I interviewed writer/director Victor Levin about his delightful upcoming feature, 5 to 7, which opens in New York and LA on April 3 (other cities to follow).
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I’m really enjoying the interviews you are doing. I hope you keep them up!
I got a kick out of his list of the seven intractable problems of life. A friend of mine is a test pilot, and per his fellow pilots there are 5 things a man needs: food, clothing, shelter, nookie, and strange nookie. The problem of monogamy… Maybe The French and Mr. Levin are further up on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and they’ve found a way to address the last two of the test pilots’ needs while adding some “wants.”
I’ll definitely keep my eye out for this movie. I really liked Anton Yelchin in “Only Lovers Left Alive.”
I know you like talking about the mechanics of things: I counted 20 questions in the interview. Was that a conscious choice on your part, part of the agreed format of the interview, or just a matter of luck/length? It doesn’t appear that the other interviews at Ebert are 20 questions. Were there more questions that didn’t make the article? Anything more you’d like to share? He seemed like a charming guy. I liked the reference to “Ida” and the comment that shooting that way can be both beautiful and inexpensive.
Yeah, he’s a really nice and smart guy. “Like Don Ho at the piano.” So funny!
And 20 questions. Ha. No. I did not pick 20 questions. Many of them aren’t even really questions – which I try to do – I try to make an observation as a launching-off point – and see where it goes. But then sometimes you just have to ask a question like “did you rehearse the film?” Victor Levin was very forthcoming, and super smart (obviously). There were things going on I wanted to talk about with him – the wide-screen look of the film which got my attention right away, and also how the whole thing came to be (from script to production). It ended up being a really interesting conversation about the reality of making a small independent film – although with locations like the St. Regis and the Met – it FEELS like a very expensive film.
Anyway, it was fun to talk with him and I’m glad you enjoyed the interview!
A couple days ago I interviewed a co-directing team from Austria – whose first feature “Goodnight Mommy” is EXCELLENT and was playing here in New York at a “new Directors” festival. I met up with the both of them at an office on the West Side – with a German translator there with us, just in case – so that was super-interesting as well. I like to hear from people how they do what they do. :)
// Were there more questions that didn’t make the article? Anything more you’d like to share? //
We actually did have a long discussion about how much we both loved Ida. :)
I go into these things with basic things I want to cover, and then once the conversation starts, I have to kind of let go – it’s like a performance, you have to trust you know your lines and then be in the moment.
I just read a fascinating interview with Errol Morris on Grantland – who is an Interview King. He said that he starts off interviews more often than not not even with a question. He’ll just say, “I don’t even know where to start” or “I’m not sure what to say” … and then the person just starts talking.
Like … what? I don’t think that would work if I did it. But it was fascinating nonetheless.
http://grantland.com/features/the-grantland-qa-errol-morris/
You just want to have an interesting conversation that ends up being revealing about the project. That takes some planning (in my experience).
That was an excellent interview.
I liked his comment that you have until you drop dead to get over your issues.
Errol Morris: “I’m sick of interviewing. I am really sick of it. I’m not gonna say I do it better than anybody else, but I do it differently than anybody else. I am good at it, for whatever reason. There are a lot of different reasons, but if that’s all I’m going to do for the rest of my life is stick a camera in front of people and say to them, “I don’t have a first question, what’s your first answer?” I think I would be very sad. Philip Gourevitch, who wrote this book with me on the Abu Ghraib material, said, “Do you know you start off every interview the same way?” And I said, “No — I used to transcribe my interviews but I don’t do it anymore.” He said, “You always say, ‘I don’t know where to start.’”
I was also fascinated by what he said about having a really really good master shot. That so much of everything that is good comes from there. (This is old-fashioned film-making – a lot of films barely even use master shots anymore.)
This was something I just experienced when we shot the short film last month. Getting that master nailed down – and then choosing when to go in close, when to jump back to the master – the master being the anchor, the skeleton, I guess – on which everything else is made possible.