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Sunday, June 14, 2015

Damián Szifrón living out his own wild tale

Damián Szifrón:gauging his chances to clinch the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture.

By Julio Nakamurakare
Herald Staff
After Best Foreign Language Picture nomination, director, cast and producers express their joy
After attracting a record 3.4 million viewers in Argentina alone and standing ovations at every festival where it was screened in competition or in parallel sections, there is no denying that Damián Szifrón’s six-episode movie Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales) has a very strong story to tell, and that it does so in a manner that fills viewers’ expectations from a cinematic viewpoint and a cathartic experience from the human side of things.
It was on Thursday that the Oscars nominations were announced, closely monitored by everyone in the industry and, most especially, by those tipped to win a distinction, since a nomination is an award in itself. Here in Buenos Aires, producers Kramer & Sigman, director Damián Szifrón, the cast and crew of Relatos salvajes and the Argentine public at large watched in awe as the film was mentioned among the roster of five nominees viying for the Best Foreign Language Picture Award.
And it was yesterday that K&G (Kramer & Sigman), Corner Producciones, Pedro Almodóvar’s El Deseo production company, the National Film Board (INCAA) and Telefé (Televisión Federal) gathered at K&G’s headquarters in BA to talk to the press about the repercussions and the personal impact the Oscar nomination produced on them, individually and as a team.
Wild Tales is made up of six independent but thematically related stories about people who lose control in stressful situations, from finding out about an infidelity to road rage, and feeling liberated afterward. The producers say the Argentine film aims to explore “the fuzzy boundary that separates civilization from barbarism.”
Sitting calmly but speaking excitedly about Relatos salvajes’ Best Foreign Picture nomination, producer Hugo Sigman was the first one to speak in a press conference that included his associate Kramer and director Szifrón, who towered above them all even when sitting, tall and lanky as he is.
“I feel immensely happy, as does the whole team, which proved exceptional all along, from preproduction to actual shooting,” Sigman said, adding that everyone’s sinergy was the key to the film’s exceptional outcome. “Making it to Cannes was really hard, Relatos salvajes was shifting between the official competition and the Un Certain Régard parallel section. It finally entered the competition and, even if it did not win the Palme d’Or, it was a fabulous launching pad for the movie,” Sigman said about the film’s exceptional reception, with audiences saluting it with standing ovations, not only for the entire feature, but also for each episode.
Praised for its narration and sense of humour, Relatos salvajes now hopes to bring home its third Oscar for Argentina, which already won in 1985 for The Official Story and in 2009 for The Secret In Their Eyes.
Szifrón’s Relatos salvajes is officially competing for the coveted Oscar against Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, a tragic parable of small-town Russian corruption; Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, in which an aspiring Polish nun confronts dark truths about her family and her country; Tangerines, an Estonian-Georgian film by Zaza Urushadze set in post-Soviet Georgia of the early 1990s, and Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, a powerful film about the takeover of northern Mali by Islamic militants.
The Oscar nomination, Szifrón acknowledges, has opened impressive doors to him, and the distinction is a crowning achievement that makes him feel as though he were living out his own wild tale. In an interview in New York earlier this year, Szifrón described the circumstances under which the idea and script for the film came to be, and especially about the real-life anecdote that propelled things off. “It was an unexpectedly violent situation in my life: I was having dinner with my wife at a restaurant. As soon as we started eating our meal and drinking wine, (the owners and waiters) wanted to throw us out because they were about to close. They started to chase patrons out in a very violent manner, clapping as they shouted, “Alright, alright, come on, let’s go.” It was incredible. I started to argue, the expletives escalated and then I finally said that I was taking the wine bottle and the glasses to drink the wine in the park, after all, I had already paid for them, and I told them I would leave the glasses at the door. Then I saw the cook grab my wife brusquely, and so I punched him! I’m not that kind of person, but it came from deep inside of me. One of the glasses cracked in the waiter’s ear, he started bleeding, the police was called in. It was mayhem. I did not include this in the film, but I had to stand trial!,” Szifrón recalls.
With Télam, AP
http://buenosairesherald.com/article/179741/dami%C3%A1n-szifr%C3%B3n-living-out-his-own-wild-tale
Saturday, January 17, 2015

