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Co-Writers/Co-Directors Félix Dutilloy-Liégeois &
Marguerite de Hillerin and Actor João Arrais talk to Fest Track about creatives choices, navigating the nuances of a different era and the fine line between curiosity and commitment. in regards to their film "A Crianca" playing the Tiger Competition section at the 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

#ACrianca #FilmInterview #RotterdamFilmFestival #IFFR22 #FestTrack
Transcript
00:08Muzica
00:28I have a sense of the opposite.
00:31I have to go from a prison for another prison.
00:36Jo, as Bella, you know, each of these scenes, like, you know, there's a scene with Branca that's very, very
00:43close, where, you know, you see her desire and your reaction.
00:48This happens with Rosa.
00:50This happens with, I believe, the character's Pierre, if I'm not mistaken, where you're both sitting in the woods talking
00:57and there's that tension.
00:59I mean, it's all about the temptation.
01:02I don't know how I find those moments, or how did we find those moments, but I don't know.
01:09We had, or I had some great colleagues, like Inej, Alba, Luik, they were amazing, so it was, like, kind
01:19of easy to work with them, with them somehow.
01:23Was there certain questions that you had about Bella that, you know, some truths that came through, because he's doing
01:29so many things?
01:30Because he has humility, but he also has ego, he has lust, and yet he has love.
01:37In feeling it in the moment, I just trust in them, literally.
01:41The only thing I did, I just completely and blindly trust in both of them, because I think they really
01:48knew what they wanted, and I just tried my best to bring it out.
01:53Because, I don't know, I just tried it to be like a little pawn on their chess game, so I
02:00just did what they asked me to do.
02:02So, I just tried my best to be in the moment, and to play it out the best I could.
02:31You know, I think it's the moment ideal for us to be part of both of them.
02:34It's too late for me to decide.
02:36It's already nothing, it's been a good time to wait for you.
02:39A Sylvia.
02:42The fault is not mine.
02:46The regions of the Brux are a little bit stronger every day.
02:48Where do you go?
02:49No, but tell us, dear Rami.
02:55You're full of mandates.
02:57Well, it's the best.
02:59I find it beautiful together.
03:00You're all good, I hope.
03:04Before I go back to Marguerite and Felix, I did want to ask you, you know, because you're in a
03:09different era.
03:10You know, people act differently, they move differently, they wear their clothes differently, they see their bodies differently.
03:16Could you talk about that?
03:17Because that's a big part of it.
03:18I think in Portugal, we do a lot of like old movies, like those type of movies where we wear
03:26those kind of dresses and we behave in a certain way.
03:29So I did a couple of them, so I'm kind of used to it, but I just have fun with
03:38it.
03:38I just try to have fun with it.
03:40We just, we dressed up different, I don't know.
03:45And we think we, at the beginning of the set for each actors, we asked to them to be not
03:57totally natural because they are playing, but to forget the costume, to find the more contemporary move.
04:08Also in the body, it was very important because we are the same age, same year, with Ines, we are
04:16the same generation.
04:17And it was, for us, it was important to not do, you know, a museum movie or a typical history
04:26movie because we want also to talk about not us, but the young generation also in confrontation with another generation.
04:38And so we asked also to the actor to forget the costume, for example, also we asked to Anna Lorena,
04:47she was a makeup artist, to not use makeup.
04:52So there are, there is just little thing to correct some things, but not, you know, a woman with a
05:03big makeup and men with big makeup.
05:06And so we, we, we, we try to, to find, you know, a kind of life and life from today
05:15also.
05:16Because we had this idea that the characters we were shooting, we wrote on paper, they may be that person,
05:27because they lived in the past.
05:29But the actors we had, they're very alive and that's, that, that, that was the material to work with, you
05:40know, in collaboration.
05:42And, but, you know, it was very important for us not to forget that, yes, we want to see when
05:51they blush and when they cry.
05:53Hi.
05:57O Afonso é magnífico.
06:01Eu aposto a minha vida que ele entrou nas ordens quase por acaso.
06:05Vê como ele deixa aquela mãe ficar a contemplá-lo.
06:09Ele não é assim tão doido para não perceber que ela está a gostar.
06:13É um sedutor.
06:21Eu vou partir com o Bela.
06:24Ele aceitou vir comigo.
06:29Quando?
06:31Assim que pudermos.
06:33O Bela disse que ia fechar um negócio até amanhã com um francês.
06:36E com isso arranjaria o dinheiro que nós precisamos.
06:39Porque nós tínhamos, like Machiavelli, we were talking about the garden, about there's an innocence of the people in the
06:46garden, but there's also a temptation that pulls them away.
06:50Could you talk about that?
06:52When we wrote, it was all about, yes, trying to see where is the limit in the relationship.
07:00So, that was part of the work, of course.
07:04And then it's very clear that every character has a dilemma.
