Damien Chazelle: “Basically, I did not contacted Ryan Gosling for La Land, but for First Man”
The director details the creation of his Neil Armstrong biopic.
On this Monday evening, France 3 will rebroadcast First man. To wait, we are republishing this interview with director Damien Chazelle. Happy reading!
Interview of October 21, 2018: After La la Landchange of register for Ryan Gosling and Damien Chazelle, who collaborate again First man, Neil Armstrong’s biopic, the first man to have worked on the Moon in 1969. Last June, on the occasion of the broadcast of his first trailer which promised a tense thrillerthe director told us a little more about this project which he actually developed long before shooting his musical which was a great success.
First Man: Ryan Gosling wins the Moon (critic)
First: the trailer of First Man seems to play with the codes of the thriller when we know that the mission has succeeded.
Damien Chazelle: What interested us was to show how dangerous this goal was. It was crazy! We know that the mission was a success, that these men really walked on the moon, but we wanted to bring the public back at that time when traveling in space was an extremely risky bet. The astronauts had to solve the problems little by little, they launched a crazy bet without having all the answers. I wanted to tell that from someone who was there. How did they do it? How much did it cost them? The more research I was doing on the subject, the more stunned by the dangerousness of this project. The level of technology, at the time … The fact that these men agreed to risk their lives, that they were leaving in the unknown …
Is that why video is mainly happening on Earth?
Yes, and also because we keep the images of the moon for later …
This choice to show the personal life of astronauts and their important physical and mental preparation recalls the classics of astronauts film, as Hero’s etofe (from Philip Kaufman, 1983) or Apollo 13 (Ron Howard, 1993). You had reference movies for First Man ?
For La la Landwe had multiple references in mind, such as the musicals of Jacques Demy, but for First Manwe did not leave films on space. We have seen a lot of documentaries on the subject, especially those made at the time of the feat. The astronauts tried to show what they saw. They filmed their expedition, even if it was with technology then. As we wanted to follow Neil’s point of view, it was important to immerse yourself in all of this. And there is obviously the video of his first steps on the Moon, which marked so many people. We saw a lot of docus from the 1960s, like the classics of the Maysles brothers, who advocated the ‘Cinema Truth’. Or those of the ethnologist Jean Rouch. We were inspired by all this, adding an energy, an epic breath, because we also thought our film as a pure thriller. A bit like French Connectionwhich is a film that is both perpetually under tension and highly documented.
First man: let’s untangle the true of the false in the biopic of Neil Armstrong
Have you participated in writing? You are credited as a director, but not a scriptwriter, while so far you’ve written all your films.
It’s Josh Singer (Spotlight, Pentagon Papers) Who wrote the script. We collaborated together, we talked a lot about the project, but it was the first time that I left the script to another author. And I loved working this way! It was incredible to immerse yourself in the archives. We started to develop First Man Four or five years ago, it was well before I turned La la Land. I called him for his journalist side, precisely. He is someone who loves to do research, who searches, overlaps the news … We obviously feel that in Spotlight (Investigation film Oscar winner in 2016, editor’s note), and that’s exactly what I was looking for First Man. It was crucial to understand Neil’s personality and the reality of that time. Thanks to Josh’s work, I think we were able to show the 1960s in a new light, in a little seen in the cinema. It goes a lot through details, and that’s why we looked at so many documentaries. To be just. So no, I didn’t write this film, but we really collaborated, exchanged ideas. And it was so involved that he attended the shooting. He was pointing to details, it helped us a lot.
The magazine People unveiled the first photos of First Man And revealed that you had offered this film to Ryan Gosling before La la Landbecause it was according to you “The perfect actor” To play Neil Armstrong because he “Little spoke, developed a methodical concentration and calm heroism “. Can you tell us more?
Yes, it’s true. Irony, La la Land was released before, but at the base, I did not contain Ryan for this film. I didn’t think about him at all for a musical. In my head, La la Landit was not for him! I first offered him First ManI thought it would be the perfect Neil Armstrong. We met, I pitched my ideas for him, it was thrilled by the project, but as it took a while, I was preparing my musical with Justin in parallel (Hurwitz, its regular composer, see below ). We talked about the life of astronauts, from the 1960s, and in the middle of the conversation, he asked me: ‘I heard that you were working on a musical?’so I told him about La la Land. And a few months later, we ended up collaborating on this film (following the departure of Miles Teller, who was first committed to the role, editor’s note). I was almost surprised that he wanted to participate! I didn’t expect it, but I don’t regret anything. It was an incredible experience, I feel terribly lucky to have experienced this.
Besides, if First Man has nothing to do with La la Landyou have called back to most of your employees.
Absolutely. I found Justin, obviously, with whom I have been working from college, Tom Cross, who was also my editor on WhiplashLinus Sandgren, the director of the photo, Mary Zophres, who is responsible for costumes … It was natural, we are like a family. We work well together. I just like to work with them.
Concerning Justin, the musical proposal was very different from that of La la Land. There will be less jazz in this film (laughs). In fact, we share the same love of music. We don’t just think that she is important in our films, she is “At the heart” of our films. Of course, there is no musical number here, but music is a full -fledged character, who helps to plunge the public back into this time, and to create a certain tension. She does not only punctuate the story, she accompanies the character. It is a crucial nuance for us.
You opened La la Land with a huge scene in sequence plan where you were doing “to dance” The camera, then you reused this idea of staging several times during the film. What is your main technical challenge here?
It was to make this whole expedition realistic. Again, we wanted to give the film a documentary side, so it was out of the question to shoot on a green background, then to create everything in digital during the post-production. Even for scenes in space, it had to look true. We favored the close plans, the camera in the shoulder, it had to be close to the character, in motion. We recreated a 60’s environment, it was better for the actors and for the team in general. It was laborious, obviously, you had to take the time to do things well, go there step by step. So yes, it was a challenge, and it was very different from everything I could do before.
Interview by Elodie Bardinet (EB_PREM))
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