At the 77th Venice Film Festival, The New Order directed by Michel Franco won the jury prize. The interview of Ifeng film was very lucky, and I got an exclusive interview with the Mexican director.
There is no film similar to New Order in this world.
The audience thought they had seen everything on the big screen: riots, mutinies, robberies, massacres, rapes, lies, betrayals, money and power transactions … but they didn’t see the hell on earth in Michel Franco’s hands.
This 88-minute Mexican film "New Order" is the shortest film in the main competition unit of this year’s Venice Film Festival, but it is the most intense film looking at the whole film festival and even the film market throughout the year.
Sitting in the cinema, reporters and audiences almost forgot the time-it’s not that they can’t feel the length or short of the film, and they don’t want the film to end, but that time almost doesn’t exist and time is not important.
The film tells the story of the civil riots and military coups in Mexico City in the near future, which have been compressed for several months. But when you watch this film, it’s like being in the Xiuluo field in person, chasing every second, and all the events are happening in real time.
Bergman’s Shame is far away from the island, Kubrick’s clockwork orange is covered by night, the documentary of The Battle of Algiers is accompanied by overflowing passion, and Haneck’s Wolf Time is fabled …
"New Order" is not a work that follows the master’s footsteps.
"New Order" is vigorous, while "The Clown" is simply a romantic oil painting, which is beautiful. The New Order is omnipresent, and Les Miserables is nothing but petty street guerrilla warfare in front of it. Other big productions that smash real money simply don’t come to make a fool of oneself. The New Order is a dystopian narrative that grew up in a more savage place than the jungle, and it is really chilling.
You can’t find any contemporary films that can be used as targets, and you can’t classify them.
The starting point of New Order is small and precise, starting with a wedding of a privileged family.
Father and mother are exquisite in all directions, collecting red envelopes and trading money and power; Once a servant’s life was hanging by a thread, but he was given a cold shoulder at the door of a lively party. In spite of her brother’s objection and the groom’s indifference, the kind bride Marianne decided to go to the slum to help her former servant herself.
Who knows that Marianne went there and never came back.
Rioting people broke into Marianne’s house with murder weapons, burning and looting. Except Marta, the housekeeper, all the servants in the house joined the mob, and the wedding banquet became hell. All the guests who came to the wedding became lambs to be slaughtered.
Marianne’s father was shot and injured, her mother was shot in the head after opening the safe, and her pregnant sister-in-law was killed on the spot, one body and two lives.
Marianne’s family was not the only one who suffered this. At this time, the whole Mexico City was out of control, with corpses everywhere and fanatics all over the street. Even the hospitals were completely occupied and suffered a bloodbath.
Although Marianne escaped by mistake because she went out temporarily, of course, she couldn’t save anyone when the hospital fell, and she was trapped in a slum.
Soldiers patrolling around found her hiding place and tricked her into a prison for the rich in the name of taking her home.
It turns out that the army has also defected and used armed forces to plunder and kill on a larger scale and more efficiently; They also developed a task force to kidnap and imprison rich people and carry out extortion, and Marianne was one of the victims.
At the same time, Marian’s father and brother have got in touch with those in power, and they have been rescued and sheltered, regardless of the chaos and sorrow outside.
But it was not the father and son who first received the kidnapping letter from the army, but Marta, the housekeeper who helped Marianne hide at the beginning of the riot, and his son Christian.
Good people’s hearts, accumulated wealth and the human ties of the army were not worth mentioning in the last days of France, and Marianne’s future was bleak.
"New Order" is a purely fictional work, and the plot is neither unusual nor dramatic. Director Michel Franco has no intention of setting suspense from beginning to end, but the audience will have to wait until the end to understand the shocking truth.
When I just finished watching this film, it was really difficult to summarize what the film was about-the main line was concise, but there were too many elements and the hidden information was overloaded.
If we have to describe what kind of film this is, the answer provided by the director is: New Order is a dystopian film.
But how can there be such a realistic and penetrating dystopian film?
The film written by this director five years ago is so close to our real life today, when the epidemic is raging, globalization is declining, countries’ economies and cultures are embroiled, and social contradictions are intensifying. It makes people wonder whether the script writing is based on the horror valley theory.
But Michel Franco doesn’t think so. He will politely emphasize that this is not reality-because reality is more cruel.
Yes, although watching "New Order" will probably be the scariest experience of many people’s movie-watching career, you can’t say that it is a violent, horrible and cruel movie.
Because the director doesn’t bother to show plasma, knives and guns, and he doesn’t feature the process of killing, rape or abuse at all-that is the low-level violence that "nipple entertainment" will rely on.
The horror of "New Order" permeates every frame of the film, lurks in the unpredictable fate and state of affairs, and is hidden in the dismantling and tracing of violence-the terrible thing is not the violence itself, but the reason why it will happen, and the reason why it will happen.
Mexico City, in the midst of riots and political changes, is in complete disorder and rage; But this kind of terror is not beyond understanding. It is a huge entity that all people who have the least understanding of the opposition between the state machine and personal destiny can be immediately frightened.
