Italian director Alice Rohrwacher, best known for her highly original films The Wonders, Happy as Lazarus and La Chimera, all of which have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival, takes her exploration of cinematic language to a bold new level with her silent filmography.
The 44-year-old director, who will be honored with the European Achievement in World Cinema Award at the European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday, revealed this unique aspect of his next project to Variety magazine in a wide-ranging interview. Reflecting on his illustrious career thus far, Rohrwacher says he has sought to “understand why, in a world so overloaded with images, we still need to rely on them to dismantle the images that surround us.”
Rohrwacher’s silent film is currently in preparation, but she won’t reveal any details, but she says it will be a “great opportunity to dig deep into the image” and “discover its power through subtraction.” Below, Rohrwacher details receiving the EFA honor, the importance of his collaborators, and what’s next.
How does it feel to have achieved such a significant honor after making only four features?
Well, there are only four feature films, but it has been a long journey of discovery. One reason is that short films and documentaries of various kinds have been produced between films. But I also feel like our approach is so selective – so deep – that we don’t really stop for a second. When I was told over the phone that I would be receiving this award, at first I thought it was some kind of mistake. Yes, in the sense that it was a long journey. But we still have a very, very long journey ahead of us. And this journey is really about trying to understand why, in a world overrun with images, we still need to rely on images to deconstruct the images that surround us. But I thought I was lucky that they were giving me this award now. Because then I’d be free to make even crazier, more wrong-headed movies. I have already received this important and prestigious award. So it seems to me that now, even more so, we are being called to be more courageous and to explore deeper.
“With a careful eye for the realities of teenagers’ lives and an open heart for the countryside, she has created a unique world in each film,” EFA wrote in its motivation for the award. Do these words reflect your vision?
A beautiful and moving motive. The gaze of people looking at us always reveals to us something that perhaps we cannot yet understand from the inside. For me, the word “teenager” does not refer to a specific age, and I think it refers to the inner adolescence, rather than adolescence itself. Because if you think about the main characters in my films, with the exception of maybe the first two, they’re not just teenagers. Maybe they’re all teenagers in the sense that they may not yet know their place. It seems to me that this adolescent state of the soul is important. Because when you think about the world as it is defined today, you don’t see yourself in it.
And what about the countryside?
The countryside, always a borderland, a remote place, is what appeals to me the most. Perhaps it is because it is precisely at the border that things can change, where there is still potential for development and imagination. In a sense, populous cities seem to have fossilized in their old form. A form that was needed in another era. Outside the city, there is a sense of possibility for change. I found a world for my characters to live in.
We produced all of our films in collaboration with the great cinematographer Hélène Levard. How is this collaboration an integral part of your work?
What connects us with Hélène is, first and foremost, the spirit of adventure and exploration that begins even before the film begins. What unites us is the question of what we do and how we do it. I really want to work with her because we have such a strong relationship right now, and it’s a relationship that allows me the freedom to take on challenges. And you’ll probably make a mistake and then discover something else. So beyond working with what I believe is one of the greatest cinematographers on the planet, it’s about working with someone who has both the wisdom and the recklessness to find variety in every new film he approaches. I like this because there’s always a sense of novelty and exploration, both with the staff and with the film.
All of your work is shot using different types of film stock, but always on celluloid. why?
It is not the (visual) results that make us choose films. Because we know very well that analog effects can be achieved digitally. But it’s a question of method. Because film is limited, you have to be more careful and thoughtful about how you use it. And when faced with limited resources, creativity and imagination are further developed. At least, that’s how I feel. Let’s hope the institute survives, because cinema is certainly not just a result, but also a process and a method. And it’s no coincidence that cinema was born along with film.
Tell us about your work with Carlo Cresto-Dina and his Tempesta company, which has guided all your films to date.
(He) gave me an opportunity and believed in what I could do before anyone else. He did this in a very instinctive way, with no particular rationale. When I made my first feature, I had never made a short story before. I had never worked with a crew before. Therefore, he is indeed very courageous and deserves recognition for that. I think the fact that this relationship has lasted so long shows that somehow courage is what binds us together.
Can you tell us about your next project?
I work multiple jobs at the same time. My next project will be a silent film. This is precisely because it provides a great opportunity to delve deeper into the image and find its power through subtraction. That’s because there’s a great desire to use that image, that actor, and strip away all the excess in the story and see what you can do with it even today. In any case, I don’t think silent films, especially European silent films, the works of the European masters, simply came before talking films. It’s a completely different means of expression. So I’d like to experiment with that.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
