Q&A: Bruno Dumont
Q&A: Dumont
May 23, 2006
Bruno Dumont's uncompromising filmmaking has always polarized audiences. His second film, "Humanity," drew catcalls when it won a trio of awards in Cannes in 1999 -- partly because some objected to best actor and actress awards going to non-professionals. Dumont is back in Competition this year with "Flandres" (Flanders). The film explores similar areas to his previous work -- vigorous sex and extreme acts of violence -- only this time set against the backdrop of a war. Two ordinary young men from the north of France are drafted into an unnamed conflict, and find themselves sucked into terrible brutality. Dumont delivers some intense combat scenes, in marked contrast to his characteristic measured pace. The philosopher-turned-director talked to The Hollywood Reporter's European features editor Charles Masters.
The Hollywood Reporter: To begin with the context, your screenplay has French soldiers going off to fight in an Arabic-speaking desert country in what is apparently an oil war.
Bruno Dumont: I didn't want to make a political film. That's not the subject. I wanted to do something topical. They (the soldiers) are dressed in modern clothing so there's a kind of topicality in the film, it immediately doesn't feel like a historical film. There is simply a believable context that could be the Gulf War. The rest is our imagination. I think the Gulf War, Afghanistan, the Iraqi war have quite a strong influence on our contemporary imagination. I have to work with the spectator's imagination. I filmed the war very raw, very simply, without special effects. Machine guns really make that noise. I didn't want to fall into the representation of war like in American cinema, where war is a kind of opera, in other words a quite idealistic vision. I'm very realist. I've got no point to make about war; it's not the subject. The idea is to put people in a context and see how they react.
THR: If not war, what is the main theme of your film?
Dumont: What interests me is the origins of civilization. Instincts, sensibilities, and the very physical things on which our civilization is based. My cinema is physical, it eliminates everything to do with the intellect -- speech, explaining, analyzing -- to limit itself to desires, very immediate things, like desire, rivalry, jealousy and envy. I work with that. War is a modern expression of rivalry, for the same land, the same woman. People fight for land and they fight for women. That's what sparks violence. There has to be a backdrop of an unspecified war so that (the central character) settles his scores in this warlike context, which deforms him. One of the film's sources is the Algerian War -- how an ordinary guy, a plumber, say, goes off to war and becomes a bastard. I don't want to provide an answer. I want to stay in the realm of impressions for the spectator -- it's for him to put it together.
THR: The film cuts back and forth from the desert war and the girlfriend at home in the green landscape of northern France. What are you trying to achieve with this juxtaposition?
Dumont: Marking the absence. The rapport of the woman who stays at home and who imagines the present of the war we see. It's that comparison that I want to set up, without taking a position. They've gone, they're no longer there. But she's there, in that landscape, the weather's nice, it's spring. And when you associate the shots, meaning comes out of it. When I show soldiers killing someone and cut to a girl getting screwed in a stable, something happens. You really feel it. It's the clash that interests me. I was interested in the rapport between Flanders and the desert, on the one hand a very green, rich and dense land, and on the other a sort of mineral no-man's-land, a nothingness. It's a good backdrop for getting to the instincts.
THR: This film, and your previous work, includes some extreme acts of violence. Is there anything you can't show?
Dumont: You mustn't make the spectator leave the theater. You've got to go quite a long way, but not too far. I don't want people to walk out.
THR: Why do you mainly work with non-professional actors?
Dumont: I like the constraint this imposes. I don't like saying to someone: "do this for me." I put them in a situation, I blow up a wall without telling them, and I see the look on their faces afterwards. I'm looking for accuracy. I choose actors who resemble the characters I've written. I take their physique, I take their psychology. I don't need to discuss if they understand the character. I know their fears and inhibitions, and I work with that. I direct them with what I know about them. A professional actor only interests me if his personality is interesting, but his acting skills don't interest me.
THR: Your next film?
Dumont: It's already written. There's no title yet. It's about God, the death of God. It's set in Paris and is in the process of financing. It'll take two years to cast.
THR: For many years you have been nursing an English-language project, "The End." Where's that at?
Dumont: I have a project to do a film in the U.S. with American actors. The problem is that I'm not bankable. The idea is to take all the ingredients of American cinema; the actors, the landscape, the screenplay, and then modify and rework it so that there's a spiritual dimension. Not just simple sentiments, good, evil. But create a bit of mystery, and the mystery is the spectator. All American films are finished, the morality is fixed, they're closed. "The End" isn't closed. I'd like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise (to star). I need the spectator's desire, and today that means either a Tom Cruise or a Brad Pitt. It's not the actor I'm interested in, but their relationship with the public. It's a film about the aura of American cinema.
