Ynet – Jedijot Achronot 26.11.2008
THE LIFE OF OTHERS
Meirav Yudelevich
"We steal stories from the reality, we mix them and use them in our creations", says the Polish director Andrzej Jakimowski and he accentuates that even if it is similar to his life, "Tricks" is not an autobiographical movie.
The Polish film director Andrzej Jakimowski does not believe in bribing fate. As a matter of fact he does not believe in fate at all and this may be why the main characters of his movie "Tricks", which is coming to cinemas in Israel this week, constantly try to manipulate the god of fate, asking him to be generous to their needs.
"Fate leaves no place for negotiations and that's why I do not believe in it. I think, that even if many things are set up from the beginning, because of the financial situation in which a person is born, because of the genetics or other circumstances, that determinate his life, there is always room for negotiations", says Jakimowski in his interview for Ynet. "It's not easy to change the ways of life or free oneself from the circle of life that has been predetermined, but it is necessary to fight with definitions like poverty or social status. What's important to me is to capture with a camera those little moments, that can change lifes, the crossroads where coincidences meet.”
Capture the little moments with a camera. (picture: Gustavo Hochman)
Jakimowski's movie, which received the award for the best european film at the last Venice Festival, takes place during the summer holidays in a small working town in Poland. It's main characters are a brother and a sister, a picture of their father, who abandoned them and the longing for something that has never really existed. The ironic fate is present here, or at least that's what the little boy believes. He wants to control reality and to make the man, who is waiting every day on the train station's platform, recognize him as his son. The beauty of the movie lies in it's minimalism. It's a bittersweet, intimate and warm movie, that takes place against the grey and hard background of life, which in Jakimowski's frame seems full of charm.
Jakimowski admits that during the making of the movie he was walking on thin ice. With delicacy and without making a drama out of the circumstances of life of his characters, he brings to the screen a difficult reality, which thanks to a subtle humour starts to be poetic. "In life you can not really separate comedy from drama, it's one lot, and that goes also for movies, or at least the screenplay I've written. Laughter is mixed with serious events and vice versa, because life is a wholesome thing, a mix of different feelings. In everyday life we rarely have the occasion to see big dramas and there's a funny side to every situation, even the most complicated and difficult one. It depends on the point of view, which elements are more visible than others.
"Tricks" It's impossible to separate comedy from drama.
Even if he has dedicated this movie to his sister (which could make it an autobiographical one), Jakimowski denies: " The close bond between the boy and his sister is taken from my life, that's true"- he says.-"Just like in the movie, my sister is 13 years older than me. She used to take care of me when I was young and in many ways she was my mum and my dad.
The story of the father, who leaves his family is also true, but isn't part of my own biography. Many years ago I knew a girl, who'd met her father on the street. They walked next to one another and he didn't recognize her. This story engraved itself in my memory and made it to the movie. I suppose, that's what we, the artists, do. We steal stories from real life, ours or someone else's, we mix them and use them in our creations. We steal because it's not easy to imagine something that will be as good as reality in means of beauty and of the astounding way that life works."
-I can not help myself but to think that a screenplay like this one in Hollywood would have never achieved such a level of modesty like the one we find in your movie.
-There also is humbleness in Hollywood movies. Not in all of them, but it is present in good american movies, and there is quite a lot of those. They may be not as popular, but take for example the movies of Peter Bogdanovich, Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola. Modesty and a lack of melodramatic exaggeration can definitely be found there. There's a place for good movies everywhere."
Children are the key
Jakimowski, 45 y.o., was born and raised in Warsaw. He studied philosophy at the University of Silesia in Katowice, before turning to cinema studies. Even if he is an independent director and producer, filmmaking in Poland is a category where the fight to survive is particularly rough, just like in other non english speaking countries. Jakimowski has managed to situate himself already on the beginning of his journey as a creator with a special gift of expression and an individual brand. In 2002 his first movie "Squint your eyes", which received a lot of international awards like the International Federation of Film Critics Fipresci, was screened in Great Britain. The reviews loved him, comparing sometimes his creations to the Czech New Wave.
The main character of his first movie is also a child and if you ask Jakimowski about it, he will say that it's because of the unpretentiousness, that he finds in young actors, despite the problems that appear when they work together on a set. - "I like child actors. They are so innocent, fresh and pretty. It's really tempting to give the main role to a kid but it's also an enormous risk. You never know if they will handle the stress and living on the set well enough. In fact, you'll have the answer to that question the day you start making the movie, but it may be too late then."
Jakimowski emphasizes, that in his previous movie, in contrary to the new one, the little girl does not play a key character. She has one of the main roles, but she really is just a catalyst, that wakes up the main character, who is a man my age." - he says. -"When I was writing this movie, I also thought that the main character would be a grown-up. But after a few tries I decided to change my direction.
-It's quite a drastic change. Does this mean that you changed your screenplay entirely during your work?
-A few times. On the way, I understood that I have to go back to my childhood, to those authentic memories from my own biography or from one I know. I didn't want to imagine a whole new story. At first, the main character was supposed to be a grown-up man with psychological problems. At least that's the way he is seen by his environment, because he is a naive dreamer.
Eventually I decided to replace him by a child, but not because I have unresolved matters in my childhood, at least not more than all the other people. I thought that in that way I could speak about inspiration and taking risks, because children do not accept borderlines. Maybe there is something deeper in my psychological construction. But I can surely say, that everyone carries on their back their own childhood.
