It was very important to do the shape of the movie and we decided to work old school way. ![]() I’ve been doing research for two and a half years just to understand what was this world. Can you talk a bit about the juxtaposition of cinematography and sound design?ĪF: The cinematography was done by Gabriel Sandru and we were talking a lot about that. The landscape is often fantastic, but the sound design makes it feel ominous. I am thinking of for instance of the horseback riding scene in the overgrown countryside that is compared to Haussmann’s grands boulevards in the owner’s great grandfather’s time. This is very structural but for me it was a very stimulating way to write.ĪKT: The visuals are sometimes breathtakingly beautiful. With Keys, it was not to show him, but just the absence of him, which left an impossible hole for the other one. It’s a very simple situation of danger for a bureaucrat. You had a very good filmmaker, Howard Hawks, saying that the better drama is when somebody is replaced in a situation of danger. I’ve been in this situation a few times It’s a very simple tension situation. The situation of a man replacing another one is very simple and efficient. Is Keys holding the strings for the psyche of everyone else?Īndreas Fontana on Fabrizio Rongione as Ivan de Wiel: “Fabrizio is more of an intuitive person.”ĪF: I think yes, the challenge was to try relate to the audience a combination of things that remain very simple and easy to understand in this complicated world of private banking and Argentinian dictatorship. I find it very interesting that you start out with the one being replaced, so that audiences don’t get it really at first viewing. ![]() Anyway, having a man replacing someone else is structuring the whole story. The mood of Azor and certain invented South American countries and the fact that we never know exactly where we are despite specifics reminded me of her writing. Joan Didion is a US writer?ĪKT: Yes, a great one. ĪF: I’m a huge reader, also literature from the United States. In the early beginning I was trying different names and possibility of games.ĪKT: The game quality and the codes actually made me think of Joan Didion. Also it’s a kind of musical game, like an ironic play, not only symbolic but also to work with the simple musicality of the name and what it brings, like the possibility of a joke with the spectators. Every name is the story of some biography. A name is like a whole story of a lot of things, summed up in just one word. When did the names enter the narrative?ĪF: It’s a good question. It took me a while to figure out de Wiel. There is the character of René Keys, of course. There is symbolism and yet they feel completely organic. ![]() But not chemical in the way of seduction, chemical in the way like tension, strange tension.”ĪF: Right now I’m in Spain in San Sebastian.ĪKT: I loved how you used names in your film. Keys is a cypher and it is impossible to get a clear sense of the man de Wiel is to replace.įrom San Sebastián, Andreas Fontana joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on Azor.Īndreas Fontana on Inès (Stéphanie Cléau) with her husband Ivan de Wiel (Fabrizio Rongione): “Something chemical was happening. De Wiel is in Argentina to take over the business left behind by his banking partner René Keys (played by Alain Gegenschatz), who had disappeared without a trace. A military coup has plunged the country into turmoil. Ivan de Wiel (Rongione), private banker from Geneva, Switzerland, arrives in Buenos Aires with his wife Inès (Cléau). Trees shot from above look like broccoli and a real war of greed has broken out. “Now they disappear horses,” we overhear. We, the spectators, are let in to a point to watch, but never long enough to really understand, until we are swatted aside like the horsefly that settles for a second on the wife’s red bathing suit by the pool. In my discussion with the director we touch on the influence of Howard Hawks and Jorge Luis Borges, Joan Didion’s codes and games, casting director Alexandre Nazarian ( Arnaud Desplechin’s Oh Mercy!, Ismael's Ghosts, My Golden Days Guy Maddin’s Seances and with Evan Johnson The Forbidden Room Mathieu Demy’s Americano), the cinematography, costumes, and filming in Argentina with non-professional actors, “men who are very impressive”.īoredom is seen as “divine punishment,” old money detests new money and vice versa in Azor. ![]() Andreas Fontana with Anne-Katrin Titze on Jorge Luis Borges: “Borges of course in terms of literary inspiration is very important.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |