Austrian writer-director Bernhard Wenger‘s function directing debut Peacock dissects the themes of id and self-presentation within the age of social media however it doesn’t hit you over the top with a hammer. Truly, it doesn’t even point out social media a lot in any respect.
Peacock, an Austrian-German co-production that world premiered on the Venice Critics’ Week final yr and will get its U.Ok. debut on the Glasgow Movie Pageant on Oscar Sunday, with one other screening on Monday, options German rising star Albrecht Schuch (Edward Berger‘s All Quiet on the Western Entrance, Andreas Kleinert’s Pricey Thomas, Nora Fingscheidt’s System Crasher) as Matthias, together with the likes of Anton Noori, and Julia Franz Richter.
“Matthias is a grasp of efficiency, slipping seamlessly into any position demanded by his rent-a-companion firm’s purchasers – from art-loving boyfriend to Good Samaritan and dutiful son,” notes a synopsis. “His people-pleasing angle has turn out to be so excessive that his girlfriend Sophia (Richter) begins to marvel if there’s any of the ‘actual’ him left, plunging Matthias into an existential disaster.”
Wenger’s brief movie Excuse Me, I’m On the lookout for the Ping-Pong Room and My Girlfriend received the most effective brief movie award on the Austrian Movie Awards 2019, and was additionally honored with the Max Ophüls Award, in addition to each brief movie awards on the Diagonale – Pageant of Austrian Movie.
Wenger got here up with the thought for Peacock when he examine rent-a-friend companies in Japan greater than 10 years in the past and thought that after finishing his movie schooling and several other well-received shorts, the subject of self-presentation could be well worth the function remedy. His script for the film was chosen for the fortieth Cinéfondation Residence of the Cannes Movie Pageant in 2020.
The 32-year-old talked to THR about his analysis in Japan, his inventive course of, comparisons that his work has drawn with the likes of Ruben Östlund and Yorgos Lanthimos, and what’s subsequent for him.
You found rent-a-friend companies in an article in The New Yorker in 2014. How did you analysis the subject?
In 2018, when the time was proper, I went to Japan to do analysis about them. They’ve existed in Japan for greater than a decade due to isolation and loneliness in society. Individuals can lease anyone simply to go for a espresso or take a stroll collectively. They will lease anyone for no matter they don’t have in life. So persons are rented as companions, as pals, as relations. This initially good concept to assist individuals who is likely to be introverts to check out social contact was shortly used for various issues, corresponding to higher self-presentation, hiding lies, manipulation, displaying energy. And these are, sadly, the the explanation why these companies would additionally work in Western societies.
Do you converse Japanese?
I simply had a translator with me and tried to get folks to speak overtly with me, which was not that simple. However fortunately, one particular person actually opened up. And all of the tales I heard there about assignments typically have been too absurd to even present them within the film, so I turned every little thing down a bit. A few of the assignments we see within the movie occurred precisely as proven. Different ones would have been an excessive amount of. Or they could possibly be proven however it might have been a unique movie, a basic comedy movie. However the humor I work with is delicate and a bit weird, so I didn’t wish to be an excessive amount of excessive.
After I was in Japan to do analysis, I met a person working at an company who instructed me that due to his odd job the place he’s being another person day by day, he’s obtained the issue that he doesn’t know the best way to be himself anymore. And I discovered that extremely tragic and constructed this satirical story round it. I’m telling the story by way of a person working at a rent-a-friend company, however it’s a satirical story about our society and our society’s issues.
The themes you discover do appear very well timed and common…
Self-presentation is a big matter in our society. If we check out social media, the place all people presents themselves in the most effective gentle, it has actually turn out to be an issue. … I needed to speak about these matters in a movie with out displaying social media, however see the movie as a metaphor for it.
We don’t see a lot by way of selfies and social media within the movie…
Yeah. We see folks taking selfies, and there’s a TV report about an influencer who pretended to be on trip, however in actuality, she was in her personal yard. … However aside from that, I needed to indicate extra about how folks current themselves higher in public.
Your work has been in comparison with the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos and Ruben Östlund, amongst others. Any cinematic or inventive influences?
I used to be influenced by Scandinavian cinema in my youth. (Aki) Kaurismäki was the primary director I actually admired, and British black comedy additionally influenced me. And along with my very Austrian sense for tragedy, this (cinematic) handwriting got here collectively through the years.
How would you describe your strategy in the case of what could be a very skinny line between tragic bleakness and humor?
I attempt to make movies with vital and tragic matters however nonetheless have optimism and heat in the direction of my characters.
How cool was it to work with Albrecht Schuch, who’s broadly thought to be one of many best younger German actors, and the remainder of your nice forged?
It was fantastic to work with such an incredible forged on my first function movie. Many of those actors and actresses I’ve actually admired and have at all times needed to work with. And fortunately, they accepted my invitation to play these roles.
