Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.12.2006, Blaðsíða 4
06_REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_ISSUE18_006_INTERVIEW/FILMS
Director Baltasar Kormákur is one of
Iceland’s most successful filmmakers. His
earlier achievements include movies such as:
101 Reykjavík, The Sea and A Little Trip to
Heaven. His latest addition, Jar City, based on
Arnaldur Indridason’s best selling crime novel
by the same name, has been a box office hit.
Baltasar Kormákur sat down to talk about his
latest movie, which is now being screened in
Icelandic cinemas with English subtitles.
Arnaldur Indriðason, Iceland’s best-sell-
ing contemporary author; Ingvar E. Sig-
urðsson, Iceland’s most successful and
popular actor; and Baltasar Kormákur,
Iceland’s most successful director. With
the three of you being behind the movie
(Mýrin), this must have been as safe a
bet as you could hope for in the movie
industry?
When I bought the movie rights to the book
back in 2000, Arnaldur Indriðason was not
a very well-known author. Betting on me is
what my company is about. To call a movie
a safe bet… I mean, this is what I do for a
living. There is nothing safe in this industry.
There has never been a successful Icelandic
crime film before. It has never worked. Plus,
many people doubted that Ingvar E Sigurðs-
son was the right man for the leading role. It
would probably have been a safer bet to get
someone older to portray the main charac-
ter, someone who was a little more like the
character in the book. So, I think within what
you are calling a safe bet, we were taking
risks on all these fronts, except perhaps that
I was directing, but that was obvious since I
am making the movie. I also think that the
adaptation of the story to the screen was not
a very safe bet. The narration of the adapta-
tion is very different from the narration of
the book in many ways. So I don’t think we
approached it in a very safe manner.
You mentioned that Icelandic crime films
have never been successful. This is how-
ever not really a crime film. It is the story
of a father who is trying to improve his
relationship with his daughter who has
a drug problem.
Yes, that is true, this is not a hardcore thriller,
this is a dramatic thriller, much like Mystic
River. It is not the action or the chase that
drives these movies; it is the inner tension,
the tension in the characters’ relationships,
and events that advance the story. That is the
emphasis I wanted to place on the movie. I
did not want to make it into a thriller that the
storyline could not have supported.
That might be the difference between
this movie and other attempts at Icelan-
dic crime movies.
Yes. I am not saying that one approach is
better than the other, I am just saying that
you don’t see any dramatic thrillers in Ice-
landic movies, so making a dramatic thriller
here was no safe bet. Like I said, it happened
when I took the bet in 2000 when the book
came out and I bought the movie rights to it.
Perhaps I have a nose for this since Arnaldur
then became a very popular author. But then
again, it can also be very dangerous to turn
such a popular book into a movie. It can so
easily turn on you.
What made you decide to buy the rights
to the book?
I thought it was the first Icelandic crime novel
where the story was realistic and everything
added up and it had social references that
appealed to me. That is why I decided to
make it into a movie.
There is a sort of Scandinavian tradition
for dramatic crime thrillers, both books
and movies, did you try to work within
this tradition?
No, I do not really know this tradition. I do
not read a lot of Nordic crime literature. I was
mostly trying to move as far away from the
TV film genre as possible. I tried to approach
it more from the language of the cinema, by
opening it up, giving space to the landscape,
allowing the pace to slowly gather steam, us-
ing a double timeline, the mystery is a little
complex and so on. This is something you
cannot really do in TV because the audience
is not nearly as patient as the cinema audi-
ence.
You have said before that you would like
to get closer to your Catalonian roots in
your filmmaking. Is this something you
are still aiming for?
I think it would be interesting to do some-
thing with my Catalonian roots. I have often
thought about it. I still have not found the
right angle. It is hard to go into a different
country to make a film in another language.
It is hard enough to make a film in Icelandic.
Foreign language films are difficult, and to
go from one language to another one within
that genre is very difficult, so you have to
find the right angle. Foreign language films
are mostly financed through public funds
and it can be difficult to get financing from
them. Just like it would probably not be easy
for a Serbian filmmaker to get funding from
the Icelandic Film Fund.