Meirav Yudelevich
/director’s photo subtitled: Capture the little moments with a camera. (picture: Gustavo Hochman)/
/photo subtitled: „Tricks”. I prefer young actors, despite the risk./
Translated by Justine Julie Charlet
The Polish film director Andrzej Jakimowski does not believe in bribing fate. As a matter of fact he does not believe in fate at all and this may be why the main characters of his movie "Tricks", which is coming to cinemas in Israel this week, constantly try to manipulate the god of fate, asking him to be generous to their needs.
"Fate leaves no place for negotiations and that's why I do not believe in it. I think, that even if many things are set up from the beginning, because of the financial situation in which a person is born, because of the genetics or other circumstances, that determinate his life, there is always room for negotiations", says Jakimowski in his interview for Ynet. "It's not easy to change the ways of life or free oneself from the circle of life that has been predetermined, but it is necessary to fight with definitions like poverty or social status. What's important to me is to capture with a camera those little moments, that can change lifes, the crossroads where coincidences meet.”
Capture the little moments with a camera. (picture: Gustavo Hochman)
Jakimowski's movie, which received the award for the best european film at the last Venice Festival, takes place during the summer holidays in a small working town in Poland. It's main characters are a brother and a sister, a picture of their father, who abandoned them and the longing for something that has never really existed. The ironic fate is present here, or at least that's what the little boy believes. He wants to control reality and to make the man, who is waiting every day on the train station's platform, recognize him as his son. The beauty of the movie lies in it's minimalism. It's a bittersweet, intimate and warm movie, that takes place against the grey and hard background of life, which in Jakimowski's frame seems full of charm.
Jakimowski admits that during the making of the movie he was walking on thin ice. With delicacy and without making a drama out of the circumstances of life of his characters, he brings to the screen a difficult reality, which thanks to a subtle humour starts to be poetic. "In life you can not really separate comedy from drama, it's one lot, and that goes also for movies, or at least the screenplay I've written. Laughter is mixed with serious events and vice versa, because life is a wholesome thing, a mix of different feelings. In everyday life we rarely have the occasion to see big dramas and there's a funny side to every situation, even the most complicated and difficult one. It depends on the point of view, which elements are more visible than others.
"Tricks" It's impossible to separate comedy from drama.
Even if he has dedicated this movie to his sister (which could make it an autobiographical one), Jakimowski denies: " The close bond between the boy and his sister is taken from my life, that's true"- he says.-"Just like in the movie, my sister is 13 years older than me. She used to take care of me when I was young and in many ways she was my mum and my dad.
The story of the father, who leaves his family is also true, but isn't part of my own biography. Many years ago I knew a girl, who'd met her father on the street. They walked next to one another and he didn't recognize her. This story engraved itself in my memory and made it to the movie. I suppose, that's what we, the artists, do. We steal stories from real life, ours or someone else's, we mix them and use them in our creations. We steal because it's not easy to imagine something that will be as good as reality in means of beauty and of the astounding way that life works."
-I can not help myself but to think that a screenplay like this one in Hollywood would have never achieved such a level of modesty like the one we find in your movie.
-There also is humbleness in Hollywood movies. Not in all of them, but it is present in good american movies, and there is quite a lot of those. They may be not as popular, but take for example the movies of Peter Bogdanovich, Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola. Modesty and a lack of melodramatic exaggeration can definitely be found there. There's a place for good movies everywhere."
Children are the key
Jakimowski, 45 y.o., was born and raised in Warsaw. He studied philosophy at the University of Silesia in Katowice, before turning to cinema studies. Even if he is an independent director and producer, filmmaking in Poland is a category where the fight to survive is particularly rough, just like in other non english speaking countries. Jakimowski has managed to situate himself already on the beginning of his journey as a creator with a special gift of expression and an individual brand. In 2002 his first movie "Squint your eyes", which received a lot of international awards like the International Federation of Film Critics Fipresci, was screened in Great Britain. The reviews loved him, comparing sometimes his creations to the Czech New Wave.
The main character of his first movie is also a child and if you ask Jakimowski about it, he will say that it's because of the unpretentiousness, that he finds in young actors, despite the problems that appear when they work together on a set. - "I like child actors. They are so innocent, fresh and pretty. It's really tempting to give the main role to a kid but it's also an enormous risk. You never know if they will handle the stress and living on the set well enough. In fact, you'll have the answer to that question the day you start making the movie, but it may be too late then."
Jakimowski emphasizes, that in his previous movie, in contrary to the new one, the little girl does not play a key character. She has one of the main roles, but she really is just a catalyst, that wakes up the main character, who is a man my age." - he says. -"When I was writing this movie, I also thought that the main character would be a grown-up. But after a few tries I decided to change my direction.
-It's quite a drastic change. Does this mean that you changed your screenplay entirely during your work?
-A few times. On the way, I understood that I have to go back to my childhood, to those authentic memories from my own biography or from one I know. I didn't want to imagine a whole new story. At first, the main character was supposed to be a grown-up man with psychological problems. At least that's the way he is seen by his environment, because he is a naive dreamer.
Eventually I decided to replace him by a child, but not because I have unresolved matters in my childhood, at least not more than all the other people. I thought that in that way I could speak about inspiration and taking risks, because children do not accept borderlines. Maybe there is something deeper in my psychological construction. But I can surely say, that everyone carries on their back their own childhood.
Meirav Yudelevich
/director’s photo subtitled: Capture the little moments with a camera. (picture: Gustavo Hochman)/
/photo subtitled: „Tricks”. I prefer young actors, despite the risk./
Translated by Justine Julie Charlet