07:10And so, therefore, they, you know, Rosa is in love with Bela, but she would like to go back to
07:18her homeland.
07:19So, it's a huge problem for her to choose between the two of those two things.
07:26Maria, she is in love with someone who's not there anymore.
07:31So, that's also a big dilemma.
07:34Bela has everything in his life to, you know, succeed and to be happy.
07:40And at the same time, he is maybe wishing for adventure or something different, but as he hasn't experienced any
07:48of those things, he can't know.
07:51And so, that's always the line in between what they know and what they don't know yet.
07:56But what their inspiration is guiding them through unknown tracks.
08:02And so, yes, I guess for Branca, it's the same as well.
08:08She is in love with someone who doesn't pay so much attention to her.
08:12So, at the same time, it's very simple.
08:16I mean, it's, it can happen to any of us.
08:21But, yes, in the work with the actor, it was all about, we talked a lot before shooting, actually.
08:28Especially with Jolo.
08:29Oh, we, you know, we talked about Bela.
08:33We could, you know, maybe not so much about his background or biography or, but why does he say this?
08:40And why does he need to talk to Jacques in this moment rather than Maria?
08:45And why he needs to just go for a walk?
08:48And it was very important to talk before a lot, also to forget everything when we shoot.
08:59Because it was very important to have an innocent Bela.
09:04But Bela knows, Bela is clever, but during the moment is just in the present.
09:08And that's why sometimes maybe he does the, not the wrong choice, but maybe the not more evident choice.
09:19And, yeah.
09:21So, yeah, we talked a lot before to forget everything during the show.
09:26No, it wasn't hard because I liked work like that.
09:28And it made me much more comfortable around them.
09:32And I think for me as an actor, that's very, very important.
09:35So, I thought, and I think, and I still think, and I still feel that I could be totally honest
09:43with them.
09:44So, I think those talks beforehand were very, very, very important.
09:49When did he say that he would start with you?
09:51It was yesterday morning.
09:59What do you have?
10:03Nothing.
10:19It's sort of, it's interesting because we're talking almost about preparation and then, you know, it's also the movie's about
10:26expectation.
10:28Expectations of ourselves, expectations of our future and what we think we might be doing.
10:34Can you talk about that aspect of, you know, because it has to do with perspective.
10:38It starts with one thing is that parents always have expectation for their children.
10:45They want the best for them.
10:46They have, you know, lots of great ideas.
10:49And they're absolutely sincere about those wishes.
10:53So, that's also something we try to do in the movie is understand every character, not judging them, meaning that
11:01they could all do what they had to do without us being judged of their choices.
11:08There is a voiceover in the movie, not exactly a voiceover, but we can call it that way, from Jack.
11:16And he's not judging.
11:18It's just sometimes expressing one's feeling that can be ours as well.
11:23That's why we said at the beginning that we're not only like Bella, we're also a little bit like Jack.
11:29Yeah.
11:31But, so that's the first thing.
11:33And then, obviously, for women at that time, there are expectations.
11:39And they're trying to navigate.
11:42They can't do so much, not as much as today, but they're trying hard.
11:47I mean, Rosa is, is, is, is, I think we tried in the movie for Rosa, she's played by Ines
11:55Piresh-Tarresh, and to see her grow as a, as a person who tries to become independent.
12:05So, I, I think we, we can see that.
12:08It's the same for Bella, but he's track is less vertical.
12:13I guess, also the, the expectation of children regarding their parents.
12:18Um, and in that case, Bella, he, he's first an orphan.
12:23So, so it's, it's also, um, very specific because he, he could have none because he, he does, he's supposed
12:33to have anyone to, as parents.
12:37Yes.
12:38Yeah.
12:38He, uh, Bella, um, uh, tries to, um, please, please also to their parents, for example, in the, uh, first
12:48scene with, um, the, um, French merchant, uh, yeah, he's trying to, to, to, to be there, to, to show
12:57off.
12:57Yeah.
12:57Also.
12:58So, yes.
13:00Yeah.
13:00What's very funny with expectation in, in the film we made is that you can play because you can play
13:07what people want you to be.
13:09So I, I guess for actors, it's also very, I mean, it's, it's like, um, another step of the work
13:16together.
13:17Like we're, they're playing, uh, Bella, Rosa, et cetera.
13:21And at the same time, they're playing what, uh, the way, uh, Jacques Cisbella, the way Pierre Cisbella.
13:27So that's why it's always a little bit shifting.
13:30Uh, and that's why we needed also those scenes you talked about when they're, they're only the two of them
13:35talking.
13:37There are many scenes with only two persons because you, you're not always the same with the person you're talking
13:42to.
13:43We can't pass it to the side.
13:46Who can say some of these words that you love with pure love and without interest to anyone?
13:56Bella.
13:58You need to say.
14:16You.
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