Vimukthi Jayasundara (Between two worlds), Adrian Biniez (Gigante),
Viktor Oszkar Nagy (Father’s Acre), Peter Strickland (Katalin Vagra),
Razvan Radulescu (First of all, Felicia), Jan Nathanson (producer and coordinator in International Financing Forum), Antoine Thirion
(film critic)
Contingencies during film shooting, the course of a story from the script to the big screen, along with the major issue of funding non English speaking films were the key points of discussion in TIFF’s third “Just Talking” event, held on Tuesday, November 17, at the old Pump Station, coordinated by journalist Elena Christopoulou.
This TIFF incentive offers the opportunity to film industry professionals to share views and experiences. Participants included film directors Vimukthi Jayasundara (Between two worlds), Adrian Biniez (Gigante), Viktor Oszkar Nagy (Father’s Acre), Peter Strickland (Katalin Vagra), Razvan Radulescu (First of all, Felicia), and producer and International Financing Forum coordinator, Jan Nathanson along with French film critic Antoine Thirion.
The five directors addressed the issue of various contingencies they had to face during film shooting. Vimukthi Jayasundara remarked: “Unexpected things crop up every day and the truth is that I personally like to embark on a project not knowing how it will end beforehand. This is the reason why when writing a story I do not put down all the details, but let it grow along the way.” To Adrian Biniez, the meaning of contigency was of a personal nature: “At first, I had given the script to the actress who happened to be my partner at the time, however, when we started shooting the film, we broke up.” Peter Strickland noted that time proved to be his worst enemy, while Razvan Radulescu and Victor Oszkar Nagy said that their schedules we so tight, that everything was arranged in advanced.
The five filmmakers also described how they experience the process of a script gradually “transforming” into a motion picture. With reference to his directorial debut, Katalin Varga, Peter Strickland stressed that it had been the most demanding script that he had even put his hands on: “Writing, especially at night, leads you to peculiar paths. I had great difficulty in deciding what to keep and what to cut from the script, I had to study it really hard.” Director Vimukthi Jayasundara, who “revived” a Sri Lankan myth revolving around a prince in his film Between two worlds, commented: “I usually narrate the story to my friends till I become a bore. Relating it over and over, I make changes every time and in the end I make the story I like,” he added. Adrian Biniez underlined: “You have to work really hard during film shooting if you do not want to be trapped in the end.” Razvan Radulescu, however, expressed a diametrically opposed view: “I do not believe in overworking during shooting, because this will entrap you. In my film, things were clear from the beginning, there was chemistry among the participants and everything flowed orderly and naturally.” The same ambience seems to have prevailed at the shooting of Father’s acre by Viktor Oszkar Nagy. The Hungarian film director pointed out that “While shooting, everything you have prearranged is changing, but I had an easy task working with the actors, because they could understand exactly what I wanted.”
Producer and International Financing Forum coordinator Jan Nathanson, talked about financing non English speaking (foreign) films. It is a disappointment to see exceptional film failing to secure financing on the grounds of not using the English language. This is an issue that deserves consideration by producers themselves,” she concluded.
In the end of the talk, French film critic Antoine Thirion shared with the audience the difficulties he had to face while working at the “Cahiers du Cinema,” mentioning –among others- limitations to free expression, which led him to the creation of the website www.independencia.fr, a free communication web forum among cinema lovers.
