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Childhoods regained
Troy Nixey and Frederic Schoendoerffer
and their cinematic inspirations
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| 08/12/2011 |
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The eyes of Troy Nixey and Frederic Schoendoerffer, directors of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Switch respectively, light up when they talk about their inspirations. Both are inspired by the genres films that marked their childhoods and with their films have tried to recreate what they loved as children and, at the same time, make give their own personal contributions to an established tradition.
“From the age of 14 to 25 I went to the movies really often,” said Schoendoerffer. “I mostly saw detective stories. When I became a director, I tried to remember the kind of spectator I was, and above all, to be honest. The works I made are films that I would have gone to see when I was 15. I didn’t want to make a scary film but a thriller. My goal wasn’t to make people uneasy but to instill curiosity, establishing empathy between the viewer and the characters.”
The director’s work was mostly focused on the main character, a policeman (played by Eric Cantona), which could be tied to Schoendoerffer’s future projects. According to the French filmmaker: “Damien Forgeat, the inspector, is not infallible, he has doubts, he makes mistakes. For this film, I shot the rehearsals with a video camera and watched them with Eric. I wanted his character to already exist by the time we got on set. I wouldn’t be surprised if we created a TV series on Forgeat in the future. Right now I know that the Americans and Brazilians are thinking about doing remakes, which would flatter me. In the meantime, I’m casting my next film, which will be called Organized Crime.”
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark also resonates with the biography of its director, here making his feature debut. “Reading the screenplay,” said Nixey, “I was reminded of my childhood. I was a very sensitive child and I got scared easily. I had a peaceful family but I was just like that, I was always on tenterhooks. We traveled a lot as a family, so I felt I shared Sally’s story.”
Similarly to Schoendoerffer, the Canadian director talked about his passion for this genre, a blend of adventure and fantasy, and his admiration for the film’s producer, Guillermo del Toro. “I began working for 17 years as a comic book artist, but I always thought in terms of moving images. When I started making short films I immediately knew it was my path. I don’t consider Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark to be a horror film, but an action movie like those made in the 1980s and with which I grew up. It’s a rather dark fantasy film. What I was most interested in was creating a world. I think most of the elements in this work I’ll take with me in my next films as well. Right now I’m working on a ghost film, I feel comfortable with these kinds of stories.”
In conclusion Nixey added: “Guillermo is one of my favorite directors, he has an extraordinary imagination. He wrote this screenplay for himself 13 or 14 years ago. He had already made a film on the same subject and wanted to find a debut director to work with him. He wanted to see how I would interpret his story. He can create extraordinary characters, usually children. We discussed the characters a lot and our minds probably work in similar ways, so despite his depth as a director we didn’t have any problems. It’s pretty common in the United States for great directors to guide beginners.”
In the video, an interview with Troy Nixey
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