Rosencrantz and Guildenstern wander through the battlefield of a Europe ravaged by a war of desolation. Those secondary characters of Hamlet, which appeared in a single sentence, and that Tom Stoppard has devoted a theatre play and a movie, witnesses from afar the pain and conflict of the prince of Denmark, would be now, in 1917, two rank and file soldiers involved in a near-suicidal mission: crossing the enemy lines of a continent turned into a giant trench for a battalion of English does not fall into a trap of German. As stated by Sam Mendes (Reading, 54 years), “everything is in Shakespeare”.
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“When I do a ‘shakespeare’ I feel that I am improving, that engrandezco” Sam Mendes, the expert on Shakespeare who directed James Bond
The new film of the prestigious theater director, who made his debut in the film American Beauty (1999), and that has made two of the most circumspect bonds (Spectre, and Skyfall), is born of your desire to have some memories of the generation of their grandfather is not deleted in time. But, for the viewer to feel the same tragic frenzy that the couple protagonist, 1917 is told in a single plane sequence —in reality, the fusion takes about five minutes— that immerses you in the mud and the battle to the public. “I saw a lot of movies are filmed here as well, and each one in reality is very different. Although I may get closer to some point of Children of men, Alfonso Cuarón,” says the filmmaker English in a hotel in Madrid stage of the world tour for the promotion of drama in Spain opens next Friday. This evening, in addition, is a candidate for three Golden Globes (best drama, direction and soundtrack).
Question. Your characters will never come to be, or footnotes of a history book, but they are two human beings fighting for his life. Nothing more and nothing less.
Response. For me, the most interesting subject there is, is the human being, that’s why I’m passionate about the theatre. In this film I used the same part of my brain that I use for the theater. Interestingly, coming from the scenarios, the aspect of the film that I enjoy most is the mounting. However, in 1917, structure of the plane sequence to me has returned to the theatre. On the other hand, the film is more cinematic that I’ve done, because it has forced me to question where I was putting the camera in every moment. There is a triangle camera-characters-landscape that changed constantly to move from the epic to the intimate… you Can fall into laziness by shots and reverse shots. Here there is only one point of view, and you need to tune much so that it is suitable to what you want to tell. It was as exciting as it is frustrating.
Q. You stated that the second bond had left him exhausted, and that’s why I came back to the theater. View their performances, doesn’t seem like a director relaxed.
A. For me the theatre is relaxed because it takes place in a room… and it is quiet. The process is relaxing. You investigate into the character, indagas in their motivations and with very little pick up a story. In the film you’re screaming all the while. Also I confess that after two or three works you want to escape from that room and go out into the world, to the light, the rain, the air…
Q. have You ridden the speed with which you made the film? Shot from April to July and in December had already premiered.
A. In the last two weeks I have felt the pressure, when we were adding the visual effects. On the other hand, there was never a slump in energy, the process was to pull in a fantastic momentum… Although I confess that a couple of times I wondered: ‘why? Why I’ve gotten by myself in this embolado?’. In the end, the managers forget too often that we have to tell important stories.
Q. The Great War was the last in which the troop was naíf, following orders without questioning them, and the first with the machinery of the industrial revolution. In the film these two conditions are reiterated constantly, unlike his other film, war, Jarhead.
A. Was the war in which he lost his innocence, because until that time there had testimonials visual of the fighting. And ended the NINETEENTH century with its divisions of cavalry, and dueling saber. Humanity entered into the contemporary era, with the weapons of mass destruction. All of that fascinated me. There are No modern communications, each official says something different and the audience is locked up with the leading players in this not time.
Q. is Not exactly the story of his grandfather, but when he felt that their stories served as the basis of a script?
A. When we tell the grandchildren, no, because at 12 years old I did not know what I was going to dedicate to it. Note, they never confessed to their children, and yes to the next generation. I was impressed by the idea of an envelope with an important message that had to lead, and that was the seed. Another detail that kid called me the attention is constantly washing his hands: with the time I suspected that it was an unconscious gesture to wash off the mud of the trenches. I wrote this script at the same time that the Spectre, I’ve had time to macerate it. When I filmed the plane sequence of the start of Spectre, I felt that I was prepared to 1917. Because, in the end, there was only one statement on the cover page of the script: is filmaría in a single shot. I will return to the plane and direct and reverse shots, but I’ve learned that you have to marry the format with the content. Every story needs its shape.
