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Everybody's
Famous Another
semi-cloudy June day in Washington, another young Belgian director to interview.
I was in Brussels, where my interviewee now lives, a few years ago, munching on
the native chocolates and drinking the great Abbey beers.
Right now I could use a strong cup of java and a shave. At least I've
prepped myself with a semblance of research on my subject, writer-director
Dominique Deruddere. While I've devoured a handful of Belgian films over the
last few decades, I can't recall having been entertained by any Flemish titles,
let alone Dominique's. It turns out less than a handful of titles from that
little cultural enclave have been released in America. So if you blinked, you
missed them. The creator of Everybody's Famous, his Academy Award-nominated feature now in
release, preceded the arrival of his comedy into the nation's capitol by about
four weeks, and by the time the reviews (generally good, I expect) appear, he'll
be back home in the Belgium. Thank
goodness, Dominique is a very laid-back guy with what appears to my pedestrian
ears to be a French more than Flemish accent, just a few weeks shy of his
forty-fourth birthday. Attired in a drab, gray long sleeve work shirt, his
sleeves are rolled up halfway between his wrists and elbows. He's armed with a
disarming smile and buoyant laugh. Not too tall, not too short. What little hair
(a whiff) is attached to his head, wraps around like a shorn horseshoe from the
back of his head to just above either sideburn. He's not embarrassed by his
baldness, or doesn't show it. He probably shaves his head anyway. No comb-across
trying to hide the fact of impending hair loss or a receding hairline. Often
during our session, his left elbow, resting on a the back of a sofa
-- with a floral pattern perhaps not
unlike any that would adorn the shirts worn by the main character of his new
film, of someone stuck in the 1970s
-- would pivot and his hand would
slide over his uncovered dome, now reflected bits of sunlight filtering in
through the clouds and window behind him. At the start of our chat, he yawns,
not offensively, as he settles into the plush furniture in the upper floor
corner suite. I ask for a coffee, which arrives just as I end the interview
twenty minutes later. Dominique has managed to keep me awake
-- and entertained—in the interim. Elias
Savada:
Welcome to the United States. You've been to the United States before? Dominique
Deruddere:
Thank you very much. Yes, yes, yes. For festivals. I shot a film here, once. Suite
16. Elias
Savada:
It's so hard to find any of your films at the local video dealer! Dominique
Deruddere:
Yes, it's a pity. Elias
Savada:
You've been directing about twenty-five years -- features for maybe fifteen, by
my count. Dominique
Deruddere:
Features only when I was thirty years old. Elias
Savada:
Yes, happy birthday next week. Dominique
Deruddere:
(with a laugh of appreciation) Thank you very much. Elias
Savada:
You directed your first film, Orange Light,
when you were fourteen? Dominique
Deruddere:
That is true (his eyebrows arch). Of course, it was a Super 8mm film, not a
professional film, Full of mistakes. [It ran] Only fifty minutes. Elias
Savada:
[sarcastically, but with intended humor] Coming soon to DVD? Dominique
Deruddere:
No [we both laugh] -- it's not even good enough to show to my friends. Elias
Savada:
Then you did a bunch of short films. Dominique
Deruddere:
Afterwards, I went to film school when I was eighteen. That's where I did the
short films. For my final exam I did another short film. After graduating I
helped out on a lot of sets. Elias
Savada:
I noticed that. Camera operator, cinematographer, even actor. Dominique
Deruddere:
Yeah, I did different jobs that helped me to better understand the mechanics of
filmmaking. And then I became a filmmaker myself. Elias
Savada:
According to the press material for Everybody's Famous, you had dreams of becoming a film director when
you were a small child. Dominique
Deruddere:
Very, very early. Yeah, very early in my life. [Dominique's eyes look off into a
corner of the room] I don't know why, but it was something I wanted to do. Elias
Savada:
Did you watch a lot of television? Did you go to a lot of movies? Dominique
Deruddere:
No, because the village where I lived was like an army base. They had one
cinema. As it was for the soldiers, it was very erotic stuff. Not that I didn't
want to see that. Elias
Savada:
Did you sneak in? Dominique
Deruddere:
No, no. I was too young. It didn't work. I was born in 1957. I think television
started around 1955 in Belgium. This broadcast station was only just beginning
and didn't know how to do their own programming. So what did they do? To fill
the hours they bought a lot of very good American films. From the 1930s. So I
saw all these films on tv as a very young kid at the age of maybe five, six
seven, up to nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Mostly American films. I loved them!
