Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.09.2012, Page 21

21
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 15 — 2012
Feature | Film
the all boundaries and show that we could make
it on the world stage. When we started to enjoy all
this success, we became a little megalomaniac.
And when the economy crumbled, we lost all our
footing. We started to see ourselves through the
eyes of foreigners, and based our self-image on
how they ref lected on us. As if that was something
that mattered when we had completely lost every-
thing. When you shit yourself, you clean up, and
take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror.
You have to go through a process of self analy-
sis; you can’t overcome a crisis by inspecting what
everyone else thinks of you. It is not important.
You have to find yourself, and build from there.
I am not saying that a film can do that, in and of
itself, but I want it to be a part of that process. That
is why I wanted to tell a story that can bring us
together and ref lects these values.
Do you think people will view these two
films together as a commentary on this
era as we move on?
I think it would probably be very interesting.
I think it would be interesting to analyse what I
was saying then, and what I am saying now, and
how I have developed as a filmmaker during this
time. I have changed since then. I was lot tougher
back then. I think I have more for people today. I
have more empathy. I hope that comes across. I am
very proud of ‘The Sea’ and what I was trying to
accomplish when I made it. Some people thought
the film was making little of life in small towns,
which is not at all what I had in mind. It was movie
about people. I like to use a small town as a micro-
cosm for society as a whole. This current movie is
not just a movie about the Westman Islands, it is a
movie about Iceland. A small town can be a great
stage to examine a larger society.
Three of your recent films (‘The Deep’,
‘The Sea’ and ‘White Night Wedding’)
are based on plays. Your background is
in stage acting, do you specifically look
towards your background in theatre for
stories?
No I don’t really pursue it; these stories have
just found me. Plays often have a stronger gallery
of characters than movie scripts, but I have also
made films based on novels and written my own
scripts. In this case it had more to do with the way
I approach the story. Although it is based on a play,
we did a lot of original research on this project and
based the script as much on the events that trans-
pired as on the play. There are certain scenes that
come directly from the play, but other scenes are
recreations of documented events, television inter-
views and so forth. I tried to stay true to the story,
to the extent that it was possible.
The Laughable Hardship Of Ólafur Darri
We should talk about the role of (main
actor) Ólafur Darri in this film. He gives an
incredible performance.
Yes, I could not have given the part to anyone
else. He is a big actor, both figuratively and liter-
ally, and he was just right for the part. He went
through hell making this movie, and he knew
that he would have to when he took the part. But it
becomes rather ridiculous to talk about hardship
when you are dealing with such an extraordinary
feat. Even if you spend three weeks filming out at
sea, and you are wet and cold the whole time, it is
just laughable in comparison.
Could you have made this movie in Hol-
lywood, using union actors?
I think that would have been very difficult. I
don’t think we could even have gotten insurance
for the production, the way we did it here, and
what I had to do myself on the set, shooting scenes
while swimming in the ocean a mile off shore to
get the right angle for the shot, and taking shore in
the cliffs in the surf like we did. You can’t really do
that in a Hollywood production. This was a big and
complex production. There are underwater scenes,
we had to shoot in a sinking boat, and shoot way
out in the ocean and there is a volcanic eruption.
The budget would probably have been 30–40 mil-
lion dollars if I were making this movie in Holly-
wood. And I don’t think I would have gotten many
actors to sign up for what we had to go through.
This was very trying for Ólafur Darri at times, and
there were moments when he felt like throwing in
the towel, but that was never an option.
He must be proud of his role in the movie?
He is, and he has said as much to me. There
came a point when he completely broke down and
did not want to go on. It was a very difficult mo-
ment to diffuse, because when you have pushed
someone as far as they can go, and you keep on
pushing, you are responsible for everything that
happens after that. We talked then and I told him
to think about the premiere, how satisfied he
would be knowing that we took this all the way,
and did not skip anything. He gave me a look, but
then he kept going. He mentioned this to me after
the premiere last night, how good that felt, know-
ing that we never compromised.
The only way to do the film properly was to
give it everything. I could not bear the thought
of cheating. We sank the boat and filmed inside
while it was sinking. And we swam through the
surf and into the cliffs to film the footage when
he reached land. I didn’t have the budget to create
that in CGI, and I don’t think the film would have
resonated like it does if we had done that. I looked
at the option of shooting certain scenes in a tank,
using a green screen, the way ‘Titanic’ was shot,
but it would have been impossible to make it look
authentic, and I don’t think it would have passed
muster with an Icelandic audience if it didn’t. So
I decided we would just take the equipment and
film it in the sea.
