This weekend has been released in many cities of Spain first film as director Jonas Trueba. It is entitled "
All songs speak to me." The screenplay is by the director and
Daniel Gascón , writer, screenwriter and translator Zaragoza. I'm friends with both for a few years (and even do a small role in the film, which I hope will not seriously affect the quality of it) but even so, there were many things about the writing process of this film did not know. It struck me that perhaps I could make a short interview that focused primarily on how they wrote the script. Fortunately, they found time to answer my questions despite being involved in promoting the film. Here are his answers I hope that you are interested.
Jonah, your blog in elmundo.es, I have often said that a shoot should be like an adventure. without a defined plan too. Ideas are very attractive, but they seem difficult to reconcile with the existence of a script and with nature "industrial" in the field. How do you manage to "All the songs are about me" to keep this spirit and at the same time work with a script? Jonah whole process, which in this case begins with writing, is an adventure, learning and discovery that over until you abandon the film. Daniel and I started writing without really knowing where we were going, we were outlining a possible movie, but that first script could have arisen very different films. I have discovered the movie I wanted to do as he advanced. I believe this spirit is given in a natural way, a way of understanding the movie since I try to keep up in the morning until I go to bed, you write the script, filming or editing process. It's about using film to discover yourself but others as well as many other things. The script need not hinder anything, the contrary. Is necessary to have a plan worked out in advance, among other things that may arise after the unexpected and contradictions, secondary roads. If there were no script, freedom would be excessive and paralyzing. The problem is when the script becomes something that must be followed to the letter, and it is true that sometimes it is difficult to break with that idea, especially if you depend on schedules and time constraints. In the case of this film got the clock almost never take me over. Just rolled flat and most of the time things fell under its own weight, the days were long and flat matured alone. Followed the script because in addition depended on a very literary structure which conditioned a lot. But the excitement was always elsewhere, almost always unexpected. Some of the most enjoyable moments of the film are small details that we were encountering. I also enjoy writing with Dani because that's where the momentum came from the movie, but I knew then that I lacked the basic materials of work: actors, light, movement, so I can not predict .. . All those things in a script can only guess. Dani, until now I've devoted mainly to writing stories, collected in "awkward age" and " passive smoking ", is this your first script for film? What main differences have you noticed between the two "languages"?
Daniel: I had written a short and Jonah had written another script that is stored in a drawer. In general I think the film is better for all exterior and literature can come more into the characters and switching of views and time. But the two have developed techniques to overcome these hardships and I think one of the most interesting things is to go against the apparent limitations of the medium of expression. Like all contemporary writers have also learned to run through the film, there are elements of cinematic storytelling to understand almost instinctively. There are many other more subtle, I'm learning through-Jonah. Anyway, the biggest difference for me is that in the literature build a discourse that is a finished product. The script is a work material, a kind of travel guide. When you write a story make the whole house, but when you write a script traces a plane. Has to be good: you have to calculate everything well and you have to try that builders also work comfortably. But you retire, others raised the walls, put the doors, sometimes you have to place the window anywhere else, and so on. What was the germ of "All the songs are about me?" A true story, a story that someone told you a movie you saw? Can you remember who and when they arrived one day saying he wanted to tell this story? Could you reconstruct the scene, the place and time that happened? What remains of the germinal idea in the film that has just been released? D.: Jonah and I had some time working together on various projects. All three were ideas of Jonah. As he was directing the film, it was incumbent to choose which story he bet. And the idea of \u200b\u200btalking about a break was imposed in part of course: it was something we both knew and what we felt comfortable about what I had written stories and what the two had talked many times. We made a first version very digressive and free more than 130 pages, which were then cut, focusing on the relationship of Ramiro and Andrea. Although there have been many changes, I think the basic idea-that after the confusion of love and the breakup of a relationship, the mixture of humor and drama, is in the movie. Rewriting, filming and editing have been a double process: to enrich the story with new elements and purify it in some way. J. : It was basically tells Dani. Of course, there were also many movies and books and songs that interfered in our history. Many of them are in the film, whether physically present or on a more subliminal or unconscious. This 130-page script that I responded to the desire we had to have fun and make the characters in situations of all kinds, some who had lived in the flesh and others had told us in the form of anecdote, but most were projections and future that we were interested in investigating. The truth is that there were many things I liked and I was entertained and that the approach of filming, I decided to delete. Especially to make room. A script can be a drag overloaded. And I wanted to shoot me over time, as it were. A very practical question: how was the development of the script? Dani lives in Zaragoza, Jonah in Madrid, how did you manage to get on with the job? Would you like to assemble as a coffee and discuss for hours? Do you work from the beginning with documents, writing? Have you somehow split the work, ordered one of the dialogues or writing documents?
D: We got together in Zaragoza or, more frequently in Madrid. Almost always wrote together. At first, it was mostly talk, at home or in bars. Then we began to write: one type and one walk. We have made the corridor miles from home. We stopped to eat, but usually talked about the script. Then we continued until dinner time. After days of that happy marriage regime, we parted. We always had to think of some sequence, or fragments re-read or sketch, which then pooled at the next meeting. For me to write this script has been a long conversation and fun. J : We guided by the idea of \u200b\u200bAzcona is that the script is spoken rather than written. A I like to write the script also collect experiences, not only work. If one writes itself, this is more difficult. But when writing to another, there is much talk, there are walks, eats and drinks. This can only be done with someone who is your friend, as I happened to Víctor García León when we wrote " More penalty Gloria" and "Get thee behind me ." input producers, the support of television channels, usually to be matched to "suggest" changes in the script. Do you suffer touched any of these influences? How have you reacted to them, if they existed?