When I was a film student, watching these films again, I found out that a lot of
the things I was doing I had stolen from the movies I had watched as a
youngster. I was very influenced from those 1930s American films. Elias Savada:
Yes, you may not have consciously recalled those movies you had seen when you
were so young, but it all sticks in your brain. I hate to tell you, but America
was doing the same thing with television when I was growing up. Yes, we had
original programming, but in the metropolitan New York City area there was a
program called Million Dollar Movie.
It was the same movie on one channel broadcast once a day the entire week. Twice
on Saturdays and Sundays as I recall. I would sit in front of our family
black-and-white television set watching King Kong, Dracula, The
Mummy, and lots of other horror films, which I why I like that genre so much
today. I
made my younger brother, who is about your age, sit with me to watch, more so to
have a live body in the room so I wouldn't be scared alone. I didn't get into
film history until college, quickly abandoning a career in engineering for
nights watching dollar films at the campus cinema. Dominique
Deruddere:
Exactly, when you get to college age, you reflect on all the things you saw as a
child and how they influenced you. Elias
Savada:
Those films you watched as a kid. Do you remember any of the titles? A lot of
Capra? Dominique
Deruddere:
Yes, a lot of Capra. A lot of Billy Wilder. [His arms cross and his hands end up
under his armpits. Thinking of other directors, filmic bearings, perhaps] Elias
Savada:
And that shows in your new film. Dominique
Deruddere:
Those directors were key influences for me. Elias
Savada:
You new film, or old [the film has played off in Europe already], Everybody
Famous. Or as the American distributor Miramax has altered to Everybody's
Famous. Why the additional apostrophe
s? Dominique
Deruddere:
Well, they added that because they noticed many people commented on the fact
that "Aren't you saying it wrong?" "Shouldn't it be with an
's'?" Miramax wanted to avoid people thinking there was something
grammatically wrong with the title. Elias
Savada:
Of course, they could also work in your favor. Dominique
Deruddere:
In Flemish the title was Iedereen
Beroemd! Like a shout (Everybody
Famous!) With an exclamation point. Like, "We want it NOW!!" Elias
Savada:
It took a year before Miramax picked the film up (for American release). I
believe they bought it after seeing it at the Berlin Film Festival in February? Dominique
Deruddere:
Yes. Elias Savada:
They've been jiggling with a release date before settling with mid-July. Did you
have any anxious moments in between, particularly in regard to the film's
nomination for Best Foreign Film? Dominique
Deruddere:
It was very funny, you know. My country sent in the film [to the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] after a commission viewed all eligible Belgian
films and selected mine. That was ok. That was last October. The day the
nominations were announced the following February (of which five titles are
selected from many dozens of features), a local television station, just for
fun, invited me to watch the program, and first to try on a tuxedo. We were
going to lose anyway. It would be like a silly program where you see a director
getting all fixed up to get a nomination. And then he doesn't [get nominated].
So I'm sitting together with my wife before the cameras, as the station
interrupts it's pre-recorded broadcast with a live insert. (In an odd case of
life imitating art, this situation mimics a similar sequence in the film.) We
are doing our part, watching intently. Preparing to be disappointed. Then I was
sort of, really shocked. My wife literally jumped out of her chair. To be
honest, it was a very big surprise. I knew Academy members liked it, because I
was being informed by some, via email or such, that they liked the film very
much. "Is there a possibility to do a remake?" [As what happens to
many of Francis Veber's films, I assume.] So I knew it had screened well. When
Miramax bought the film two days before the Academy's announcement, I think they
had picked up good [searching for the American slang] vibes about it. I was
still pretty convinced…I knew I was in the short list of ten [finalists], but
did not think it would make the top five. Elias
Savada:
It wasn't in competition in Berlin, was it? Dominique
Deruddere:
No, no. The first international screening of this film was in Venice, a
half-year before. Elias
Savada:
Was that before it was released in Belgium? Dominique
Deruddere:
No, in Belgium it was released in April [2000]. Venice followed in August
[screening late in the month], where the reception was enormously good. We made
a few sales, not too many, Five or six countries. The real sales came after
Miramax picked it up for the U.S. Only because it's a Flemish movie. Elias
Savada:
Yes, well how many Flemish movies do we see in this country? I can count them
probably on one or two hands. Dominique
Deruddere:
Not even. There have been only three Flemish films [not Dutch] released
commercially. Elias Savada:
In Belgium? Dominique
Deruddere:
In the United States. The very first was Love
Is a Dog From Hell [a.k.a.
