JUST TALKING 5/12
The Just Talking cycle for the TIFF 51st edition opened on Sunday December 5th at the Electra Palace Hotel with an interesting chat on low budget filmmaking and the new limitations set on artistic creativity. The chat was coordinated by Elena Christopoulou.
There were several film directors taking part in this first cycle of chats which offer the opportunity to film professionals to meet and exchange points of view: Conor Horgan (One Hundred Mornings), Paul Gordon (The Happy Poet), Chris Petropoulos (Subconscious), George Pitsakis (Frost) and the filmmaker and film critic Bill Mousoulis.
Referring to his film The Happy Poet, Paul Gordon talked about how he tried to make a low budget film –in which he acts himself- in the style of the American drama comedy of the seventies. Regarding the structure of his film, he pointed out that he moved within but also without the conventional rules of filming. “In traditional American comedies, the actors usually turn their characters into caricatures. But the actors in my film identify themselves completely with the characters and I believe that their acting is real and authentic”, he remarked.
Chris Petropoulos, in turn, explained that his Subconscious is a low budget film which makes use of lost footage film. “Influenced by my studies in psychology, I embodied certain theories in the film, some of Freud for instance, and I think this will get the audience thinking. I wouldn’t say that my film can be classified as a thriller, more as a psychological thriller”, he commented.
“Among Greek filmmakers there is an active on-going discussion about and a definite interest in thrillers, perhaps this is due to the financial crisis and the concern it awakens”, George Pitsakis said, talking about his film Frost, yet another low budget film.
The film One Hundred Mornings describes the life of two couples after some big disaster which has led to the dissolution of society. “In this film I try to show a post-apocalyptic situation and how normal everyday people react to this” film director Conor Horgan explained. He discovered his interest in cinema when at the age of 12 he watched –and was awed by- Costas Gavras’s film Z.
For his part, the Greek-Australian filmmaker Bill Mousoulis declared that though his last feature film A nocturne is a thriller, he isn’t particular keen in this cinema genre and that what really appealed to him was the subject and its implications in human relationships and the psychological shifts that it provokes in his characters.
Chris Petropoulos focused on the issue of realism. He personally took the risk to begin shooting with actors who did not know each other. “The actors met shortly before the shooting and had no idea as to how the film was going to evolve. I believe that this gave them the chance to ‘play’ their parts in a more natural manner. If the result was successful or not remains to be seen”, he concluded.
The chat was brought to a close with Conor Horgan’s comment on the effects the current financial crisis has had on his film: “At first people didn’t want to watch my film because they thought that it didn’t have anything to do with them. But now, their reactions are very different and they all ask me ‘but how did you know?’. We usually make films about things that we know or fear. This type of situation scares the hell out of me.”
