DEMON Director Profile: 5 Questions for Marcin Wrona

Marcin Wrona is an extremely strong presence in the European entertainment industry, with experience in film, theatre and television directing, as well as screenwriting and producing. He first gained notoriety in film school for his short film Magnet Man, which was featured in several film festivals and highly decorated in its festival circuit. His latest feature film Demon follows an encounter with a dybbuk, which is a demonic entity that has its roots as a part of Jewish folklore. This film promises to be an unsettling and provocative inclusion to the TIFF alumni, making it a perfect fit for Vanguard.

I got the chance to chat with Wrona about his work with Demon, and get a little glimpse into his beliefs as a filmmaker.

Richelle Charkot: Where did you first learn about the story of the dybbuk? What were your thoughts? 

Marcin Wrona:  Dybbuk is part of our past, culture and history. It belonged to beliefs of Jewish communities, which used to lived Poland. Dybbuk was present in the Polish culture and theatre (famous theatre play called "Dybbuk" written by Szymon An-sky in 1914 - as a kind of scary version of Romeo and Juliet) - as a mystical phenomenon and powerful metaphoric symbol of love between life and death, soul and mind, the past and now. Few years ago I began thinking what the dybbuk could be like in nowadays. I thought this is was a great idea for a film: a ghost from the past comes back to a Polish wedding, as a provocative and uninvited guest who forces all the guest to confront with their own identity. The past that can't be forgotten and erased, because is a part of our DNA.

RC: Tell me about one of your earliest memories with expressing yourself visually. 

MW: In my early school years I had obligatory visit at psychologist who was checking how a child is skilled, what are he's natural preferences and what type of mind he has, etc. I remember I had a task given: draw something what you like. I said I like to draw, especially people faces. I also remember when in my primary school I wrote a short story about plants that talk to each other. Our class teacher suspected I had rewritten it from a novel.

RC: Why do you think humans are attracted to horror and the macabre? 

MW: I think watching a horror is like touching a primal fear. People need that kind of feeling, same like having fun. We look for different emotion so that create our emotional system and scale. I like horrors that offer more than just simple, pure fear. That's way I added more cross-genere elements to Demon.  It starts like pure genre, and than gradually becomes multilevel. I hope audience will get that vibe.

RC: From your perspective as a storyteller, do you enjoy making typically darker films? 

MW: Not really. Obviously dark stories seem to be more tempting, but each story has different temperature and mood, so a genre you use for your film depends on energy of a plot and relationships between characters. Everything begins with a story, and then consequently you decide what genre is the most suitable for that specific plot you will finally put info a cinematic frame. The main idea (core of the story) starts all the narrative elements, which are just tools; the director decides which of them are the best for the story you want to share with audience. In every sad stories I look for funny moments. In light I search darkness. The contradictions build a conflict - and viewer interest.


RC: Describe someone who is the ideal audience for Demon. 

MW: I would love to people will perceive Demon as a film which contains universal elements for international and local audience. I hope the concept itself is interesting enough for genre lovers, critics, and those who simply love cinema. Those who like cross-genre films should be especially satisfied.

DEMON screens:
Fri, Sept 11, 6:15 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS
Sun, Sept 13, 4:15 PM SCOTIABANK
Sat, Sept 19, 9:15 PM SCOTIABANK

EVOLUTION: Interview with Director Lucile Hadžihalilović

Evolution director Lucile Hadžihalilović was kind enough to answer some questions in advance of the Vanguard premiere. She talks about some of the influences on the film, Narciso Ibañez Serrador, Giorgio de Chirico, collaboration, the challenges of filming underwater, and the movement of weeds in the current.

Carol Borden: In interviews discussing your previous feature, Innocence, you've mentioned Frank Wedekind's "Mine-Haha," Peter Weir's Picnic At Hanging Rock, and Magritte as influences and references. Who or what are some of the references and influences on Evolution?

Lucile Hadžihalilović: I didn’t have any particular film in mind, apart from Narciso Ibañez Serrador’s Island of the Damned (aka, Who Can Kill a Child?) for its white village inhabited by children, as well as the idea of a dark but sunlit fairy tale.

When I had already written Evolution, I discovered Serrador’s lost TV drama Los Bulbos in which aliens introduce their ‘alien-worms’ into children’s bellies. I saw only two short extracts but I loved the soft magical-realist mood. I can say that Los Bulbos had a kind of “retrospective” influence on the film!

Less consciously, but with hindsight, I was clearly influenced by classic horror or sci-fi stories I read as a teenager - Lovecraft or Philip K Dick. For instance, Dick’s short story, “The Father-Thing”, in which a boy discovers that his father is not his real father, and is not even human.

