David Cronenberg A Dangerous Method PROFILES
ter, just so intellectually huge. With all the characters — I guess it’s the nature of biography, and to a certain extent this is a biopic — you have a certain responsibility to your subject unless you have an extreme political agenda and want to destroy them, normally you are wanting to bring them back to life. Emotionally your ultimate goal is to be as true to them as you can — and to give a feel for what they are like when talking to each other.
David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method is about the fathers of psy- choanalysis, Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), and the patient who came between them, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley).
It must have taken courage to take on the story of Freud and Jung. It’s not courage, but a matter of excitement and interest — all of us have grown up in the shadow of Freud and come to grips with that. He was not intimidating but very exciting to deal with as a charac-
What does your cast bring to the film? Casting is almost more important for independent films than Holly- wood films. The pressure to find stars is actually even stronger, especially if the subject is riskier or outside of the mainstream. I thought Kiera could be sensa- tional and she is the right age, the film begins with her at about 18 and ends when she is 26. She was very excited and worked very hard, she is a delightful pro. Viggo as Freud is not the obvi-
ous casting but that’s part of the appeal. This casting will jar images of Freud as we know him from his 80s — white-bearded and enfee-
bled. Viggo is scrupulous in his research and had no qualms about altering himself. He gained 20 pounds and wore brown contacts.
What did you bring stylistically or story-wise that you’d say is uniquely Cronenberg? I don’t think in those terms. You bring your entire being to a movie, all your experiences as a person, your reading and intellect, your visual sensibilities, your ear for dialogue and ability to edit and cut and get the best out of every scene. You can’t hold back — that is why
movies are a super art form, you have to bring all aspects of your- self. So, well, if I brought some- thing ‘Cronenberg’ to the movie, [I think it’s that] no-one would have done it the way I did. [Writer] Christopher Hampton and I worked on it together, another director wouldn’t have started with that script. So I have no way of relating to any ‘Cronenberg-ness’.
A Dangerous Method
What projects are you working on for the future, after Cosmopolis? I’m constantly working on scripts and am happy to say in the last five or six years my stock has risen again, I guess after History of Vio- lence and Eastern Promises. I have proven I can do gangster films and it seems to have opened up the logjam… [My current project] Cos- mopolis is quirky and I love it and am happy with it. I’ve never been in a position where before I fin- ished a project I have to stop and release another project. I’m in post on Cosmopolis and doing some traveling on this one. But after these two, I don’t have another concrete project at the moment. Sheri Jennings
Tamer Ezzat Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad And The Politician
Egyptian film-makers Tamer Ezzat, Ayten Amin and Amr Salama each direct one part of Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad And The Politician, a talking heads documentary about the ongoing Egyptian revolution featuring por- traits of local activists, policemen and former president Hosni Mubarak. Produced by Cairo’s Film Clinic
and Paris/Cairo-based Amana Creative, Pacha Pictures is han- dling worldwide sales on the film which gets its North American premiere in Mavericks. Screen spoke to Tamer Ezzat.
How did this documentary come together? The whole process started when our friend Ahmad Abdulla — who contributes to my section of the documentary about activists — established a media centre in Cai- ro’s Tahrir Square, the focal point during the revolution. The centre was initially a place to gather evi- dence of police violence towards protesters. Amr came up with the
idea of doing a project like The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. It was obvious to us who was who but everything was so intense it wasn’t until Mubarak stepped down later in February that we could think about shooting. I had to find characters with
compelling stories and who had footage of themselves during the protests. Ayten’s film about the police was probably the most chal- lenging. Finding someone to speak honestly and to reveal their identity was a real challenge. Amr’s section is more satirical, a
sort of ‘10 steps on how to become a dictator’.
You document very brave people... That’s what drew me to the story. Even those who were not politi- cally active prior to the revolution in a matter of days became war- rior-activists. I asked them about their fear but they all said they didn’t feel any. The power of a people in agreement and full of adrenaline made them feel like warriors.
n 30 Screen International at the Toronto Film Festival September 11, 2011
How important was social media in mobilising the young activists? Mubarak’s regime managed to suppress all kinds of opposition but they weren’t technologically aware. I think the new generation worked outside the box. Blogs and Twitter have become popular in Egypt, but I don’t think all the participants used Facebook. It was a spark. It gave the young generation some practise in activism, and a means of mobilisation. This revolution has
been so well documented, by mobile phones, HD cameras…
What’s next for you? Tahrir 2011 will become the first ever documentary released in the- atres in Egypt. That is very excit- ing. I’m also developing an Egypt-based drama called When We Are Born, which has some funding from the Doha Film Insti- tute.
Andreas Wiseman
Meeting room 12, fifth floor, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street West, Toronto, ON, M5V 3X5
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Tamer Ezzat
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