The Misanthrope on TF1: Damián Szifrón recounts his thriller inspired by Seven and The Silence of the Lambs
We met the director of New Savages during the release of his thriller starring Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn.
Three years ago, Damián Szifrón made a remarkable comeback with The Misanthropebroadcast for the first time unencrypted this Sunday evening on TF1. The Argentine director confided in First.
But where had he gone? We had lost track of the gifted Argentinian since The New Savagesa bloody and jubilant farce that has become over time a small cult object. Surprise : Misanthrope (or even our review) hits the screens this month without warning. A violent and spectacular thriller, carried by two insane actors, Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn, who made us want to take stock with the filmmaker.
First: Damián, ten years apart…
Damián Szifrón: No, no, no. Nine years in fact. The New Savagesit was Cannes 2014!
OK: nine years apart The New Savages of Misanthrope. Why did we have to wait so long to see your new film?
Let’s just say things didn’t go as planned. I worked on a first Hollywood project which didn’t come to fruition and then the pandemic happened. We launched the production of Misanthrope in 2020 and a few days later, Covid forced us to stop everything. I then returned to Argentina. I waited a year before going back to filming and… anyway. Nine years goes by quickly. To be honest, I’m not the type of filmmaker obsessed with filming. Above all, I need to be in love with my subject. But I would have liked to make more films. I would like to do more.
What happened after the release of New Savages ?
There was the presentation at Cannes and the marathon to the Oscars and the Baftas. After that, I received a lot of offers from many American and European studios. I had to ask myself to find out what I really wanted to do. I then started my company. I started writing again and looking for new ideas. Because deep down, that’s what I prefer: the moment of creation. Develop a story from the first blank page to the final script.
Given the success, did you immediately think about going to Hollywood?
I was open to the idea of making the next film in English. Stories can be adapted to all languages, to all cultures. But I wasn’t dying to go to LA either
However, at the time of New Savagesyou emphasized your American references…
Yes. Because I grew up with this cinema. Seven or eight of my ten favorite films of all time are American. But Hollywood no longer knows how to make these films. I’m talking about the 70s masterpieces of Coppola, Spielberg, De Palma or Scorsese, those of Alan J. Pakula or William Friedkin. And Sidney Lumet. I like their realism, their intelligence, the themes they tackle. But today, no one is able to do that anymore. There are only franchises, blockbusters or festival films. Nothing left in the middle. Back then, directors had more freedom and the industry listened to them. Today…
But you still agreed to make The man who was worth three billion with Mark Whalberg…
Because it was the project I wanted to do! We had written a real 70s thriller, but which took place in the present day. A modern version ofBecause of an assassination or President’s Men. It was edgyincorrect, even provocative. I had imagined a 21st century Steve Austin. Honestly, I would have loved it to happen. The film was being developed at the Weinstein Company and, when what you know happened, we were forced to look for another studio. Warner took over the project and from there, the “creative differences” multiplied. I think it stuck because I had a really atypical villain in mind. And I quickly understood that they were not going to produce the film that I wanted to film and that I could not direct the film that they wanted to produce. There was no point in persisting. For MisanthropeI did everything to have total freedom from the start. Final cut, creative control… I take 100% responsibility for this film.
It can be seen: the serial killer of Misanthrope could be a character from New Savages. We even think of a little brother of Gabriel Pasternak (the “hero” of the first sketch)…
Ah ha. No spoilers! But I love this idea. The films are indeed very linked. No doubt because these two stories emerge from the freest zone of my imagination. It is always about catharsis, revenge and destruction and I think that our Western society is a prison which destroys our sensitivity and tarnishes human relationships. Misanthrope was also nourished by my first American experience. I discovered another way of thinking about cinema which depressed me a little. It probably fueled the tone of the film. Even though I had started thinking about the story long before The New Savages.
In what form?
It all started with the invisible threat. I had in mind this guy who shoots from the darkness, whose identity we don’t know, with whom we can’t negotiate and who doesn’t ask for anything in particular – unlike Scorpio in Inspector Harry For example. This mystery, this incomprehensible strangeness fascinated and excited me. It was just an idea, which I developed without really knowing what I was going to do with it. After a while, I wanted to make a thriller. Starting with the killer. But I quickly understood that this idea of a tangible threat frightened the studios a little. Tension and suspense are, in today’s imagination, only linked to horror or the supernatural. We produce films about the devil, about extraterrestrial species, but the real danger has been a long time since I saw it in the cinema.
So the first image of the film is this killer?
Yes, as well as the couple of investigators with, on one side, the young, inexperienced cop and, on the other, the older, more authoritarian chief. Their relationship, their trajectory, their emotions interested me. When I write a screenplay, I also draw (he pulls out a script covered in little colorful scribbles) and the first film-related drawing I sketched was a hurricane, a spiral that swallows everything. Misanthropethat’s it for me: a storm that hits the city (the serial killer) and certain characters who will choose to jump, to dive into the eye of the storm.
With its very dark picture, its serial killer and its young, inexperienced heroine, the film is reminiscent of many thrillers from the 90s. Was that what you were looking for?
It’s paradoxical, because for me this period is an artistic black hole. Most films of the time sought to be “modern”, apart from Seven Or The Silence of the Lambs – the two main inspirations of Misanthrope. They, in their storytelling, belong more to the cinema of the 70s and 80s. I like classic cinema. I like classical language. Chasing modernity has never been my goal. Moreover, the modern side of New Savages which I heard a lot about at the time of release, is mainly due to the concept of an anthology. But inside, each sketch is very classic. The law of the strongest was conceived as a western, while Until death do us part is a pure comedy. There is drama, melodrama, comedy: I have never sought to reinvent the language of cinema.
What exactly does the genre give you?
It doesn’t bring me anything, it defines me. The western, the thriller, the comedy are written in my DNA, they capture my imagination. I’ll take an example: I speak Spanish in a certain way, with an accent and particular expressions. Well it’s the same for cinema! But beyond language, gender also has a very noble aspect, because it says something specific about the human species. It is not just a structure that allows us to tell stories, it is also the nature of stories themselves, the reflection of our experiences. Cinema must capture this.
Is that where your obsession with characters and those moments when we see them come to life on screen comes from? I love these downtimes where we watch the heroine alone at home, the dinner with her superior…
The writer Aldous Huxley once said: “ Sometimes it’s more interesting to watch a hero rest than to see him in the middle of the action. » It’s more poetic and it says a lot about the character. Watching Superman sleep, for example, is fantastic! Cinema in the 70s did this a lot. Take Clint Eastwood’s films, especially those where he plays a cop. There are often low moments. Eastwood comes home, puts on a record, feeds his dog. I grew up watching these movies and I always wanted to be that guy. Being this tough guy who listens to jazz, goes home at midnight and pours himself a drink, even though he spent the day tracking down a serial killer. I wanted this for Misanthrope.
It’s these kinds of moments that allow the film to truly infuse and impregnate the viewer…
Exactly. You walk into a movie, and two hours later you come out with a changed state of mind. Some great films invite the audience to reflect on their lives, sometimes even leading to them making decisions. I remain convinced that the truth that emerges from good films can help transform the world in which we live. We cannot be satisfied with cinema to learn about life, but it is a good way to achieve a certain balance.
