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The Oscar-winning filmmaker known for Hunger, Shame and 12 Years a Slave come back with Widows, an action film that seems at odds with his first productions. Portrait.
Tuesday evening. In the MK2 Grand Palais room, it's not bad. The end credits of widows, Steve McQueen's Oscar-winning new scary filmHunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave), Parade in front of a crowd still in shock of the show. No time to breathe: the director enters the room.
If the thunder of applause does not seem to stop, his face, until then very smiling, changes expression quite quickly. With a certain professionalism, Steve McQueen answers the questions of the public, before interrupting, as if in a hurry to pose his: "Excuse me, but did you watch the movie with that sound? It's horrible". During the session "questions and answers", he will apologize no less than five times. Until I say the next day in interview: "It was a disaster, they did not insure".
What the annoyed cinematographer is talking about is the incessant humming in the background of the bbad from a DJ set. Because at the same time of the projection takes place at the Grand Palais the vernissage of the exhibition Michael Jackson Off the Wall. Of course, we hear it from the room where we are, located just below the exhibition. McQueen does not like it and lets it know.
The director of 12 Years A Slave is fussy about the cinematic experience. We do not mess with the sacredness of the movie theater. At the turning of a question, he explains to me that his film is made to be seen in room, so that the spectator reacts in unison with the others. Not to be seen on his computer by pausing every five minutes to fetch himself in his fridge. Take this Netflix.
Steve McQueen is an artist. It does not take long to understand it.
A true artist
If we look back at the beginning of his career, it seems obvious. His first filmed works, multiple short films, are only visible in some museums, here and there. The most famous, finally the one that made it known in this closed environment, is called Bear. He explores various themes dear to the artist such as race, the body but especially violence.
We see two black wrestlers (McQueen plays one of two sportsmen) in the middle of the fight, filmed in a subjective way. Close to the body, a rendering in black and white, a 16mm camera in the center of the duo, that's for the form. There is something erotic about these violent embraces. McQueen plays the codes of the fight sport movie, and turns it into a sensual work.
If you quickly grasp the feeling sought by the author, it is mostly Steve McQueen, who prefers to act without thinking too much. Because this film, which made a lot of noise in the art world at the time of its first broadcast at the Royal College Art of London in 1993, was shot in one day.
The artist explains himself, plunging back 25 years:
"I do not remember how long I shot it … A week A day A day I shot it in one day [rires] ! Do you imagine? JI was a kid, I was 22 or 23 years old no more! It is a work for museum, for gallery, a work of art. So it's shot in a special way, and it's done to be broadcast in a special way, not on a conventional screen. "
Enter Bear and Widowswe tend to say that the big gap is dazzling. For the latter, there is talk of a "blockbuster" where Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and a gang of women decide to make up for the mistakes of their husbands – notably interpreted by Liam Neeson and Jon Bertnal. In the background, a local election, shootings, explosions, suspense, threats. We are far from the gallery movie.
Many critics unjustly criticize Widows do not be a "real" McQueen. It is bad knowledge of the person concerned, who denies that he has not changed his methodology since Bear :
"JAlways come back to this process. I would say that I never stopped actually. It's like writing poetry, then a novel. It's the same thing in the end. Because these are not separate exercises. You do the same two things at the same time, it's ultimately the same exercise. I always come back, even on a movie like this one. "
And the favorite themes of the author? Widows is much smarter than it looks. The time of this famous robbery, McQueen manages to mix the intrigue with local corruption, the ubiquitous racism of American society, police violence, conjugal violence but also a more global reflection around the mourning.
"It's like jazz, you have harmony and melody, but deep down, you improvise"
In any case, do not tell McQueen that he has his favorite themes. Not only does he dislike categorizing himself, but he also thinks it's the job of the critic to put him in a box. Not him. And all without agreeing. Yet it seems obvious that he likes to treat the body, the way it can be abused. But not with him, it would go against his artistic approach to think that way.
"I should follow a path, be careful with every step, every step would be too stressful and tiring" explains the director amused that we can think this of his work. He prefers spontaneity. This is felt at almost every moment of the shoot. Starting with the preparation of the plans. Spoiler: there is not really.
