The audience fled the hall but the director is convinced: “It's a movie about love.”
The new adaptation to”Painted Bird”, Jez’'s controversial book about a Jewish child during the Holocaust, Chased the crowd away at the Venice Festival following its harsh sights. In an interview for his screening at the Jerusalem Festival, the director explains why he thinks it's a film about love., Reveals his surprising Jewish connection and explains how a Naomi Shemer song got into the soundtrack
Venice elders had trouble recalling such mass abandonment as it took place at screenings of the film “The Painted Bird” Venice Film Festival 2019. On the island and in the festival they failed to live up to the jolting visions, The Shockers, The violent and the cruel (Including the displacement of the eye remembered by anyone who read the book) seen in an adaptation of the controversial book by #8217-Polish writer Jez&J Koszynski. At its center is the story of an orphan boy's survival., Wandering through the forests and villages of Eastern Europe and trying to survive the Nazi occupation. Some critics claimed it was”Pornography of suffering”, But the signatory explains that it's a masterpiece and that the movie should win over”Golden Lion”. Although I wasn't the only one praising the creepy piece, The jury chose to disregard”The Painted Bird”, Flying out of graduation without figurins.
The film's round of festivals after Venice also recorded reactions ranging from shock to wonder.. “The book has a lot more violence than in my movie.”, Responded and defended and Aslev Marhol #8217;because, Director of the film, When we met in the Italian canal city. “Kosinski's book is very repetitive.. For example, in a book, Villagers try to kill boy twice in imprint. It's the very same scene. – So I cut it for once.. Everyone thinks my book and movie are about brutality., Violence and terrible things, But I would argue that they are about love., Which is the most important thing in our lives., In goodness and humanity. When I claim it, people tell me I'm crazy and spinning.. I'm trying to explain why I think that.. Maybe I'll tell you if I have time.”.
You're welcome to explain. “Although people do bad things, what really matters is the portrait that the author presents to us.: A child who freezes, Burning, Bowing head, Suffer, Abandoned – But trying to live. The light can only be seen in the dark – Because it's the light that matters in our lives.. He lets us see things.. You never see light in the light., Only in the dark – And so darkness is also important.. That's how I felt anyway.”.
After being chosen to represent #8217 Oscars, he reached the shortlist in the Outstanding International Film category (But not included in the final five), “The Painted Bird” Lands with us – And you can see the film at the 37th Jerusalem Film Festival, To open next week in an online edition. He'll probably stir up a lot of noise and controversy., Just like when Kuszynski published “The Painted Bird” before 55 Year, When communist rule in Poland boycotted and banned its distribution.
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“In 1965, When the book came out in the world, Kuszynski was especially important to stand in the spotlight. He loves it.”, Merhul number. “Kosinski claimed it was actually his biography and the innocent Americans believed him and said: ‘Wow, So he really survived all this.? But he's such a snoo.!’. They bought the story that he fed them.. The book sells much better that way., And because he was supposedly ‘real’ He became a bestseller.. But of course it was a lie, and Kuszynski himself was a liar.. Later they also accused him of plagiaring.”.
When the book was finally published in Poland in the late 1980s and the exiled Kuszynski returned to his homeland to promote his work, Villagers from southern Poland came to Warsaw and claimed Koshinsky was lying. “The truth is, Kuszynski spent World War II in the bosom of his family, and he wasn't hiding alone.. The bad villagers he describes in the book are even the ones who saved them. – And they didn't hurt him and his family.. But on the other hand,, Kosinski was eight years old., Nine, 10 during the war, And as a little boy, he was afraid the Nazis would find his family and send her to the concentration camps.. Since Kuszynski was a sensitive guy as an artist,, And as a child, he was even more sensitive. – אז הקוראים בטח הבינו שהילד הזה חי במשך שש שנים תחת הלחץ של הרג ומלחמה וזה מה שהוביל אותו לכתוב את ‘הציפור הצבועה'”.
