NYFF Live: Alice Rohrwacher, Filmmaker in Residence | NYFF54 transcript

[Applause] hi ciao thank you when I say thank you to be here Thank You Dennis thank you to shy Sheila good and thank you to different society of course so as I said you know you've been here twice before in the festival presenting your films and each time I think you showed up and presented a couple of screenings and only stayed for a few days but this time you've been we've been lucky and hopefully you as well to spend several weeks in New York so it's I think a very a very different experience this time yes also I have to say that this is a New York Film Festival was the reason I crossed the ocean for the first time because in 2011 when I came was the first time I was out of Europe so this is the first person I met out out of Europe just in front of me and yes of course was great experience and sorry for my English to be here it's a very it's very beauty it's very strange because you know to live in that the project of filmmaker in residence they really don't ask you to make a lot of things that is the best part of the residency because you really spend a lot of time in the city and a lot a lot of time with yourself in a place far away and it's a very sensitive that they do it because normally you just go in festival to to to show something but to be connected with the festival to to create something it's a very special this place is also very special for me because is you know like to see how old is modernity we grow with an idea of modernity like something that is to come and in the Europe we you know in Italy and I live in a very old region full of all the stones everything it's very old and I think about modernity and I think of course about America about here and when you are here you feel that modernity it's already gone and it's an old things it's an old problem it's not something that I have to come and this is beautiful because it's you change your perspective of time and it so was a great time it's also very strange because I was thinking all the time about how I was looking this island before the humans and I was trying to imagine it like almost every day working in the city and seeing how much the humans these animals that we are just did built all this world completely human I don't know if make sense sorry I never studied English and all my English it's because of New York we festival it's pretty good then we're trying the so do you I know you're working on your next film and I I don't know how much you want to say about it but you know I think it's I think people would be curious to hear as much as you're comfortable revealing about the project that you're working on as as our filmmaker in residence you can speak about it in however you want I can also speak about another project you will never know you can say whatever you want I mean I don't trust so much inspiration or I don't trust like the artist this all this stuff I really trust things that grow so and things that grow and things that you can work on it's observation and working so a big part of my work is just to look and around and to see how things can grow and let space to make growing I about my project I wrote here I was here with two projects and one was more connected with New York because was about Tom rapping I don't know how to say about people that take old stuff tombs you know in them where I came from a lot of people great progress yeah take from old Etruscan Tom stinks and they said here in New York so I was looking about I was looking around these people and the other project is more personal so I I think it's very early to talk about it but just to know that big part of the work as I do came from down and not from up not from so when you say you don't trust the idea of the artist having this flash of you know an epiphany and know it's just like mushroom mushrooms not from the Stars no it's I I think the artist probably said that was also very strange because for me to listen that here a lot of people when you ask what you do decide I'm an artist that we don't say this you know we have well we're ashamed to say I'm an artist so when people ask you what you do what they say i I do movies like you say what you do I will never say I'm an artist I think artists it's a you know it's the last one so probably this is why he can it's not in front of everyone it's the last of the newest additions there are a lot of people it's the last one and it's beautiful to be the last one and to look what people from there that what they forget probably yeah so what do you do as somebody who makes films to how do you you know you I like this this analogy I like this metaphor of like the films the work coming from below like something that is mushrooms is a very vivid image but what can you as as the filmmaker I don't want to say artists do to sort of nourish that you know to cultivate the mushrooms I think you I judge I trust male like tendresse and Milan Milan melancholy because when it appears it's a sign of of I'm sorry if I trying to make a very complicated speech so it's a sign of separation from something and I like cinema because cinema is the place where that it's a fighting against separation this feeling of separation I think we all have now from something we don't know what so where melancholia were tendrils appear you feel a memory of this separation and cinema can put all this can put together the things that normally run away all the time now so what I just do I listen to this feeling and to this image images because images is I really trust also images images is something that made me for a moment feel that separation can end and that things can be together can be together in a story can be together in an image you know the experience of life is so confusing and so this perceive this is like the dispersed dispersed and and when you look at a movie the experience the links are all together of course it's a trap because sometimes you build a story that is too much perfect and too much mechanical