Visually, I had the painter Giorgio de Chirico as a reference, for the enigmatic, sunlit southern European settings.

Also, with regard to the composition, certain Japanese films from the ’60s shot in Cinemascope – films by Wakamatsu or Teshigahara, or Nakagawa’s Jigoku.

Chirico. "Gare de Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)." 1914.

CB: Your films have a really strong sense of a human relationship to and separation from nature and, perhaps connected, a strong sense of the relationship between/separation of male and female, adult and child. What do you find interesting or artistically inspiring in these semi-permeable barriers?

LH: I can see that that’s the case but it’s very hard for me to answer why.

I guess building up barriers is an attempt to put a bit of “order” in the world, to control it. It’s also a way to make visible the interactions between different human groups, or territories… When you remove one element from the environment, its absence reveals a lot. 

Since my films are usually “magical tales”, this defines more easily the challenges and trials that the characters have to go through.
 
CB: What was the process of writing the film with Alanté Kavaïté like?

LH: I had written a few versions of the script I wasn’t satisfied with when Alanté and I begun to work together. At first, she read different versions of the script, and made very sharp, deep and constructive comments. Little by little she got more involved in the writing/rewriting. Mostly, she helped me with the internal logic of this enclosed world. Thanks to her, I could build the right story to express the feelings and images I had in mind.

I also collaborated with Geoff Cox who has been a great reader and advisor throughout the years I’ve been developing Evolution.

CB: How did you come to work with cinematographer Manuel Dacosse in Evolution? And what were some of the challenges of filming underwater and underwater cinematography?

LH: I love the cinematography and the look of some of the films Manu Dacosse has shot: Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears by Cattet & Forzani. The use of colour and darkness and the sense of framing in those films are wonderful.

Before Evolution, I made a short film, Nectar, with Manu, and I could see he wasn’t afraid of challenges such as use of natural light and shooting very quickly!

As for filming underwater it was indeed quite a challenge!

We worked with an excellent underwater camera operator and long-time scuba diver from the Canary Islands, Rafael Herrero. He knew the seabed of the archipelago by heart and found the right underwater locations. He knew exactly at what time the sun would illuminate these spots, and the kind of flora that would be there. Manu and I gave him instructions so he could shoot images without actors. The difficulty – since he was used to filming documentaries – was to make him understand that we wanted a different visual grammar with long, steady shots, and that we weren’t looking for transparency or definition, but for cloudy water… that we wanted to capture a kind of abstraction through organic matter and movement.

As for the shots with the actors, one of the main difficulties was that we didn’t have any monitoring on the camera. So I had to swim underwater to try to check what the actors were doing, but I couldn’t see what was in the frame. After a few takes, we had to take the camera out of the water to unload the images to be able to watch them - and if necessary, to go back into the water for another take. The process took a lot of time!

Of course, the biggest difficulty was for the actors (especially for Max Brebant, the boy who plays Nicolas) because they had to stop breathing. It was also very hard for them to do the action and go from one point to another, because of the current. It was physically very challenging for them.

 

CB: There's a strong sense of movement in your films. Do you work with a choreographer? How do you design the movement of the characters? And did the underwater scenes in Evolution present new opportunities and challenges in choreographing movement?

LH: I wanted to work with a choreographer for the scene with the women on the beach because it was a ritual as well as a scene with a collective, alien mood. But because of budget and time restraints, I could only have someone to rehearse the extras the day we shot it. So I asked Gisele Vienne, an artist used to working with dancers and in whom I had total confidence, to help me. She understood perfectly what I was looking for and managed to train the women in a few hours to do the movements we imagined. We worked with women who practised yoga rather than with dancers because I didn’t want them to be too “expressive”.

As for the underwater scenes, it’s wonderful to see a human body moving in this world without gravity. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to explore the possibilities of “aquatic ballet”, and it was very difficult for the actors to carry out any “action” as planned. Nevertheless we tried to choreograph the movements of Stella and the boy in the final underwater scene, where they had to be both synchronised and gracious…

I was also fascinated by the movement of the weeds in the current - they made visible in a perfect sensual and strange way the feelings and emotions I wanted to express.

Thanks again to Lucile Hadžihalilović for taking the time to answer my questions. 

