Happy and fragile

I'm ending a first version of the film.

It runs for more than 2 hours, but don't worry, it will be seriously shortened.

I guess I could say I'm going through an important step.

I also have to say that as joyful and thrilling as it is to work on this project, and I can't tell how pleased and satisfied I am, it takes me towards very intimate and delicate issues. And even though this is not quite clear, I can feel I'm touching a nerve and facing matters which deeply move me.

I am happy, if this word means anything, and fragile. I didn't know those two emotions could fit.

;-)



I send you some pictures of the movie:





































































Do you want to be faithful to Unfaithful? (click...)

Behind the kiss scene

Do you want to be faithful to Unfaithful? (click...)

Portrait : Claude Pérès

Claude Pérès refuses to give any biographic information, thinking what ought to be known is in his work.

To the question:"What do you do for a living?" He would answer: "Those bio notes always look like item specifics, so... well I don't vacuum, I don't light up, there is no button to press and I'm not for sale."

He directed several short movies and wrote several books. He's conducting a disconcerting philosophic research.

He wrote, photographed, directed, edited and produced "Unfaithful".







www.claudeperes.com
www.myspace.com/claudeperes
caractère (sale et propre) (in french)

first cut

I did not begin to edit yet.

I'm taking a break.

I'm also scared to be disapointed.

I watched the rushes though. I loved them. Except when I saw me. I laughed at loud, because I thought I looked like a clown.

I have appetite for many things.

Try to see how I am going to move things forward. Try to construct and to deconstruct others. Start a little before, let it go a little after... Let the making of the film apparent rather than focus on something finished. Rather show the organization than the one who is organizing or the thing which is organized.

So, I'm impatient to try many things. We'll see.

I wait a little.

Nightmares

I make nightmares in which I am filming Marcel reading the script, as The Truck by Duras, but in a bulb, as this piece by Rubén Ramos Balsa :


I wake up. I love it but I think: "Did I really film that? What am I going to do with that stuff, it doesn't match with anything... oups..."

Mood:

D-Day minus one

We pick up the keys of the apartment. We besieged the place. We put it in order, pushed furniture and invaded with our stuff.

I did some tests. Some things worked as I planned, some others differently and others not at all. Some things I didn't planned worked also...

I have a really specific plan in mind but I will follow my intuition. I will go where I can feel there's pleasure to seize, where my body feels there's something to delve into.

I feel ready. I think I got everything in mind. I'm pretty confident. I have stage fright. We'll see.

I wish I could spend a good night. My body, muscles and skin are exhausted, but I feel I will not be able to sleep ;-)

Mood:

Break

I'm working on the shooting script.

In the middle, I take a... no I give myself a break to distract me a little.

The clothes

I got the clothes today. Should I cancel everything and run away with them? I'm hesitating...

the experience of the body by the body

I met someone from the cinema ... how may I say? Classical? Conservative? today.

He has just completed his studies. He is full of hope and quite impressed by himself, more impressed by what he could do than by what he has already done.

I glanced at him. My eyes lingered on his hair that you wouldn't want to touch and his gaze which didn't look straight. He looks very sweet.

He read some notes of the film. He didn't like it. I smiled. I offered him to go further, to explain ... no, no he didn't like.

I thought: I have two weeks before shooting the film. So far no one raised any objection. I am curious to hear what he will say. It is not too late. I can stop everything. Or modify some things. I'm listening.

He was embarrassed to say what he was thinking or the few notes he has read may have not been enough to make an opinion. Too bad.

He was seeking...

"The situation is fake." He said "fake". I looked into... He explained: "What are they doing there? Why don't they leave?" I said: they can leave, they may go, I do not know... why not.

He opened his eyes wide. "Yes, but ..." He was thinking... "What the director wants to do?" I smiled: Well... I say that the director wants to have... no, the director is asking the actor to have sex with him.

"So this is a porn movie? I'm not into porn..." I laughed and I answered, no, certainly not. Porn is not my problem at all. It has nothing to do with...