We even had to swim with the cameras from
the boat to where we shot the scene because there
was no place to dock the boat. We had the search
and rescue team standing by on the boat, and
when we had set up, and it was time to shoot, the
guy from the search and rescue team did not want
to let us do it, naturally. He simply said it wouldn’t
be possible to take land in the cliffs in these waves.
I thought to myself, we can’t lose a whole day of
shooting. We have all this equipment, and every-
thing is set up and we don’t have the option to do
it again. So, I told him I was going to do it anyway,
and then I dove in. The waves threw me into the
cliffs and out again, but I made it on the second
try, and that was the shot we used in the film. At
least I didn’t put anyone in a situation that I was
not willing to take on myself. Let’s put it like that.
What are you like as a director? Are you
an actor’s director?
I might not be the best person to answer that
question, but I think that if you asked actors that
I’ve worked with, they might describe me as such.
My background is in acting, so I understand actors
very well, and I understand what they need from
me. Actors need to work from a premise. If the
premise is not there, the smallest thing becomes
very difficult. But I am also very preoccupied with
the frame and the visual aspect. My father is a
painter and my mother is a sculptor, and I come
from a very visual environment, so the breakdown
and the visual part of the shot is very important to
me. It is not something that I want to leave it to the
cinematographer.
The Beckoning Of Hollywood
Is the disaster genre something that
has gotten a grip on you? I hear you are
preparing to make a film about the 1996
Everest disaster [which claimed eight
lives]?
Well, that is a script that has been bouncing
around for a long time. Stephen Daldry was as-
signed to it, and then David Fincher was going to
do it. And now it has ended up with me and the
ball is rolling. I am going to meet with an actor
next month, who has the star power to get a movie
like this into production if he’s willing take on the
part. If it happens, I want to shoot it here in Ice-
land on Vatnajökull. You can’t really shoot on Ever-
est, so the glacier will mostly have to stand in for
Everest.
Some directors would probably rather shoot on
the beaches of Brazil, but if someone offers me
Everest, I can’t say no. Being from Iceland, I enjoy
grappling with the elements. I spend my summer
vacations riding horses up in the highlands, which
is probably the most difficult thing you can do for
a summer vacation, riding horses for 12–14 hours.
I can’t describe what it does to you. I am never as
physically tired as when I return, but at the same
time, I never feel as rested. You reconnect with
yourself. Just man against nature. Maybe I am just
that primitive.
But I don’t really think about making films in
terms of genres. I just choose to tell the stories that
appeal to me at that time. I don’t want to limit my-
self or make the same movie over and over again.
There is a certain difference between
the movies that you have made here in
Iceland and the films you are directing in
Hollywood. Your Icelandic productions
are a lot more serious. This is a far more
serious subject matter than say, ‘Contra-
band.’
Yes, but I am very proud of ‘Contraband,’ espe-
cially because it opened many doors for me. It is a
thriller based on an established formula that you
try to put your f lavour on. But just the fact that it
did so well at the box office gave me an opportu-
nity to do other things. And ‘2 Guns,’ although it
is a very different film, and a lot more commercial.
I will probably leave more of a mark on it, myself. It
will be a lot more stylised and we are experiment-
ing with a different form of narrative, and we’ll see
how that works. Then comes ‘Everest,’ which is a
very big movie, but still closer to the films I have
been making here in Iceland. You just have to pay
your dues, and hopefully I am moving in a direc-
tion where I can select from a range of projects
that I really want do.
If ‘2 Guns’ does well, how established will
you be as a director in Hollywood?
I don’t really want to make any proclamation
as to what I will be. But, if you can deliver a big
project like this one on budget and on time, and
the movie does good, you are likely to be in a very
good place. There are different categories of direc-
tors, and the A-list always get their first picks of
scripts that they want to do, and obviously this is
where everybody wants to be. But just by wrapping
up shooting on ‘2 Guns,’ I establish more credibil-
ity and move up a niche in the pecking order.
One of my old acting coaches gave me good
advice: “don’t think about the final destination—
but love the journey.” That is something I take to
heart.
“
Björk was really the first
Icelander to break the all
boundaries and show that
we could make it on the
world stage. When we
started to enjoy all this suc-
cess, we became a little
megalomaniac. And when
the economy crumbled, we
lost all our footing. We start-
ed to see ourselves through
the eyes of foreigners, and
based our self-image on
how they reflected on us.„
Yesterday I went to see Baltasar Kormákur's ‘Djúpið’ (“The Deep”),
an exceptionally well made docudrama based on the true story of
a burly fisherman and his miraculous six-hour swim to Heimaey
island from a sinking ship in the winter of 1984. The event cost four
men their lives, and Icelanders who remember the incident are split
in their opinion about this tragic yet incredible story being made
into a film.
