Masterclass Ari Aster - Champs-Elysées Film Festival 11e édition

Découvez la masterclass du réalisateur Ari Aster lors de la 11e édition du festival
0:15 : What is your first memory of cinema?
1:58 : What kind of film lover were you as a child? What movies did you watch and love?
6:53 : How did this love for movies turn into the desire to become a director? Can you pinpoint a specific moment when it all started?
9:40 : What kind of scripts did you write when you were younger ? I believe that you used to write scripts derived from the films you would watch: if you watched a gangster movie you would write a gangster movie script etc…
13:07 : Concerning your short films you mention “The Johnsons” which is a sort of blend between Douglas Sirk and John Waters, “Munchausen” which is a sort of live-action pixar, “The Turtle’s Head” which a sort of genre-transforming neo-noir. What’s interesting about your short films is that they comment on cinema as a medium, and cinema codes. I would like to know what you have learned about these codes by playing with them?
19:45 : In “Hereditary” the theme of dioramas and doll houses were a way of imaging a concept that is essential in your cinema: the quest for artifice and theatricality. What do you like about it?
25:17 : What are the first questions you ask yourself when it comes to directing and how to cut a film scene?
33:51 : Do you think that your films require a specific type of actor or actress?
38:11 : You once said the most personal things you write, you write during periods of crisis, and that you write in order to get out of them. To what extent do your films help you to put a distance between your films and yourself ?
42:24 : I’m someone who gets bored easily but despite “Midsommars”’s almost 3 hours runtime, I was totally immersed from beginning to end, and since you said you work a lot more on the aestheticism of the film rather than the rhythm, I wanted to know your secret for drawing me into movies that are so long and slow, even though I’m someone who needs things to be fast-paced
45:23 : If someone told you you could never be a good romantic comedy director, would you say you would do it anyway, and make the best romantic comedy in the world? Also have you seen the movies of Claude Chabrol?
48:26 : What is your perspective on the evolution of horror films from the 80s-90s until today and on elevated horror, of which you are a precursor?
51:42 : The long runtimes have become synonymous with your cinema. Do you consider runtime to be a brake or something constraining or on the contrary, are you trying to find balance between aestheticism and a concise story in order to make it fit into a feature film format?
56:32 : Last year I watched s great documentary about Bjorn Andersen called “The Most Beautiful in the World”. I wanted to know how you found out about him and convinced him to act in “Midsommar”? The documentary talks about how he dealt with the dark side of success after he starred in “Death in Venice” and I feel like his scenes in Midsommar are so iconic that you generated a renewed interest in this actor.
1:00:10 : You talked about how rigid and normative Hollywood could be. Do you think having studied at AFI is why you don’t want to take part in big productions and prefer working with independent producers such as A24? Would you like to work with bigger productions one day?

[@onniex]

Hearing Ari reflect on the things he wishes he could've managed better on Hereditary and Midsommar is very interesting.

[@hiddentreasure1]

I was in the room. Ari was very tired because of jetlag. He was postproding "Beau is Afraid" but we weren't allowed to ask any question about it. You can see that his answer were very short and that he took a hell of a lot of time to answer each question. He answered "I don't know" to many questions. At one point he even said "I'm tired". At the end, I heard many people in the audience said they were disappointed by the fact that Aster wasn't very talkative but at least he took time to take photos with his fans.

[@whoyougot2998]

Situations like this where a translator has to communicate between the question and the subject, then also translate for the audience, its just not practical. He is human and isn't going to be at his best every time he's involved in the media, but for the most part I think he answered the questions well enough.

[@flylesslobbies-9663]

can anyone translate the questions asked

[@dylana.9057]

What's your first memory of cinema ? What types of movies did u like , what type did u go see when u were young ? Will translate more