Director Olivier Assayas: 'Filmmaking can be learned in a few weeks' #iffr2017

The Jurriaanse zaal in de Doelen is the setting for a Masterclass by French filmmaker Olivier Assayas (1955), an old friend of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. His is the following typical quote: 'Filming the face of an actor is, in my opinion, the most powerful thing cinema is capable of. If the frame is right, if the words are right and if, as a director, you have ensured the right concentration, what can happen on an actor's face is absolutely magical.'

Sharp

Assayas is an actor director par excellence, he has worked with great actors such as Juliette Binoche, Jean Pierre Léaud, Maggie Cheung, Judith Godreche and now Kristen Stewart. I have been following Assayas since his earlier films as L'Eau Froide, Paris s'Eveille, Une Nouvelle Vie en Fin Aout, Debut Septembre. Apart from being an astute and sensitive filmmaker, his work often shows that he has his finger on the pulse of society.

Assayas is interviewed at the Doelen by Canadian programmer Robert Gray. Questions interspersed with film clips, which give a good insight into the diversity of Assayas's work. It is striking that Assayas talks as intensely and passionately as he films. Sometimes he stumbles over his words. The first excerpt is from one of his first and best films L'Eau Froide, about two rebellious adolescents growing up in the 1970s. Played by, among others, a very young (17 years old) Virginie Ledoyen. She would later become an established name in French cinema. Shot on a low budget, in a period of just 4 weeks. With no rehearsals, 'because I wanted to keep the acting fresh and spontaneous'.

Punk

Assayas says he was a poor student in high school; he was more interested in music, politics, poetry and films. The most exciting thing at the time was punk rock, mainly because of its enormous energy. The Frenchman whose father was a screenwriter, mainly for television, taught him the trade. He climbed up from 3^e director's assistant to 2^e assistant and did all kinds of jobs on the film set. At one point he thought 'fuck it' and started making low-budget short films himself. 'You have to dare to jump into the deep end'.

'What you need to know to make a film can be learnt in a few weeks. It's more about what you do with that knowledge and how you approach it. Gaining life experience is more important than knowing everything about film. As a filmmaker, I would like to be part of film history.'

Later, he went to Paris where he painted and studied French literature. There, he brushed up his knowledge of cinema at the Cinemathèque. He develops a liking for American cinema. The illustrious film magazine Cahiers du Cinema asks him to write for them. That is his gateway to cinema. Here, he writes about Bergman, Bresson and Tarkovsky, among others.

Maggie Cheung

Thus, he goes on many trips including to Hong Kong. He attends many film festivals, is also a regular visitor to IFFR and meets Maggie Cheung at the Venice Film Festival. He is inspired by the energy of Asia and falls in love with Cheung, who is a big star in Hong Kong. With her, he makes several films including Clean and Irma Vep , which also stars Francois Truffaut's alter ego Jean Pierre Léaud. Robert Gray rightly notes that Cheung and Léaud are more icons than actors. Later, Assayas would go on to make a film about Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao Hsien(HHH). Personal Shopper  according to him, is a film about solitude, a collision of the material with the spiritual. It is essential to seek connection with a non-materialistic world.

Psychodramas

It is noteworthy that apart from being a writer and director, Assayas also co-edits all his films. During the shooting period, he does not watch the rushes (unedited footage), because he wants to be sharp and alert on set. Assayas works in many different genres. HIj makes psychological dramas like Après Mai and Clouds of Sils Maria, but also filmed an ode to the vampire film Irma Vep. He recently made a TV series on Venezuelan revolutionary Sanchez. Now he is working on a screenplay for Roman Polanski called ''D'apres un Histore Vraie' hot. To questions from the audience afterwards, Olivier Assayas stressed that he feels it is very important to protect Independent filmmaking.