From the perspective of pure film production and technology, New Order is also very amazing, which was realized only after leaving the cinema: the audience did not feel the manipulation of audio-visual language at all, in fact, they did not pay attention to the existence of audio-visual language at all.
There is no hand-held lens shaking to form an off-site personality in "New Order", and there is no show-off skill in editing.
Its lens language is so calm and objective, but this calm and objective is absolutely different from documentary films, and it also draws a clear line with those fake records of posing, which is a pure and unbiased follow-up and observation.
When watching the movie, the author always thought that apart from the brief prologue of Shostakovich’s No.11 symphony at the beginning of the film, the film didn’t use the soundtrack, because there was almost no sound other than the natural environment sound during the whole process, and there was no unnecessary sound to distract attention, so the gunshots were enough to make people feel deaf.
However, when watching the credits carefully, I found that the director used a lot of soundtracks and was completely shocked. The audience and the characters in the film are present at the same time; The characters are running around, holding their breath or crying, while the audience is firmly pressed in the chair, unable to be distracted, and the world outside the screen is gone. Every minute, they feel that they are in great danger like the characters on the screen.
If we must describe the audio-visual style of this film, people will not notice any invisible style of audio-visual design.
It is hard to imagine that "New Order" is such a restrained and precise work in both core and skill, which is almost great.
Horrible, sensational, extraordinary, truly powerful images should be like this, without any part being too prominent, without any shortcomings, and without any fancy skills. All the criteria for judging art are pale, because the soul of its story is too powerful, which is something more real than reality.
Probably the film festival exists for films like New Order. People risked their lives to go to a celebration by the tide, just to witness the appearance of a film like New Order.
After watching "New Order" twice in one day with excitement, Ifeng film interviewed the film director Michel Franco at the first time.
Ifeng Movie: Why is this movie called "New Order"? The whole movie is almost a bloody conflict. The most terrible thing is that there is no order at all, and it feels more like a "new riot" …
Michel Franco:Because calling it a "new order" can attract more investment! I’m worried that this film can’t be seen by more audiences.
I don’t want everyone to think that this is a Mexican movie, a movie about a certain region. Called "New Order", it can attract more audiences, or make the audience realize that what this film wants to express is beyond what is shown on the screen.
The choice of "new order" is probably a bit cynical. After all, at the beginning of the film, it seems that everything is in "order", and then things change suddenly.
Is this change good? New is not necessarily good, not necessarily necessary. But from the experience of Mexico, it can change the reality, and I’m afraid it’s not civilized and peaceful.
At the end of the film, I really hinted that some new order was above all this chaos. Only when "New Order" is seen by a wider public can the existence of this film be meaningful and my message can be passed on.
Ifeng movie: Many viewers were frightened when they watched New Order.
Michel Franco:Exactly what I want! My film discusses very serious and heavy topics, which will not make the audience feel relaxed.
But I am very careful when I show violence. I don’t want to film the scenes of those soldiers abusing Marianne. I think that’s beyond the line. Once you cross the line, you are abusing the role and the audience with images, and you will lose the trust of the audience. What I want to film is the achievement of violence, so it is not the violence itself.
New Order is not a film that stimulates the senses. For example, 120 Days in Sodoma belongs to this kind of film that stimulates the senses. It is just to make you feel uncomfortable. Another example is clockwork orange, which is much more wild and violent than my movies.
Violence is abused in contemporary movies.But I’m actually very restrained. If riots or mutinies happen in reality, it’s definitely much more terrible than what I showed in my movies. The audience was threatened and provoked by the events themselves in New Order.
Ifeng movie: Is "New Order" to provoke the audience?
Michel Franco:Right. I am the kind of audience who likes to be provoked, challenged and shocked. Movies should not be just an entertainment product. You have to discuss those difficult and even painful things with the audience.
I know I gave a cruel ending to New Order, which may be uncomfortable, but since the topic I want to discuss is cruel, it would be hypocritical to arrange a bright ending full of hope.
Ifeng movie: I think you have done all this. The audience was scared when they watched New Order, and it was also because the completion of the film was so high that it was almost impossible to tell the difference between reality and reality.
Michel Franco:I want people to feel real, and I think my films are also real, especially the behavior and motivation of the characters in the films, which are close to life and can make people highly empathetic.
I certainly hope that what happened in New Order is not true. But if we look back at history, it is not uncommon for dictators to take power and the military to take charge in South America, Chile, Colombia or many other places in the world.
This story is set in the near future in Mexico, so it is very close to reality … but I hope Mexico won’t come to this.
There is no light and hope in the movie, and my hope lies in real life; If the audience is deeply shocked by this fictional film and decides to change the bad reality-social inequality and class gap-with behavior, then this is the real hope brought by this film.
Ifeng movie: "New Order" severely ridiculed the upper class and the rich. In this riot that almost destroyed everything, money and power do not mean that absolute security can be obtained.