J:
All this is also part of the adventure. But it is the most unpleasant part of the trip, I have produced more anxiety and suffering. Not because I have suggested changes in the script, but the feeling of dependence on external agents to the movies. I refer to television, although in the case of this film, all televisions rejected the script, so there was not much feedback on that side ... This was the good part. We were lucky to find a producer able to bet on the film Apart from the television, something unusual in the conventional production system. The bad part is we had to tighten our belts a lot, but I have the satisfaction of certain easements have been able to contradict conventional production system. Then entered a private network and another state, but a film made. happen in the movie jumps in time, I read that Jonah compared with those given in the literature, was this idea of \u200b\u200btemporal fragmentation always present in the script? Or does he work the plot linearly and then decide to enter the temporary jumps? D: wanted the film to have bends and changes of pace. In that, we liked that had an air like some novels of Baroja, or other authors, interspersed with sentimental comedy and even with the essay. The idea of \u200b\u200btemporal fragmentation was from the beginning, and always wanted the film to start after the break. We wanted the memories of that relationship stormed the protagonist: we talked a lot of "I agree" of Georges Perec and verse of Bunbury "past life will not return." J: is true. We heard much disk Bunbury Nacho Vegas, "Time of Cherries", the we used to refer to as "beer time", in honor of our own intoxicated. That verse of the song of Bunbury was the title of one of the seven chapters of the film. Others are more inspired Baroja ("The concerns of Ramiro Lastra) or kunderiana (the mathematical paradox of nostalgia.") It is true that there were many literary influences, also Dani's books ("The age of the turkey" and "smoke") that I love and are part of my sentimental education. But the chapters reflect a fragmented movie idea made into pieces. No a clear story line, so we decided to partition, work by association of ideas and feelings. Some partnerships have emerged spontaneously. For example, the most important of all (the part that I referred to as the "funnel"), when we Kundera fragment Battiato's song, " station loves." When you paste those two things, one after another, appeared to be the main theme of the film, which is the first nostalgia, the time when one begins to recap and check accounts for the first time, the struggle between present and past.
The film makes numerous references, very explicit, literary works. Characters read poems at the camera, others work in bookstores as they strive to publish books ... It is so rare in the recent film, almost like a rebellious "anti-modern." Did you have this intention to introduce these elements in your story? D: I think it was natural. We know people like that, the literary references are important to us and I think it is justified and dramatic narrative: the way to have the film, by the fact that the character work in a bookstore, has studied philology, etc. ... To me the literature, like film or music helps me understand and appreciate life, and I do not have to deprive them of that right to my characters: the culture is part of reality and want to show the reality. I think the fear of books is a form of reverse snobbery quite pernicious. We also liked that there was a mix of culture and vulgarity. J: Some people who read the script were all the dating game, plus signs, the monologues, letters and the narrator's voice could lead to a too pedantic or intellectual film, but I was sure that did not need to be, and I insisted a lot. My idea was to film all this with great ease. As a way to reach via direct feelings. Was also clear that he wanted to make a film widely spoken. I know this is frowned upon by many people. But my idea was not to fill the explanatory dialogues film and stuff, just wanted to film people talking, which is one of the most beautiful things to see. So no matter what they say both the characters and the fact that say things, so sometimes repeated and contradictory, and these blunders or phrases "useless" does not usually show in the movies. Interestingly, in my opinion, just treat the most "literary" leads to one of the most beautiful film and the film (reading emails or letters, literary quotations camera ...) and formally, much riskier than they're used to seeing. Do not you think there is some narrative impoverishment in contemporary cinema more conventional if these resources, which in many cases were used by the Nouvelle Vague directors like Woody Allen or, etc, seem almost revolutionary turn in your film?
J:
Indeed, we have not invented anything new. Most of the resources that we use are part of a long tradition of film. I like to think that we have made the tail of that tradition. If attention is because sometimes there are beautiful traditions that are abandoned or neglected, until suddenly someone comes and keeps pulling the thread. That speaks Kundera in his best book-essay, "Testaments Betrayed ." And do not be afraid to acknowledge these traditions or affiliations. La Nouvelle Vague claimed their parents in every frame and every camera movement and another could cite, cite, or put photos or frames from all those movies that had driven to make movies, and films were Renoir, Rossellini, Bergman, Ophüls, Lang, Hitchcock, Hawks ... Bad is that now, if you show two characters talking in a park or sitting on a bench you're accused of pro-French. It happens that in Madrid and other places we kissed and discussed also in the parks. But it seems that the French have aporpiado all this, and I think it's our job to claim it as well as ours. We must reclaim our parks and our streets and our streets and at the same time suggesting that perhaps this is not French but a European, now that the idea of \u200b\u200bEurope is a minimum. Now that I think it is possible that almost all references in the film are European. Ramiro (Oriol Vila) the protagonist, is present in almost all the sequences of the film, however, frequently attends many of them as a witness, as if temporarily cede the spotlight to the people around him. Was this your intention in writing? Why? J: I think not. Ramiro's character gradually faded from filming and editing, but maybe had too much on the script. It was a conscious decision on my part, but it's funny because I ended up filming the side as if they were actors and the main character as if it were secondary. I think this idea is important to understand the film. Is another way to play down the drama of Ramiro, surrounding of diverse people that affect their way of seeing things. The drama of the lonely is that they always manage to avoid being alone. After filming the movie, I heard that phrase in " Boy meets girl" by Leos Carax, and made me laugh because that's exactly what happens to Ramiro. What other projects do you have now at hand, either jointly or individually?
D: Within a few days published a book of stories, "Daily Life." With Jonas we have things in hand, but are still in an early stage. J: will have to see where we are conversations. I suspect that will depend on our new concerns, but I guess that will always be more or less the same: love, sex ... are our themes ...