I stopped. I looked at him. I was more up to listen to him than to talk but I said: usually the desire of the director is hidden behind the story, the technique, the work of actors... Here it is apparent. Yes it is bizarre that a director asks an actress to simulate a rape for example, and during the shooting, this feels bizarre for the whole team. Moreover, we do not even know if actor's bodies are making any difference between reality and imagination because of their work on the emotional memory... Here I make this desire apparent. I do not hide the fact that the desire of the director is debatable. I face it, I don't avoid it.

There, the synaptic connections of his brain were shaken. I saw it in the bustle of his eyes. It was cute. "But why sex?" I understood that he raised this question. I could have shot a meal or a conversation, it's the same for me. The point is I want them to face this question, I don't want them to be able to bypass it, and if they do so, I want it to be clear. This may be what will interest me the most, the bypasses.

I added that whether we are sexually liberated and then this will be an easy-going thing to go through, or it is still very touchy, it still means a lot. Well, I'm curious to face it.

He seemed to assume that there is something very exciting in there, but he could not concretely figure it out. I can see in his eyes, he was overwhelmed. He tried to connect it with stuff he knows. "Okay, but what do you film? Even for a documentary, you need to know prior to shoot what you will say..."
I laughed at loud and said no, not at all. I don't know one thing of what will happen. I have no a priori. This is a challenge... Yes, here you point a sensitive issue of the project... how to film? yes... and so...

I stopped. I reminded that he's from a cinema trend where the image serves the film, where the work on the image is completely submitted to a big fantasy. I smiled and said that first, the image is independent. Every single element works in an autonomous way in the film: sound, image, work of actors... They sometimes connect to each other, sometimes conflict with each other, sometimes follow their own ways.

This was too much. He didn't get anything any more. I hesitated. I went a little further to see... yes, I will try to work on the image the same way as we usually work on the script. This is a full-fledged work. You could watch the image without the sound, without the work of actor, and it would mean something, raise questions, etc ...

I felt I needed to change the subject. It was way too theoretical for him. I could see that he wished to understand, but...

"But this is only about sex?" Here he went again. I did not know why this was so hard to get for him. I was surprised.
I tried something like: no, first, I will try to get what is before sex, around sex, besides... I think it's going to make sex more readable. Sometimes movies dare not invest the relationship, they stop just before, let it happen and watch and see. As a result, it is vague and unreadable. Here we will try to go through it. We should feel the importance of each gesture, each look, each word... And anyway, sex is used as an excuse, a pretext. I'm interested by the relationship between two persons.

At the end, I stopped trying to convince him, I said: yes, to make it simple, the public will want to know whether the actors are going to fuck or not. I use this question to ask many others, but well...

I tried to see if he had anything to add. He finally said: "This is an intellectual film though?"

I laughed. I laughed a lot, but I think I succeeded not to show it. I wondered what he was told about intellectual films in his school... I assumed this is an insult.

I thought about it. Can we say that this is an intellectual film? It seems very concrete to me, the experience of the body by the body.

I said something like: I try to question the relationship between two persons. It could have been a love affair, but in this case, in front of a camera, it would be really fake. This will happen between a director and an actor, as a concrete example. Then I use the pretext of sex to cause this relationship, it's also concrete, since it's a kind of case study. I think this is the most relevant case study. Then, I try to go into this relationship, to study various aspects of it, even to go further and see the reverse. After I organize the study, I give rhythm to it, I contrast it. It is supposed to get rid of theory. We are supposed to go through it defenseless, on open ground.

I didn't say that I try to simplify the conception and the filming of a movie as much as possible, keeping only the bones. Simplifying, getting rid of everything people think you ought to do is a huge work.

I didn't say how thrilling this is to try to lose power and control by organizing opportunities for something which will happen without knowing what at all.

I didn't say how politically important this is for me.

I didn't say how excited I am to take the risk of going into this in a such different way than a director who makes up a world and asks a whole team to be submitted to it would, to make him believe it does exist.

I didn't say that in french they say realizing for directing, and in realizing you hear reality.

I didn't say...

I didn't say anything anymore. I felt like I spoke Chinese to him. I smiled.

I didn't know if he was too young, if he has not yet stumbled against the limits of his technique to need to question it, if he was still struggling to master it, to do it well or if he had any genuine objections to raise, which would help me to avoid making a huge mistake...

