Doug Dillaman reports Cannes 2019, where polarizing Brazilian mystery Bacurau draws inspiration from Directors’ Fortnight honoree John Carpenter.
“We use this movie as our weapon. This is our protest. This is how we fight. Doing culture, doing education.” —Bacurau actor Thomas Aquino
Films receiving riotous mid-film applause. People walking out. Wildly unpredictable audience behavior is par for the course at the Cannes Film Festival, but at the premiere of Aquarius will recognize aspects of Mendonça Filho’s extraordinary technique, to be sure, but may also be taken aback by the directions in which he goes.
A quick scan of our at the fest confirms the confusion: “Doesn’t always work but is excitingly ambitious in what it packs into its runtime,” writes Victor Cannell, who left early.
It won’t be a surprise to those who have followed Mendonça Filho’s career, including his O Som ao Redor (Neighboring Sounds). “It’s unprecedented in the history of filmmaking in Brazil, to return this money with interest. It makes no sense at all. We are fighting it with lawyers,” he says.
At the Cannes premiere, the cast and crew found themselves overwhelmed with emotion and caught crying by the cameras. At the following day’s press conference, Mendonça Filho elaborated: “There is this whole idea of destroying the arts in Brazil. It’s fucking amazing to have these Brazilian films here while they’re trying to hide the Brazilian cultural output. That’s one of the 57 reasons we were crying.”
Also shedding a tear was prolific German star Udo Kier, who spoke lovingly of the three weeks he spent filming in “paradise”, and the honor of sharing a scene with Kiss of the Spider Woman. “Someone said to me last night ‘you made over 200 films’. But! 100 are bad. 50 you can enjoy with alcohol. And 50 are good.” (It’s safe to say Bacurau is in the latter category.)
The Brazilian cast were equally proud of the film, if not more so, given the voice it gave to their struggle. It would be a spoiler to tell you which character said it was an honor to die on screen, but Thomas Aquino, who plays a native of Bacurau, spoke plainly about the value of the film as a cultural object. “We use this movie as our weapon. This is our protest. This is how we fight. Doing culture, doing education.”
While the press conference focused on Bacurau’s cultural content, its cinematic roots are equally front and center. And no influence is more primary than horror directing legend John Carpenter, which Mendonça Filho and Dornelles make clear in the film, from a local school that bears the name of ‘Joao Carpenteiro’ to the bold use of one of the maestro’s recent tracks during a key night scene.
“I have no choice. I must make movies. It’s a lifelong affair.”
The respectability of John Carpenter—hurrah!—is official, a move that comes as a long overdue but pleasing development for the maestro. During the first days of Quinzaine des Realisteurs (Directors’ Fortnight), Carpenter received Le Carosse D’Or, an honorary award for his lifetime of work. He chose a screening of The Thing to mark the occasion, noting that at the time of its release, it bombed. “Even the fans hated it. So I thought it would be incredible revenge on them to screen it at Cannes.”
In an hour-long Q&A hosted by French directors Yann Gonzales, Carpenter delivered pearls of wisdom in humble, self-deprecating style. From making the titular Thing work on screen (“it’s just a pile of rubber in a room, you’ve got to make it scary”) to finding a crew (“you want to find people who are better than you”—the best advice of the fest so far) to underplaying his use of the Steadicam (“It’s a poor man’s dolly, you don’t have to set up tracks … I’m not an innovator. But if it makes me sound smarter, I will accept innovation.”), he happily gave the impression of someone who doesn’t overthink things.
This came through especially clearly in his description of his directing style: “I get the actors out of makeup, have them roughly walk through the scene, see where they’re going to stand through my viewfinder, and set up the shot. It takes about five minutes. All this has become instinctual over the years.”
Carpenter’s favorite part of making a film, though, is just before cameras roll: “The anticipation of making a movie is exciting, when you have the script and the funding … but then the hard work and pain comes. The most exciting thing is when it opens in theaters, and means I never have to think about it again.” While he doesn’t have a script ready to go, he did note that he “needs to do another alien invasion movie” and “would love to make a thriller in Europe”.
Fingers crossed. In the meantime, he eschews going to the cinema himself: “In America it can be an unpleasant experience. People use their phones … I’m afraid of what I would do to people if I experience that,” but keeps up with recent horror via screeners, noting that it’s inspiring to see how other directors approach a scene and what they choose to emphasize.
Inevitably in 2019, politics raised its head. Carpenter noted that he’d gotten into a blow-up online regarding 1988’s They Live, which had been mis-interpreted by Nazi apologists as being about Jews. “I made it clear that it wasn’t. It was about yuppies! And then they’re arguing with me about what my film means!” He lamented that America is in a bad state, but also noted that what really makes him despair are international tragedies like the gassing of children in Syria. When asked what gives him hope, his answer was simple. “Talking to people gives me hope. You’re here, you care about cinema, you care about something other than yourself.”
That said, there’s a limit to what he’d reveal: when a fan asked if he could say which of the two characters at the end of The Thing was the monster, he replied simply, “I know which of those two men it is, but I’m not going to tell you.”
Carpenter hasn’t directed a film since 2010’s The Ward, enjoying a “rock star” life of watching basketball and playing video games (most recently, Fallout ’76), but he still sees himself as a filmmaker. “I have no choice. I must make movies. It’s a lifelong affair.”
While we wait for Carpenter to make his return to screen, it’s worth catching up with the films he shared as his biggest influences.
