![]() ![]() ![]() So I guess I became quite fed up with those actor’s egos. During the rehearsals I tried to establish certain stylistic foundations, mainly minimalistic principles, but the day of the performance they ended up doing whatever they wanted, acting expansively, looking for the audience admiration and applause. There you could feel very tangibly the sovereignty of the actors. ![]() I worked with professional actors from the Volksbühne company, which are very talented people who have substantial mastery in the technical aspects of acting. Where I suffered a lot was during the production of the stage play. Regarding your question about the ego, you’re right in that The Death of Louis XIV had narcissism as a central theme but Jean-Pierre Léaud was not egocentric at all in his way of working. I may be influenced by the work of a given artist and I try to be true to certain artistic principles, but the force that guides/drives my work is always linked to circumstances: how to go on, where to do it, with who… For Liberté it all took shape when, at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival, some producers suggested me to make a film based on the stage play, also called Libertè, I had directed for the Volksbühne theatre. The movies I make respond essentially to the logic of my life. I see what you mean, though I’m not sure if I was aware of this contrast while making Liberté. Was doing Liberté a way to free yourself from any traditional form of narrative and mise-en-scène? Here the characters have almost no psychological depth and we see them regularly wandering around the shots in search of diffused objects of desire. On the contrary, Liberté confronts the notions of ego, narcissism and centrality. The Death… deals essentially with the notion of the ego, that of the Sun King, a man fully aware of his “greatness” and a character which occupies the center of the movie, both thematically and physically. In historical terms, Liberté could be seen as a follow-up to The Death of Louis XIV, but I’m most interested in their differences. Liberté will be available to stream May 1 on Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema. This is an expanded version of an interview that appears in our January-February 2020 issue. ![]() Letter to an Unknown Decade By Devika Girish ![]()
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