He is the son of a non-commissioned officer, he lived in the Madagascar military base for two years. It is this childhood that the director evokes Red Island, a film where the intimate is intertwined with the political. He indulged in our “autopromo” interview game.
“We’re ready for anything to make a movie, except when it comes out.”
Is it bad luck talking about myself in a promo?
To make a film, we are ready for anything except its release and our exposure.
In what? Red Island does it resonate in my life?
after 120 beats per minute , I once told a story to my co-screenwriter Gilles Marchand. when i lived in madagascar i went out to a military base one night masquerading as fantomet. It started with this memory, which triggered a cycle that had been running through my head for a long time.
I realized that my childhood was conditioned by France’s geopolitical strategy. we went where the country had interests.
Robin Campillo
What I wanted to say.
From the last fires of post-colonialism, from the illusions of military families. We lived almost in a vacuum, not really seeing what it meant Malagasy people. After we left, I idealized this time, but felt that my vision was falsified. I had never been back there, definitely didn’t feel legitimate. I could do it only through cinema, trying to give back to the country what it gave me or what it took from it.
What did I learn from this movie?
I understood that my childhood was conditioned by France’s geopolitical strategy: we went where the country had interests. All my films in some way speak to the fear of a sedentary lifestyle, which is the worst curse of the military families I grew up with.
My state of mind on the set.
I was fascinated to find the places as I had left them, as if they were waiting for me for a movie. There was something almost spectral about this base, every corner of which I knew as a child.
Shooting secret.
The ring that the young hero gives to his mother is really the ring that my father drew and that I gave to my mother when I was a child.
“I am also trying to be more alert. what I can say doesn’t always affect me”
I lie in an interview.
The lie is smooth. The search for truth makes me happier.
Wooden tongue or too loose?
Too free. I sometimes fear repetition and watering it down to the point where everything sounds empty. I also try to be more alert. what I can say doesn’t always affect me.
An opinion that made me happy.
I have read few of them, positive or negative, they create deep existential crises in me. But sometimes they help me. after Ghosts, one reviewer wrote that the film lacks tempo changes. I was amazed at how right he was, and I took that into account as I wrote Eastern guys.
Each revelation raises more dizzying questions
Robin Campillo
Still the holy fire.
More than before. I think it is in science. each discovery raises more dizzying questions.
If I were on the other side, I would interview…
Viola Davis. He performs without acting, with a rage, strength and relish that makes him magnetic. It’s like he comes with his own world but never overcomes his personality. She reminds me of Delphine Seyrig or Jeanne Moreau. I would ask him two questions. How should the dialogue between filmmakers and actors develop? And does he want to read my next script?
What am I going to do after this interview?
Go to Beaubourg Library to write. Because I feel like I’m being watched and others are producing, I really get to work.
Red IslandWith Robin Campillo, Nadia Tereskevic, Quim Gutierrez… Released on May 31.
Source: Le Figaro
