Q&A with Robert Eggers and Gregory Crewdson

Robert Eggers on Nosferatu, the importance of theatre, and the joy of collaboration.
Part of Yale MFA Photo's Pop-up Q&A series via zoom, which started in response to online learning during the 2020 pandemic.

[@nonsequitur9332]

i like robert eggers already; he didn't seem able to be able to resist sharing with us some of his foibles and flaws eg being "a bit snobby" et al, and that's so incredibly endearing...

[@jamescerne]

I've watched 3 of these, Swinton, Blanchett and now Eggers and every single one of them mentioned Tartovsky

[@kyleplatz3751]

Beautifully concise questions. The greatest contemporary filmmaker in my opinon.

[@oscarsueiro6935]

Thanks for sharing this interview! It would be a great extra feature for the blu-ray edition of The Lighthouse, for example. Greetings from Barcelona.

[@magicsammy1]

Please keep uploading these! I love them and am really getting a lot from these conversations!

[@mhd1442]

Man it's such a bummer that Robert couldn't start production for his movie...

[@eobard1328]

yeah!

[@tonywords6713]

its still happening

[@theboss297]

Officially filming now!

[@mhd1442]

@@theboss297 I know, so excited ! The cast is insane

[@jiquenohnson]

lol

[@zhutch91]

I knew this would be coming and im so glad he was able to be able to be interviewed for this series. Any thoughts on trying to have Yorgos Lanthimos interviewed at some point? Would love to find out if NIMIC will get a release ever.

[@rhysroberts515]

Nimic is on Vimeo

[@mariammh9944]

It’s playing on Mubi this month

[@ryangransden]

40:36

[@J.Street.48]

My boi glitched

[@shivampunia]

I dunno why i laughed soo hard!!😂😂😂😂

[@dirkthedaring5131]

Love him or hate him he’s spitting straight facts

[@srinivassridhar5151]

😂😂😂😂 it went on forever

[@atticmichael]

What the hell?!?! How did I miss this? Crewdson talking to Eggers? Is this real life?

[@eobard1328]

Loved how demure Robert is!

[@rafaelfonsecaaugusto3438]

Love the movies and now even more!

[@musicformala]

I love this guy!

[@philippococktube]

format reminds me of the 'set questions' finale of inside the actors studio.

[@ismaeloliveira6624]

Eu simplesmente gosto tanto do Eggers

[@ethanguest6762]

40:38 Robert had a fucking stroke jesus christ

[@tonywords6713]

very interesting questions

[@nonsequitur9332]

the 2nd question from the lady in black - aka do you really need to be so snooty as a filmmaker and why does going back to old forms makes a film today snooty? - fucking brilliant.

[@brvndxxxn]

Marvelous

[@lilbigman777]

12:20

[@srinivassridhar5151]

What book does he mention about the Vikings?

[@AnaVerona_]

Genius!

[@ScottSullivanTV]

Terrible interviewer. Seemed so uninterested. Never built upon what Eggers said with lead-up questions. He just read a list of basic questions he prepared ahead of time.

[@jamescerne]

the idea of this series is that he asks different people the same list of questions. its not an interview its a questionnaire.

[@AJo-wd2ni]

@@jamescerne even if it's a questionnaire you'd think the interviewer could at least respond to the interesting, thoughtful answers Eggers is giving though! It pains me how harsh those transitions are, especially when Eggers is giving vulnerable, personal answers and the interviewer just pivots to the next question

[@sunnygreenings4840]

Gregory--I like your questions. Your like or dislike of certain directors seems to come across in your tone and face. As a professional, can you work on this? It makes the viewer uncomfortable (not to mention Ari Aster).

[@bholl6546]

Love the painstaking historical realism, but he loses me with magical realism. I think insanity and deceit are scary enough without hamfisted tentacles and floating teenagers.

[@beningalls6678]

“Magical realism” You mean to say that the magic isn’t realistic enough? Bruh

[@FalseH3]

Hamfisted? Seems like great incorporation to me. The lore he takes from and the fear of the imagination of the people of those times are so much more interesting to see on screen than “nothing but a crazy guy”. To each their own but it always comes across as so snobby to me when people say things like this. Every film doesn’t need to be grounded around reality. That’s part of the enjoyment they provide lol. The new to film school, hard core atheist, hipster can never enjoy anything magical, religious, fantasy, etc because it’s not real has got to be one of the most sad ways to go through life.