that is too much fake in relation of life so it's like to build a house without windows of course you right you built a house but you have to leave some windows open to what can happen from a reality it's too complicated so you mentioned images but so do you do your films typically start with images is that an important starting point for you like basically I did just two movies and both of them start with black with a night scene and you know in this sense like how so because I I like to I like to wake up in a different place when I was little I was doing a lot of travels in the car with with my father works he was working and you know when you sleep and then you wake up you don't wake you listen first the sound of another place and then you open the eyes and you are in another place now that was like magic things not to wake up like this and it's very connected for me to cinema so I know I am trying to do all works that start in this way like to wake up in another place and be part for a while of an experience of life but so there is the story but there are images of course that the most important part we could talk a little bit about your relationship to to cinema I've heard you say before yet that you you know you didn't grow up with with cinema around you and I don't you didn't study at film school either so when did you know when did your relationship with cinema begin to form and and how did it evolve yes I I grow yeah I discovered very late cinema because the way there were not so much theaters I mean there was no cameras at the house you know all day people say I had a camera when I was a child no I would love and I never saw an image of someone I know or myself moving a moving image you know of someone I know so when I started to see movies was for sure something very far away I don't know if a skier like I never know someone and then you make a record and then you see this people person and so was was something very far away a first movie I saw was an American one I told you already I don't know if you forget I was I think nine years old and I went to the theater and I saw Liston who is talking look look who is talking and I was a great experience and about New York my first you know always New York it's in my life and so cinema arrives late maybe probably I start to do documentaries you want to do I was not so I didn't know a lot about documentaries just I had this friend I really want to spend time with them they were beautiful they have a circus and I tried to do everything to be part of the circus and I couldn't do anything so at the end I said I can do a documentary on you and so this is why I start and doing this documentary that is a first documentary did with another director together he was more technical he knew about cameras and early stuff I was feeling very bad because there was something I really liked on filming people and in the same moment I was feeling very shame the word in italiano is not shame I mean it's not the same like culpability it's a shame a beautiful shame like why I have to film these people in their life now I was feeling also they are acting they that they are not real because they have to show their life so I think that was the reason I decide to move to fiction to let people free to be what they want to not film people inside their cage of their life but to let people free to be another person and to see how the experience of being another person is can reveal of yourself and so that was a big coincidence because I did this documentary I did a very short documentary like four minutes and very short and then with this little documentary I found I start to work with my producer and you know I don't know how it happened I wrote this first script and I and the script was somehow was strange because I was not so correct maybe was very free script and they give us the money and so I did the first movie but my first movie was really first time of everything first time in the set first time and I couldn't believe it is a work I mean that the society let us do this so you I know you're also quite a cinephile and you do know a lot about so can you tell us can you fill us in like between look who's talking and the first feature there's obviously a lot of time where you were discovering yeah of course I start to look movies when I went to the University and I was lucky because I was in Torino where is the Torino Film Festival so I went to the festival festival was maybe very important to see different movies not to live with movies that you never see normally put drop and I was of course I start to be very impressed by the possibility of this experience I met a Rosselini that was maybe not him in person of course but his movies that really changed change a lot of things in my life because you know I start to have the feeling that you because but you make a movie not just to show something that you know but to look for something that was the feeling I had looking this movies of Rossellini that he was looking for something and this was a feeling I I had no like I want to do a work that let me discover through a work something else about of course about human beings that are nice people so when you make corporate real estate that was the you said you had never been on a film set before your own no I wasn't I lie a little bit I said yes I know but so what was what was different from what you expected was it very different no they I was of course I was not like from I mean I was working in the theater a lot I did a lot of different lives in the middle during the university I was working in the theater with actors I was assistant of some directors so I know about I could feel about acting about how is to work with actors and with children because also I was working a lot with children before so but I didn't know about cinema in the theatre you were working with children yes yes so and what what was the most big surprise you also had a very you had a very experienced photographer you were yes yes I met Ellen dova and that