Mr Kusturica, recently, writer Peter Handke said about your film Black Cat, White Cat that it was a very beautiful film, finally a very beautiful film among so much of pseudo serious and mannered films. How do you see your film today, when it reaches the theatres ?
Emir Kusturica :
Handke was right, in the way his reaction corresponds to my desire. I had the need to make a film which is therapeutic, and not which evokes the past. In no case, I wanted to make a film which reduces the hopes of men to a cheap and stupid level, as it is often the case of Hollywood films. I was attracted by the beauty of alternate universes. The Gypsies of my film survive like insects, according to the principle of the natural selection, according to the beauty of the colours and the shapes of the wings. I wish that men, in my films, survive without weapons, middle-age fortress, all the equipment of the destruction. It is almost about a naive glance on the world, like a glance between a black cat and a white cat. Admittedly, the emotional dimension of the film must sometimes appear kitsch. Nevertheless, it mattered me that this kitsch translates the joy in life to the world in periphery. It does not mean mannerism.
Where do your interest for the world of Gypsies come from ?
EK :
I always sought the ethnic bases of my creative work. The modern world is dehumanized more and more because of the electronic media. I wanted to put some distance with this tendency. With this intention, I was interested in the world of the Gypsies, in whom I found humanism and engagement.
You also worked in the United States, the source of the modern genre. The film Black Cat, White Cat, is it an anti-genre film ?
EK :
The genre can be a deception. We are surrounded by lies. My film Underground concentrates itself on the problem of general trickery. The crisis of Kosovo shows at which point the history can prove to be an imposture. The historical truth is unrecognisable. My oeuvre is not a genre film according to the American diktat. The genre is former to American films. I do not wish that my film confirm simply the human silly thing. A good genre film must sharpen the capacity to perceive the world in various ways. If not, the genre stops. The silly thing cannot merge with the genre. It sometimes happens to me to think that the cinema evolves in an extremely negative way. My film Black Cat, White Cat can be regarded as an anti-genre film in the direction where it wants to warm the heart of men. Certain contemporary American films gets an icy effect. Moreover, the American film is not limited to what comes from Hollywood. There exists in the United States a space where the creativity is allowed. I personally see myself in this intermediate space.
Interview by Zarko Radakovic, translated from German to French by Martine Haas, and from French to English by Matthieu Dhennin.
en/itv_99-01_novo.txt · Last modified: 2008/02/17 16:30 by matthieu1