OUTSIDE IN TOKYO JAPANESE
OLIVIER ASSAYAS INTERVIEW

Olivier Assayas: L'Heure d'été

1  |  2



Are you reminiscing the good old days (or valuing the traditional part of a disappearing culture) or telling yourself that Europe should move on?

I think History is not happening in Europe. Europe is mostly preoccupied with dealing with History happening elsewhere. It's in search for its identity, except it has also cut off its roots to its great past, so it's trying hard to reformulate itself, only lacking the vision, the values, or any defining relation to the future.

How much do you think you reflected on your own family? Did you grow up in this kind of environment at all?

I grew up in the Parisian countryside. In surroundings less idyllic than those in the film, but in the middle of nature, meadows, forest. I have two brothers, one is a novelist, he lives in Paris, and another (half) brother who spends nowadays most of his time in Hungary. My father died in 1981when I had only directed a couple of semi-amateur short films. My mother died the year before I shot Summer Hours. We all had our own lives and rarely had any time to spend with her. But she was very independent, sticking to her work (she was a fashion designer) until the end, and never made us feel any guilt.

Although you seem to deal with what is inevitable (the difference in family stances), you seem to maintain the suspense of the viewers with family secrets, which every family seems to have, no matter how moral the family seems to have been. Can you elaborate on this?

The family secret is not exactly a secret and in any case the truth about it is, it is lost when Helene goes. Ultimately it's more about how we fantasize about family secrets than about actual secrets. Adrienne does want Helene to have had an affair with her uncle, Frederic, absolutely doesn't and Jeremie doesn't care. Ultimately it says more about them than about Helene.

How were the choices of the actors made? Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jeremie Renier, and Edith Scob… Why and when did you decide on continuing with the story with Adrienne in the next film? Is this part of the Orsay project as well?

No this a hoax on the internet. This project doesn't exist.

What is the advantage for you when you work with Eric Gautier? What did you discuss with him to make a difference from your other films? Do you ever see yourself pursuing a signature style in the cinematography?

There is always the question of money and art. Art being calculated as what it is worth in the market, unrelated to what it means to its owners, is a universal theme, but more so now. How do you see this in the film world around you?

What is your idea on the essence of universal films? What do you think is required for a film to survive time? I’ve seen many good films that have disappeared after a decade.

You make a film, you do your best, and then it has a life of its own, you have no control on it anymore. Sometimes your inspiration drives you to universal topics, sometimes you can only handle idiosyncratic intimate issues that may be arcane to most of the viewers, including some who my be your closest friends, but there is no choice, that's what the strange paths of creation are about. It's like children, they grow up, have their own fate. Films belong to all, and it's not for you to decide if they will be around for a long time, in any case you won't be there to witness it.

Who would you consider your contemporaries in filmmaking?

Not to leave the boundaries of France, Claire Denis, Arnaud Desplechin, Benoit Jacquot, André Téchine, Philippe Garrel. But I feel I have brothers in cinema in Taiwan, Japan, China, US and Canada, which is easy to guess who.

Why do you continue to make films? What do films have in store for us in the future?

I am convinced films are the most relevant form of contemporary art, they have in store for us the totally of our future seen in the mirror of the soul.

1  |  2