Blockbusterens elefantsyge: Hvorfor er film så lange?

Føler du også, at filmene i biografen bliver længere og længere? Det er ikke nødvendigvis din tålmodighed, den er gal med. Nutidens blockbuster-instruktører mestrer ikke begrænsningens kunst, mener en række kritikere.



»En films længde bør stå i direkte forhold til den menneskelige blæres udholdenhed,« mente Alfred Hitchcock. Gennem hele sin karriere, der favnede et halvt århundrede og mere end 60 spillefilm, signerede den britiske mesterinstruktør kun syv film, der sneg sig op over to timers spilletid.

Mange nutidige instruktører har sværere ved at fatte sig i korthed, og en af de værste syndere er Michael Bay. Hans seneste blockbuster, "Transformers: Age of Extinction", som får dansk biografpremiere i denne uge, er med sine 165 minutter det hidtil længste kapitel i Transformers-serien. Michael Bays forrige film, actionkomedien "Pain & Gain", var instruktørens korteste siden hans debut, 'Bad Boys' fra 1995. Alligevel var "Pain & Gain" samfulde to timer og ni minutter om at komme i mål.

Tager man Michael Bays samlede filmografi i betragtning, ligger den gennemsnitlige spilletid i omegnen af 147 minutter. Dermed er "Transformers"-instruktøren suverænt den af verdens ti bedst indtjenende filmmagere, som trækker størst veksler på publikums tid i biografsædet. Men han er ikke alene blandt Hollywoods gulddrenge om at synes, at en aften i biffen helst skal vare længere end en maraton.

Se bare på nogle af de store film i 2013: "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" varede 146 minutter. "Prisoners": 153 minutter. "Hobbitten: Dragen Smaugs Ødemark": 161 minutter. Og "The Wolf of Wall Street" er med sine 179 minutter den længste film, Martin Scorsese nogensinde har lavet.

> Thelma Schoonmaker om længden af "The Wolf of Wall Street" (New York Times)

Statistikken taler også sit tydelige sprog. Ifølge dagbladet The Independent var 1980'ernes ti mest succesfulde biograffilm i gennemsnit 119 minutter lange. I 2000'erne lød det tilsvarende tal 149 minutter.

Internet Movie DataBase går endnu længere tilbage og har regnet sig frem til, at de 50 mest populære film i 1920'erne var 98 minutter i snit, mens de i 2000'erne nåede op på 129 minutter – nøjagtig som Michael Bays "Pain & Gain".

»I Michael Bays tilfælde har jeg faktisk ikke noget problem med, at hans film bliver ved og ved, fordi det netop er hans stil at være fuldstændig skamløs,« siger Stephanie Zacharek, cheffilmanmelder på newyorkeravisen Village Voice. Ellers erklærer den erfarne kritiker sig stopmæt efter en på alle måder lang blockbustersommer. Hun siger:

»Som udgangspunkt elsker jeg at blive godt underholdt af en hollywoodfilm. Men jeg kan ikke lide at føle mig gennemtæsket, når jeg kommer ud af biografen.«

Transformers 1-4 marathon = 765 minutter!

Gunnar Rehlin har gennem fire årtier anmeldt og skrevet om film for bl.a. svensk tv og branchebladet Variety. Også han mærker den stigende tendens til, hvad han kalder Hollywoods »elefantsyge«:

»Det er ikke længere på mode at fortælle stramt og effektivt ud fra princippet ’less is more’. Tag en film som "The Lone Ranger" (149 min.), som floppede i det meste af verden. Den kunne snildt forbedres ved, at man klippede 40 minutter ud af den,« siger Gunnar Rehlin.

Selv komediegenren har fået vokseværk. Paul Feigs sommerhit fra sidste år, "The Heat", var oppe og snuse til totimersmarkøren (117 min.), mens comedy-guruen Judd Apatow efterhånden er berygtet for at drøje mærkbart på sit materiale. Hans seneste parforholdskomedie 'This is 40' har fået anmelderklø for at brede sig over 133 minutter.

I en artikel i Los Angeles Times tog Judd Apatow til genmæle mod kritikken:

»Det er svært at komme ud af huset for at tage i biffen. Billetterne er dyre, parkeringen er dyr – hvorfor har alle så travlt med at komme hjem igen? Du dør ikke af, at filmen varer femten minutter mere.«

Judd Apatows synspunkt vinder genklang i en onlinerundspørge, som det amerikanske billetsalgsfirma Fandango har foretaget blandt 1000 biografgængere. 78 % af de adspurgte føler, at lange film yder mere »valuta for pengene«.

Judd Apatow | pr-foto

Stephanie Zacharek nævner newzealandske Peter Jackson som en af de filmmagere, der i nyere tid har populariseret spillelængder i supersize - senest med helaftensfilmene om "Hobbitten". Med sin trilogi "Ringenes Herre" (2001-03) skabte Jackson tradition for at udsende forlængede dvd-versioner af sine allerede nærmest endeløse eposser.

