罪恶煞星国语

http://www.indiewire.com/article/toronto_08_discovery_interview_zift_director_javor_gardev
by indieWIRE (September 2, 2008/



EDITORS NOTE: For the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, indieWIRE will be publishing interviews with filmmakers in the Discovery section of the festival, which TIFF describes as a showcase for new and emerging filmmakers from contemporary international cinema.

Javor Gardev‘s “Zift” will be having its World Premiere in the Discovery section of the Toronto International Film Festival. The film follows “The Moth” (Zahary Baharov), a man freed on parole after spending time in a prison on a wrongful murder conviction. TIFF describes his first night out of jail as one in which he “draws the map of a diabolical city full of decaying neighbourhoods, gloomy streets and a bizarre parade of characters.” indieWIRE spoke to Gardev about the film and its screening at Toronto.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking and did that interest evolve while making your film?

My father used to take me regularly to the National Filmoteque in my native town of Sofia since I was four. Thus, I was exposed to the great film classics from an early age. Later, I developed passion for theater. I would try to watch as many stage plays and movies as I could possibly manage. I also played in TV performances for young viewers. During the summers of my adolescence, movies became essential part of the recreational romantics. We would climb the trees that surrounded open-space theaters at the Black-Sea resorts and watched gratis all the shows. Images from films became my personal icons. They were engraved in my mind for good.

Justifiably so, I turned to filmmaking after fourteen years of theater directing and philosophical wanderings. I debuted in the theater when I was 22. Now, I turned to filmmaking not to keep catching and feeding images to my mind, but to start making them. It turns out, I get a big kick out of this. During the making of “Zift” I developed a strong dependency on the intoxicating experience of moviemaking. I really miss the set. Now that the movie “Zift” is done, I feel the rush to go and get my movie fix not only in the theaters, but on the set again.

Please discuss how the idea for “Zift” came about…

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 RIP Rohmer The idea developed during a series of conversations with the author of the script Vladislav Todorov. We came to the conclusion that contemporary Bulgarian film deals mainly with everyday-life experiences or engages in constructing national identity drawing on the folklore tradition or revisiting traumatic moments of history. So, we thought that in such artistic context a radical genre attack could be refreshing and trigger a productive debate. We picked one of the sharpest genres of cinema and gave it a strong absurdist spin. The action is set in the midst of the ominously monumental spaces of the totalitarian state surrounded by a bleak zone of urban life packed with roguish riffraff and witty lowlife. We remember the days of “spotless” communism with our skin, its pompous ugliness and exuberant absurdities. So we decided to frame the banality of communist evil, to “estrange” it on screen, to render it utterly odd by using a set of genre devices—the hardboiled cliche of neo-noir. This mix allowed me to walk the knife-edge between auteur and genre cinema.

Please elaborate on your approach to making the film, including your influences as well as your overall goals for the project.

As far as the cinematography is concerned, with DOP Emil Christov we decided to make a black and white picture in 1:2.35 anamorphic format. “Zift” was shot in color but with regard to a black and white final version. The scenes from the 60s are shot with 35 mm camera, the ones from the 40s - with 16 mm, and the phantasmagoric visions with 8 mm.

In terms of visual graphics and retro-effect, we were looking for ways to create different visual textures that would signal the time switches. With the art directors Nikola Toromanov and Daniela Oleg Liahova we decided to create a dystopian appearance of the communist reality even in moments when the action takes us to easily recognizable, sacred sites of Bulgarian communism, such as the Mausoleum of the Leader. The structure has been demolished and we had to rebuild it with CGI. The original score by Kalin Nikolov had to enhance the sense of dystopia. At the same time the picture had to spur combined associations with the visual characteristics of classical noir of the 40s and 50s and the socialist propaganda film of the 20s. I was influenced by directors like Charles Vidor, Fritz Lang, Jules Dassin, Lars von Trier, The Coen Brothers and Alexey German. The critics at the Moscow International Film Festival also mentioned Jean-Pierre Melville, Guy Ritchie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Quentin Tarantino.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?

