Bertrand Bonello: “I went from music to cinema intuitively” – Media7
Friday, December 1, 2023 at 8:34 p.m.
Marrakech – French director and screenwriter Bertrand Bonello indicated, Friday in Marrakech, that he had moved from music to cinema “intuitively”.
This French filmmaker, who was the guest of the “in Conversation with…” section as part of the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, told the audience made up of film students, film buffs and professionals in the film industry, having started his artistic journey in classical music.
This filmmaker also explained that he had the dream of becoming a conductor when he was a teenager, before switching to rock and pop.
Being “afraid of being bored”, Bertrand Bonello began to be interested in cinema at the age of 23-24 and began learning as a true autodidact, by watching films and reading interviews given by professionals of the 7th art.
Little by little, this director felt he had developed a real “artistic rigor” which is characterized by his unique way of telling the story, advocating the writing of the film rather than the screenplay.
Affirming that the film must “be able to fit on a page”, this innovator and visionary also explained that the cinematographic work must include, from its writing, music, visuals and other essential elements for the formation of a cinematographic project .
Returning to the biopic “Saint-Laurent”, Bertrand Bonello indicated that he wanted to show in this film what fame cost Yves Saint-Laurent, all on a quasi-documentary background, characterizing the transition from craftsmanship to industry (from the 1970s to the 1980s).
During this meeting, this filmmaker shed considerable light on the details of the filming he carried out, the casting of some of them and the way in which he saw the creative process.
Through extracts from the films “Saint-Laurent”, “Nocturama”, “Zombi Child” and “The Beast”, film students and film buffs had the opportunity to discover a director who neglects no detail in his manner. to bring his characters to life without disappearing the personalities of the actors, to furnish his scenes with an expressive setting and to play with time and geography.
Bertrand Bonello was born in 1968. His first feature film, “Quelque chose d’organique” (1998), was presented at the Berlin Film Festival (Panorama).
His following films were all selected at Cannes: “Tiresia” (2003) in official competition, “De la guerre” (2008) in the Directors’ Fortnight, “The Apollonide: memories of the brothel” (2011) in competition official (eight César nominations) and “Saint Laurent” (2014), also in Official Competition, (representing France at the Oscars and ten César nominations).
After Nocturama (2016), Zombi Child was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight (2019) and Coma (2022) in competition at the Berlinale where it received the FIPRESCI Prize. His latest film, “The Beast” (2023), was in official competition at the Venice Film Festival.
In addition to French director and screenwriter Bertrand Bonello, the “Conversation with…” section of the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival welcomes big names from the world cinema scene, including Australian actor and director Simon Baker, filmmaker Indian Anurag Kashyap, Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi, American actor Willem Dafoe, Japanese screenwriter and director Naomi Kawase, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, American-Danish actor and director Viggo Mortensen, Scottish actress Tilda Swinton, Russian director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev, as well as American actor, director and screenwriter Matt Dillon.