was a big big person that enter in my life I choose her because I choose I met her it's not just about who is my cinematographer I met her in Paris and I knew I want to work with her I think the the biggest things I discovered during the movie the first movie was film was the film the holiday happily : so because I did the first one in celluloid in film and I fall in love with this process this with with this wonderful process where you can you know you work to control everything you work to do everything perfect but there is another life that is the film the celluloid and you it's like to dance with another person as well and moving around the set and this experience of filming with celluloid make me really fall in love with this work this surprise surprise was a big big surprise and I know your second film you also shot on film on 16 millimeter is this something that's important for you to continue to work I trust words we call it film like you know I make a film I use film promotion and we call cinema that the meaning of cinema is something moving and this movement is important now I want to work with I want to continue to work with it of course because I don't think the motivation that made this changement through digital happen because the celluloid is not good the mud why they change to digital just because economical reason because they can make a lot of money with digital a lot of much more money so they abandon a wonderful technology just because of economical reason and not because of creative reason so I prefer to work with celluloid because it's a wonderful process where you are obliged to a big concentration you don't shoot a lot everyone respect it and also you during the shooting everyone want is time no like time for the actor time from the hair time for the maquillage time time for the image so I think it's important and so III would love to continue of course it's I think it makes sense in some ways that you started in the documentary film because even though the two films we know you for our fiction features I think there's a very strong like documentary undercurrent in the films and I think what's really powerful about the films is that there's a real like a very strong and concrete realism and then also combined with a sense of something that's not real surrealism or something more magical and I think that combination is very potent in both films yes I just I don't know I'm Manatee think of yes yourself as having any kind of you know the documentary impulse still being part of what you're doing when you are behind the camera even even though you're a fiction film maker I think working in documentary make you know that you know you have to take care of everything because normally you should a documentary alone or with another person I'm talking about little documentaries and it's a big school of knowing how to I don't know be prepared for everything can happen and to and of course I think that but that is important as for me that was very important but in the same time I really we write everything I mean seems maybe a documentary but it's really really written and it's all fake let's talk a bit more about your process then you said everything is very written it's all very planned but what what other things that you leave open I think seems not so Britain just because maybe it's not good written so they say they will why they've read like this maybe it's not written know what's pretty right so what what do you leave open to chance to chance it's there is a word between a line how you can say this line how you know it's already a word just to make this line happen these words words are written but then to make the happen it's world of possibilities so this is the documentary part maybe like how to make alive something that is not living and it's like magic and this is also it's something that was very impressive for me like about this work now so how we can put back to life something that was living just in imagination and to do it for true there is I said already once when I was here two years ago but I can say again because it's a for me was very clear image that when you there is something very beautiful in the nature you see we have like a problem with Beauty I don't know we see a beautiful flower and you say we say it's so beautiful seems fake and when you make but with your hand a very beautiful flower with paper I don't know with what you look at it and say wow it seems true that there is with the work you can make something true and maybe in the reality seems fake I don't know you mentioned Rosselini I was wondering if you could say a bit about just a contemporary Italian cinema and you know how you see yourself within this this landscape of contemporary tamil cinema which I think has been really quite interesting especially in the last few years yes there is a a good wind in Italy but also there are a lot of economical problems so it's not so I don't know until when can continue but there is right now in the last few years in the last maybe ten years or seven years they start a new space to make movies that are not just something you can eat but also drink and know what how it is the English sorry the movies that are more special and of course I can talk about we want I say their names because every time you say the names in Italy it's very dangerous you forget a part and we came from a dangerous country while you when you know I mean there are a lot of very good directors and of course I think about I don't know yet Romer cello about Garonne about Sorrentino not a more famous maybe but also Roberto Minervini that is living here in United States but it's Italian or I don't know Laura be sporty that it a very beautiful first movie there are cattle on that you know there are a lot of people that are trying to build a different cinema and mostly of them Roger of course you know he's in the top list there a lot of people and maybe all these people of course not Sorrentino maybe also no guarantee in the middle they came all from