Hello, strangers!

Hello, stranger...

This is a private (from time to time) blog for my cinematic obsessions and scintillating (one-sided) reflections about movies. Feel yourself at home!

15 august 2010

Q & R avec Jean Pierre Melville

 
Q: Is cinema important?
R: Yes, very important. For everyone, but especially for me, I admit. it's my life, my profession. It's the most important thing. I think it was the day I was given a Pathe Baby camera, a hand-cranked model for my sixth birthday. So, it was in 1923 that I made my debut as a filmmaker and decided on my path. My love for cinema began with the talkies, around 1929 or '30. The first time I heard a word coming from a screen was in White Shadows in the South Seas by van Dyke and Flaherty, when Monte Blue suddenly said „Civilization, civilization”. It was the first time I'd heard talking cinema. At that very moment, I fell madly in love.

Q: What did you do?
R: I produced and directed Le silence de la mer. (...) I think I was already a professional. On the technical level, there wasn't much left to learn. What I had to learn was how to make a film. That's different from knowing the technical side.

Q: You produced it yourself?
R: It was difficult, but I managed. When I had money, I'd buy film and we'd shoot. I think your first film should made with your own blood.

Q: Do you enjoy editing?
R: Very much. It's without a doubt what I enjoy the most. That and writing. Writing and editing. In other words, the inspiration and the finishing touches. Those are two major phases in a film.

Q: Do you like filming?
R: Not at all. Filming is absolutely horrible. I call it „tedious formality”. I hate shooting.

(trnscriere făcută de subsemnatul pe baza unui mateial-bonus inclus pe DVD-ul Le Samourai, ediţia Criterion)