Mathieu Kassovitz was among the guests of the 44th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival, which took place from November 13 to 22. He was there with the Nicolas Giraud’s astronaut team. This film in international competition had also had a great success with the Egyptian public, who had loved his message carrying hope and encouraging always trying with all his might to realize his dreams, as crazy as they can appear.
It was during a master class moderate by the director and managing director of the Amir Ramses festival, that Mathieu Kassovitz answered the questions which had been asked by spectators and various admirers.
As a director, you are very inspiring. You have a particular style.
I am a director who has become an actor. My father was a director, my riding mother. I was born in the movies. My father was a very strict director. He used the camera to say things, not just to tell.
When I was 12 he had shown me the film The teeth of the sea (1975) by Steven Spielberg, who had impressed me. Then he said to me: “Look at the film, try to analyze it, to understand how it was done, why it frightened you and why is it a masterpiece? ».
This is how I realized that everything was about the movement of the camera. The director tried to tell people that the shark was there, but that was not the case, which led him to create a masterpiece. A good movie makes you think. This film inspired me. You have to believe that the public is intelligent, you shouldn’t show it everything, you must above all suggest.
Turn a film is like playing sports. Each time we try to outdo ourselves.
And as an actor? How do you want to play with completely different directors of you?
The thing is that I am not an actor-director. I am a director.
I love directors and each time one of them calls me and I find it inspiring, I say yes and I go. I just finished a film and I noticed that the director was not interested in the camera and that he was paying attention only to the actors and filmed very simply, it seemed weird, but I respect. Each director must make his film as he sees fit.
Play in Amélie Poulain’s fabulous fate (2001) with Jean-Pierre Jeunet and in Munich (2005) with Steven Spielberg were highlights of my career. I knew Jeunet, I knew his work. He had sent me the script and I loved it. Very well written. As for Steven Spielberg, my whole life was around him and his films, then one day he called me. Damn, I can see this guy working! It was like standing right next to a heavyweight boxer!
In truth, I like the actors, but I don’t like being an actor. An actor is like a toy, a puppet, you are there and you accept what you are asked, it is neither interesting nor mentally stimulating. I feel completely empty when I play. I feel like I spoil my life. I love being a director, it’s harder, more enriching.
Tell us a bit about your movie Hatred ::
Hatredwhich takes place in the Parisian suburbs, had shocked viewers in 1995. Since then, no one has done something like that either. I was waiting for a film that would make me say: Oh shit, it’s different. It starts now, because people who were children when it was released are now movies. Like Romain Gavras, who made Athena (2022). It’s the same energy.
I’m lucky because thanks to this film, I no longer need to work. I am a legend. The less I do, the better I do, because each time I do something else, people say: it is not Hatred. I should just stop.
Athenaalthough it is a more powerful work than Hatredwill have less impact now. Indeed, if you make political films, you have to do them when things happen, otherwise you arrive too late. When we did Hatredno one knew these young people in the suburbs. It was not just a film: it was information.
When you make a film, you must already know the end, to know where to go. For example for HatredI knew these kids would be killed. And the whole film was to show who these kids who were killed were. And that’s what makes the film interesting.
What do you think of today’s cinema?
For me the magic of cinema has disappeared. I come from an era when a director sees what he turned three days later. Then, with the technicians, they had to find solutions to correct the colors, the shadows…. Today, we can do all this including with an iPhone. Before there were challenges to take up, there was difficulty. Before, sometimes because of the light, there was a single take to take before this light changed. Today we can artificially create the lights. What interest? The technology has spoiled the work of the filmmaker, everyone can make beautiful images in an artificial way, almost effortless.
Athenapresented in Venice in September, is a Netflix production. What do you think of these platforms?
The platforms are great, it helps young creators. But it is not cinema. Cinema must be seen in theaters. What we see on platforms are films, that we can see on a PC, an iPhone, a tablet … In the cinema, there is a communion, magic.
Which made the success and the strength of Hatredis that it was necessary to go to the cinema to see it. When everyone was shocked by the end, they started talking about it. If you are shocked at home, who is concerned?
Without forgetting that once you know that it will not be on the big screen, you let yourself go. Irishman (2019) by Martin Scorsese is a shit film. It’s long and boring.
It is true that platforms also make good films, but I would not work for them. I would love that these people come to tell me that they would give me $ 10 million to make a film, then an additional $ 100 million for the budget, and I would like to say to them: “Go make you fuck, no, I wouldn’t do it, it’s not cinema and I don’t prostitute myself”.
But don’t applaud! If they offer me that, I will do it!
Neïla Driss
