Worldwide rights to “Desires,” the next film from Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco, whose “Reminiscence” competed at Venice last year, will be held by their mutual partner The Match Production.
“I work with The Match Manufacturing frequently and we have an ongoing collaboration,” he says. Selection at the Karlovy Differ Movie Competition. “So, yes, I like to stay with people (I know). Why change when the problems are being solved? It’s an important company. And I have certain distributors in certain countries who keep buying my films. And that’s how, I think, you build the audience.”
He says he is still polishing the film, so it won’t be ready for Venice. “I don’t think it can be ready. I wouldn’t want to rush it. And I’m here (in Karlovy Vary). I’m not obsessed with rushing (to finish films).”
“Desires” will star Jessica Chastain, who also starred in “Reminiscence,” as well as Rupert Buddy and Isaac Hernández. The movie, which was filmed in San Francisco and Mexico City last year, centers on a wealthy socialite, played by Chastain, who has a romance with a Mexican ballet dancer, played by Hernández.
There has been speculation that, on a broader level, the film also touches on the connection between the US and Mexico, but Franco is reluctant to say so. “No, I wouldn’t clarify[it]like that, not even after the film is released, because I feel that’s for the audience to decide. All I can say is that, as I usually do, I tried not to make it too easy.” However, he does say that this relationship between the two international locations is a facet of the film. “Well, yes. I shot the film in San Francisco and Mexico City, in both locations, so yes, it contains both international locations and the way we relate to each other.”
“Reminiscence”
Courtesy of Ketchup Leisure/Everett Assortment
Franco says the film naturally flowed from his collaboration with Chastain on “Reminiscence.” “‘Desires’ started — I don’t want to discuss the movie too much because I’m still figuring out what it is — when I talked about it with Jessica on a lunch break[on the set of ‘Memory’]. I told her I’m not giving you an idea, I’m just saying I’ve been thinking a lot about these things that I’ve had in my head for years. And she said, ‘Let’s do it. ‘ So it’s fair to say that ‘Desires’ came out of this good collaboration and momentum that we were having. And we were both smart enough to say, ‘Let’s keep going,’ because it’s hard to find that good vibe and get along so well.”
Franco says it’s likely he’ll make a third film with Chastain. “We’re pretty sure we’ll do it. A third and a fourth,” he says, adding that he may even apparently film more movies with Tim Roth, who starred in the director’s “Continual” and “Sunset.”
Franco emphasizes that a lot can change over the course of refining “Desires,” along with the title. “That’s why I’m always the producer of my films. As a result, if tomorrow I wake up and want to change everything (then I can). I was talking to Steven Soderbergh (also a guest at Karlovy Vary) about how he modified his film Kafka, and he was telling me at the time that he would never have had the freedom to do that. And now he produces his stuff, and he has all the freedom on the planet. I identify with that a lot. It’s difficult, because a film can cost a few million dollars, so to make a personal expression of something that is so expensive and involves so many people, that’s the problem.”
Franco is aware that he is fortunate to be ready for the job, as with every director and producer on his films, he can dictate the pace of production and work with those he wants to work with. “I am open to collaborating with anyone, as long as… It’s a dictatorship, you know, it’s not a democracy. There is no different approach to[doing it]. Just like a painter is dictating what he paints and an author what he writes. That doesn’t mean you don’t collaborate. Using music, for example: you can have a producer, and a document will be massively affected by whoever is producing it. However, still, the musician is looking at the images.”
He says there’s no “last minute” in his contract, because there’s no such thing as a contract, given that he’s the producer. And while Chastain’s Freckle Movies is a co-producer, she respects him enough to let him do what he has to do. “I mean, it’s clear that it’s my movie because it’s clear that she’s the actress. And, you know, we never have to talk about it,” he says.
“After Lucia”
Courtesy of Videocine/Everett Assortment
Franco likes to give actors the chance to interpret the script in the way they think works best, while still respecting the script. “There are two problems with actors. On the one hand, a lot of times, the main reason they’re there is because we want to work together. But more than that, it’s because of the script. So if they liked the script enough, and that’s always been the case, we wouldn’t have any big arguments, we’d be on the same page. That said, I give them a lot of leeway to do what they have to do, but they’re very respectful and follow[the script]. They usually respect the script more than I do. Jessica would always half-jokingly say, ‘I’m here to protect the writer from the director.’ Sometimes I’d want to shake things up and she’d say, ‘No, take it easy. Let’s follow the script. And then we’ll play around.’ She was always open to doing whatever I wanted to do. But she was also saying, ‘Let’s do what’s on the page first, because it really works.’”