Do you speak Spanish?
Well… I used to, but I am probably more
than a little rusty. I directed once in Spain.
I put on a theatre production of the musi-
cal Hair in Barcelona; it was actually done in
Catalonian.
Ah yes, the theatre. You were a very
successful stage performer and director
before moving on to films. What made
you decide to make the switch from a
relatively secure career in the theatre
and go into filmmaking?
Maybe that was just it, I did not want to feel
to secure. I had been in a few films as an
actor and I wanted to try it myself to see if
I could handle this medium. That is when I
made 101 Reykjavík. After that, filmmaking
rather took over. The movie went all around
the world, and I can simply say that no Ice-
landic movie has ever been screened in as
many countries. So, in a way the success
of 101 Reykjavík dragged me into this field.
But recently I have been going back into the
theatre, although I am doing it on different
terms.
You are pretty well-established as a
filmmaker now and your production
company is doing well; do you find that
it is easier to take chances with a project
now?
Yes, I think the next movie project I am doing
will be very different from what I am doing
now. I will probably be taking a big chance
with that one. It is more of an experimental
project and I cannot really rely on the audi-
ence’s acceptance with that so a successful
film, like Mýrin, gives me an opportunity to
take more chances with a film like that. You
obviously cannot make many movies with a
bankrupt production company and maybe
this thought has been lacking here, that
companies actually have to turn a profit like
every other company.
What is the next project for you?
In January, I’ll start working on a project that
is a combination of a theatre production
and a movie where I intend to take a play
by Anton Chekhov called Ivanov and turn it
into a movie, while producing it on stage si-
multaneously with the same cast. I am a big
fan of Chekhov’s plays. I like the humanity
in his plays; they are stories of people and
their aloneness. This is a funny comedy. I do
not want to make a silly comedy; I am not
interested in slapstick. I like humour that is
based on the human element in us, strange
situations or something like that. I have no
interest in making a Jim Carrey movie.
Do you look at a successful film like
Mýrin as a way to bankroll more experi-
mental projects like this one?
It is very clear that most Icelandic movies
are not a financial success. People are al-
ways running into financial troubles with
their movies. When I made 101 Reykjavík, I
put everything I had on the line. And even
if it was a successful movie, it did not make
me a lot of money because it was poorly fi-
nanced. I have made five or six films and out
of those, only The Sea and Mýrin have been
a financial success. Like I said earlier, when
I chose the book, it was just a book I liked,
it wasn’t even very popular at the time, so I
couldn’t really think about it in those terms
then, although it looks different today, with
the attendance it has gotten. We have seen
sequels to successful Icelandic movies flop
badly, nothing is given in this industry. Take
the script for Mýrin for example; I was work-
ing on the script for years, without finding a
way to make it work. But now, afterwards, it
looks like it was a really natural and easy ad-
aptation, but it never looked like that when I
was sitting alone at my desk, pulling my hair
and thinking how the hell I could make this
work. But of course, when you have success
it is good to be able to build on that, but one
thing is clear, my goal is not to film the next
book in the series, and then the next book.
That is not the point, even if I might do that
at some point in time.
Do you own the movie rights to the oth-
er books in the series?
No, I have not bought the rights to the other
books. That is just something to think about
later. It is not the next project on my list. If
that were my only goal, you know, to make
money, I would do something else than make
movies or work in theatre.
You have decided to screen the movie
with English subtitles now, why?
Well, 70,000 people have seen the movie
in the last month. It is the biggest movie of
the year, and it looks like it will be the big-
gest Icelandic movie of all time. I just think it
would be good to be able to offer all these
immigrants the opportunity to see the movie
as well. Imagine if 70,000 people, an ac-
tive third of the nation, has already seen the
movie and are talking about it, then it is dif-
ficult to be a foreigner and to be shut out of
this discussion. This is a part of connecting
to the society and taking part in what is hap-
pening. My father is a Spanish immigrant as
well, so I think it is very good to be able to
do this.
There is no Such Thing as a Safe Bet
in Filmmaking
Text by Sveinn Birkir Björnsson Photo by Skari