The biggest challenge for me as a debutant filmmaker was the preparation for shooting. I set myself on the ambitious task to draft comprehensive outlines—down to the greatest detail possible—of every single shot. With the help of two assistants, I turned those outlines into blocking diagrams. As a result, the crew on the set had on their disposal a book of about 1200 pages with charts and descriptions of the entire movie. Thus, I could pay more attention to my work with the actors. In this case, I have to admit, my stage experience helped me a lot. With the actors I was in charted waters and the enjoyment was unbelievable.

Casting was also challenging. Casting was also challenging. The main male actors Zachary Baharov, Vladimir Penev, and Mihail Mutafov were chosen without special audition. I just knew who should play these roles. Our discovery was Tanya Ilieva. Together with my casting assistant Antonia Ara Vladimirova we spent time hunting for faces in Sofia. And we were able to find an amazing bunch of characters and convinced them to play in the movie. In the jail scenes there are extras who were actually set free on the day before shooting.

What is your next project?

Together with Vladislav Todorov we are working on two new film projects that are on the stage of script development. The first one is called “Zincograph.” The genre could be termed “political psycho-thriller.” The premise is simple—what would happen if a maniacal former agent of the communist secret police takes a proactive approach, starts to “recruit” unsuspecting people to spy on each other and thus develops his own network of informants, strictly private and invisible for the institutions? This is a farcically sinister story driven by the workings of the mind of a former agent turned psychopathic schemer, who pulls a roguish act on the entire political system that has rejected him.

The second story is significantly more ambitious in terms of budgetary considerations. It is called “Neon” and its genre could be defined as “tragicomic dystopian adventure.” The story takes us into the far future of Neo Thrace—a fictional country created on the Balkans in the aftermath of the Grand Atomic Anomaly. Like in a crooked mirror, the country of Neo-Thrace reflects the totalitarian past and the present state of affairs in the Balkan region. We are actively looking for co-producers for both projects and I hope to find them in Toronto.

As far as my theater projects are concerned, I am presently rehearsing “Caligula” by Camus. It is a Bulgarian-French coproduction that will premiere in Bulgaria shortly after Toronto.

What are your goals for the Toronto International Film Festival?

For me personally, Toronto will test the potential of “Zift” on international stage. This will be the second major challenge for the film before its Bulgarian premiere in September and after the recognition that it received in Moscow. It was highly acclaimed by the jury of the main competition, by the Russian film critics, by cinefiles and bloggers. I am very eager to find out how “Zift” will connect with audiences and the professional community overseas. With the growing apprehension of a first-timer, I am waiting to hear their judgment. Well, I am sure, I’ll leave Toronto with unforgettable memories. Also, two of the producers of “Zift” - Matey Konstantinov and Ilian Djevelekov - will be in Toronto to explore the possibilities for international distribution. In this respect we are hopeful since we already got some serious offers from several major Russian and European distributers. I hope that Toronto, markedly one of the biggest film markets, will prove decisive for our film and the producers from Miramar Film will be there to make sure we do not miss this rare chance.

Naturally, as every sober man, I have three wild wishes that I will not be bashful to share:

Wild wish number one (modest): To sign with a major production company for a movie I’d like to make.

Wild wish number three (super ambitious): Dinner with Joel and Ethan Coen after the screening of “Burn After Reading.”



 

看了个中文字幕的，半通不通的。
但从这个构图和情节来看。人是什么？
既讽刺了所谓的苏维埃保加利亚队社会的虚伪。爱情的背叛和耻辱。但最根本的，也许就是主角的那个绰号。蛾。
一个飞蛾。它的命运是什么？
它自然的来，又自然的死去。似乎有些中国庄子的意境。
也有些人类救赎自身的审视。所以，其实意境还是比较深刻的。
和保加利亚文化有关吧。
一切人都是有罪的。影片里无论是xx主义政f，官员，还是监牢，囚犯。情人。
影片总体上黑色的。灰暗的无法逃脱的命运。
主角为了自己的情人和孩子，定罪坐牢。但后来发现一切是骗局。情人也背叛自己成了以前朋友的情妇。
而那颗钻石，却被他藏在粪便中。多么嘲讽啊。一切也许就如同粪便。
但保加利亚的文化似乎和中国不同，所以，他主题是个神学救赎的意境。我们追逐的那些东西，也许只不过是我们命运的捉弄。如同蛾子