Franco shoots chronologically and leaves time in the schedule to reshoot scenes if he wants. “Usually it’s quick and we just shoot what’s on the web page. And if it really works, we just keep moving it because you have a limited amount of days and weeks to shoot. But usually, in shooting what’s on the web page, we — accidentally, or because of the way an actor interprets what’s written — discover something new, and I don’t do rehearsals beforehand, so everything is kind of shaped on the day. So we let it develop and rework, and often we do reshoots. A lot of what you see on screen are reshoots.”
“Continuous”
Courtesy of Wild Bunch Distribution/Everett Assortment
“I shoot my films in chronological order, so I put them together collectively, and on Saturdays, I’ll sit down – Jessica would always be there with me – and we’ll see what we’ve achieved. And we’d reshoot a lot. As a result, we might have new or better concepts or have a unique angle. I’ll never pretend that I know exactly what I’m doing, because that’s bullshit, you know. You depend on the weather, you depend on a lot of things.”
Reshooting scenes is always a choice for Franco. “Since we’re shooting in chronological order, I know I’m going to be going back to pretty much every location. Since I don’t shoot protection, it’s usually pretty quick. And when something isn’t working, I just let it sit. I don’t torture myself and others by exhausting the factor, you know. I just let it sit. And I’ll reflect on it, look at the footage and try to figure out why it wasn’t working. And then we reshoot. So you’re not wasting time just banging your head against the wall, so to speak.”
Franco is serving as a mentor to younger European filmmakers at Karlovy Differ who were chosen for the Future Frames program, and he used his second feature film “After Lucia” as an example of how he navigated the challenges of making films at an entry level in his profession, and how that film led to the creation of “Continual.” He explains that he didn’t go to film school, but found it in making short films, which — by necessity — he had to finance himself, and that not much has changed. “I still feel very, very much like the same filmmaker I was when I was making the short films, in a lot of ways. I didn’t go to film school, unlike all these people, so I had to fight for it in a different way, without realizing it. I was the writer, director, producer, usually the photographer. I shot on film, because it was ’99 or something. I would take the film stock to the lab. So I kind of went into it without any consideration that if you want to make a film, you have to do everything. And that way has stuck with me all the way through school until now. That’s why I still do almost everything. I work with amazing people, but I never put the faith of my film in anyone else’s hands. I’m always the writer and the main producer. And I’ll never stop. I would never force a film to wait for an actor or anything like that. I just shoot what I have to shoot.
“So I would try to tell the younger people this: don’t put off a movie for 12 months because you’re looking for more money from more countries, because, you know, then you definitely don’t know if COVID is coming or not. Just make the movie and then make another one. Keep it simple, which is rarely the case. It’s so hard to make movies. People often think that money is so important, and often money gets in the way of a good movie.”
“New order”
Courtesy of Neon/Everett Assortment
Franco says his temperament at the time impacts the kind of films he then makes. He cites the troubled experience of making “New Order,” which led to “Sunset.” “I went through three or four very difficult years. Making ‘New Order’ put me deeper into that personal disaster, because it was such a difficult factor that I didn’t know if I could do it. And ‘Sunset’ came positively from that disaster… from that existentialist film that I made. But then I made ‘New Order’ and ‘Sunset,’ and I felt good about them. And I was in a better place in my life, professionally and also personally. I was more relaxed about life as a normal person.”
That optimistic temperament, in turn, led to “Reminiscence,” which he was inclined to make as a revenge thriller, but his sister, Victoria Franco, convinced him not to go down that dark path.
“She kind of challenged me. She said, ‘This is easy for you, since you’ve accomplished this kind of thing before.’ And that’s why that was my first automated kind of place to go. And she was right. She’s pretty much the only person I listen to. I’ve talked to a lot of people, in this case Jessica and Peter, or if I’m working with Tim, you know, but my sister comes before anyone else because it’s early in the process. And also, as we talked about before, I was in a different mood. I was like, Yeah, I really don’t want to go to that totally dark place. Not because I’m afraid of it, you know, I’ve accomplished this before. But precisely because I could make better use of my emotional gift, you know?”
“Sunset”
Courtesy of Bleecker Avenue Media/Everett Assortment
The viewer is an active participant in Franco’s films, as he interprets and forms his own vision of them.
“I feel like the hardest thing to do is to provide viewers with an experience that is… where the filmmaker shouldn’t be expressing concepts in an absolute way, you know, there’s room for interpretation. And the characters aren’t going to be like good and bad. A great drama should be something where every actor in the film and in every scene is true and wrong at the same time, and if you’ve achieved that, as an author, and the actors are suited to interpret that, it’s a much more compelling experience for viewers, because then there’s room for… you know, it becomes something more subjective, rather than just saying this is right, this is wrong.”