Last Friday, I was
lucky enough to interview French film director
François Ozon. His latest work,
Dans la maison (
In the house), defies easy categorisation. ‘Is it a melodrama,
a comedy or a thriller?’ he asks rhetorically. ‘For me it was very exciting to play
with these different genres in the same film.’
Starring Kristin Scott
Thomas, Fabrice Luchini and Ernst Umhauer, Dans la maison is freely adapted
from the Spanish play The boy in the last row by Juan Mayorga. Here, Ozon
reveals his influences, his message (or lack thereof), and his approach to his
work.
On adapting the play
When you do an
adaptation you can’t keep everything. You have to follow your instinct and keep
what you liked. In the case of this film it’s a story about storytelling. It’s
about the process of working and the process of writing. So I decided to take
what was close to me. Juan Mayorga said to me, "I respect your work, do what
you want". He left me to be totally free and I changed many things because
theatrical language and cinematic language are totally different. I did many
transformations, but I tried to keep the spirit of the play.
On the new title
Le garçon du dernier rang was too concrete. It was just one situation of the
film. I had a feeling the film would be larger than that. 'In the house' is
abstract enough to do exactly what you want with it. Very often I do films
about houses [
Swimming pool,
Le refuge,
8 femmes] and it was a good metaphor. Enter
in the house, like 'enter in the film'. It was perfect for what I wanted to do.
I think if I was a
Hollywood director I would have put a murder in the house, made it more like a
thriller. But I think it was more interesting to have almost nothing in the
house. It was a challenge. It was dangerous for the story, but it was not so
much about what happens but how to describe what is going on in this house.
On the setting
The film is very strange. The middle class doesn’t look like the typical French
middle class, it looks more like the American middle class. It was the idea.
Even the school – we don’t have uniforms in France, it’s very unusual. Actually
my first idea when I came to do the adaptation was to do the film in England in
a public school because you have uniforms and it would be a good idea to have
all these students like a herd of sheep, all the same, with one in the
back row who is different. But I realised it was too much work and I didn’t
know the English system well enough.
On the message
The film says nothing. I don’t do propaganda in my movies, I just want to
share the experience of the storytelling and the process with you. I tried to
leave space for the audience to be engaged in the process.
When I do Q&As I realise people have
different interpretations of the film and I’m very happy because it’s
what I wanted.
At the beginning of the film it’s very clear what is real and
what is fiction. Step by step I mixed everything and I decided to treat
everything on the same level. It’s up to you to decide what is fake and you do
your own film. That was the idea – to make an interactive movie.
I have no message, I
just show things and I give you the freedom. When I go to the cinema I don’t
want to have someone tell me 'you have to think that'. I’m not Michael
Haneke, I’m not a teacher.
On Fabrice Luchini
Sometimes you work with an actor in just one way and you know this actor is richer than that. And that they have more faces. In
Potiche, Fabrice was the main character. He was very carictural part and I wanted to give him the opportunity to show another face. When you like someone you want to show different faces of his work and of his personality.
On Kristin Scott
Thomas
When you see the parts
Kristin has in England… very often she’s supporting part, she’s the auntie, the
grandmother, the mother. In France she has the lead part. In my film she has a
very strong part – it’s short but she had the opportunity to have a complex
part. In France cinema is an art first and after it’s an industry, so we like
to give the parts to everybody (laughs). And many [older] actresses, like
Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve are still working a lot in leading roles.
On Charlotte Rampling
It was very strong to
meet Charlotte when we did
Sous le sable (
Under the sand). It was an amazing meeting
in my work and we become very good friends. She was very important because the
film was a real fight. Everybody was against the film, everybody. The financer
said ‘Charlotte Rampling, she’s too old, it’s a film for old people. Nobody
will be interested in a film about death’. We fought to make the film. And when
it was released it was a huge success in France and it was the comeback of Charlotte
Rampling. It was a real pleasure and we began a professional relationship.
On his influences
Seeing a big retrospective
of
Fassbinder when I was a student was very important because suddenly I had
the feeling he was talking to me. His work, his way of working, the team of his
film, the different genres he was able to do – it was very helpful. When you
are young and you realise you have different influences you can be a bit
afraid, you don’t know exactly what kind of movie you want to do. Suddenly you
see a master; he’s totally free and it’s very helpful.
On storytelling
When you speak about
storytelling it’s an obligation to speak about Hitchcock because he was the
first one to theorise about all these things: how to tell a story, and how you
play with the audience, with information, and with the idea of suspense. For me
it was obvious to do a reference especially at the end of In the house with the
shot through the window.
I saw a film on a plane,
the
Life of Pi. Which is not a film you should see on a plane! Each time I’m on
a plane I love the film, because I’m drunk because I’m afraid. I love all the
films! I liked it because it’s a film about storytelling. I didn’t know the book.
I liked the ambiguity at the end.
On collaboration
I need to speak with people when I’m working. The process of creation in movies is not lonely. You work with a crew, you don’t stop speaking with the others. When I’m writing a script I like to give it to my friends, my producer, to have a point of view, because it’s a process that’s always moving. Even at the editing stage I do test screenings to see if people are bored, to see what they understand – it’s very important.
On diversity
I don’t analyse my work too much. I try not to repeat myself and I like to have new challenges and try to go in other directions. I guess there are many links between all my films and sometimes I’m shooting a scene and say ‘I feel I’ve done that before’! But I try to have a new experimentation each time.
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