简单的剧情或许不应该配上如此复杂的悬念。但影片形式很大胆，作者对时代反思的譬喻尤其深刻。港译片名很商业，失去了原名双重隐喻的内涵，对于这样一部艺术片，或许很多人会当成充满暴力和情色的类型片来看，而忽视了对其反身指涉的思考。

这是我今年看过的最好的一部电影，是我很少重复看的电影之一。
令人印象深刻的是，是男主角跑去酒吧找他的爱人的那一段，可以说是细腻到极致！那首令人意志消沉全身无力的插曲《满月》 ，仿佛是女主角的自我辩护，她说，我不过是一个崩溃的时代里“无助的贱人”。如果你没有看懂作者要表达的东西，你会觉得歌词莫名其妙，如果你看懂了，你就会感觉到她在最后一句里，一字一顿地发泄着对“月亮”的无比憎恨。 这就是这部电影点睛之处，它给了这女人一个华丽的出场，还没有展示其恶毒，先给了她一个自我辩护的机会，最后在逻辑结构上，成功地将一个人的罪，一群人的罪，转嫁给了它要批判的那个时代，转嫁给了它要批斗的“月亮”。
我并不认可这部电影要表达的颓废的小知识分子情怀，但它确实是一部好电影，它以唯有电影可以使用的，非常夸张艺术形式，告诉我们在那个“月亮”时代里，像作者这样的人是多么的郁闷。这部电影让我们了解到，原来在保加利亚人的心里，可原谅了那个恶毒的婊子，不能原谅“玩弄我们的月亮”。
还好，是俄罗斯人给了这部电影最高的荣誉。

ZIFT
（阿拉伯语）
1、黑色天然树脂；沥青。作为道路表面填料和香口胶原料。
（城市俚语）
2、粪便。
 
时光网剧情介绍中提到：“片名‘Zift’是苏刺艺术（一种不同政见的讽刺社会主义现实主义风格的苏维埃艺术形式）的一种流派，预示着全片的政治倾向。”反正我是没看出什么政治意涵。
 
一个罪犯的赎罪与复仇的历程。如同一部超现实版本的“基督山伯爵”。
 
锒铛入狱前、狱中启发性的生活、出狱后获知一切的来龙去脉，三条线交叉叙述。
 
黑白但柔和的影像、炫技般的摄影、对气味偏执性的描述、特点鲜明的人物，造就了一部风格鲜明的作品。

  电影通篇都是让众多的配角们说着一些奇怪的故事和貌似莫测的高深台词．但是我想也只有导演自己才＂可能＂知道这些故事和台词包含着些什么寓意和哲理．（个人认为也只有开头那个关于人类排泄物的故事才能博人一笑，至少还有点昆汀似的幽默．）
  当然，当然，导演会争辩说，我的电影是有政治寓意在里边的．好吧，那么我们就来谈谈政治寓意，电影故事的主线：当年和主角一起搭伙做强盗的家伙在主角出了监狱之后，成了保加利亚共产主义新政府的干部，但这样的事例也太具普遍意义了吧，我完全可以把导演在电影中描写的共产主义政府替换成意大利右派政府，阿根廷军政府，美国资产阶级政府……故事本身在逻辑上照样成立，加之导演根本没有好好的在电影中对故事的政治背景作必要的刻画和渲染．（导演都把时间和精力用在设计那些神神叨叨的小故事和台词上了），所以这个电影故事的主线本身就毫无可信性可言．
  真是一部故作高深，不知所谓的电影．