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Guest of honor at this year’s ECAM Forum Co-Production Market in Madrid, the highly regarded enfant terrible of French cinema Bertrand Bonello (“Saint Laurent”) will deliver a masterclass June 12 at the Cineteca Madrid.
Three of his defining works – Cannes Palme d’Or contenders “Tiresia” (2003), “House of Tolerance” (2011) and the Directors’ Fortnight’s “Zombi Child” (2019) – will serve as entry points to his cinematic journey whose latest delivery, the sci-fi melodrama “The Beast,” opened in the U.S. last April via Janus Films and Sideshow after its 2023 Venice world premiere.
“Bertrand Bonello is not only one of the most important contemporary filmmakers but also one of the directors who reflects with the greatest lucidity on the value of creating images today and on the power and prospects of cinema in this paralyzing present,” said ECAM Forum coordinator Alberto Valverde, who created the Madrid tribute with Cineteca Madrid, Filmadrid Festival, together with collection agent DAMA and the Institut Français in Spain.
We spoke to Bonello ahead of his Madrid masterclass:
First of all, you’re going to speak to an audience of Spanish movie buffs in Madrid. Are there any Spanish filmmakers or Spanish films that have made their mark on you?
Of course, Buñuel is a master. Almodóvar is one of the most generous filmmakers and was very important for Spain, who, in a way, educated the Spanish audience after Franco. I also find a filmmaker like Albert Serra more than fascinating. So yes – Spanish cinema is doing very well!
You’ve been the subject of many retrospectives. How does it feel to look back on your career?
In the last two years, I’ve indeed participated in many retrospectives, perhaps because I now have 10 feature films under my belt. Retrospectives force you to pause, to look back and reflect. The important thing is for the questioning to hit the right spot so that you can move forward. For me, films are like slices of life. For viewers, they’re just films, and that’s normal, but for me, they correspond to moments in my life, with some happier than others.
The Madrid retrospective will screen your films “Tiresia,” “House of Tolerance” and “Zombi Child.” What periods of your life do these works represent?
These works are quite spaced out in time, and I was indeed at different points in my life and in my reflections on cinema. Because the more you move forward, the more questions you have. With “Zombi Child” for example, it was a time when I wanted to get away from France a little. I had only made films in France, so I wanted to go – partially – to Haïti.
After “Zombi Child,” I made two other films shot in Paris, and now I have this desire to travel elsewhere again.
Will this happen soon?
I hope so.
What was the starting point for these three films?
For “House of Tolerance,” it was the desire to make a film with a group of women, but not in a contemporary context, so I liked the idea of a Parisian brothel in the early 20th century. For “Zombi Child,” it was the desire to explore the myth of Haïtian Zombies with which I was very familiar. I created the Haïtian part set in 1962, then I said, O.K., I’m not black, Haïtian, so I need a French perspective and that’s how I found the perspective of the young French woman Fanny in the present time, as a double narrative. Ideas build gradually in my mind. For “Tiresia,” the starting point came from a friend of mine, who had a dream about this Greek myth. He had written three pages about it and gave them to me. In fact, I quote him in the film credits. So the starting points are very different each time.
One of the themes to be discussed in the series of conversations and panels in Madrid is nostalgia and its potential risk as it shifts from the cultural to the political. Nostalgia captivates, reassures, and at the same time it prevents us from moving forward and innovating. What do you think of nostalgia in cinema?
It’s important to remember the past in order to welcome the present, without claiming that the past was better. We must consider things as a whole. Regarding nostalgia, I’ve made a few period films, and the question is to ask whether they still resonate today, and in what way. The idea isn’t to recreate the past but to encourage people to reflect on themes, past and present.
You always reinvent yourself stylistically, break or play with genre codes in many of your movies. Where does your passion for genre filmmaking in particular come from?
It comes from my youth, when I started devouring genre movies without yet having a passion for cinema as major form of entertainment. It was the early ‘80s, the days of VHS. I watched the movies of [David] Cronenberg, [George A.] Romero, [Dario] Argento, etc., without thinking they were good films. It was only afterward that I realized they were. I still love those kinds of films, but now, I see these films as those of great directors who had something to say about their time.
Genre films often speak of fear, and therefore, we can use them to talk about our own fears. We subvert them, make analogies through moving images. When Romero makes zombie films, of course he’s talking about what his country [the U.S.] is becoming. It’s an indirect political comment, and indeed, perhaps more useful than direct comment.
