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Hed always wanted to make a film there, which he accomplished with the 2022 musicalCyrano.
Based on the 2018 novel by Antonio Scurati,M.
Sets turn in on themselves, rear projections abound, fascist rallies turn into raves.
You made an entire TV show in Italian.
So, how is your Italian?Pathetic.
Or with American actors, who are so psychoanalysis-based.
I obviously had the English translation and the Italian script side-by-side.
But I remembered Danny Boyle doingSlumdog Millionaireand much of that being in Hindi.
I thought,If he can do that in Hindi, I think I can do this in Italian.
Many of the great Italian actors come from Naples.
Have you been to Naples?
The whole city is a theater.
I think thats probably why.
Its very much a kind of southern Italian thing rather than a northern Italian thing.
How did you come toM.
Tell me about working with Italian actor Luca Marinelli.Luca is up there with Gary Oldman.
He is one of the greatest actors of his generation, if notthegreatest actor of his generation.
He wore no prosthetics.
But that was it.
And his own mother didnt recognize him on set!
If filmmaking has no other purpose, it is to engage and empower an audiences imagination.
Not necessarily empathy, because empathy can be dangerous.
We want to engage an audiences imagination for them to be able to imagine a better world for themselves.
I havent read the book.
Its a kind of collage of newspaper articles, letters, telegrams, fictionized scenes.
That was a big inspiration in terms of the aesthetics of the piece.
Obviously, youve turned this into something that feels very much like your work.
And it sounds like a lot of the basic materials were there.
But how do you decide how far to take it?
Mussolini stage diving, Im assuming, is not in the book.
But it does feel like something that would be in one of your movies.Yeah.
Mussolini, I dont think in the book stage dives.
Stage dive seemed to be the appropriate thing.
I thought about using period music, but I was worried it would just feel old-fashioned.
The seduction of fascism.
You want to convey Mussolinis charisma and his energy, but hes certainly not a likable character.
And yet, were going to spend something like eight hours with this guy.
That we didnt demonize him, we didnt allow ourselves the safety of suggesting that hes other.
He came from us.
Hes a human being.
Then we dont have to look at ourselves.
There was always a musicality to your films.Rhythm for me is the elemental foundation of all filmmaking.
I think with this piece, that love of rhythm has found an exciting sweet spot.
And then you’re able to drop them off the cliff rhythmically.
I think this comes a lot from my love of DJs and great DJ house music of the 90s.
But its like, you build, you build, and its great but wheres the beat drop?
Give us the beat drop!
Thats a purely house-music, techno term, but that explosion, that moment, is just heaven.
M.has many unhinged sequences that seem elaborately choreographed and conceived.
How do you go about creating sequences like that?
Do you have to spend a ton of time planning?
Can you fly by the seat of your pants?I cant.
I do extensive planning prior, weeks of prep.
And planning when youre dealing with a 127-day shoot becomes much more difficult.
Its really a matter of shutting my eyes and imagining the scene play out in my head.
I have to do this as soon as I wake up, so that Im not judging myself.
Im still in that kind of borderland between subconscious and conscious thinking.
But then you are sort of finding it on the floor as well.
Have you gotten better at that as youve made more films?Ive gotten more confident.
But also, your craft develops and you get better at it, like a carpenter.
My craft is my higher power.
My craft always humbles me because my craft is always better than I am its what I aspire to.
And they said that politics should stay out of television.
I do think Hollywood has become incredibly apolitical.
Because in Italy and the world, there has been a false narrative spread for 75 years.
But until then, he was great.
Its a false narrative!
Its not true, and we need to counter those false narratives.
And when Hollywood does get political, it often feels so mild and predictable.
Either its good or bad, evil or good, right or wrong.
I think thats unhelpful.
Also, I think its underestimating an audiences intelligence.
Because people get it.
Okay, maybe a tiny fraction of people are stupid but generally, they get it.
A number of musicals around then didnt quite hit even something likeWest Side Story.
But I saw last night,Emilia Perez, and I was just blown away by it.
Its one of the most beautiful, exquisite pieces of filmmaking.
Jacques Audiard might be my favorite director.
Ive worshipped him sinceA Self-Made Heroreally.
And without being syrupy or wet.
Audiards technical craft is so sublime, and then you couple that with this fierce love for humanity.
It just makes me want to kneel at his feet and kiss them.