EVOLUTION Screening Times:
Mon., Sept. 14, 9:30pm at RYERSON
Wed., Sept. 16, 4:30pm at BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Sun., Sept. 20,  8:30pm at TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX

LUNA: 5 Question Interview with Director Dave McKean

Dave McKean works in many mediums--comics (most famously his covers for The Sandman); illustration; painting; collage, music, photography and film. Aside from his previous feature film, MirrorMask (2005), McKean has directed two shorts, N[eon] (2002) and The Week Before (1998). He directed the film adaptation of the National Theatre Wales' The Gospel Of Us (2012). He's done design for Harry Potter And The Wizard Of Azkaban (2004) and the titles for Neverwhere (1996). Now he brings Luna to TIFF.  McKean was kind enough to answer a few questions. ~ Carol Borden

Where some of your other films are quite stylized and, in the case of The Week Before, almost expressionist, Luna combines fantastic, expressionist and animated elements with more naturalistic ones. What are some of the challenges in blending the fantastic with the naturalistic?

I think it's easier to sustain a very stylized form of storytelling for a short film. I like stories that exist both in the naturalistic world and in our imaginative lives, films are so immersive in that sense, we can explore how our characters think and dream, as well as how they exist in the real world. I think it's very easy to just go down the rabbit hole, or through the door to Narnia or Oz. I'm interested in the parallel narrative of our fantasy lives, or as Dean puts in it Luna, our imaginative lives. How the moment of 'now' that is palpably real, is surrounded by our memories, our dreams and hopes, the stories and connections that our brains make as we navigate the world--a universe of fantasy, or unreality, or surreality. I'm keen to explore this very human experience, how our minds create our own realities--a blend of fact and interpretation of fact.

What do you think fantasy, surrealism and magical realism's strengths are in reflecting and understanding people's lives?

They function like a lens I think. They allow us to see our everyday joys, fears, dramas, tragedies, triumphs in terms or story, or even poetry. Our brains tend to join the dots, make connections. We create dramatic arcs by seeing the relationship between things, but this is our brains creating stories. So these associative images magnify and intensify our experience of the world. They create meaning.

As someone who's worked with illustration, painting, collage and photography, what are some of the differences for you in working with a moving medium rather than a static one?

In some ways they are very similar. I'm always thinking about story, and the development of ideas or images, so with all of these media, I'm simply trying to communicate the feelings and ideas in the story or characters in the most appropriate and effective way. Film gives me live actors, editing, music, sound, a huge and powerful toolbox to play with. If there is a problem for me, it is that film gives me too much. There is less room for the audience to add their side of the conversation. The reason I love comics is that they DON'T move, and there is NO sound. As a creator I have to evoke those elements in the drawings and writing, and the reader has to create those elements in their own minds. Reading a good comic is a creative act. Watching a film is often a more passive experience, and since I'm interested in engaging that conversational aspect of creativity, I'm trying to find ways of achieving that in my films.

McKean working on the set of Luna

Does your illustration, collage and painting inform your filmmaking, and, if so, could you share how it does?

They all talk to each other. Sometimes the things I learn making paintings or drawings--composition, colour, expressionism, texture--can directly influence the making of a film. Sometimes it's great that they are different, and simply taking a break from one medium to spend time with another, recharges the batteries and I feel refreshed.

Who are some of your favorite filmmakers and how have they influenced you?

So many--there are so many extraordinarily creative and brilliant technicians and actors working in the field. The filmmakers I really love are the ones that let me look through their eyes for a while. they have an aesthetic and social point of view. And there have been so many of these. I love the silent era because you can see the rules being written, the grammar of film being created. Murnau, Dreyer and Sjöström I love, as well as many of the Ufa films created in the 20's. Most of my films (all of them?) are in some way love letters to the silent era. I love directors and animators who take complete control of their film world; Svankmajer, Trnka, the Quays, Maddin, Lynch, Fellini. I love the great masters of time and landscape--Tarkovsky, Angelopoulos, Sokurov, Lopushansky. I remain a huge Woody Allen fan, despite the rough years. I love the group of truly modern filmmakers who have really got to grips with the digital realm; Jonze, Gondry, Glazer, Taymor. And I love Lars von Trier--he is, and I never use this word, a genius. I could go on for hours. Oh, and Bob Fosse--my favourite film is All That Jazz. Oh, and Michael Powell.

Okay, that will do.

LUNA screening times:

Sat., Sept. 6, The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 6:30 PM
Mon., Sept. 8, AGO Jackman Hall 9:00 AM
Sun., Sept. 14, Scotiabank 9 8:45 PM

PROXY: Distribution News, Interview, Review

Kristina Klebe REALLY wants you to see Proxy.