Hans nyindspilning af "King Kong" (2005) – 187 minutter mod originalens 100 – står også tilbage som et symptom på, at Director's Cut-æraen har pustet succesinstruktørernes egoer, og dermed spilletiderne, op til en størrelse XL. For hvilken producer eller filmselskabschef tør sige en Spielberg, en Tarantino, en Jackson imod?

»Peter Jackson har før bevist, at han er en filmkunstner, som kan fortælle gode historier i lille målestok,« siger Stephanie Zacharek med henvisning til instruktørens "Engel min engel" (Heavenly Creatures) fra 1994.

»Men efterhånden som Jacksons budgetter er vokset, har han fået fuldstændig frie hænder, og set udefra kan det godt føles, som om han misbruger det,« mener Zacharek.

> Se Bries interview med Peter Jackson fra Troldspejlet (2013)

Peter Jackson har lovet mig, at hans tredje Hobbitten-film bliver kortere end de foregående!

Foruden instruktørernes ego har den teknologiske udvikling også sat skred i spilletiderne. Et computerbaseret værktøj som Avid gør redigeringsarbejdet til en langt mere flydende proces end tidligere, hvor den fysiske filmstrimmel møjsommeligt skulle tapes sammen bid for bid i klippebordet. Den vidtstrakte brug af computermanipulation åbner også for mange flere muligheder end de gammeldags, ofte besværlige og tidskrævende teknikker som miniaturemodeller, glasmalerier og optiske effekter.

»Man kan lave hvad som helst med CGI i dag. Potentialet er endeløst,« siger Gunnar Rehlin, som føler, at filminstruktører i dag har svært ved at begrænse sig, fordi de har alt for meget at lege med:

»Resultatet bliver, at mange film i dag overfodrer publikum. Man læsser bare på med effekter i stedet for at sortere i ideerne og finde kreative løsninger,« siger han.

Eksempel: Da George Lucas i 1977-83 skød sin oprindelige "Star Wars"-trilogi, foregik indspilningen analogt, dvs. uden brug af computere. Hans prequel-trilogi, som fulgte i 1999-2005, gjorde udstrakt brug af digitale produktionsteknikker og CGI. Ganske symptomatisk er de tre nye film alle længere end de gamle.

Endelig er HD-videoformatet væsentlig billigere i drift end gammeldags råfilm af celluloid. Som bivirkning optager nutidens filmfolk meget mere materiale end nogensinde før.

»Filminstruktører har fået den fejlagtige opfattelse, at det er gratis at optage digitalt, så de skyder bare løs og forelsker sig i det, de får i kassen,« udtaler Jan-Christopher Horak, chef for UCLA’s film- og tv-arkiv, til Los Angeles Times. Han oplyser, at amerikanske filminstruktører førhen brugte ca. 40 minutters råfilm for hvert spilleminut i den færdige film. Nu om stunder er forholdet tættere på 200-400 minutters optagelser for hvert minut af filmen, anslår Horak.

Men måske ligger problemets kerne slet ikke i selve længden, men derimod i misforholdet mellem omfang og indhold. For som den afdøde kritikerlegende Roger Ebert så viselig sagde:

»Ingen god film er for lang, og ingen dårlig film er tilstrækkelig kort.«

Gunnar Rehlin nævner "The Godfather 2. del" (200 min.), "Once Upon a Time in America" (229 min.) og "1900" (317 min.) som eksempler på mammutfilm, der i hans øjne ikke indeholder en eneste overflødig scene.
»Nogle historier er så komplekse, at de kræver plads for at kunne folde sig ordentligt ud. Men det kræver, at man har en ordentlig historie at fortælle, og det har nutidens blockbustere sjældent,« konstaterer han.

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De ti mest indtjenende hollywoodinstruktører, rangordnet efter gennemsnitlig spillefilmlængde:

Michael Bay – 146,6 min.
Peter Jackson – 140,7 min.
James Cameron – 139,4 min.
Steven Spielberg – 136,0 min.
Christopher Nolan – 129,6 min.
Ron Howard – 124,6 min.
George Lucas – 122 min.
Chris Columbus – 119,9 min.
Robert Zemeckis – 117,9 min.
Tim Burton – 108,6 min.

Kilder: Box Office Mojo, Wikipedia; research: Brian Iskov

Bonusinfo:
Siden 1929 har det amerikanske filmakademi, AMPAS, gerne sat lighedstegn mellem en films spillelængde og dens vigtighed, når de har uddelt deres oscarpriser. Ifølge Collider.com har næsten 70 % af alle vindere i kategorien 'bedste film' varet over to timer. I mere end 40 % af tilfældene gik prisen til den længste film blandt de nominerede. Ved den seneste oscaruddeling varede otte ud af de ni nominerede 'bedste film' to timer eller derover.

En version af denne artikel har været trykt i Politiken september 2013.

Eksklusivt interview med Lukas Moodysson: "Indeni er jeg en gammel dame, der drikker te"

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Efter en stribe kulsorte kunstfilm og romaner har Lukas Moodysson, svensk films enfant terrible, atter vendt sig mod komedien, livsglæden og den medrivende mainstream. ”Vi er de bedste”, som har dansk biopremiere i dag, er absolut instruktørens mest publikumsvenlige film siden gennembrudsværkerne "Fucking Åmål" (1998) og "Tilsammans" (2000).



