by filming trucks go by, but that’s how it turned out and it was fine that way!

Each day was difficult. I was panic-stricken but I couldn’t let it show. In front of 500 extras and 220 technicians, you can’t look like you’re unsure of yourself! I faced up to my doubts when I was alone in my room at night. I reassured myself by working.

With the actors, we worked hard beforehand. While we were shooting, almost every night, we had a meeting about the screenplay. It became a ritual. We talked about the scenes, the script, the story... It was a human adventure we undertook together.

It was the first time I’d worked with Jamel. He’s very conscientious. This dramatic role was very important to him and he was worried about doing a good job. He worked hard. From time to time, he joked around to ease the tension and maybe also to reassure himself. I was moved by what he put out, by his sincerity and his fragility. We soon forget that it’s Jamel Debbouze acting and only see Saïd. It takes talent to provoke that small miracle.

I’ve known Roschdy for a long time. He has inner strength. He does everything with apparent ease but it’s based on a lot of hard work. He hits the right note. He always tries to understand and never pretends. His sense of observation and his ability to integrate parameters are impressive.

Unlike many of his fellow-actors, Sami Bouajila is very focused and leaves nothing to chance. He works on his character until he masters it completely. He became Abdelkader. He had his energy, integrity and reflexes. He was very implicated on a human level and was very attached to the group.

There’s something fascinating about Samy Naceri. He doesn’t talk much. He almost never asks questions. He listens and suddenly, when the camera comes on, he comes to life and gets it right the first take. He is an instinctive and powerful actor. During the scene when he takes his dead brother in his arms, he bowled us over. The whole crew was speechless.

Generally speaking, we did not do many takes, no more than three or four. Everyone was spot on. Sometimes I had to rein them in so we didn’t go off the rails. Even though they could bring minor additions to their characters, I was against improvisation. I often had to refuse suggestions. I didn’t like having to do it but I had to stay faithful to the screenplay. Once, two or three of them wrote a dialogue. I was really happy they did it together. They came to see me and I said to them, “Okay, let’s do it but you can only have one take. We’ll see if we keep it when we edit...” For pacing reasons, I didn’t keep it, but I was delighted to see them working together like brothers!

Q. The emotion of a story in the name of the men who lived it…

When I make a film, I am always a viewer. If I don’t feel emotion during the scene, the viewer won’t feel it either. I’m a thermometer! I forget my trade and the technical aspect so I can feel. If I’m not moved, we start over! If it doesn’t work, it is not necessarily the actor’s fault. It can be a problem with the script. If so, it’s up to me to suggest something else.
Something really powerful happened during the filming that I hadn’t expected.

I realized it first with the Moroccan soldiers who were extras in the part we shot in Ouarzazate. Every morning, they were incredibly enthusiastic. They did more than just obey directing orders. They really put their hearts into it. They said to me, “Rachid, we’re with you!” or, “We’ve worked on other films but with you, we know why we’re running.” And their commitment shows in the film.

I was reluctant to get them to redo a scene, getting them to carry a load and run in sandals over rocks that made their ankles bleed. But they volunteered. Because the film talks about their ancestors, their relation with France and a period that profoundly marked their history. Even with them, we were at the heart of the matter. Some came with the photo of their father who had fought in World War Two. One of them, who had fought in the village, showed me his photos and the letters he wrote to the government that were never answered.

This human factor also struck us when we came back to France. Everywhere we went, people came to see us, whatever their origins. Sometimes they came from 50 kilometers away. They waited, to show us their photos, to tell us about skirmishers they’d met and the people who liberated them. We also saw a lot of second or third generations who told us about their parents. Sometimes they waited for hours because we were busy with the film. The film was given an incredible reception! We were asked to participate in debates with the French, North Africans and Africans who talked about the subject, the film and what their parents had been through. We understood that it was high time we told this story, to give an image to what had been kept quiet for so long. Despite everything I had felt myself, I was surprised by this amazing enthusiasm.

All these testimonies taught me something that struck me even more. It was the same thing I heard from the survivors: the love and attachment to France that, incredibly, remains stronger than any other sentiment.

The story of these men and their relation to France does not start in the 1960’s. Well before that, they came, they liberated France, they were heroes. They were not only “street sweepers!” They were heroes who were loved and welcomed with open arms! It often remains the best moment of their lives. That’s why the attitude that followed and continues today seems so strange to them. They see it as a love story gone sour, a betrayal. It shocks them that their children and grandchildren have such a hard time. The change happened in the 1960’s. And yet despite the degradation of their image, the rejection, their ex-servicemen pensions that have not been paid, they have no hatred, no spirit of revenge. If they had to do it again, they would.

I didn’t try to change history. If they had been full of violence or bitterness,

I would have put it into the film. But it’s not the case. Liberating a country that is theirs, the Fatherland, being welcomed the way they were by French villages, being applauded along the road... It has left its mark on their memories, their history and all the injustice they’ve experienced since then has not erased that. I’ve wanted to make this film for a long time so young people know about it and others remember. I’m convinced it will be well received. The timing is right. It is a brick so can keep building together.