AFI FEST Report: Interview with Director Martin Boulocq

Once more, here is Peter Martin at AFI, this time with a fascinating interview with Bolivian director Martin Boulocq

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Could Bolivia be the next cinema hot spot?

Overshadowed, at least in the cinematic sense, by neighboring Brazil and Argentina, Bolivia has traditionally produced only two or three films each year. The success of SEXUAL DEPENDENCY in 2003 changed things. That distinctive film, directed by Rodrigo Bellott, was a smash on the festival circuit, playing at Cannes, Locarno, Telluride, Toronto, AFI Fest, Philadelphia, and even Milwaukee.

(One of the inspirational points about SEXUAL DEPENDENCY was buried in the end credits: 'Catering by Burger King.' It made me think that the filmmakers might have said, 'This is all we can afford to feed our cast and crew, but we're still going to get our movie made!')

Now, according to Bellott, the pace of production has picked up, and five or six films have been made during each of the past three years - a small number, to be sure, compared to other countries, but representing a robust increase in the local industry.

Bellott has returned to AFI Fest as one of the executive producers of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF MY VERY BEST YEARS, which will have its World Premiere on Friday, November 11, and screens again on Saturday, November 12.

In its early scenes, MOST BEAUTIFUL appears to ramble. Berto (Juan Pablo Milan) and Victor (Roberto Guillion, a former radio talk show host in his first acting role) wander around town as Berto contemplates selling his car so he can buy a plane ticket abroad. Their ramblings are not without humor, but neither are they filled with pop culture references or one-liners. Berto and Victor are not out-of-work comedians: they're two regular guys dealing with life as it comes.

Enter Victor's girlfriend Camila (Alejandra Lanza). With her back in the picture - she's returned from some time away - the loose and easy friendship between Berto and Victor changes, and we see more of Victor and Camila. Over the balance of the picture, affection between the three of them ebbs and flows in a very natural manner, and it becomes clear that the opening scenes were a set-up for what comes later. MOST BEAUTIFUL is subtle in its depiction of these characters, yet when a large crack appears in one of the relationships, it sends a shiver down your spine.

I sat down with director Boulocq this week to discuss his film; executive producer Bellott was kind enough to translate.

ScreenAnarchy: The press notes say that the actors improvised each scene without ever seeing a script. Did you have the entire story worked out in your own mind, at least, ahead of time?

Boulocq: I spent six months rehearsing with them, trying to get to know the characters, so that each actor knew what the intentions of their character were, and what their actions would be. I wanted to let them discover the story as it unfolded. We shot chronologically, so they could experience the emotions as they came. Separately I would tell them things about their character in the scene, but not how the scene would play out. I would tell different things to the other actor(s) in the scene, and hide certain points.

Most scenes I would just keep shooting - sometimes up to two hours [on video] - until I got what I wanted, because I always knew what I wanted in each scene. At some points, even after shooting for two hours, the scene just never worked, so I took that to mean that the scene should be replaced, and I came up with something else. I never wanted the actors to know how the scene would turn out.

That definitely sounds like the cinema of John Cassavetes or Lars Von Trier, where the actors are allowed to discover the emotional truth of a scene.

Changing subjects, I read that you were a painter and a photographer before studying philosophy and communications in college. When and how did you make the decision to become a filmmaker?

I've always been fascinated with the image itself, and I've been exploring that since I was a child, especially after I got my first photo camera from my mother at the age of 12. I'm obsessed with images. My interest in painting has to do with my relationship with color.

All of these things I have done or studied have been explorations, but I never felt like I had the talent to specialize in any of those. Film came later in life, embodying more of what I was looking for.

Literature was also an influence, though, as well as music -- I used to play the drums in a band. So music and literature has always been there as part of the construction of my cinematic identity.

The music in the film is very evocative. Can you talk a bit about how you decided to use music?

The original piece I wanted to use was by a group called the Cinco Latinos (the Five Latinos). One of the things I wanted to do was to use my only song that would be repeated over and over again in different parts and in different lengths.

I was interested in the memory of that song and what feelings might be triggered in the audience. You should get to the point where you forget about the song, and just bring the feeling of the song to the images, so that you collect all these images that you have seen throughout the film and attach them to the next scene in which the song is played, playing with your emotional memory.

Until you mentioned it, I didn't even realize it was the same song! It's very much like Wong Kar-Wai has done in his films.

Absolutely. It also has to do with the melancholy and the ambience of the film. Melancholy has to be sustained with repetition.

With so few films being made in Bolivia, do you feel the need to make "serious" films as opposed to, say, romantic comedies?

Coming from a country that has absolutely no industry, whenever you get a chance to have a cinematic voice, you have to do your best. You have to have a serious commitment to making a "serious" film, to make the most of your opportunity.

Much more about the film can be discovered at its official web site here.

Interview by Peter Martin