Med afsæt i den selvbiografiske tegneserie "Aldrig godnatt", som hans kone, Coco Moodysson, fik udgivet i 2008, har Lukas Moodysson skabt en energisk hyldest til ungdommens ukuelighed, firsernes punkrock og seje, skandinaviske skolepiger.

> Læs uddrag af Coco Moodyssons tegneserie "Aldrig godnatt"

"Vi er de bedste" havde verdenspremiere på Venedig-festivalen i 2013, hvor jeg fik en snak med Lukas Moodysson. Den 45-årige instruktør efterlod indtrykket af en melankolsk outsider, som med næb og kløer graver sig frem mod et mere positivt livssyn. Han erkendte i vores interview, at han ofte føler sig som en gammel dame. At mange af hans egne film er for dystre til, at han selv orker at se dem. Og at hans store drøm er at lave en sitcom til tv.

Den verserende debat om kvindekønnets kår i filmbranchen fik også en kommentar med på vejen, da Lukas Moodysson bød ind med et opsigtsvækkende forslag til en kvoteordning for filmskabere. Endelig holdt han 1980'ernes ungdom og musik op mod nutidens ditto og afslørede et noget uventet forbillede, som understreger, at også mørkemænd fra Malmø bliver mere rummelige med alderen ...

Lukas Moodysson | © Memfis Film

EKSKLUSIVT FOR BRIES BLOG-O-RAMA
Interview med Lukas Moodysson om "Vi er de bedste"
(Interview with Lukas Moodysson, director of "Vi är bäst!"/"We are the Best!")
Brian Iskov, Venedig/Venice 2013

Judging from "We are the best" as well as your previous films "Fucking Åmål" and "Lilja 4-Ever", you seem to have an affinity for telling stories from the female perspective. Is this by design or merely something you just gravitate towards?

In general, it's because I feel like I'm an old lady inside. An old lady who likes to drink tea and likes flowers, wears rings and stuff. This is my wife's grandmother's ring. My wife doesn't like it. She likes it, but she doesn't wear it. It fits me, I have small hands.

In this specific case ["We are the best!"], I couldn't really change it because it was a real story. That was actually one thing that made me hesitate and feel like maybe it wasn't such a good idea to make this.

"Aldrig godnatt" | © Coco Moodysson/Kartago förlag 

One of the reasons was that [the real events] took place in the 1980's. That's difficult to film, because you have to change everything. You can not just walk out into the street and shoot, you have to put the cars there and everything.

But the other thing that kept me away from the project was actually that [the three main characters] were girls. Because I just felt that I had made too many films with girls, and I wanted to make something with boys instead.

But afterwards, I feel that it's a good thing. The punk movement was very masculine, so it's nice to see it from a different perspective. It would be simpler in a way to make it about three boys starting a band, because it was simpler for boys to do that. For three girls to start a band was a bigger step.

"We are the best" would certainly be more traditional if it were about boys forming a punk rock band. Generally, there aren't that many films about young girls or women. Would you agree that it's harder to get finance for a film with female protagonists these days?
Don't know about that. I don't think that's true in Sweden at all. I think it would be the opposite in Sweden. There is a lot of talk in Sweden about trying to find more female perspective in the film industry ... Which is good, I think. More female directors and so on. In Sweden, at the moment it's easier to finance a movie with women or girls in it.

Liv LeMoyne, Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin in "We are the best!" | © Memfis Film

Has there been talk about quotas in the Swedish film industry?
Yes. Talks. It's difficult, but yeah, I think it would be a great thing to try an embargo, actually. For three years, all the money goes to female writers and female directors. Would be nice. Or two years or something. It would be nice to see what came of it. Or to say that maybe for two years, we only give money to OLD directors. For example. There's a lot of talk about young directors, sometimes there are some old directors who are a bit forgotten. Or young directors. I think that would be a great idea: Two years, only male directors. Two years, only female directors. Two years, only over the age of 60. And two years, only under 30.

But then you'd only make a film every eight years.
Yeah. Actually, I'd really like to do a couple of sitcoms. But I find it's very difficult for me to decide that now I have to be funny. Sometimes there is humour and laughter in life, but it's more something that comes out by accident.

Which sitcoms do you enjoy watching?
"The Big Bang Theory" is my favourite of the moment, and if you go back, I think "Friends", that's the one I really like.

"Sometimes I can feel that some of the movies I've made, I'm not sure if I could watch them myself." 

This is a bit theoretical, but I think it could be interesting also to work within specific genres. I would also like to make a rather conventional romantic comedy, but it's difficult to work within genres without changing it too much. I would like to make some really simple things.

How come?
It might have something to do with getting away from a kind of snobbism. Sometimes I can feel that some of the movies I've made, I'm not sure if I could watch them myself. Not because they're bad, but ... Quite a lot of the time, I have very simple taste. When I go with my son to the video store, or when I go to the movies or something, I just want to have fun for two hours. Most of the time, I just wanna see something funny that will make me laugh and have a good time. Especially if I'm with my children. I'm not a father who tries to make them watch Bergman or something.