Bruno Dumont
Nationality: French
Born: March 14, 1958
Festival entry: "Flandres" (Flanders) (In Competition)
Selected filmography: "La Vie de Jesus" (The Life of Jesus) (1997), "Humanity" (1999), "Twentynine Palms" (2003)
Notable awards: Festival de Cannes Grand Jury Prize, "Humanity," which also earned best actor and actress wins (1999). Prix Jean Vigo, "La Vie de Jesus" (1997)
The Hollywood Reporter: To begin with the context, your screenplay has French soldiers going off to fight in an Arabic-speaking desert country in what is apparently an oil war.
Bruno Dumont: I didn't want to make a political film. That's not the subject. I wanted to do something topical. They (the soldiers) are dressed in modern clothing so there's a kind of topicality in the film, it immediately doesn't feel like a historical film. There is simply a believable context that could be the Gulf War. The rest is our imagination. I think the Gulf War, Afghanistan, the Iraqi war have quite a strong influence on our contemporary imagination. I have to work with the spectator's imagination. I filmed the war very raw, very simply, without special effects. Machine guns really make that noise. I didn't want to fall into the representation of war like in American cinema, where war is a kind of opera, in other words a quite idealistic vision. I'm very realist. I've got no point to make about war; it's not the subject. The idea is to put people in a context and see how they react.
THR: If not war, what is the main theme of your film?
Dumont: What interests me is the origins of civilization. Instincts, sensibilities, and the very physical things on which our civilization is based. My cinema is physical, it eliminates everything to do with the intellect -- speech, explaining, analyzing -- to limit itself to desires, very immediate things, like desire, rivalry, jealousy and envy. I work with that. War is a modern expression of rivalry, for the same land, the same woman. People fight for land and they fight for women. That's what sparks violence. There has to be a backdrop of an unspecified war so that (the central character) settles his scores in this warlike context, which deforms him. One of the film's sources is the Algerian War -- how an ordinary guy, a plumber, say, goes off to war and becomes a bastard. I don't want to provide an answer. I want to stay in the realm of impressions for the spectator -- it's for him to put it together.
THR: The film cuts back and forth from the desert war and the girlfriend at home in the green landscape of northern France. What are you trying to achieve with this juxtaposition?
Dumont: Marking the absence. The rapport of the woman who stays at home and who imagines the present of the war we see. It's that comparison that I want to set up, without taking a position. They've gone, they're no longer there. But she's there, in that landscape, the weather's nice, it's spring. And when you associate the shots, meaning comes out of it. When I show soldiers killing someone and cut to a girl getting screwed in a stable, something happens. You really feel it. It's the clash that interests me. I was interested in the rapport between Flanders and the desert, on the one hand a very green, rich and dense land, and on the other a sort of mineral no-man's-land, a nothingness. It's a good backdrop for getting to the instincts.
THR: This film, and your previous work, includes some extreme acts of violence. Is there anything you can't show?
Dumont: You mustn't make the spectator leave the theater. You've got to go quite a long way, but not too far. I don't want people to walk out.
THR: Why do you mainly work with non-professional actors?
Dumont: I like the constraint this imposes. I don't like saying to someone: "do this for me." I put them in a situation, I blow up a wall without telling them, and I see the look on their faces afterwards. I'm looking for accuracy. I choose actors who resemble the characters I've written. I take their physique, I take their psychology. I don't need to discuss if they understand the character. I know their fears and inhibitions, and I work with that. I direct them with what I know about them. A professional actor only interests me if his personality is interesting, but his acting skills don't interest me.
THR: Your next film?
Dumont: It's already written. There's no title yet. It's about God, the death of God. It's set in Paris and is in the process of financing. It'll take two years to cast.
THR: For many years you have been nursing an English-language project, "The End." Where's that at?
Dumont: I have a project to do a film in the U.S. with American actors. The problem is that I'm not bankable. The idea is to take all the ingredients of American cinema; the actors, the landscape, the screenplay, and then modify and rework it so that there's a spiritual dimension. Not just simple sentiments, good, evil. But create a bit of mystery, and the mystery is the spectator. All American films are finished, the morality is fixed, they're closed. "The End" isn't closed. I'd like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise (to star). I need the spectator's desire, and today that means either a Tom Cruise or a Brad Pitt. It's not the actor I'm interested in, but their relationship with the public. It's a film about the aura of American cinema.
Bruno Dumont
Nationality: French
Born: March 14, 1958
Festival entry: "Flandres" (Flanders) (In Competition)
Selected filmography: "La Vie de Jesus" (The Life of Jesus) (1997), "Humanity" (1999), "Twentynine Palms" (2003)
Notable awards: Festival de Cannes Grand Jury Prize, "Humanity," which also earned best actor and actress wins (1999). Prix Jean Vigo, "La Vie de Jesus" (1997)
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