Have you heard? (No, not about Hugo and Kim. That's another movie.) Proxy was picked up for distribution by IFC! Even if you already heard the news, we're just so excited we had to share it again. Yep, IFC Midnight is planning a theatrical and VOD day-and-date release for Zack Parker's disturbing and memorable movie. I can vouch for that because I saw it a few days ago and I'm still thinking about it.

Dread Central has an interview with actress Kristina Klebe, who plays Annika in the film. Says Klebe, "I owe so much to Zack Parker for hand-picking me to play this part and believing I could pull it off."

She also adds "As a filmmaker and director, I am inspired by his methodology and hope to learn much more from him. As an actor, I simply want to be in every single one of his films."

Fangoria posted a thoughtful review of the film, saying, "The film keeps the audience guessing, and even though each revelation is deftly supported by calculated clues, the suspense remains terrifically palpable throughout, with any kind of pat psychological précis avoided in favour of a deliberately sustained ambiguity."

PROXY Final Screening:

Saturday, Sept 14th, 8:00 PM SCOTIABANK 9

SIGHTSEERS: 5 Question Director Interview with Ben Wheatley

The Vanguard Blog had a chance to ask Ben Wheatly, director extraordinaire of Sightseers, some questions. Five to be exact. As the title of this blog would suggest. Check them out below and don't forget to add Sightseers to your list of "Must See" films at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.

1.) Sightseers is a comedy, as you are probably well aware (hopefully)--albeit a black one. How do you feel having a film that will be judged primarily based on how "funny" people find it? I imagine sitting in on screenings would be nerve-wracking: "Will they laugh at this?"; "Why aren't they laughing now?"; "Why ARE they laughing now?" 

All screenings are nerve-wracking initially. You always know that the film is made or broken by a handful of gags, if they don't play then the smaller ones won't play either. Once you have the main 'tent pole' gags working then the other laughs are a bonus, and can be very different from audience to audience, you can't worry about this.

2.) The screenplay was developed by your two main actors, Alice Lowe and Steve Oram. Would you mind explaining a little more about how the story came about and how you became involved? 

The characters had come from Alice and Steve creating them for stand up. Later they made a short film based around them and that was seen by Edgar Wright and he took the project to Big Talk and Nira Park. Nira and I had a chat after I directed Down Terrace and asked if I'd like to direct the feature film version of Sightseers. I had worked with Alice and Steve before and liked the idea of doing something a bit lighter after Kill List. Amy Jump rewrote the script and away we went. Producers Andy Starke and Claire Jones came in from Rook Films and we used pretty much the crew from Down Terrace/Kill List. 

3.) If you were going to go on a caravan holiday, where would you go and would you bring anyone along? Also, would you participate in a killing spree whilst on holiday? (I promise I won't tell on you.)

I would probably travel on the route that Chris and Tina took because it was beautiful. I suppose I could use the Catherine Tramell defence if I went on a killing spree in a caravan.

4.) Sightseers is the first feature you didn't also write. How was it working with someone else's material?

It was fine. It was about things I'm interested with and fitted with the other two films. Also I've directed a lot of TV and adverts from other peoples' scripts, so its not new territory for me.

5.) I promised I wouldn't ask about whether or not you are a pirate, so instead I'll end with: what's next, Mr Ben Wheatley? Another film? World domination via Mechanical Death Spiders? Inquiring minds want to know. (I've always wanted to say that.)

I am not a pirate. I wore a pirate hat once and there is a photo of it.* I have a couple of projects in the pipeline. A film about monsters and cops called Freakshift and a film about the English civil war called A Field in England.

(Questions thought up by Siân Melton; answers provided by Ben Wheatley)

*That is a very pirate-y answer, hmmm. 

SIGHTSEERS Screening Times:
Tue., Sept. 11th, 9:00 PM RYERSON
Thurs., Sept. 13th, 12:00 PM RYERSON
Sun., Sept. 16th, 7:00 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

PUSHER: Charlie Derry Interviews Director Luis Prieto

Journalism grad and aspiring film journalist Charlie Derry interviewed Director Luis Prieto in May of this year about his English-language remake of 1996's Pusher, which will be playing at the Toronto International Film Festival. The interview was published in both Issu and Fan The Fire, but also appears on Derry's blog.

What's most revealing and perhaps, surprising, is that Prieto was initially hesitant about remaking the film since he'd seen the film at a festival in 1996 and loved it. Yet, the fact that Nicholas Winding Refn, who directed the original, was serving as Executive Producer helped, as did Refn's statement to him: "Remember, this is your film, not mine."

For his "reinterpretation," Prieto did not let any of the actors see the original first, with the exception of Zlatko Buric, who reprised his role as Milo.

