BAFTA David Lean Lecture: Yorgos Lanthimos 2 February 2018, Princess Anne Theatre, BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, London
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BAFTA David Lean Lecture: Yorgos Lanthimos 2 February 2018, Princess Anne Theatre, BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, London Anne Morrison: Hello, my name’s Anne Morrison and I’d like to wish you all a very very warm [Laughter] welcome to this year’s David Lean Lecture. This event is named after BAFTA’s founder David Thank you all for coming, I hope you don’t Lean, and is generously supported by the mind me sitting, but I just didn’t want to be David Lean Foundation. Last year was BAFTA’s behind a podium, pretending this is a lecture. 70th Anniversary, and David Lean was appointed the very first Chair in 1947, when the [Laughter] academy was created. Now if you look on the wall outside the theatre, you’ll see his name So yes, thank you for coming here today, and right at the top of the list of Chairs, and as a I’d like to thank BAFTA of course and the David more recent Chair, I’m down the bottom, Lean Foundation for this honour, there have usually behind a table of some sort. been some great filmmakers here before me that have appeared here and I’m hugely [Laughter] honoured to be part of this. I did say that I really don’t want to give a lecture, and I’ve AM: But as somebody who has been involved never thought of myself as someone who can with BAFTA for a long time now, it gives me do that, on any occasion, for any subject. But I enormous pleasure to see how Lean’s legacy thought what I could do here today is, um, if as a pioneering filmmaker, and his passion for we assume that some of my work is of interest… sharing his expertise, is passed on every year through these lectures. It’s an opportunity for [Laughter] directors with an exceptional body of work to explore the craft of directing, and give to us a YL: …is to first acknowledge certain common rare insight into their vision. By doing this, they experiences that we all may have, and inspire others. common cultural influences in popular culture that we have all been exposed to; but also in Yorgos Lanthimos is undeniably one of the most addition to that, share with you some of my exciting filmmakers of our generation. His experience that might be more foreign to you, unique vision and daring choices has made his just because of where I come from or the films some of the most anticipated - making us particular circumstances of my life. So basically laugh, cry, and yes, sometimes cover our eyes, yes, tonight I just want to share bits and pieces at the absurdity and the horror of life; pretty that have somehow shaped my view on things, much all at the same time. His filmography and have shaped my sensibilities over the includes Kinetta, Dogtooth, Alps, and last year, years. But of course, as with many of my films, The Killing of a Sacred Deer. In the BAFTA Film I’m not really going to draw conclusions for you Awards in 2016, his film The Lobster was in the end, you’ll have to figure out for nominated for the Alexander Korda Award for yourselves what all of these things mean if you Outstanding British Film, an award named after put them together. another founder of BAFTA. So following the lecture, Yorgos will be joined on stage by So yes, I’m going to start by saying that I grew producer Tanya Seghatchian for a question up in Greece, for those of you who don’t know. and answer session, and then you too will have I was a teenager during the 80s and during the the opportunity to ask some questions. 90s, but mostly during the 80s. During that time there was a lot of discotheques where I come But before all that, let’s have a reminder of from, but also many people who listened to some of Yorgos’s work. heavy metal music, and I was one of them, and there were the cool people that listened [Clip plays] to New Wave - which we listen to now, us that came in later. When I went to the cinema I, like AM: And now it gives me great pleasure to most of the people around the world, would welcome Yorgos Lanthimos to the stage. watch films like Back To The Future, Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Airplane, Dirty Dancing, [Applause] Ghostbusters, E.T., Goonies, Rocky, Jaws, Flashdance - and those last three you probably Yorgos Lanthimos: Thank you. I heard the music might have guessed if you’ve seen a film of from behind the door, I thought I was in the mine titled Dogtooth. But what I was obsessed wrong theatre. But I think this is us. with, was Bruce Lee films. It’s my oldest and 1 BAFTA David Lean Lecture: Yorgos Lanthimos strongest memory of cinema, watching Enter after watching the same film for a week, two the Dragon, which in Greece was very times every evening. So, I got over that. inappropriately called ‘The Yellow Asian from Hong Kong’. So I don’t know if watching films in that situation had any effect in how I perceived the [Laughter] films, but that’s where I discovered the films of John Cassavetes and Robert Bresson, who are YL: So um, the title is still the same. I looked it two of my favourite filmmakers. But I mentioned up. So I’d like to share the first clip with you, them, and I’d like to share two clips of their which is one of my films that showcased that films with you, just because they appear to be, kind of influence. their approach in filmmaking, seems to be so antithetical, and it’s hard to believe that [Clip plays] someone can equally like both, but I assume why I like them is they move me equally by [Applause] using completely different means of reaching the exact same core. So I’d like to show you a YL: So I didn’t make a full on karate film in the couple of clips, they’re basically treating the end, but this is what I got. One other interesting same situation, or a similar situation, in a very thing about showing this right now, which I different manner. didn’t realise in the beginning, is how differently films are seen within different periods of time [Clips play] and within the context of its era, because this used to be funny also because Prince was alive YL: So yes. I don’t know how to comment on when we first made this film, and unfortunately these things, and if I had my way, I would just since then he’s passed away, so I guess the be showing you clips all night, and then you’d scene changed somewhat, over the years. have to figure it out. Anyway, I think some things put together next to each other, just So the other wonderful thing about Greece, reveal a lot of things - and that is true for an where I come from, there’s a lovely cultural individual film as well. You gather all the phenomenon which are the open air cinemas, elements, and you put them next to each and during the 80s again and 90s, there used other, and it all makes sense. So I hope this way to be many more than the ones that exist now, we can communicate. So, moving on. but there’s still quite a few - there used to be like two or three cinemas in every During the time I was growing up in Greece - so neighbourhood, open air cinemas, and some back to that - there weren’t many young of them are quite peculiar in the sense that people making films in Greece, and there they’re little plots that are surrounded by tall weren’t many people making films in general. apartment buildings. And the back of the So in order to study film, I had to find an apartment buildings has the balconies of its excuse, because people would be worried if I apartments, so when you go into this open air told them that I wanted to make films in cinema you would be surrounded by people in Greece during the 80s and the 90s. So what I their apartments, and there would be laundry told people, and myself as well, that I wanted drying on the balconies, and people in their to study film in order to do TV commercials, underwear just hanging out in the back of their which made sense, that I would be able to apartment; there would be mops and buckets make a living, and everybody would be happy stored there. and not worry about me. So it’s quite a surreal experience to enter in [Laughter] that kind of cinema, where there’s a whole world that you can observe beyond the YL: So I did just that, and I was very lucky that screen. This is not something I actually noticed because during the 90s and the early 2000s back then, to me back then that was just a advertising in Greece was booming, I was able normal thing, that’s how open air cinemas to become very confident technically, and I were, you could just see people taking a was able to partly finance the films that I made shower at the same time. I was jealous of them in Greece because there was no, and still is no because they could see the films that were great industry in Greece, and there’s no playing in the cinema for free every night.