I understood that I won't be able to find it out. I kept smiling.

Too bad.

Mood:

About delicacy

I meet an expert in photography in cinema.

I talk about the project. His eyes are wide. I smile. His whole body seems to say: "yes, indeed, there is something to search out there".

I have nothing to offer. I do not see how someone could come on the film set and disturb our privacy. It would be another project, another film. Besides, I think I should do the photography. The image has to sweat my whatsoever sensitivity. This is something I can't bypass.

But... we talk.

We talk about movies. We have the same things in mind. This scene, this angle, this directing of actors, this bias in this movie...

Then, we happen to talk about the distance of the camera. How to shoot something so delicate? Which point of view has to be chosen?

I tell him that I watched porn movies lately. What bothers me most is this idea to shoot close-up, to show sex. I do not like it either when the actors cry in a movie. I do not want the viewer to be a voyeur, to stand between the actors. There is a reserve to find there. It is important to me.

We will not do things for the camera. We do not even know what will happen anyway.

He understands. He gets thrilled. He raises plenty of issues.

We speak about shot reverse shot. I do not know why. I tell him this reflex to shoot the face of the other one to get his reaction is odd. It seems to go without saying in the grammar of cinema, but... Here, the camera will not be between the actors, ready to catch any of their reactions. I do not want the camera to interfere. A time-lag in the reverse shot, a delay to what is expected... It's a film about desire, there are inevitably questions about what we expect to see. You can use the cut, the rhythm, to insert wait times, surprises, desire precisely. It can be easily done... I want to match the scenes in the movement to use the fluidity in order to delay the expectation ...

Here I do not succeed to explain... I can not find the words to make that clear. I feel it, I'll try it, he will see. That's all I can say.

We laughed.

We discuss a little bit more.

He insisted: "You must find the right distance from the camera.

I smile. I repeat a few times the words reserve and delicacy. I add that reserve should not prevent us from going into this...

Mood:

Meeting Marcel Schlutt

The plane started to land. I looked at Berlin by the window. I recognized the German organization, colors, energy. I have missed it so much. Tears came in my eyes. Even this ugly antenna tower on Alexanderplatz made me shiver, it's so German. I smiled. I scrutinized every details.

I arrived in Berlin. I have not slept yet. I was lost. I could not understand anything. Everything had changed. I kept on walking, crisscrossing the town, going into buildings, discovering the station, the Hauptbahnhof, following the river Spree, walking along the line that recalls the demarcation of the wall, going into the Reichstag, watching Berlin from the roof, going to Galeries Lafayette to see the proposal of Jean Nouvel, getting lost in the desolate neighborhoods of the former east Berlin. There is work in progress everywhere. Usually, work in a city is unbearable, there that is exciting. You wonder what they are going to build up, what kind of audacity, of surprising idea they are going to make up. This is thrilling.

I absorbed all the energy of this city. I was hungry.

I stopped in Kreuzberg. I got a break. It was impossible not to stop. The sun, the blossoming lime-trees, which spread their smell throughout the city... Life is sweet in Berlin. Exciting, dynamic and yet so gentle.

I took the road. I had many things to do, people to meet... I walked along the canal; I looked at all those people lazing on the grass. I smiled.

I spent the 2nd day riding a bike. Then in the evening, I met Marcel Schlutt in Prenzlauer Berg. He was already there. He saw me arriving. A frank smile ate his face. "Guten Abend".

I sat down. I was about to tell my project for one hour, I visualized this time before me, I took a good breath ... but he had already heard it from a friend, I did not have much to say that he was already up to work with me.

I looked at him. He was moving as he seemed to be on the film by Bruce LaBruce. Simple, sweet, smiling. I listened to his English, fluent, barely hesitant, with a colloquial vocabulary. He was comfortable with his body, his sexuality, without being focused on it. That was good. I don't want to trap or force an actor for my film and I don't want to face moral issues which were raised more than 40 years ago.