Icelandic filmmakers have been telling true stories about bad
stuff in the past for decades. Most of them took place hundreds of
years ago so nobody really cares about how historically accurate
they are, as long as they're entertaining or artistically significant.
In comparison to those medieval stories, Baltasar Kormákur's film
deals with fairly recent events. The real-life fisherman portrayed in
the movie (Guðlaugur Friðþórsson) is still alive and well, now in his
early 50s. On top of that, he's made known that he is disgruntled
about the making of the film.
He has stated his opinion in the media and probably has many
reasons for feeling the way he does. The public, however, isn't
emotionally involved with the tragedy, apart from reading about
it in newspapers some 26 years ago. I sense that those who are
opposed to the project are so either out of respect for Guðlaugur
or due to the fact that we're not really used to watching our recent
nightmares on the silver screen.
But the Icelandic film industry is constantly growing, and more
films are getting made each year. I'm not going to make the dumb
argument that screenwriters are facing a "shortage" of stories as a
result, but different genres of film are finally being explored and the
docudrama is just one of those genres. Of course somebody would
want to make a film about what Guðlaugur went through.
And "Djúpið" is a very good film. It's not entirely flawless, but
the subject matter is treated with utmost respect and the visuals
are stunning. I'm convinced that the film will pave the way for other
magnificent true stories we'd all like to see as films. Icelanders are
fascinated by the past, and the horror stories are no exception. Can
anybody honestly say they didn't like "Sönn íslensk sakamál" (an
Icelandic true-crime show that ran in the early ‘00s)?
However, while Baltasar Kormákur is raising the bar in an
already established genre, others genres are in their infant stage.
A few weeks ago Reynir Lyngdal's second feature film, ‘Frost’
(“Frost”), was premiered. Despite having received mixed-to-
negative reviews, the film itself is a small landmark in Icelandic film
history, since it is "our" first attempt in the sci-fi thriller genre. Next
month we also get an official grand opening of the "low budget
ass-kicking martial arts" genre, when first time director Ingó
Ingólfs premieres his long awaited Van Damme-esque action movie
‘Blóðhefnd’ (“Blood Vengeance”).
For the last five years a lot of brave Icelandic filmmakers have
been taking a lot of chances. Although the resulting films have
been varying in quality, the industry will benefit artistically from
those chances, and already has.
What excites me the most is the opportunity to witness the birth
of so many new genres in Icelandic cinema. On top of that, every
month there seems to be a new, locally made film for us to enjoy. Or
hate. Now we get a handful of thrillers each year, a few comedies,
an animated film, a slasher film, a 3D adventure film, a bunch of in-
teresting documentaries, and of course a few more "serious" films
from the major players, just like the ones we all grew up on.
Variety is the key to success and if you won't like ‘Djúpið,’
maybe you'll love next month's ‘Blóðhefnd.’
Baltasar Kormákur BIO:
Baltasar Kormákur (1966) is an
Icelandic actor, theatre and
film director, and film pro-
ducer. He has directed films
like 101 Reykjavík, The Sea
and Jar City, and won the Crystal
Globe award at the Karlovy Vary International
Film Festival in 2007 for Jar City, based on a novel
by the same name by author Arnaldur Indriðason.
Baltasar Kormákur also made the films A Little
Trip to Heaven (Julia Stiles, Forest Whitaker),
and the box-hit Contraband (Mark Wahlberg,
Giovanni Ribisi), and his film 2 Guns (Mark
Wahlberg, Denzel Washington) is scheduled for
release in 2013. The Deep is his latest movie.
Filmography (as Director)
101 Reykjavík (2000)
The Sea (2002)
A Little Trip to Heaven (2005)
Jar City (2006)
White Night Wedding (2008)
Inhale (2009)
Contraband (2012)
The Deep (2012)
'Djúpið' ("The Deep") will be shown everyday at
17:50 with English subtitles at Háskólabíó
Haukur Viðar Alfreðsson is a graduate of the
Icelandic Film School and a film critic for local
newspaper Fréttablaðið. He also plays bass and
sings for a lovely band called Morðingjarnir.
“The Deep” And The State Of
The Icelandic Film Industry