Lukas Moodysson at Venice Film Festival 2013 | © press photo

My idol of the moment is actually Rihanna. She's really an example of someone with complete power and strength, and at the same time, you feel like there's a lot of sadness in her voice. She's really been the most important thing for me this summer, trying to ... survive.

Something like listening to Rihanna would be impossible for me when I was much younger. I would never listen to that kind of commercial music at all. But then you get older, and you realize that there's a wide spectrum of things. You can actually like both Northern renaissance art and Rihanna at the same time. When I grew up, I was actually listening to exactly the same music that you hear in the film ["We are the best!"].

> Hør sange fra soundtracket til "Vi er de bedste" (Spotify)

What was the 80's punk scene like in Sweden?
I think it was quite a big scene, but like in the movie it gradually became smaller in '81-82, which was of course difficult. You would meet a lot of people saying "Punk is dead" in '82. I listened to punk from 1981 when I was around 12 years old. By then, it was already too late. In 1982, it was more or less over. The big bands in Sweden, like Ebba Grön or KSMB, they split in '81 or 82. That feeling, of coming too late for something, is in the movie as well.

Liv LeMoyne, Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin in "We are the best!" | © Memfis Film

Being young in the 80's, what were the good things, and what were the bad things?
That's a big question. It's difficult to compare, because I haven't tried being 13 years old now. But one thing that my actresses say, when we talk about the 80's, is that there was less stress. Now, and this is something I can relate to as well from my own children and their friends, that there's a stress to always be updated, always be in touch, always know what's happening.

Phones, social media and everything, it's a lot of stress. And especially for people who are sensitive to stress, I think it's really difficult. Some people like stress, but some people - especially children and young people - really react badly to stress, and I actually think that's a big problem in the world today. That there's such a high, fast tempo.

But at the same time, there are things that are really much better today. Growing up and feeling lonely in a small town somewhere in 1982 was probably more difficult than doing it today. Because it's easier today to find someone somewhere else that likes the same clothes or listening to the same music. I think there was a bigger risk of being isolated in '82.

You and Coco have three children. How do you teach them to cope with the world?
You cannot protect your children from the world. The world is there, you can talk about it and try to minimize some things, but you can't ... It's like trying to force children to never eat candy. It's a theoretical thing, it won't happen. Sometimes you can put it in perspective, but I'm not the perfect father, so I cannot really give any advice! I just try to do my best.

All rights reserved © Brian Iskov for Bries Blog-O-Rama

Lukas Moodysson and the cast of "We are the best!" | © Memfis Film

Eksklusivt interview: Danny Trejo fylder 70

At man skal ikke skue hunden på hårene, er Danny Trejo et godt bevis på. Den mexicansk-amerikanske birolleskuespiller, som fylder 70 år i dag, har ellers fremragende forudsætninger for at illudere barsk latinobørste. Danny Trejo tilbragte store dele af 1960'erne bag tremmer for væbnet røveri, og hans karakteristiske, hærgede fjæs skyldes dels et heftigt stofmisbrug, som han lagde bag sig i 1969, og dels alle de tæsk, han indkasserede i sin tid som fængselsbokser.

http://boy140495.deviantart.com

Ved en tilfældighed havnede Danny Trejo i filmbranchen i midten af 1980'erne. Siden har han i mere end 100 biroller udfyldt nichen for latinamerikanske bøller så overbevisende, at han i dag hyldes som en kultfigur – især i kraft af hans samarbejde med instruktøren Robert Rodriguez, der gerne caster Danny Trejo som en slags maskot i sine film. Det var også Rodriguez, der i 2010 gav Trejo hans livs første hovedrolle som den fåmælte machohelt Machete i filmserien af samme navn.

> Læs også mit interview med Robert Rodriguez

Jeg sad til bords med Danny Trejo i Venedig, da ”Machete” havde verdenspremiere, og jeg måtte sande, at Danny Trejo bag sin garvede læderhud og bistre apparition er en lun, venlig, ydmyg og jordbunden bessefar - eller som Jessica Alba udtrykte det, en rigtig ”softie”. Især husker jeg, hvordan Danny Trejo under gruppeinterviewet skulede fascineret over mod min notesblok og spontant afbrød et svar for at udtrykke, hvor imponeret han var over denne danske journalists pertentlige, gnidrede håndskrift:

”That's amazing, that writing! Wow.”

Tillykke med de 70 år, Danny Trejo!

Danny Trejo at Venice Film Festival 2010

EXCERPTS FROM MY INTERVIEW WITH
Danny Trejo
(Venice 2010 – all rights reserved © Brian Iskov)

Danny Trejo on being typecast as a heavy:
I've always worked, but always as the bad guy. And people say, arent you afraid of being stereotyped? Come on, look at me! I dont look like a good guy (laughs).

I've watched guys sitting in gyms wasting their life waiting for that good guy part. Me, I wanna work, and Robert [Rodriguez] knows that. I'll play a tree if you want me to. And if you want me to put fruit on it, maybe I want more money. But I don't really pick and choose. Bad guys are easy for me, I just show up.