Crazy Love]
my first feature [in 1987]. And then Rosie
[1998], which, like my film, there
were at most two or three prints available. Elias
Savada:
You had another Belgian film released here Wait
Until Spring, Bandini. Dominique
Deruddere:
Yes, because of the bankruptcy of Orion Pictures. It was to have been
distributed by Orion Classics. It never saw the light of day here. It exists
here only on video. Elias
Savada:
Love
Is a Dog From Hell
was handled by Cineplex Odeon. Do you expect, and were promised, more support
from Miramax than you received from that earlier release? Dominique
Deruddere:
Yes, they are doing a good job. Taking me around the country. Harvey [Weinstein,
who runs Miramax with his brother, Bob] likes the film very, very much. To me
it's a grace for him to take on a Flemish film, let's be honest. I am very
grateful for everything they are doing on behalf of the film. Of course I'm now
tired. I've been doing this [advance touring] for two weeks, but still… Elias
Savada:
How many more do you have? Dominique
Deruddere:
Monday I go home. But still, I want to be supportive of their effort, because I
realize it is difficult to sell this type of film. Elias
Savada:
Have any of the stars been doing publicity junkets? Dominique
Deruddere:
Not right now. Thekla Reuten, who plays Debbie the singer, is coming over the
25th to 29th [of June]. She's also in theater, but has a small break then. Elias
Savada:
A thematic comparison between Everybody's
Famous and Full Monty is obvious:
unemployed blue collar workers hatching an audacious scheme. I also feel it has
a taste of some of the weirder Australian comedies that I favor. Muriel's
Wedding, Strictly Ballroom. I see that, and a dose of Billy Wilder, in the
film. Dominique
Deruddere:
Oh, yes [getting excited]. There's a mix of all that. You are absolutely right.
I've been inspired by the social-commentary [the actual word might be
"comedy," but the recording was muffled] cinema of Great Britain. And
those films that you mentioned I like very much. All of it is in the film, and
yet it is still very typical Flemish humor. Elias Savada: Have
your other films bordered upon that? I know you've done a thriller. Dominique
Deruddere:
My fourth film, Hombres complicados,
was a very pitch-black comedy. It's very grunge [growls at the memory]; we shot
it in twelve days. Elias
Savada:
How long did Everybody's Famous take
to shoot? Dominique
Deruddere:
Forty days. Editing took a couple of months. Overall pre- and post-production
was five months. Elias
Savada:
Was there anything you wanted to put in the film that you couldn't because of
technical or financial problems? Dominique
Deruddere:
[thinking ever so briefly] No. I also produced the film. So I have an idea of
what's possible, and what's not. There are good things and bad things are
producing a film yourself. The bad thing is that, of course, you don't have
(someone else as) a producer. Elias
Savada:
[loud laughter] Unless
you look in the mirror. Dominique
Deruddere:
[chuckles] The good thing, first, is that you have great artistic freedom.