With Albrecht, it was that I at all times beloved seeing him in his earlier tasks, and I at all times actually needed to comply with his characters and be very near them. That’s a top quality we particularly wanted for Matthias as a result of he’s such a passive essential character that you just nonetheless must wish to comply with over the size of a function movie. And on the opposite facet, Albrecht is extremely versatile. I’ve typically seen him in several types of hero roles and I believed it’s very attention-grabbing that Matthias takes on these hero roles in his jobs, however in his non-public life, he’s nonetheless misplaced. And that a part of being misplaced and actually trying to find one thing I’ve by no means seen Albrecht painting earlier than. I at all times assume it’s attention-grabbing to see an actor doing one thing new.
What did you be taught out of your interactions with the actors?
Albrecht, for instance, mentioned that it’s so laborious to play a job when a personality enters a room and nothing adjustments due to him. He has additionally mentioned that in appearing faculty, he realized the best way to be another person, the best way to tackle a job, however you don’t actually learn to eliminate it. So Albrecht instructed us that he discovered his personal methods of eliminating these roles once more. However our essential character right here clearly doesn’t know the way to try this. And neither did the one who impressed the story in Japan. He instructed me that he emotionally closes down earlier than taking assignments as a result of he doesn’t wish to get hooked up when he performs a companion, a son or a father. And when he comes dwelling and sits together with his household, he wants time to open up once more. So it’s not that there isn’t a emotion in any respect, it’s simply hidden beneath a couple of layers, and it must be introduced out once more. As a result of whenever you play another person day by day, you don’t have the time to search out actual feelings.
How attention-grabbing will it’s so that you can display screen Peacock in Glasgow?
It’s our U.Ok. premiere, and I’m very a lot wanting ahead to it. I’ve been sitting within the cinema in several nations I’ve traveled to with the movie, and it’s very thrilling. I’ve at all times sat in on the primary screening. It’s very attention-grabbing to see how totally different cultures react to the movie. Within the U.S., the response was fairly shocked given scenes of nakedness, for instance. And in Sweden, the place we confirmed the movie, folks beloved the darker scenes far more than in different nations. So you actually get this sense and feeling of various cinema cultures.
Are you aware what you wish to do subsequent?
Truly, I’ve obtained two function movie concepts and one sequence concept. Peacock has been in my head for six years now, so I’m comfortable to get it on the market. The sequence, for instance, is a interval piece across the Austrian monarchy with humor. It’s been actually good to do analysis as a result of time-wise, it’s so totally different from Peacock that it opened up loads of head house once more.
The function movie concepts once more have the identical handwriting with humor and satire, however are modern once more. One is across the matter of breakups as a result of the massive topics of cinema are love and dying. And I believe breakups are a really attention-grabbing cinematic mixture of each of those matters.
You’ve gotten been mentioning your strategy to humor a number of occasions…
I’d like to inform you a bit extra concerning the humor I work with. In business comedies these days, humor principally occurs by way of dialog or slapstick or exaggerations. However the humor I like to work with is delicate, odd, and visible. When you look again on the movies of (French mime, actor and filmmaker) Jacques Tati, for instance, the visible humor is so fantastic to observe. In my tasks, visible humor is proven by way of cinematography, enhancing, artwork design, costumes – all these departments work collectively in order that humor comes throughout naturally by statement. These unusual conditions we regularly know from our on a regular basis lives that comprise humor are my massive supply of inspiration.
Any examples?
I used to be sitting within the tram, and some rows in entrance of me, a mom was sitting with two kids. The one little one was screaming and operating up and down, and the opposite little one was actually calm and quiet. The mom was simply wanting on the loud little one, whereas the quiet one was licking the window of the tram in peace, with no person realizing it. I actually love these small issues in our on a regular basis life.
Earlier than I allow you to go, I wish to ask a bit extra about working in shut partnership with the varied creatives on a movie that you just talked about. How a lot do you put together and the way a lot do you improvise?
I’m a filmmaker that focuses on preparation as an alternative of improvisation. The movie could be very near the script, particularly dialogue-wise. If you write for years, you actually know why each phrase is within the script. However after all, it’s additionally about rehearsing with the actors and exactly making ready earlier than capturing. Truly, the DOP, Albin Wildner, and I’ve accomplished brief movies collectively earlier than, and we’ve discovered a means of preparation that provides us freedom on set later.
We shoot the entire movie as soon as with a small digicam test-wise, with myself and a few colleagues being in entrance of the digicam and “appearing” out all of the scenes. That is nice as a result of then we learn about all of the decision and different particulars. It’s a bit like storyboarding, however capturing it as an alternative. So on set, we will then say, “Okay, Scene 5-7,” and Albin works with the lights and digicam crew, and I work with the actors and have extra time to rehearse with them. And by having accomplished it as soon as already, by having acted it myself earlier than, I’ve realized a lot about rhythm, timing, dialogue, and in addition these very small issues. For instance, does it make sense for an actor to stroll from right here to there in entrance of the desk or wouldn’t it really feel extra pure to stroll on the opposite facet of the desk?
Do you present what you shoot to the forged?
In no way. However to the artwork design, costumes, and DOP group. All of them get to see it so that everyone is aware of what’s going to occur. It’s a strategy to be very exact in preparation that provides me extra time to direct on set and rehearse with the actors.