"I do not do storyboard. I talk with my cameraman about the scenes a little before shooting, and we think about how we can shoot each scene. But that can change in two seconds.
It's like jazz, you have harmony and melody, but deep down, you improvise. As long as it stays in tone, harmony and melody, you can do whatever you want. It's important, it allows you to … live. You know what I mean ?".
Honestly, yes we see very well. Hold: one of the most impressive scenes of the film is not a particularly technical shot, but translates itself all the feature film. We see the candidate, played by Colin Farrell, from a meeting by car to return home. Rather than telling the exchange between the latter and his director of communication within the car, McQueen chooses to film the sedan from the outside while the exchange echoes, formalizing the contrast between the black and poor neighborhood in which he is to the white bourgeois district where he lives. The simple idea? Emphasize the difference between what he tells live and what he lives, between his daily life and that of his constituents. And that's not to mention the dialogue itself, crucial.
Do you feel the thing coming? Yes, still improvisation. "Seeing this, seeing the journey, we said 'but the most interesting would not it be outside?', and the trick was played.
Contemporary despite everything
His way of doing things is an art in its own right. McQueen is not like the others, knows it and plays it. When asked how he turns without heavy preparations, he tells how to play with the energies, and follow them. What to film is like Tai Chi for him. And this, since always. Hard to understand what it means, except that it acts on instinct.
"I do not make films on films, I make films about reality, about what we live today"
He says de facto does not have a model. When we watch the film, we think inevitably about Michael Mann and his masterful Heat. But no. He is inspired by nothing except his own imagination.
"I did a film school for four months, I hated it, the first time I went to a movie set, it was mine, because I did not want to model things on others artists, I wanted my own way of doing things, and I did not want to get bad habits from bad people. […]
My inspiration here was these women, these characters. […] My film has nothing to do with Heat! For me, it's not interesting to watch other films for inspiration. What is interesting is to think in his corner. To think of the way I turn the stage, to be in the moment. I do not make films on films, I make films about reality, about what we live today. "
Logically enough, and this despite the fact that it is an adaptation of a series of the 80s which we changed little about the substance, Widows is deeply contemporary. Promoting strong women in such a smart way, with a cast of great diversity, seems to be a big finger of honor to a conservative industry dominated by men.
A rare fact, still too rare. Michelle Rodriguez nearly refused the role, because she was tired of playing the "Latino" who is only a victim. McQueen had to go three times to be successful.
And yet, the movie is really not an answer to #MeToo, contrary to what some may think.
"I thought about adapting this story to cinema seven years ago. […] At the time, it was not too #MeToo, but rather #OscarsSoWhite. After, […] jI consider myself a feminist, so the film probably has to be. "
The filmmaker remembers very well the first time he watched the HBO series Widows, on which the feature film is based. Here we are in April 1983, when the young Steve is 13 years old. He is lying on the carpet of the living room, on his stomach, watching with his mother the adventures of these women who must get out of trouble. He is caught by the company, and tells that history has stuck to his skin, until today.
Not surprising that the teenager identifies with these characters. We speak of protagonists judged by their appearances, mocked, discriminated against and put aside from society. He says that he lived by being a "young black in London". But if he does not complain about his fate, he does not hesitate to recall that in 35 years, the situation of these women has not changed.
To tell this story, the director is surrounded by the best thriller writer of the moment, Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects). Yes, a female screenwriter for an action movie. A clever gesture that is good, far from automatic. He tells :"I wanted the best scriptwriter, and it was her; but it turns out that it was a woman, and that she is from Chicago, so bingo ".
Because yes, last but not least, the story takes place in Chicago, city where was born Al Capone. City that represents political corruption and crime, but especially diversity and diversity. "A perfect reflection of today's world" according to the interested party.
And then a nice link with his personal story:
"The first time I came to Chicago was for an exhibition, my first as an artist, and my wife had gone to a Democratic convention for Bill Clinton, a first visit that was artistic and political. [rires]. "
Art at the center of everything, always and always. We told you so.
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