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Co-Writers/Co-Directors Félix Dutilloy-Liégeois &
Marguerite de Hillerin and Actor João Arrais talk to Fest Track about adapting the story, identity vs. impulsive choices and highlighting the opposition between inner feelings and the external world in regards to their film "A Crianca" playing the Tiger Competition section at the 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

#ACriancaFilm #IFFR2022 #FilmInterview #CharacterStudy #FestTrack
Transcript
00:28Tymus is a solo post
00:36first for marguerite and uh and felix could you talk about looking at the character of bella and
00:42his journey but also these people that have to flow around him in this time the film is adapted
00:48from a short story by a german writer and in that short story the main character arabella
00:57is called niccolo and he's um more of a bad person uh he's called the tartuffe by cleist and what
01:06our
01:07work was in part was to try to not save him but at least understand every part of that character
01:17the shadows and the lights and also he was a young person like us so there is at least some
01:26um echoes between us and bella and um not only uh but um we very we're very interested in
01:37seeing how you grow up and how you do in the adult world and that's what we work with with
01:45joao
01:53is
01:54is
01:55is
01:55is
01:55is
01:55is
01:56is
01:57is
01:57is
02:00is
02:00is
02:00is
02:00is
02:25could you talk about the notion of desire whether it be emotional desire whether it be sexual
02:30desire um all that sort of plays into how he lives his life as a young adult um
02:38just just going out of the childhood um bella is um he's just starting to know what he wants
02:47uh and that's that's where he discovered that he has his own desires that he maybe he can feel
02:55feel by himself maybe the roots or the tracks that um the other and especially the parents wants for you
03:03are not your own desire and that's in this uh little um i don't know the the word you know
03:11it um
03:12confrontation yes the confrontation between that and he tries to make choices and he thinks that his
03:21choices are uh perfectly in uh accorded to his desire and sometimes they're not and that led to
03:30to you know misunderstanding secrets um betrayal and a little bit of tragedy as well because it's a
03:38movie so we can go um too far ends and and also in our story there is a thing about
03:46um a misunderstanding
03:48in bella's identity uh at some point he sees something or someone or an image
03:56and he is very attracted by that image and sometimes images are a little bit of lies
04:03and uh he just rush into what he sees and thinks he's maybe the same person maybe he's as uh
04:12beautiful or as
04:13gracious as as what he sees and and that that is a little bit confusing uh for that character
04:59because taking that on taking that because it becomes
05:03is a physical thing it becomes an emotional thing and you can see he's trying to be more impulsive
05:09but he's also thinking um could you talk about those different facets i think somehow he's just a kid
05:15so i don't think he's uh bad intendance uh on his actions so i think he's just trying to find
05:24his place
05:25in this world that is that has some kind of expectation for him so i think it's just a kid
05:33with uh making
05:34like not bad choices but maybe not the greatest ones but i think in i think he doesn't want to
05:43or at
05:43at least it doesn't mean to hurt people or the people around him
05:47in the short story by cleist um bella so niccolo is a big manipulator
05:53um and he has some plans but not in a short way but in a long way so he's very
06:03clever uh
06:05our bella is clever too and sometimes manipulator but more in a short way you know um short
06:17short short term yeah short term sorry that's all yeah yeah and so yeah he he knows uh he has
06:28some
06:29charms uh he knows he he has a family or so and the new family is the family of rich
06:38um mark
06:39count merchant merchant merchant he knows all of that but he's instinctive and when he he does some choices
06:52it's it's it's it's more instinctive than very machiavellic but yeah he's a young guy he's clever so
07:02he knows but um in the same way we know when you use uh your charms or yeah so it's
07:12just normal you know
07:20Isto era do menino é para dar não perguntamos ao pierre não podemos falar-lhe da verónica mas já errou
07:29-me não
07:32é melhor perguntar mas mesmo assim
07:42o que é isso que lês uma carta de jacques para pierre uma declaração mal disfarçada
07:52o pierre é muito bonita
08:00o jacques escreve bem
08:05mas é interessante uh yeah and i like the fact that you talked about machiavelli um is the aspect
08:11also that you know because you're painting this society has obviously expectation but visually
08:17the way you do it you know you know obviously the natural lighting but just sort of letting the scenes
08:23breathe while the characters move through them um that's a very specific stylistic choice
08:28yeah it was uh important for us to create a kind of uh contrast um we have the human feelings
08:39and you have the feelings of the nature you have sometimes the calm and the peace in the nature
08:48and the tempest and the tempest in the characters but sometimes it's not that it's the tempest
08:57in the trees and the calm in the characters and permanently uh you have this opposition uh between
09:05you know uh hard feelings or um sometimes bad feelings too and the life and yeah so we we work
09:16a lot with
09:17uh mario barroso and also after with pedro gauche and francisco velozo for the sound to to to create uh
09:28this contrast
09:33um
09:39uh
09:40uh
09:41uh
09:41uh
09:59uh
10:00uh
10:07in the story um it's outside of lisbon so it's an historical movie but we were very interested
10:15in not being in the city not being where the rush is uh not having also to show you know
10:22people in
10:22the streets or the streets or anything so it's a family that lives in a quiet place
10:27supposedly uh a little bit outside of um the era um so it's supposed to be a little uh of
10:38peace and
10:40maybe they could be very happy there they can it's also a place that uh supposedly allows them to be
10:47as they are um for pierre and jack to live a little bit less in secret than they then they
10:55should be
10:56um
10:57maria she can have her moments she can have her peace as well and bella can just walk around go
11:03from the house to the monastery and people leave him in peace but then um then you're lonely in the
11:11nature uh and so we were very interested in that's why also we go very close to the characters because
11:19it's not because we have a beautiful scenery that we want to show it all the time um so we
11:26go very
11:26close to the faces we go very um yeah lots of close-ups on the actors faces on the trees
11:34as well
11:34we go very very close to try to catch i don't know the wind maybe um maybe something that's between
11:42the trees and the wind that is the character's feeling and then that's the audience to see what
11:49they want to see but um and that's been a huge work with sound as well
11:52we can't pass away
11:56who can say some words that you love pure love and without interest
12:00person
12:04well
12:06you
12:07you
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