Then I looked how he dealt with stuff: I saw he was very careful about what he said. He chose among everything he had to say what could awaken my desire and what could make him sound trustworthy. This was subtle enough not to be too obvious. He was rather trying to convince me to choose him for the film, than speaking that much about him. We spoke like that for several hours. I was tired. I did not say many things. I listened. Sometimes, I couldn't listen anymore, I happened to space out. At other times, we laughed, we had fun.

He's a straight to the point guy. I think that's how he deals with stuff, tenacious, confident enough, simple. He does not pay much attention to his fears. And I guess he never complains.

We both had things to do. It was late. Time went really fast. We left it at that point: "See you soon".

I ended my trip to Berlin. I did a few things. Went there, saw that person, etc... I looked at the program of the Schaubühne, but I don't like much the work of the choreographer which was scheduled at this time. I discovered a new trendy club. I didn't stick around a long time. I walked in the streets of Berlin. I looked at the avenues where the Communist elite used to live. It amused me how much the communist and the american architectures have in common.

I arrived in a square I finally recognized. All my memories of Berlin came back at last. I was moved and excited.

I came back to the hotel. I remembered that the Germans always provide a Bible somewhere in the hotel rooms. I sought. I found needles and thread to sew, a moisturizer for the body, chocolate bars, candies under the pillow, a bottle of water, the key of the bike the hotel lent me, a tissue to clean the shoes, but no bible ... Had the Germans changed to that extent? I opened the drawer in the bedside table: it was there, in all languages. I guess there are people who read a passage before falling asleep, this works like fairy tales, it is the same. I smiled.

And then I took the plane to leave.

Mood:

The Plan

Here is the really detailed plan of the film. It covers my wall. Everything is noted here. Everything but what's going to happen, which is not predicted, i.e the film :-)

Critical turnaround

We scheduled an appointment with Natal at a table outside our café, surrounded by trees. The sun is shining. I have something really important to tell. I threw everything away. She raises her eyebrows, expects for explanation. I threw away the story, the lines... We didn't have much of it? We don't have it at all by now... I tighten the film. I get rid of everything fake and made up. I focus on what will really happen: the relationship between the director and actor.

She doesn't say anything. She thinks about it. She raises plenty of questions: "How are we going to organize it? With what are we going to make the film?" We keep the journey, the obstacle race with experiences, challenges. But we go much further. What will be shot is how we react to what happens, how we will respond and go through what happens.

She goes on: "It no longer speaks about love? It no longer refers to sex?" It speaks about a relationship between two people. They happen to be an actor and a director. I don't want to lie about that. This is a filmmaker who asks an actor to do something, not to play, or cheat, no... to do something for real: to make love with him. And then we'll see what happens. I do not know if the actor would desire me. I won't choose the actor according to my tastes, I do not know if I will desire him. I do not know if we'll can. I do not know whether or not it's easy to make love with someone you do not know, to establish complicity and confidence.

It speaks about my desire to make a movie, my desire to choose an actor, my desire or not to make love... it's all the same desire. It also speaks about how the actor reacts to my desire, wants to make love or not, etc...

Then it doesn't speak about something else than sex and love. We are not going to talk about it, but what we will do does. It can also be a failure. It may be a film about a meeting which is not happening, a relationship which doesn't match. It would raise the same issues.

We talk long. She raises many kinds of questions, considers every points, including details on some very concrete things: "But how it ends?" I do not know. We'll see if the meeting happens or not ... "How did you get the idea?" While talking to actors, thinking about it in a really concrete way, I realized that's what interests me. I want to throw all the theory away and head on in it...

She remains thoughtful. Her eyes are very focused, almost black, serious. And then she said: "Actually, this is what you want to do from the beginning... and now you frankly go straight to the point. This is great!"

Mood:

Firts pages of the story-board

I ended a first story-board.

I took the opportunity to test many things.

I want a distance between the camera and the actors:
- with static, long shots which look like a watercourse somehow, something going on at his own rhythm
- with the work on lights and shadows, you may feel embrace by something really intimate with such a delicacy
- and with the progress of the camera, discovering step by step the room.

I don't want to show or show off. I want things to take place and the camera will happen to catch it or not.

I want to play with desire, lacks and needs of the images. To move forward the look and to make up needs.