Danny Trejo on his violent background:
[Film violence?] None of it is real. Maybe the facial expressions are, but if it was real, someone would be dead. I've been exposed to violence. I always say, the first half of my life was a character study.

I was lightweight and welterweight champion [in San Quentin prison]. When I came out, I couldn't get a boxing licence because of the violence that I had on my record. So I became a drug counsellor.

Danny Trejo's film debut as a boxer in "Runaway Train" (1985)

Danny Trejo on his way into the movie business:
My first movie was ”Runaway Train” with Jon Voight. I got on by accident. I was a drug counsellor, and one of the kids I was working with asked me to come down and hang out with him because he was afraid he was gonna use. And I ran into a really good friend of mine from my past in the penitentiary called Eddie Bunker, who was a writer. Me and Eddie knew each other since 1962. My uncle bought a robbery from him in '62, that's where I met him. Then I met him in San Quentin, and again when he'd written the screenplay to ”Runaway Train”. He adapted it to American cinema because it was [originally written by] Aiakawa [Akira Kurosawa]. He asked me if I wanted a job training Eric Roberts how to box, and Andrei [Konchalovsky, the director] saw me and put me in the film.

Danny Trejo on taking Robert De Niro to a prison:
I always ask the leads in my movies whether they wanna go to juvenile hall or penitentiary to talk, because we always do that. [Robert] De Niro [who played opposite Trejo in ”Machete”] has been the only guy to go to the pen with me. He drove 60 miles to talk to a bunch of kids in prison. And it's amazing because he is not a public speaker. The interview guys know! And he talked for maybe a minute and half, and then he waited to shake everybody's hand. These guys, from 14 to 25, all murderers. They were so quiet and respectful, it was unreal. The prison guards got scared. Robert just captivated them.

Danny Trejo in "Machete" (2010)

CPH PIX: Terry Gilliam om "The Zero Theorem", Monty Python og Twitter

Jeg kan godt lide Terry Gilliam. Den farverige amerikaner er altid boblende fuld af humør, vanvidsideer og drilske stikpiller til mainstream Hollywood. I interviews er han forrygende veloplagt, som jeg opdagede, da jeg mødte ham i Venedig i 2005, og Terry Gilliam kæmper så indædt for at realisere sine galmandsværker – som man så det i dokumentaren "Lost in La Mancha" (2002) om hans forheksede evighedsprojekt "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" – at man dårligt kan andet end at holde af manden.

> Brødrene Grimm og Kaptajn Kaos: Mit interview med Terry Gilliam (2005)

Til gengæld har jeg det tit lidt svært med Terry Gilliams film. Hans seneste påhit, fremtidskomedien "The Zero Theorem", vises i aften og på torsdag, 10. marts, på CPH PIX, og trods sjove ideer hist og her er den som helhed en lidt anstrengt affære. Filmen, der havde verdenspremiere på sidste års Venedig-festival, kommer ikke i biografdistribution herhjemme.



Stemningen fejlede som sædvanlig intet, da Terry Gilliam indbød til Q&A om "The Zero Theorem" i Venedig. Trods sine efterhånden 73 år er det gamle Monty Python-medlem stadig en tornado af kåd, drenget energi, som klukker henrykt over egne og andres skæve indfald. Her er nogle af højdepunkterne.

Tweeting is an ugly, ugly habit. My mother told me, if I tweeted, I would go blind.

- Terry Gilliam, Venice 2013

I try very hard to be mediocre, but you need a lot of money to be mediocre.

- Terry Gilliam, Venice 2013

I got rid of them, they were holding me back, they were destroying me!

- Terry Gilliam on the Pythons, Venice 2013

NOTE TO FOREIGN READERS: The following are excerpts from Terry Gilliam's Disaronno Q&A at the Venice Film Festival 2013. "The Zero Theorem" is showing at this year's CPH PIX festival in Copenhagen.

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Terry Gilliam (left) at the Venice Film Festival, September 2013 | photo © Brian Iskov

TERRY GILLIAM OM DEN FARVERIGE FREMTID I "THE ZERO THEOREM" - OG FARERNE VED TWITTER
Terry Gilliam on the bright, poppy future in "The Zero Theorem" and the dangers of Twitter:

"Brazil" was rather dark, and I thought [for "The Zero Theorem"] we'd make a happy place where people play at work, where people can be eternally young and juvenile, and nobody has to pay attention to the real world. Just like all of you sitting here today. Just bringing your world alive.

It was important that it was a happy world with lots of shopping, lots of fun, and there was one man [the Christoph Waltz character] who was uncomfortable in that world and just trying to escape it. He wants to know the meaning of life, of his life, and I'm trying to encourage people to find the meaning of your life. Alone. Don't tweet, don't use the web. Go away, be alone and find out who you are.

The future is working backwards now. It has reached us before we have reached it. We're all living in the future and don't realise it. And we're trying to encourage everyone to believe that every day is the present, neither the past nor the future. Live for the present - it only exists for about one second every day. It's so fast, the present, that there's no time to tweet!

Melanie Thiérry in "The Zero Theorem" (2013)

TERRY GILLIAM OM SIT VERDENSSYN
Terry Gilliam on his world view:

I find the world a wonderful place, I find it really exciting. It's beautiful. I'm just more interested in the potentially negative problems of our society, and I like drawing attention to that. So hopefully we can change it for the better.

TERRY GILLIAM OM NUTIDENS HOLLYWOOD 
Terry Gilliam on Hollywood today:

The things that I'm interested in making movies about, the studios don't want to make. I don't want to have any more robots beating up sea creatures, there's enough aliens in the movies, enough people running away from big explosions. I think it's more interesting to look at the real world, occasionally, and try to make an interesting and hopefully funny and moving film.

TERRY GILLIAM OM AT LAVE FILM PÅ SMÅ BUDGETTER
Terry Gilliam on making low-budget films:

The first thing you need is a lot of very talented friends who will come and work for next to nothing. Then you have to go to Bucharest, where it's one of the cheapest places in Europe to work. What basically happens is, because of these restrictions, you have to find interesting solutions, and those interesting solutions are usually more original than my original ideas.



TERRY GILLIAM OM ARVEN EFTER MONTY PYTHON
Terry Gilliam on the legacy of Monty Python:

The curse of Monty Python was with me for a long time. We learned to be funny, we learned to work in skits, and it took a while to actually start to develop confidence to do what I wanted to do, and not do [it] the way we made Python. Monty Python was wonderful, it was fantastic. But it was also limited in the way we looked at the world. It was always satirical, it was never romantic or tragic, it was never those. Eventually I started making movies that were probably what I feel about the world as opposed to only being comic about the world.

We were very lucky with Monty Python, it was a specific time in the U.K., when the BBC was very laissez-faire. If they said, "Go and do something", you were able to do it. They gave us six-seven shows, and they worked. So they gave us more, and we developed our skills, our confidence and also our fanbase, the public. So we were successful. And we were incredibly lucky to have very wealthy, successful pop stars financing our movies. Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Pink Floyd, eventually George Harrison. So it was a very privileged position to then do exactly what we wanted to do, and surprise, surprise, the films were successful. And because I co-directed "Holy Grail" with Terry Jones, my name was on the screen saying "Directed by". That's the only thing you have to do, to get your name on the screen saying "directed by", and you're a film director!

Then I had to learn to direct films after that, and eventually I learnt [that] and realized I was better than the rest of the group. I got rid of them, they were holding me back, they were destroying me!

TERRY GILLIAM OM AT TEGNE OG ANIMERE
Terry Gilliam on drawing and animating:

The only time I draw now is birthday cards for my family and anniversary cards for my wife. And sometimes the Christmas card. If I continue on this downward path of lower and lower budget films, eventually I may have to go back to graphical illustration!



TERRY GILLIAM OM HANS FORHEKSEDE DRØMMEPROJEKT "DON QUIXOTE"
Terry Gilliam on his jinxed dream project "Don Quixote":

When I make a film, it's like we go into the ocean, and the storm's crashing, and everything breaks. And then, when we finish it, we go back into the little harbour, and we think about making Don Quixote again. Sometimes the boat goes out, and sometimes it sinks, and sometimes it might go forward, and we can get into the storm with the Don Quixote boat. But not yet. I think it's been six [of these "storms" to date]. Maybe seven.

TERRY GILLIAM OM SIN GÆSTEROLLE I DEN KOMMENDE "JUPITER ASCENDING"
Terry Gilliam on his cameo in the upcoming "Jupiter Ascending":

The Wachowski siblings asked me if I would play a part, because there's a scene that's sort of an homage to "Brazil", so they needed a bureaucrat, and I get to play [one]. And I get to work with Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, and I do all the talking. And I thought it would be interesting to be a part of a film that has a budget bigger than 150 billion dollars!

CPH PIX 2014: William Friedkin - guldkorn fra Venedig

Så er der CPH PIX igen! Fra i dag, 3. april, og til den 16. april kan filmfans i København og udvalgte provinsbyer gå på opdagelse i programmets 150 film fra alle verdenshjørner og i alle genrer. De fleste af filmene bliver kun vist i danske biografer ved denne ene lejlighed.

> Se hele CPH PIX' program for 2014

Weekendens æresgæst på CPH PIX er den amerikanske instruktørveteran William Friedkin, bedst kendt for sin fremragende politithriller "The French Connection" (1971) og gyserklassikeren "Eksorcisten" (1973).

William Friedkin | pr-foto

William Friedkin besøger København under festivalen og vil personligt introducere en række visninger af sine film. Friedkin giver desuden en masterclass i instruktionens kunst lørdag 5. april i Dagmar Teatret, hvor Nicolas Winding Refn agerer ordstyrer.

I forbindelse med CPH PIX har Cinemateket valgt William Friedkins "Frygtens pris" (Sorcerer, 1977) som månedens film i april. Den desillusionerede thriller, som tidligere er filmatiseret af Henri-Georges Clouzot i 1954 som "Le salaire de la peur", blev totalt overset ved premieren i 1977, til dels fordi en lille film ved navn "Star Wars" havde premiere samme dag.

Nu får "Sorcerer" en ny chance i en digitalt restaureret kopi, som havde repremiere på Venedig-festivalen sidste år. Her modtog William Friedkin ved samme lejlighed en ærespris, og dem kan han åbenbart ikke få for mange af, for i morgen, fredag 4. april, venter der ham en æres-Robert til gallaforevisningen af "Frygtens pris" i Dagmar.

Biograftrailer for "Frygtens pris" (1977)

At 78-årige William Friedkin er en benhård Chicago-bisse, der ikke stikker op for bollemælk, demonstrerede han i Venedig. Friedkin var i hopla til sin  pressekonference og nød tydeligt både opmærksomheden og muligheden for at provokere den forsamlede verdenspresse. Herunder kan du læse mange af hans guldkorn fra Venedig-seancen på engelsk.

(Og et PS: Min lille aktie i Friedkins danmarksbesøg er, at jeg overleverede CPH PIX' personlige invitation til ham efter pressekonferencen i Venedig!)

NOTE TO FOREIGN READERS: The following are excerpts from William Friedkin's press conference at the Venice Film Festival 2013. Mr. Friedkin is currently guest of honor at this year's CPH PIX festival in Copenhagen.

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WILLIAM FRIEDKIN OM AT VINDE EN OSCAR FOR "THE FRENCH CONNECTION" I 1972
William Friedkin on winning an Academy Award for "The French Connection" in 1972:

Yesterday I met a gentleman in passing, who said to me: "How does it feel to have won an Academy Award over Stanley Kubrick?" And I said, "Well, The French Connection was funnier than A Clockwork Orange!" That's how it must have happened. (silent pause) Shall I repeat that? It sounded funnier when he said it.

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN OM "FRYGTENS PRIS"
William Friedkin on "Sorcerer":

If there's one film I'd like to be remembered for, it's "Sorcerer". Because "Sorcerer" is the film that came the closest to my vision. Of any film I've ever made, the result is the way I first saw it in my mind's eye.

"Sorcerer" is a metaphor for the nations of the world that can't get along. And if they don't get along, if they can't find a way to respect one another's culture, and to respect the nature that God has given us, they will explode.

[The making of the film] had a lot of problems, physical problems. About 50 people who worked on the crew, including me, got malaria, gangrene, were sick, ill for months afterwards. So it was a difficult film to make, but I think we're all lucky if we're able to make cinema.

"Eksorcisten" (1973) | pr-foto

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN OM STADIG AT VÆRE MEST KENDT FOR "EKSORCISTEN"
William Friedkin on "The Exorcist" still being his best-known film:

I'm grateful that people like any film that I've made. I like "The Exorcist" too! It's a very powerful film about the mystery of faith, and the power of Christ. I think that's the only film I've made that is about such important subjects as the grand mystery of faith and the power of Christ. And it's not metaphor. It's direct. I believe in the power of Christ. And I understand that faith is a mystery, that a man in his early 30's walked the earth in Jerusalem and in the diaspora in a robe and sandals, and he spoke on hillsides and seasides, in the streets and in the synagogues of the day.

He wrote nothing, there's no writing in the hand of Jesus'. There are no pictures of him. We don't know of any paintings that were made of him at the time. His words have come to us from other people. Yet, over the last more than 2000 years, trillions of people have believed in this person. I find that incredibly mysterious and important. I can't say that I fully understand it, but I find it extraordinary.

We know more about the afterlife of Christ than we know about the life of the young man, Jesus. And everything else about Jesus except his birth and death, everything else is part of the mystery of faith. And that's what "The Exorcist" is about. The mystery of faith and the power to heal the sick.

"Jeg syntes, det var uhyggeligt. Det er nok en af de værste oplevelser, jeg nogensinde har haft. Du kan eddermame tro, han er en strid banan" 

– Connie Nielsen om at arbejde for William Friedkin på filmen "The Hunted" (2003)

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN OM AT VÆRE HÅRD MOD SINE SKUESPILLERE
William Friedkin on giving his actors a hard time:

Here's what I do as a director. I work very much like a psychiatrist. I've never been in psychiatry, really. But as I understand psychiatry, you talk about yourself to a psychiatrist, and you reveal a lot of yourself to this psychiatrist. I do this with actors. I'll sit with them before we go to make the film, and I'll get from them the things that make them happy, or sad, or frightened, or courageous. Or tragic, even.

> Læs også: Connie Nielsen taler ud om William Friedkin

I was difficult with Gene Hackman [in "The French Connection"], because his character was difficult. He was playing a very hard, tough guy, who was angry. Hackman himself did not have this anger, but he had it within him. And I tried to get to it every single day. He was more angry at me than he was at the drug dealer! This is what I intended. And it's one of the reasons why I think his performance is so good. It's not that I told him how to do it, it all comes from him. But I had to help him get to the sense-memory to provoke that emotion.