[@bholl6546]

As a literary fiction style, magic realism paints a realistic view of the modern world while also adding magical elements, often dealing with the blurring of the lines between fantasy and reality.

[@bholl6546]

I mean, you don’t need to resort to ad hominem attacks on me as an individual based on my opinion. Your opinion is valid, too. I just think horror is best left to the mind to fill in the blanks. I appreciate the practical effects but it just didn’t do it for me.

[@tonywords6713]

To them it is as real as the wind or the waves. I appreciate an artist that recognizes this and doesnt feel the need to "wink" to the self satisfied modern audience members.

[@mincha3789]

So far I can see, the most comments on YT about Mr Eggers cinematography are glorifying his art. Perhaps I am one of the few that actually dislike it. Mr Eggers is definitely under influence of Bergman and moreover Tarkovsky. But there is a striking difference: in an interview 2001 Bergman calls for “having a content and message in movies, not only technical execution” when talking what is missing in the contemporary cinema; and Tarkovsky says: “The artist is a being who strives (but not in secret or in hiding, nor moving in circles, nor in the spaciousness of some hind of ecological niche) to master ultimate truth. The artist masters that truth every time he creates something perfect, something whole.” Mr Eggers however, fails in both, in my opinion. There are technicalities that make his movies look interesting and almost photographic, as painting. Unfortunately, the content is missing, an urgent need for telling the truth is missing. The folktales are usually having both: content, point and truth. There are none in both Vvitch nor Lighthouse. Full of fake spirituality, Mr Eggers creates a “horror”, but contentless. Interesting enough, much more real horror one can except in the Romanian film “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, without music and without sound effects Mungiu creates a true tale that is both horror, having message, telling truth, … Music in Vvitch is somehow better adapted (yet it is NOT a music), and badly enough in Lighthouse it is totally subordinate to the movie. It is not what Tarkovsky would ever do. Finally, the appearance of Mr Eggers makes me suspicious, being in black with some “secrets” is just tasteless: his movies examines Christianity as a vanity, and his obsession with sacrifice, death and sex is similar to any of occult groups such as OTO or Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn. In his movies, the light is not the Eternal Light of God, but Lucifer; Thomasin’s renunciation of God in the last minutes are Biblical, child sacrifice and cold death in the final scene of Lighthouse is just cheap and vulgar. I wouldn’t imagine Bergman nor Tarkovsky saying about this movie anything than “disgraceful”. My guessing though. For me it looks that Mr Eggers falls somewhere in between: he has not yet sold his soul to Hollywood neither making movies that have content and message. The next movies will decide.

[@IJohnSmith]

how do you feel about Ari Aster or Oz Perkins?

[@phantasmagorical4422]

@MIN CHA I love people like you that have to rip people in pieces like this. I see why you don't like it, but it's because you don't understand his art. He also does his research so it's not fake spirituality. His scenes do have content. The vast landscapes and wide shots have meaning, they set the atmosphere most importantly the ambiance.

[@usurperstears]

Found the christian critic

[@natcat1387]

We are still yet to find out, as you say. I think comparing his efforts to Tarkovsky or Bergman is a bit simplicistic and slghtly intellectually lazy. He is probably more inspired by gothic writers, such as HP Lovecraft and filmmaker such as Tarr and Epstein - especially when you look at how he harnesses the chiaroscuro of the late Weimar cinema. You can t accuse The Lighthouse of lack of depth either - you could say the same about Lynch's Lost Highway, highly driven by technicality and sound but it would be a travesty to say so. To me, Eggers movies to date are about identity, and what happens when it is stripped away and we have a choice of who to become. Let's not knock him at this stage as he is clearly going places.

[@chenougaaicha4352]

@MIN CHA This is the second Time i find this comment on an Eggers interview,leave him alone ! And calm down the Guy Just made two movies,he has a long road ahead,and he deserves more encouragement and recognision for avoiding to make dumb passable movies,instead he,along with Aster and Jordan peele are a breath of fresh air,to judge him so early on is a little nasty,it's sad to be so critical,and i consider it a sin to compare a Guy who made only two feature films to Tarkovsky or Bergman but At the same time,a little flatering, but please leave him alone.