Here are the first two pages of the story-board:



























Mood:

Porn scenes in mainstream movies

Today, I sent a Myspace bulletin to all the movie-goers:

"For my research, I need to watch a maximum of mainstream films in which directors have shot... how to say?: Sex.

So I have seen Intimacy, the Breillat's movies, fuck me, 9 songs, Destricted, I have not seen the brown bunny because I remember it pretty well, I also have Pola X in mind, and some others ...

If you have any suggestions, movies to advise, please ...

Thank you

ps: I add a photo of a beautiful film to brighten my bulletin. "



Here are the answers I got:

• "Most of the movies featuring Béatrice Dalle; the Larry Clarks, Going Places (les valseuses); Sitcom by Ozon (If I remember well...); Color of Night with Bruce Willis, there's a quiet porn version; the Morrisseys (Warhol), there's also something I remember when I was a teenager Rai about the suburbs with Tabatha Cash; iku a japanese movie; Miike (Visitor Q), the Bruce LaBruces mmmmmhHere is a few... I will try to go on...
  this is a subject I'm interested in beautiful Claude Pérèss to whom I have never spoken maxime "

• "Caligula, Ken Park, Niht Porter... Enjoy your research; there's more..."

• "Boogie Nights ?"

• "You have to see "Shortbus" by John Cameron Mitchell; its prior title was "The Sex Film Project", so... I was tolds there's sex in "Lie With Me", but I didn't see it yet. I like this young actor Eric Balfour.

thank your for your message. Interesting subject.

Sushuma"

• "Damage (fatale) by Louis Malle, yes I know, it sucks..."

• "- ken park by larry clark
  - irréversible (but this is rather a rape...)"

• "What do you mean by sex scenes? seeing a cock or a pussy?
I'm thinking about Life of Jesus by Bruno Dumont.
Crame"

• Dammit, as a result I watched your movies and I wanna say they are fucking good
so bravo then
because really!

• "I suggest you to watch In the realm of the senses; Last Tango in Paris; Boogie Nights; eyes wide shut; shortbus; basic instinct; My man.
Tell me if it helps
Have a nice weekend
Cedric"

• "You have to see BACKSTAGE, a short by Camille Vidal Naquet. Gaspard."

• ""shortbus, ken park, time to leave, all the pasolinis... enjoy ;) "

• "ozon with the stricker dildo for stephane rideau, pierre erwann guillaume and aurelien decoing in Natural ennemy, Devil in the flesh by bellochio, nine songs by michael W....
  what a shame you don't do the opposite, mainstream in porn movies...
  
  twinsen"

I would add : Andy Warhol's shorts, "Blow Job" for instance, really clever ; some Richard Kern's movies, full of energy ; some Johnny Terris'...

I retain : 9 songs because of the lights and the acting, Intimacy because of the picture... and in an other kind : The Embryo Hunts In Secret by Koji Wakamatsu because it happens behind closed doors ; and Mystery Train because of the shooting script of the first part in the room.

What about you? Did you see some of them? Others?

Preliminary draft

I wrote a step outline. This is a very detailed plan or a short script.

I happened to do it quickly. I had already a lot of images in mind.

The framework and the rhythm are quiet classical : it begins with a catch line: they fuck; then happens an obstacle: they don't desire each other; a long time in the dark with a work on the lights; after they play around, come closer or move away from each other...

The device is precise, a thread unrolling throughout the film and many improvised things.

It works as a trail, dotted with milestones. The actors are up to go around, spontaneously.

Mood:

Appetite #3

I would like to use the dark.

I sense it could allow me to raise many questions with images.

It could be very strong...

Appetite #2

I want to make a movie about the body.

Sex seems to me a really rich subject to explore.

I need to go through, raise and use all the questions it asks.

It can be perilous. Critical.

Almost everything has to be done.

This is stirring.

Appetite/starting point

I directed several short movies, in which I try to catch something happening rather than making it up.

I want to go much further.

How can I go about it? How put together an actor, a crew, some cameras, a place without knowing beforehand what is going to happen?

Moreover, how could even anything happen, since we all know everything stops when a camera is turned on?

Mood: