Tim Fehlbaum: “September 5 tells how the info was made in the analog world”
Meeting with the Swiss director, who revisits the 1972 Olympic tragedy in a captivating journalistic thriller.
No doubt because it was an eminently media event, broadcast live on TV and followed by millions of spectators around the world, the tragedy of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games – the hostage -taking and the assassination of Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terrorist commando – has always passionate cinema, from the Munich From Steven Spielberg to the Oscar -winning documentary One day in Septemberfrom Kevin Macdonald. In his film September 5the Swiss Tim Fehlbaum identifies the media coverage of the Munich massacre as the birth certificate of the continuous info, the opening of a Pandora’s box which contributed to shaping the world stuffed with images in which we live today ‘Hui. Meeting with a filmmaker who had hitherto illustrated himself in the Post-Apo SF (Hell,, The colony), named this year to the Oscar for the best scenario.
First: the tragedy of September 5, 1972 was already abundantly treated in the cinema. How did you come to want to tell it through the very specific point of view of the ABC Sport TV team, who covered it live?
Tim Fehlbaum: The answer is a bit in your question: precisely because it was a very precise point of view. I was of course familiar with the films that preceded me, in particular the documentary of Kevin Macdonald, which is one of the major influences of September 5. I discovered him in the cinema, as a teenager, and, in a way, he never left me. As a director, I asked myself the question: what has not yet been told about this story? The point of view of the media had not yet been completely dissected in my opinion, and it seemed to me all the more relevant to look at this question today. Our research on the subject led us to Geoffrey Mason, the character played by John Magaro in the film, who told us what it had mean, for him and the ABC Sport teams, to pass without screaming ‘A program on the Olympic Games on the cover lively of a political crisis of primary importance. His testimony was crucial in the construction of our film.
You say that this story has never left you …
Especially since I studied cinema in Munich. Where the ancient Olympic village was partly converted into a student housing complex. So I spent a lot of time there. Apprentice filmmakers of the city are used to shooting their first short films, because architecture is very interesting. We were of course all aware that it was the place where the tragedy had taken place, that such a balcony was the one we see in the famous photo of the terrorist carrying a hood … But it was only after my film ,, The colonythat I finally felt capable of confronting myself on this subject.
The thesis of your film is that the idea of continuous info was born in Munich on September 5, 72. We feel completely passionate about the analog factory of images…
It is true that there is real attention to the concrete details of the manufacture of images in September 5. But it is not a visual gimmick, nor the sign of a retro-maniac fascination, it is a key element to treat one of the subjects of the film: the way in which technology influences the production of information, so The way we look at the world. Today, we can create images instantly with our phones, and share them just as instantly with the rest of the world. At the time, it was necessary to reserve a niche on the satellite network … The idea was to make people understand and feel the concrete manufacture of information to the contemporary public. “The medium is the message,” said Marshall McLuhan. This idea is at the heart of our film.
Your film is very factual, very concrete, the characters advance without turning around, and you let the spectator answer himself the big questions you ask when leaving the room …
Exactly. And this for two reasons. The first is that I do not know the answers to all the questions posed by the film myself. These are real dilemmas. The second reason is that Geoffrey Mason himself could not answer it that day. The events were linked and time was counted.
Shortly after One day in SeptemberKevin Macdonald made the film State of Playwhich is one of the references of the modern journalistic thriller, a genre to which belongs September 5…
Believe it or not, I saw again State of Play Two days ago! And I was finally able to meet Kevin Macdonald, to whom I wrote to tell him that I was preparing September 5 And that his documentary was a huge source of inspiration for me. You are right: my film is completely in this vein of journalistic thriller at the State of Play. That said, I find that what is really new and original in September 5it is that these are sports reporters who find themselves covering this crisis. A few hours earlier, they filmed the swimmer Mark Spitz receiving his seventh gold medal … In my eyes, it gives his singularity to the film, it distinguishes him within this long tradition of Newroom Drama.
September 5from Tim Fehlbaum, with John Magaro, Peter Sarsgaard, Ben Chaplin… currently in the cinema.