Damián Szifrón living out his own wild tale

Screenwriter-director Damián Szifrón poses for reporters at yesterday’s press conference.
By Julio Nakamurakare
Herald Staff
After Best Foreign Language Picture nomination, director, cast and producers express their joy
After attracting a record 3.4 million viewers in Argentina alone and standing ovations at every festival where it was screened in competition or in parallel sections, there is no denying that Damián Szifrón’s six-episode movie Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales) has a very strong story to tell, and that it does so in a manner that fills viewers’ expectations from a cinematic viewpoint and a cathartic experience from the human side of things.
It was on Thursday that the Oscars nominations were announced, closely monitored by everyone in the industry and, most especially, by those tipped to win a distinction, since a nomination is an award in itself. Here in Buenos Aires, producers Kramer & Sigman, director Damián Szifrón, the cast and crew of Relatos salvajes and the Argentine public at large watched in awe as the film was mentioned among the roster of five nominees viying for the Best Foreign Language Picture Award.
And it was yesterday that K&G (Kramer & Sigman), Corner Producciones, Pedro Almodóvar’s El Deseo production company, the National Film Board (INCAA) and Telefé (Televisión Federal) gathered at K&G’s headquarters in BA to talk to the press about the repercussions and the personal impact the Oscar nomination produced on them, individually and as a team.
Wild Tales is made up of six independent but thematically related stories about people who lose control in stressful situations, from finding out about an infidelity to road rage, and feeling liberated afterward. The producers say the Argentine film aims to explore “the fuzzy boundary that separates civilization from barbarism.”
Sitting calmly but speaking excitedly about Relatos salvajes’ Best Foreign Picture nomination, producer Hugo Sigman was the first one to speak in a press conference that included his associate Kramer and director Szifrón, who towered above them all even when sitting, tall and lanky as he is.
“I feel immensely happy, as does the whole team, which proved exceptional all along, from preproduction to actual shooting,” Sigman said, adding that everyone’s sinergy was the key to the film’s exceptional outcome. “Making it to Cannes was really hard, Relatos salvajes was shifting between the official competition and the Un Certain Régard parallel section. It finally entered the competition and, even if it did not win the Palme d’Or, it was a fabulous launching pad for the movie,” Sigman said about the film’s exceptional reception, with audiences saluting it with standing ovations, not only for the entire feature, but also for each episode.
Praised for its narration and sense of humour, Relatos salvajes now hopes to bring home its third Oscar for Argentina, which already won in 1985 for The Official Story and in 2009 for The Secret In Their Eyes.
Szifrón’s Relatos salvajes is officially competing for the coveted Oscar against Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, a tragic parable of small-town Russian corruption; Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, in which an aspiring Polish nun confronts dark truths about her family and her country; Tangerines, an Estonian-Georgian film by Zaza Urushadze set in post-Soviet Georgia of the early 1990s, and Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, a powerful film about the takeover of northern Mali by Islamic militants.
The Oscar nomination, Szifrón acknowledges, has opened impressive doors to him, and the distinction is a crowning achievement that makes him feel as though he were living out his own wild tale. In an interview in New York earlier this year, Szifrón described the circumstances under which the idea and script for the film came to be, and especially about the real-life anecdote that propelled things off. “It was an unexpectedly violent situation in my life: I was having dinner with my wife at a restaurant. As soon as we started eating our meal and drinking wine, (the owners and waiters) wanted to throw us out because they were about to close. They started to chase patrons out in a very violent manner, clapping as they shouted, “Alright, alright, come on, let’s go.” It was incredible. I started to argue, the expletives escalated and then I finally said that I was taking the wine bottle and the glasses to drink the wine in the park, after all, I had already paid for them, and I told them I would leave the glasses at the door. Then I saw the cook grab my wife brusquely, and so I punched him! I’m not that kind of person, but it came from deep inside of me. One of the glasses cracked in the waiter’s ear, he started bleeding, the police was called in. It was mayhem. I did not include this in the film, but I had to stand trial!,” Szifrón recalls.
With Télam, AP


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