Michel Franco:Exactly. I often see rich and powerful people in Mexico say, "Is the country going to die? It doesn’t matter, let’s hire more bodyguards. "
I find it absurd and irritating. Where did this belief in money and power come from? Can you buy loyalty? Can you buy personal safety if the country is finished? How do you know that these people armed with your money will unswervingly protect you in the turmoil, instead of pointing a gun at your head and asking you to hand over all your money?
Look at Felipe, the head security officer of the protagonist’s house in New Order. The shot he turned on was the key moment of the whole situation change.
Ifeng movie: You have been kidnapped yourself, haven’t you?
Michel Franco:Yes, when I was about twenty years old. My friends and I will joke now and call that kidnapping "highway kidnapping" At that time, I was stuck in a strange car, which kept speeding at high speed and didn’t stop all night.
There were many moments when I really thought I might have died that night. But there’s nothing to make a fuss about. I know many people who have been kidnapped.
Have you ever had a gun to your head? I have, many times. I know a lot of people who have been put a gun to their heads many times. This is very common in Mexico.
Did they shoot? No. If you are not dead, you can only get used to these things. Now we will say: threatened by a gun? Kidnapped? Life is like this.
It’s ridiculous to think about it, but there’s nothing you can do. After a long time, you get used to taking the worst as the normal state of life.
Ifeng Movie: What kind of family and class do you come from?
Michel Franco:I live in a very high-end neighborhood, and I am one of those privileged classes who live in illusion. But just like in the movie, the heroine’s home is only 20 minutes’ drive from the servant’s home; My home is ten minutes’ drive from the slum.
Mexico is a place where there is a big gap between the rich and the poor, but everyone lives together. Unless I am blind, I can’t see how hard the bottom people live. I have a conscience and I care about reality. If I were from the bottom, I would resort to violence, because there is no way out.
This is also the reason why I criticize the privileged class. I am one of them, and each of us is part of the problem. People with money or other resources should be able to make changes. But we haven’t done anything now. So I made this movie.
Ifeng movie: From this point of view, I really want to praise the design of the opening wedding scene: when a privileged family celebrates the wedding, a low-level person and their former servant come to seek emergency assistance. This contrast is really too intuitive.
Michel Franco:Well, if Roland came on another day, things might not be so interesting; A wedding is a perfect occasion to expose contradictions organically.
But it’s also ridiculous, isn’t it? Roland’s wife’s life hangs by a thread, but these rich people say, Oh, I’m too busy today, and the time is not right. Come another day.
However, the role of the wedding is not limited to these. The protagonist’s family used their daughter’s wedding as a cover for their collusion and dirty business dealings. They used the wedding to show off their wealth, while using the wedding to collect money.
I am actually a very patriotic person. I know many people don’t think so, but I don’t care what they think. I really am. Patriots will feel very painful when there is a problem in the country, and ta has the responsibility to discuss these things that no one wants to mention.
Ifeng movies: As an art film director, most of your previous works are medium and small budget movies. This time, I directed a relatively large-scale film. Are there any different feelings?
Michel Franco:This is not a very expensive movie. Does it look expensive? I can tell you that "Chronic" filmed in Los Angeles is much more expensive than this movie, because Los Angeles is a very expensive place, and everything costs a lot.
I made my own production for New Order. I’ve always wanted to get more investment, and I’ve been waiting for more money, but the money has never been enough. Not without investment, but very little.
Those who invested in me told me that we didn’t give you money because we thought it was a good story, but because we believed you.
I kept lobbying investors, but no one understood the script, and no one could understand what I really wanted to shoot. I told them that I would seal off the important streets and famous buildings in Mexico City and shoot some scenes of dead bodies everywhere. I want the helicopter to take some overhead shots; I plan to shoot a grand wedding at the beginning. It’s very expensive, you know-they all think I’m crazy, or I’m just a poseur director cheating money everywhere.
If I make a positive film, it will probably be easy to find investment, but who wants to make that kind of thing?
I know New Order will be a great movie. This is my longest project, because I have been waiting for the money to arrive. But then I decided to accept the reality that money would not be enough. If you don’t have enough money, you have to shoot a big scene and hire more than 3 thousand extras.
But I’m glad you think my movie looks expensive (laughs).
Ifeng movie: Now everyone knows that New Order is a good story and a good movie.
Michel Franco:Yes, but you can’t know until you see the movie. I have been talking to other filmmakers about my project before I made it, and they don’t believe that the money is not enough to make a good movie. But my investment has never reached my ideal number, and I am used to it.
Ifeng Movie: Will New Order be released in Mexico soon?
Michel Franco:If the epidemic situation can improve and the cinema can open. Now my investors love this movie. They just gave me so little money. As a result, now they say that this is a very good commercial film, and we feel that at least more than 2,000 screens should be given to it to improve the film arrangement rate.
I don’t understand the business of this movie at all, but I’m glad they think so!
The purpose of making this film is to let more people see it.
The mission of this film is to arouse discussion about social inequality, tyranny and violence, and make people pay attention to these things again. To do this, the first step is to find my audience and let them see this film. Otherwise, making this film will be an academic act, and I’m not interested in things on paper.