Gene Hackman i "The French Connection" (1971) | pr-foto

With Linda Blair [in "The Exorcist"], I asked her, what was the most tragic time in her life. And she said, when her grandfather died. So I constantly used this knowledge this knowledge that I get from them as a kind of sense-memory. Because that's what the actor does. The actor or actress brings forward sense-memories of their own to play their character. And I work with opera singers this way too. They have to remember what it was like to be happy or sad. Because even though they are playing another part, it's still them. It's them being happy, them being sad, evil or good.

So I will use little suggestions like this to provoke them into sense-memories that allow them to portray these characters, when those emotions are called for. Because that's what an actor is doing. Not just reading lines and memorizing them. They are portraying emotions, and you have to provoke these emotions in the character.

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN OM SIN FILMSMAG
William Friedkin's taste in movies:

I haven't seen a new film in a very long time. But I love the films, for example, of the Coen brothers in America. And I love the films that I've seen of Matteo Garrone and Paolo Sorrentino in Italy.

I mostly watch films that I've seen before, on Blu-ray. I'll tell you what I watch a lot now. Still, "Citizen Kane", "All About Eve", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "8 ½", "The Band Wagon", "Singin' in the Rain", "Diabolique". All the films of Antonioni, "La Notte", "L'eclisse". Especially "Blow-Up". I watch these films constantly. I watch foreign films from many other countries.

Ever heard of a film called "A Serbian Film"? You heard of it? You've seen it? It's pretty great, isn't it? You don't like it? I think it's great. Anyone who doesn't like "A Serbian Film" can leave right now!



WILLIAM FRIEDKIN OM NUTIDENS HOLLYWOOD
William Friedkin on Hollywood today:

I think the studios have a problem, yes. But the point is, everything implodes. Even ancient Rome. Everything implodes. I think there will be some sort of studio system for a good long time to come in Hollywood. The studios today are primarily distribution organizations. They originate and make very few films in the Hollywood studios.

To them, it's about, making money. And they're making a lot of money. They spend a lot, but Hollywood today is like a big casino. It's like a big place where you gamble, and you put all the chips on one number, one card, one turn of the card. Hollywood studios could make a thousand films for what they spend on one.

I couldn't make a film like "Bug" (2006) or "Killer Joe" (2011) with a Hollywood studio. You have to have somebody wearing a spandex suit with leather on his chest, flying around the world, saving the world from evil. You have to have somebody who can kill vampires or zombies, you know. I don't want to do that, I don't even want to watch it, to be honest with you. The kind of stories that attract me cannot be made for a major studio. No way. You'd be surprised in the days of "The Artist" (2011), most of the studios didn't want to make that. It's too far out, too edgy.

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN OM FILMKUNSTENS ROLLE I SAMFUNDET
William Friedkin on the role of cinema today:

It was Bertold Brecht, the German playwright, essayist and poet, who said: "Art is not a mirror to be held up to society. Art is a hammer with which to reshape it." That's the role of cinema. To help people find a way toward acceptance of who they are, and who everyone else is, and to respect that.

There's no doubt in my mind that the world right now, today, is on the edge of extinction. Just open your own newspapers or websites or whatever. America threatens Syria. Iran threatens Israel. Russia threatens anybody else. Everybody's threatening everybody today in a way that I haven't experienced since the second World War. Only now, the weapons are nuclear, and all it takes is one madman to end the whole thing.

Everything's not okay. There is nobody flying around in a spandex suit with a letter on his or her chest and saving the world. There is nobody. There is no Superman. There is no Batman. There are only ordinary human beings, like me, like you. And I think the only real solution that could possibly come along is if the world again comes up with a Gandhi, or an Anwar Sadat, or a Martin Luther King junior. Or somebody who is ready to stake their lives on peace and compromise. Without that, you know ...

We all need leadership, because we all have governments. We can't just do what we want to do; we have a government that makes laws about what we do. When I see our government provoking or threatening another country, I'm ashamed. So I think it is a major, major role for cinema to search for a way for people - even people who don't necessarily like one another - to find a way to come together.

Cary Grant & Eva Marie Saint i "Menneskejagt" (North by Northwest, 1959)

WILLIAM FRIEDKINS RÅD TIL UNGE FILMSKABERE
William Friedkin's advice to young filmmakers:

What is my advice to young people? If you're in a cinema school, leave immediately! Leave cinema school, go out, get a small camera, make your film, edit it at home, put it on a website, and do it yourself. Don't worry about criticism. Just let the audience see your work, free of any critical appraisal. This is the great gift to young cinema people today, and that's what I would advice them to do. Nobody can teach you how to do cinema. It is something that you learn by doing, and by seeing. Because cinema begets cinema. My films are passable because of what I have seen in the works of others.

All a young person has to do to learn how to make a film is watch the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Just see his films, not just the suspense films or "Psycho", but see how he handles every kind of scene. Comedy, romance ... He made the most romantic film I've ever seen, in "North by Northwest". The scene with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, they just look at each other, [and] the chemistry between them is so powerful, so beautiful, and it was provoked by Hitchcock. Hitchcock was asked by James Stewart when he made "Rear Window", "Hitch, what do you want me to do when I see the guy murdering his wife in the apartment across the way? How do you want me to react?" And Hitchcock said, "Oh, do what you always do!" And that's what he did.