documentaries so when I say they came all four dominant reason not that is not that they do documentaries but they were work working hard I mean to to go to fiction why do you why do you think that is why do you think the documentary feel is so rich in Italy because it's the poorest possibility do really something and also to do something when you want to show when people are not looking at the reality maybe you have to show the reality now it's changing because all this movement of documentaries start when there was not so much this using of the iPhone and the filming the reality and the reality process so I think all these people moved to fiction maybe because now what we need is really to make an elaboration of a reality in a different way I think we're gonna maybe take some audience questions that we have time for a few so if you have any please raise your hand and do we have micro nurse okay in the front here we have a question so you said that you made a four-minute documentary and then after that there was a certain amount of time before you made your first feature fiction film what how many films short films various video projects or film projects only did you do in between the four minute and your first feature film no nothing and did you spend that time working in various jobs okay I was trying to be honest I tried when they told me I am going to make I mean that you know it's you apply with your script for money from the government in Italy when we received the positive question I did secretly description on a film school centro sperimentale a duccini mythography a-- but they didn't took me not I was like you know they make a first selection of hundred fifty person and I didn't enter so I said the school of cinema don't me how can I do I have to do it to the same so now I mean I tried to to study in the same moment I was thinking it's not it's so difficult to make this work that probably it will never works so was a little bit let's see I was editing that was my work I mean I was editing documentaries of other people in the time between the little short and the feature and I think editing it's really like a school big school because you you see how you know how put the images together and how difficult is it and you look at the problems and so that was cool Dennis wasn't fired he had to go do an interest so I just came here to sit in any other questions I saw him for a second man being a little shy yeah sir so it was very interesting to hear sort of your fantasy of New York and the way New York has been a through-line in your life and I just love to hear you speak a little more about New York and if you're planning to work on any films here in New York congratulations I would love one day to work here this project I am writing is not for New York is from Italy it's for Italy but I would love to work here of course I like the way I mean this feeling that I'm in front of a tribe it's very it's very strange this also was a feeling I had when we saw American honey that here it's really a tribe and it said there may be the only left indigenous people in the planet are the Americans because they are really you know they like rituals they sing all together they make I don't know they don't talk other languages they they so it's like you know people came from tribes then they had to mix then in the end they went back old mix but they went back to us to be a tribe and so I really would not love to make a work about like a documentary about these indigenous wonderful I met here well we have time for a another question well then all this throwing something and I and I apologize I hope I'm not repeating or repeating a question that Dennis may have asked cuz I was running around on the other other end of there but maybe talk a little bit about your impression of the filmmaker and Residence program you know what you're kind of coming toward the end of it we've had a wonderful time both on our official engagements here at the New York Film Festival but also hanging out with you so we'll definitely miss you when you leave later this week le che but yeah tell us your impressions of it and what will you take away from it and what will you tell all your friends back home I don't ever know I there is a friend of Modesto she's very sad sorry no what I I mean what I can tell it's really about a play what I say in the in the beginning maybe know that about a place that made me feel better about contemporary world because it's the old part of the contemporary world maybe you don't like to know that is old but from my eyes was all it's like handmade it's very strange you feel that it's a handmade City and this is not the feeling that you imagined to have here it's I don't know it's very beautiful and so I think I had I was very I was judging a lot from outside all this America somehow and you have to know it people judge you from the rest of the world but when you are here you feel that is so different and that this it's a really how say it's really the old the old part of our dream of future but for me this is a compliment really it's a big good feeling I don't know if is clear of course I will tell everyone that to go to the New York Film Festival to learn English I'd have the best experience do you have any suggestions for people going to see films in New York Film Festival then that you've had a give had a chance to see if you yes I'm going to see tomorrow Neruda I really didn't see yet but i really suggest and I saw yesterday moonlight that is also very sparing very beautiful so certainly Earth man I saw a lot of movies wonderful well we can't wait everything you can see go and see if it's bad it's if it's also very good to know because you want to change the world well we look forward to having you back at the New York Film Festival with the bed movie yes no I'm sure will be fantastic all right thank you again thank you to our co-creators of the program jaeger-lecoultre and thank you Alicia or Walker thank you thank you very much what an awesome [Applause]