To read the full interview, including Prieto's thoughts on the cast and his hopes for his filmmaking future, check out Charlie Derry's blog.

PUSHER Screening Times:
Fri., Sept. 7, BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA 9:00PM
Sun., Sept. 9th, CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 10 12:00PM

5 Question Director Interview: I DECLARE WAR's Jason Lapeyre & Robert Wilson

The Vanguard Blog had a chance to ask five questions of the talented directors of I Declare War, Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson. And, since we're in a giving mood today we decided to share them with you. You're welcome; don't say we never did anything nice for you. Find the questions and answers below, along with screening times of your future favourite movie. And you better hope that you don't end up playing against these directors in a woods battle. (Starscream AND Boba Fett? We're screwed.)

1.) I Declare War: kids. In the woods. Kids in the woods with weaponry. Please, exactly where in the amazing, dark, recesses of your mind did you come up with this idea? Because it's awesome. 

Thanks! You'll have to jump in a time machine and ask the amazing, dark recesses of my 12-year-old mind, though, because that's when I first started running through the woods and pretending I was hunting and killing my friends. As for the script, I actually wrote it ten years ago, when I first started making films, just because it was the kind of movie I wanted to see. I also really wanted to tell a story about what it was like to be 12, and how intensely you feel things when you're that age, and a game of war felt like a good setting to get into the intensity of a 12-year-old's internal life.

2.) Quick: we're having a battle in the woods. You can pick five members for your team. Living, dead, fictional--who would you choose? (I already called dibs on Chuck Norris, sorry.)

Snake Eyes. Starscream. Spider-Man (John Romita, Jr., not Todd MacFarlane). Wolverine. Boba Fett. (All answers provided by the 12-year-old me.)  

3.) Just how was it with an entire principle cast of 12 and 13-year-olds? Was there a lot of dialogue improvisation? 

It was utterly professional, and a ton of fun. They kids were ridiculously committed to the script. We gave them a pretty long leash to say things in the way they felt most comfortable, and there was the odd word change if some of the slang felt unnatural to them, but by and large they loved this script and wanted to play it out the way it was written.

4.) I vividly remember playing war games with my brothers when I was little (with Nerf guns, as was the way for Kids of the Nineties) and I'm sure you do as well. I'm curious about these new generation kids: did they have more experience playing war games through video games, or do kids still get outside and run around? 

It was a little scary...when we first trained the kids on the weapons with our stunt coordinator, they knew the make and model of every weapon, on sight, and could recite them easily. "Is that the AR-15?  With modified grenade launcher?  Cool!" And we realized it was because of Call Of Duty. So yeah, most of the boys were into that game, but they still had all played Capture The Flag on the schoolyard. I can confirm for adults everywhere: children still play outside.

5.) I can imagine this film is going to get people talking, given that some people don't like the equation "children + weapons". Obviously there's a lot more to your film than just children and weapons and blood, oh my. What are you hoping audience members walk away with after having seen the film?

More than anything else, we just want audiences to be entertained and to experience the pleasure of a story well-told. It's a story about what it's like to be that age, and if people come away from the film empathizing with young people a little more, then that would be great.

(Questions thought up by Siân Melton; answers provided by Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson) 

I DECLARE WAR Screening Times:
Sun., Sept. 9th, 4:15 PM SCOTIABANK 4
Tue., Sept. 11th, 2:00 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 10
Fri., Sept. 14th, 9:45 PM SCOTIABANK 4

HERE COMES THE DEVIL: Exclusive Interview with Director Adrián García Bogliano on Shock Till You Drop

Horror website Shock Till You Drop has just posted an exclusive interview with Here Comes The Devil director Adrián García Bogliano.

Bogliano talks about his experiences in genre filmmaking, explaining that he wants "a chance to make a living out of [it]," adding "it seemed impossible because there is no tradition of horror films in Argentina." He's also excited "because this is the first time I had an American company take a chance on me with a Latin American horror film in Spanish, that to me is amazing." In addition, Here Comes The Devil is something he's "excited about because it's the first time I move into the supernatural sub-genre."

Read the rest of the interview here, including more about Here Comes The Devil and Bogliano's love of David Mamet and '80s supernatural horror film The Entity.

JUST ADDED: Check out these three Behind The Scenes images from the set of Here Comes the Devil!

HERE COMES THE DEVIL screening times:
Tues., Sept. 11th, 6:00PM, BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Wed., Sept. 13th, 7:00PM, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 3
Sun., Sept. 16th, 3:30PM, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 4