Secondly you realize just how much money you have and how you can put it to the
fullest creative use. You don't have to fight with the producer, because you
know he is being perfectly honest with you. If you only have this amount of
money you can only expect to use it in this manner. Elias
Savada:
Obviously you have a very good discipline for this type of work ethic. Will you
produce again, or let someone else pick up the production workload for you? Dominique
Deruddere:
I'll let my wife (Loret Meus) co-produce. When I get home she's already working
on the set. She was also the costume designer for Everybody's
Famous. Elias
Savada:
Was she the one who found all those great flower shirts for Josse De Pauw? Dominique
Deruddere:
Yes, she's the one. Elias
Savada:
While the film is set in the present, Josse's character is obviously living in
the Seventies. Dominique
Deruddere:
He's living in a nostalgic world. The film opens with him cuddling his infant
daughter Marva, named after a real cult Flemish singer of the Seventies. She is
still very well known, but doesn't perform in public anymore. In Jean's mind,
he's very much still somewhere in the past, when he was young and trying to be a
star himself. He had ambition and some talent himself. This isn't necessarily
apparent to most people (we both laugh). Elias
Savada:
You've worked with Josse De Pauw extensively. His first film was your first
film? Dominique
Deruddere:
Yes. This is our fourth film together. Elias
Savada:
There must be a chemistry you share? Dominique
Deruddere:
[emphatically] Oh, yes! We are very good friends. He is the godfather of my
oldest son. We hang out a lot together. We get drunk together. We know each
other very well. Josse and I have a good understanding of each other. We read
each other well. Also, when we work, he knows how to read something when I write
it for him. I don't have to explain it. Elias
Savada:
You write stuff specifically for him then? Dominique
Deruddere:
In this case, yes. Elias
Savada:
Where do you live now Dominique
Deruddere:
In Brussels. Elias
Savada:
I bet you're anxious to get home and have a nice beer. Dominique
Deruddere:
[nodding] Heh heh. Elias
Savada:
Did you get the same type of support from your parents that Jean offers Marva
(in your film)? Dominique
Deruddere:
Not exactly. My mother was a normal housewife, but she liked to do amateur
theater. She was a great storyteller. Sometimes for me, sometimes for the whole
family. When I was young, she would start a story, and one hour later she would
still be going on. Elias
Savada:
Were these fantasy or real? Dominique
Deruddere:
We never knew. She told always the story of how my dad and she met. She has told
this story several times all through her life. It's a great story (untold to me
by the shortness of our time together), and a couple of months before she died,
someone asked her about the story again, and she said, "Oh that was all
lies." Elias
Savada:
What about your father? Dominique
Deruddere:
He's passed on, too. He was a military man, at that base that I mentioned
earlier. When I told my parents early on that I wanted to become a filmmaker,
they said, "Ok." They didn't say "We'll support you! What a great
idea!", but they also didn't exclaim "What! Are you crazy!" Not
really an indifference, but "If that's what you want, why not." Elias
Savada:
Did they pay for your film school? Dominique
Deruddere:
Dad had passed on by then. By my mother paid for the film school. I also worked.
I opened a bar, which I don't have anymore, with some friends in Leopoldville,
my hometown. The money we made from the bar was used to shoot small films. We
actually shot at the spur-of-the moment a feature film which I never edited. Elias
Savada:
Is that footage decomposing in someone's closet or garage? Dominique
Deruddere:
Now it must be lost. I also used some of the [bar] money to support my studies
and things like that. It was a punk rock café called De
Friat, which means The Rash. Elias
Savada:
You basically have directed features for fifteen years, but you seem to space
yourself between projects. Dominique
Deruddere:
Sometimes it is spacing that I don't want. Elias
Savada:
I was wondering about that six-year gap between Wait
Until Spring, Bandini and Suite 16. Dominique
Deruddere:
I wanted to make a film in Africa at that time. I have written a story called De
Panda, which is Lingala for Independence. It is the story about the backdrop of the independence
of the Congo. When it became independent from Belgium in 1960. Ten days later
they threw everybody out. A great mutiny. A big uprising. A massacre was going
on. I wanted to make a love story set against this historical moment in Belgian
history. It would probably compare closely to A Year of Living Dangerously. I worked for years and years on this
story, because Africa is a very difficult continent to get things real. I wanted
to shoot it in Central Africa, not in Zimbabwe, because it is a story that takes
place in an African city. The architecture of Belgian colonies in Africa is
magnificent, but it's in the middle of nowhere. There is really a type of
Far-West kind of feeling. Very unique. It doesn't exist anywhere else in the
world. Elias
Savada:
You spent a lot of time in Africa then? Dominique Deruddere: I spent a lot of time there, yeah. I really enjoyed it. Right before we were going to shoot it, with financing by Studio Canal + in France. We were ready to go in 1992. The government told us we couldn't film right now. You'll have to wait. "Next month. Next month. Next month. Next month." The rulers knew something was going to happen. Then came what were eventually known the great massacres, in 1994. In Rwanda and Burundi with the Hutus and the Tutsis. That's why there was a long gap in between my projects. I had to recover, too. I was exhausted. I had put an enormous amount of energy into a film that was not happening. To console myself I shot Suite 16. The script was already written by somebody else. The producer asked me to direct, and I did. Elias
Savada:
(as our coffee finally arrives) I see our time is up. Good luck. And happy
birthday! Dominique Deruddere: Thank you. It's very nice of you to know, to remember Read the Elias Savada's review. |
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