00:00How has it been witnessing the reaction to Syrat all the way from Cannes to now the European Film Awards and maybe an Oscar nomination?
00:25It's been great. In Cannes we felt something. We felt that the film was not only a film. We felt that the film was also a ceremony. And now after all these months we know that it's also shock therapy.
00:39And so it's, I mean, also because you have time so you can see how images really stay in the spectators.
00:51You know, after months a lot of people came to us and tell us, wow, I'm still feeling the film. You know, the film is in my skin. And that's the power of cinema. We are happy because we really trust on images, on the complex relation between an image and the human metabolism. And in the U.S. it's been also quite funny.
01:11Well, right, because it's been getting a lot of attention in the U.S. I mean, do you see that as a really hopeful sign that Hollywood's kind of more opening up globally or even the audiences are a little bit more keen for more radical cinema maybe?
01:23We are living on a really particular moment. It's for sure Academy, Oscar Academy is more open, more young. And I think that also we are being tired of watching the same films. I think, you know, I mean, human beings feels truth, feels when something, something was made with guts. This is something that is not, is impossible to, to copy the guts, you know, the, ah, you know.
01:51It's also like a tough film to recommend without spoiling it because of the impact that it has, like you say, the guts. And, and I mean, one way I've found to describe it to people when recommending the film is to talk about it as like an act of savage transcendence.
02:07And it's, it's that transcendence that really fascinates me that the way that the, your images speak to the subconscious. Can you tell me a little bit more about your approach?
02:16So I try to preserve the images for myself. I try to protect them. You know, this is the word, the problem nowadays in cinema, you know, that the images have too much weight.
02:26The images are instrumentalized to say some things, but when you want to say too many things, you don't say nothing. And this is the problem nowadays that they arrive really thirsty and tired.
02:38The, the images in the films are dead. They are not alive. I mean, there are a lot of films, good ones, films that they are nominated too.
02:46I'm sorry to say, but they don't have any image, no one image. And this is about this. It's about things.
02:53Obviously they have images. They are just images that say things, but they don't, they don't evoke nothing.
02:58They don't have the power, the, the, the, the, the wildness, the, the organicity that an image has to have, needs to have, you know, the symbolism, the universal archetype, all these things, you know, that an image has.
03:10So, um, and I, it's just this, you know, the key of Sirat is that I protect the images from myself, you know.
03:19It's my daughter. It's been five months since we don't know anything about her.
03:25There's another party in the desert.
03:28I don't know if I'm going to be there.
03:33Sound plays such an important part in this film, whether it's the sound design or the score by Canding Ray, who was nominated for the Golden Globes.
03:40They rather shamefully didn't show the best score being actually awarded on the broadcast.
03:48Do you think that people are maybe undervaluing or underestimating the role that sound has and sound design has in cinema?
03:55I don't know. I, you know, I think that cinema people were giving us too much prices.
04:02I don't know. I mean, do you, do you give this amount of prices in journalism?
04:07No.
04:07So, in a way, we have to be calm. I mean, I think it's enough. I mean, we are receiving a lot of prices. So, I don't know. But I think in any case, that sound, yeah, I mean, it's part of this ontology of cinema.
04:25I mean, when I'm, when I'm imagining an image, it has sound, you know, it's not something separated. And this is the key also of Sirat, you know, that you don't know where the image ends and where the sound starts.
04:39You know, it's, you know, it's really a sculpture. Sirat is a monster. It's alive. You know, it's, you know, boom.
04:46Yeah, no, it is that. And, and that, boom, as you say, is, is so important because, I mean, I saw this on the big screen and I've been telling people to go see it on the big screen, but that feels more and more threatened nowadays, the big screen experience.
05:00And one of the, the people nominated here at the European Film Awards this year, Stellan Skarsgård, recently said that films need to be seen in cinemas and that's where they should be seen.
05:11And there are other people like the, the co-head of Netflix, for example, that says they're going to see films in cinemas as an antiquated idea.
05:18What are your thoughts on that?
05:20I will never work with a platform that don't respect the chronology of cinema.
05:27Cinemas have to go to cinemas.
05:30Um, the theater is a place for catharsis.
05:34It's a place for transformation.
05:36What is happening in a cinema doesn't happen in the house.
05:39This is the, this is the soul of cinema is this, you know, this is the key thing of cinema.
05:44When you are with other people, there is a subtle, a secret exchange of energy with the people.
05:52It's not the same watching a film one day than another one.
05:55The same people, same film, it's really a mystery what's happening.
05:58It's a, it's a ceremony. It's, it's a ritual. Like in Seurat, people on the dance floor, you know, your body is reacting on a different way.
06:06So you can say to this guy from Netflix that he's completely wrong.
06:12Yes.
06:13Poor.
06:13And one scene that struck me enormously in the film was the ending, the train going towards almost a future with a great amount of uncertainty.
06:22And I found it incredibly hopeful. But I've, I've, I've spoken to people who, who, who were basically very scared with that last scene.
06:30And it's, it's, it's, it's interesting, given the current climate, when it comes to political conflict, the rise of AI, for example, which threatens enormously, you know, artistic professions.
06:43That particular scene for me was hopeful. Do you see it as hopeful?
06:48I don't like to interpret the film, but I can tell you that I'm really hopeful, man. You know, I, I, I truly believe in human being and in the future.
06:57Obviously it will be tough. We are like on a kind of change, era change, you know.
07:01So sometimes when two eras are changing, it's like a fade, you know, of two images. Sometimes the past come to the present with more present, presence, but at some point it will fade, you know.
07:15So I'm really optimistic and, and I like, I like, I, I truly believe in life, you know, and life will test us, will push us to a place that the only answer will be to be more human.
07:28You know, so thanks Netflix, thanks IA, thanks all these, these humanizations things, because you are going to make us more human.
07:38It's interesting that you mentioned dehumanization, because very lastly, I had the pleasure of speaking to Juliette Binoche last year, who's the president of the European Film Academy,
07:45and she said that one of her goals with, with her role and with cinema was to rehumanize society through cinema.
07:53Do you think that cinema has the power to do that, to rehumanize us?
07:58I think that cinema and art is a way to heal the collective imaginary.
08:07On a subtle way, we are doing it, we are healing.
08:10Yesterday I was with most of my colleagues, Masha, Joaquin, I mean, and, and, and our films, they are a reflection of a society that is trying to look to the wounds,
08:24that they are trying to, to, to, to heal this transgenerational pain that, that we have, to stop this chain of pain, you know.
08:33This is a problem nowadays, you know, that we suffer, so we provoke sufferings.
08:39So yes, I think that, that, that cinema can elevate our conscience, hopefully.
08:46I truly believe.
08:48Sorry?
08:48It's a good note to end on, the hopeful note.
08:51So, Mr. Lange, thank you very much for your time.
08:54Thank you, David.
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