Is there any film that you’re particularly proud of because of its political comment and the impact it had?
If I had to name one, it’d definitely be “Nocturama.”
Are there burning issues about the world today that you want to tackle?
I don’t work from a specific subject or theme because otherwise I would feel overwhelmed by it. If I say I’m making a story about ecology, I’m afraid of being overwhelmed by the weight of what the subject represents. It’s often when I’ve finished a film that I realize what it’s really about. I prefer to work in small steps, and then, when the film is finished, you step back and realize—ah, that’s what the film was about. I like to let myself be surprised by my own films.
Your latest film “The Beast” deals with AI. What are your views on the subject and do you use it?
When I started to write the script for “The Beast,” AI wasn’t yet such a hot and topical issue. What’s interesting is that when the film screened in Venice in 2023, it actually occurred when AI was making headlines [as part of Hollywood writers’ strike bargaining points].
Other than that, I have a lot of thoughts about AI. The first one is that it’s a tool, and by definition, humans must master their tools. When the tool starts to dominate you, that’s very serious and worrying. With a hammer, you can hang a painting, but you can also break someone’s head with it. Then there are a lot of implications – political, ethical, financial.
I sometimes use it as an assistant, but I’ve been structured and use it with measurement. I’m more worried for the 15-20 year olds and how they use it, as it replaces effort. However, I think regulating it will be hard because the economic stakes are far too high.
What do you think of the state of cinema today?
Today, there are more and more films because of the democratization of the film industry. There are a lot of bad films, and a few good films.The problem is that directing comes second after the subject: the legitimacy of making a movie on a specific subject takes precedence over the direction, the form. This is not good news.
How do you finance your films and do you produce them?
I tend to co-produce my films and finance them however I can. It all depends on the subject matter and the funding inherent to each project, but obviously it’s always a mix of public and private money. Increasingly, I finance my films internationally, because I’m lucky enough that my films travel quite extensively. So I try not to be too dependent on the French market. Plus I’d rather have 5,000 admissions in 10 countries than 100,000 in France. That’s why I devote a lot of time to promoting films abroad.
But then streamers such as Netflix allow films to reach millions of viewers at the same time in hundred of countries…
That’s true, and “Nocturama,” for instance, was bought by Netflix and had an enormous reach worldwide. But I always prioritize theaters whereas streamers deliver content first and foremost for the small screen.
You write your own scripts. On average how much time do you spend on development and generally speaking, do you feel it is under-financed?
In my case, it’s fine because I’m my own producer, but too little money is allocated to development, and screenwriters’ jobs are too precarious. They’re forced to work on several projects at the same time, so the scripts aren’t developed enough. I see too many films that are rushed through the writing process and end up being bad. So funding plays an important role in strengthening this area.
Personally, I spend maybe a year on development and do 10-12 drafts of each script. I always have four-to-five people proofreading.
You also compose the scores for your films, and you wrote music before directing. How do you work on your film scores? Well in advance?
Yes. I work on the music while writing. For me, music is narrative, not illustrative. I have a studio at home and while writing the script, I work my way through the process, like I do with colors. For me, writing is not just writing a script but writing a film – everything that will make up the film and its universe. It’s not just words that will be put into the scene.
Are you tempted by long-form narrative-TV series?
I like the idea of having 6-8 hours to tell something and using a different narrative format. There are sometimes great international shows, but I’m not convinced by French series. For now, the editorial line of the streamers in France doesn’t interest me.
What drives you today? Where do you want to go next with film?
Either you want to go further in something you’ve started, or you want to go elsewhere. And the projects I’m working on right now are a bit of both. I’m keen to explore something totally different, in the form, the theme, or even the language. With “The Beast,” I’d never made a film with a female lead before. It was a complex film, and now I want to make something simple. Then out of 10 films, nine were shot in Paris and in France. I’m eager now to shoot abroad, and to collaborate with new actors. What drives me is the unknown.
When will you announce your next project?I have three scripts. When things are more concrete I’ll make an announcement.
Do you have any advice for young filmmakers?
I would say not to follow trends or the zeitgeist, even if it’s harder because you feel a little alone. I think that’s the only way to last. And that’s the hardest part. It’s not about getting somewhere, but about staying.
This interview was translated and edited for content and clarity.
English (US) ·