He declares himself free...
Yes, I do what I want to do.
Are you chasing success?
I do what I do for my pleasure.
He takes it seriously.
No! I don't care about anything. Pere Gimferrer rejected my filming for him, like this: “I'm not interested myself.” Me too!
Doesn't he play to mythologize his own life?
I mythologize it for others, not for myself.
Despite everything, he triumphs.
“The secret to success is deserving it,” Morgen said. It's true: if you deserve success, your chances of success skyrocket.
And to deserve it, what do you do?
Have fun. Fun is always the most important thing.
More than anything else?
More than anything: I put fun at the heart of my creation, my work, everything I do!
How do you place it?
Inoculate chaos. And things happen. Chaos raises insecurity, and that vitalizes! The unexpected is what amuses me.
Give me an example.
One, filming in strange places. Another: when filming I meet all my actors every morning. And no one knows if they will have to perform that day or not. And so everyone is very tense, of course.
And this is good?
Tension generates energy, and energy generates intensity. I squeeze the actor like a lemon. Then it is an empty shell.
Do you despise actors?
I despise what they do on other shoots: they say phrases from a script. And that hackneyed thing... is it a movie? Bah, bah! But... I do admire what they do on my shoots.
What stories do your films tell?
Stories? None! I only create unprecedented atmospheres. They are impossible to plagiarize.
How do you choose your actors?
It's the decisive moment, the casting! I look at the candidates... and I know which one is yes and which one is not.
And how do you know?
Mystery: something emanates from each of them. Once the actor is chosen, I tell him what I'm looking for... and I no longer direct him. He knows.
Oh. Don't you tell them what you want from them when shooting each scene? Nothing?
Nothing. What do I know? I trust. I believe in acts of faith. From them to me and vice versa. I believe in his inspiration. As I roll I look at the air above their heads, not at them.
Do you know which actor will be filming that day?
Neither. The moment dictates that to me.
And when the movie ends, what?
They leave for another shoot, another bubble of unreality, how lucky they are! And, meanwhile, I sweat riding. Now I will ask you a question... for you to reflect on.
A question for me?
Yes. And don't look for my answer later: I won't give it to you! Why is the best room, during a shoot, for the actor and not for the director or producer? Because?
Well, I do not know. I will reflect...
Very good. As she said, when editing the footage I see subtleties that no one will appreciate.
But do you?
Yes, and the filmed material speaks to me and tells me how to set it up.
Who has been your great teacher?
My farmer grandfather, from Banyoles: he plowed by hand with his donkey, little by little and obsessively, with great determination.
It doesn't mention filmmakers, movies...
I am not going to the cinema! That would contaminate me.
I do not believe you.
I only go if I am interested in some aspect to assimilate. Cinema doesn't interest me. What really interests me is literature.
Why do you make films, then?
To make fun of the world. Threshold said: “I go through everything.” That is. I laugh at those other filmmakers who take themselves so seriously.
But we are here talking about his cinema.
In my films I care about what is not seen as much or more than what is seen. And I'm interested in fiction that infiltrates reality. Five people on a shoot of mine changed partners after finishing it.
Fiction is another reality.
Being an artist is wanting to live in a fiction all the time without interruption.
More fiction, then: is there a monster in the Banyoles pond?
Who knows... It's eerie swimming there. Its bottoms are muddy, unfathomable, it is very difficult to find a drowned person there. He exercises the fascination of the gloom.
Is there fun in Banyoles?
There are no parties in the world better than those in my town. There we bring the party inside. I only listen to music from the sixties precisely for that reason: there is illusion, there is utopia, they brought the party inside!
Are you lying to me a lot?
We have every right to lie. Politicians have it too, naturally.
Is it childish to ask them for the truth, then?
“Let's save the principles for great occasions!” Stendhal suggested... or was it Baudelaire? I don't know, but I agree.
