I think Santa Barbara has the best panels of any film festival. The writers, producers, women’s, international features, artisans and directors panels. Year-after-year, SBIFF attract talent from the most prominent awards season films.
And, so it was last night with all five of the Oscar nominated directors showing up at the Arlington for a lively discussion moderated by Scott Feinberg, Executive Editor (Awards) at the Hollywood Reporter:
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
James Mangold, A Complete Unknown
Each director was interviewed for 10-15 minutes by Feinberg and then everyone got together at the end for a frolicsome finish.
Jacques Audiard was overtly precocious, cracking jokes through a French translator with the punchline punched by his mischievous facial expressions. When Feinberg expressed astonishment at the crazy genre mashup that is Emelia Perez (including musical, crime melodrama, trans-transition story, opera) and asked how it could have possibly come about, Audiard replied, “you really underestimate French people.”
The two discussed how Audiard could have directed such a complex film in a language he doesn’t speak, something he has done previously. During the shooting of “The Sisters Brothers,” Audiard said that he asked Joaquin Phoenix, “how do you want me to communicate with you?” Phoenix replied “telepathy.”
Audiard gave SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling the highest compliment, based on the Q&A they did together, stating Durling is “an extremely brilliant person and raised points [about the filmmaking] that I had completely forgotten about.” As a personal aside, the “El Mal” musical sequence was perhaps my greatest cinematic “wow moment” of the year when it popped on screen and into my limbic system. Here’s a link to the sequence:
Sean Baker is a film lover and historian with a show on Criterion called “Closet Picks.” About the source of his passion, Baker referenced his mother who took him to films starting at the age of five. He said it was the windmill scene in James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) that burned into his brain stem and set him on a filmmaking life path. Here’s a link in case it similarly inspires you.
Baker’s Anora contains a 28-minute screamingly funny (literally) home invasion set piece that was meticulously staged and shot over 8 days. Baker cited that scene as the center around which the film was created. Finally, he noted that he had cast both Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov prior to writing the film perhaps partially explaining how they both were able to give such revelatory performances.
Brady Corbet explained that all of his films are about post-traumatic stress and he wanted to do one with World War II providing the trauma. In the Brutalist, the central couple, architect Lazlo Toth (Adrien Brody) and his wife Erzsebet (Felicity Jones) are separated by the war for 10 years, with Erzsebet becoming disabled during that time. Corbet said both had been tortured and “must find a way to be physically together again” (to heal the trauma).
The film revolves around brutalist architecture (think exposed concrete blocks), which emerged after WW II. Corbet conceived of the film as a monument noting that both film and buildings are muti-disciplinary collaborative endeavors.
I Googled “brutalist architecture in Santa Barbara”. Most often cited was Storke tower and Kerr Hall at UCSB. The now failed Munger Hall project would have been a dramatic addition.
Coralie Fargeat said that “being a woman shapes your relationship to society in an unequal way still.” When her previous film, “Revenge”, was called feminist, she explored feminist theory and found the language that expressed her thoughts and feelings. She was unabashed in calling out the relentless judgment of women’s appearances saying it is not just true in Hollywood but everywhere , for all women, for all time and that if you are “beautiful, thin and smiling” you are taught you will be on top of the world and happy.
She said Ozempic is just the latest in a long history of beauty technology that has been foisted on women. In that context, she wanted Substance to “scream louder” that message. She also tacitly acknowledged that the despicable Dennis Quaid character’s name, Harvey, was a reference to Harvey Weinstein.
Finally, Feinberg praised James Mangold for creating films that span many genres, citing Howard Hawkes as a comparable director; solid films that aren’t showy. In response, Mangold provided a knowledgeable and passionate cineaste thesis on the disservice of categorizing films by genre while recognizing the human need to “put things in boxes” to make understanding easier.
Mangold noted that “barriers were created out of film analysis”. His primary interest is mixing and expanding genres. He cited Dylan’s move to electric, around which “A Complete Unknown” revolves, as a directly similar impulse. He stated that, ultimately, regardless of the genre, he “still has to walk into a scene with actors and make it work” regardless of whether the budget is $25 million or $250 million.
In a slight miscue, Feinberg concluded the evening before Roger Durling was able to deliver his remarks and present the awards. However, Durling called the audience back and recovered nicely capping an engaging and substantive evening.
About the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a celebrated venue for independent and international cinema. Over its 40-year history, SBIFF has grown into one of the leading film festivals in the United States, known for its commitment to community education and the arts. The festival not only showcases world-class filmmaking but also supports educational initiatives aimed at students and underserved communities within Santa Barbara County. For detailed information on films and events featured at the festival, please visit SBIFF’s official website.
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