Wenceslas Merhul
( Photography : Of)
I was told that Poland refused to participate in the financing and production of your project.. Most likely with the current government and their struggle with Poland's link to the Holocaust, They didn't want any more. “Incident” Like the one the movie made. “Ida”. “Because it was Kosinski's life., And because he grew up in Poland,, His private story and book are highly controversial in Poland to this day. The Poles think the book is about them., And that's not true. – He didn't.. In my book and in my movie, You see no sign of the story happening in Poland.. Kosinski described the villagers as speaking a very strange language.. It turns out that even today #8216 the painted bird’ Still a problem. I called 16 production companies in Poland and they all refused to participate in the production. I also had trouble finding a Polish distributor”.
You chose to shoot the film in meticulous black and white, and I think it gives the film a universal element.. The feeling is that the film is not set in the Holocaust in Europe, But he's way beyond. “Exactly. It's the same as watching World War II documentaries.. About 90 percent of them are filmed in black and white, And you believe in what you see in them.. Because it's the truth and you really believe in it.. Black and White Movies, Even if they're not real., Feeling a lot more honest.. I felt like if the movie was colored,, Then the story won't be honest.. Try to imagine these scenes in color. – They'll lose their authenticity.. By choosing black and white, I reinforce the feeling, and viewers can believe that these events could have happened.. The movie is black and white, but the story isn't black and white., There's a lot of positive characters in my movie., Like the priest, for example., Played by Harvey Keitel. Right, Some characters abuse a child or want to kill him., But there are those who help him and save him.”.
60-year-old Marhol became acquainted with”The Painted Bird”, Which is considered a book that is not film adaptation, Only in 2006. “In #8217;Czech, The book was first published in 1993 and I just missed it. And then one of my friends recommended it to me.. After three pages, I thought it could be a great movie.. It took me ages to pick it up.”.
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When you read the book, you felt a personal connection.? You have Jewish roots.? “Yes, But for years I didn't know I had Jewish roots., Because my grandfather, On mom's side., Didn't say anything., And he told us about his Judaism., Only the evening before he died.. That was crazy.. So I'm #8217;because I'm involved, I mean, I'm #8217 with German and Jewish roots.. Apparently, some of my family were Jews living in Vienna in the 19th and early 20th century.. I know 18 family members were murdered in Treblinka in 1943.. When I was filming the scene going on inside the train, It had so many people in it., That it felt like a furman.. I couldn't film her for more than an hour in a row., Because I just started crying.. I didn't see my players in front of me. – I saw my family die., And I couldn't take it.. I cried so much and my hands trembled – That only after an hour were we able to get the fools we wanted”.
Merhol has a complex attitude towards Koshinsky., Who also wrote “Be there”. “Kosinski was such a complicated man. – Good and evil are in one person's body.. He knew how to hurt people, but also to love them., Help them and do anything for them.. I've never met him., But I've read a lot about him.. I don't know if he was a pathological liar., But he lied and joked.. He was a clown.”.
For the role of the boy, Merhol cast Peter Cutler, And next to it are familiar actors like Keitel., #8217 Sands, Udo Kiir and Stellan Skosgord, Whom he acknowledged over one weekend more than 20 years ago. “In the 1990s, I was called by a friend from Stockholm and said he had an actor friend named Stellan who was going to visit Farg for the first time in his life.. He asked me if I could take him under my wings.. I said yes and I picked up Stellan from the airport and we spent a wonderful weekend in Prague.. I showed him the city like tourists don't see it.: We visited pubs with underground performances, I've shown him all kinds of exhibitions., I met him with strange people, and of course we got drunk.. We were even attacked drunk., But in joint forces, we defeated them.. A year after our meeting, he showed up #8217 break the waves.’ And became a star. When I wrote the #8216 the painted bird’ I thought Stellan was fit to play an older German soldier.. I called a friend from Stockholm and he gave me his number.. I wrote him a message.: ‘Remember visit to Prague in 1994?’. He called me three minutes later and said,: ‘Veslav, We're friends.! Wow, We didn't see you. 26 Year! When you finish the script, send it to me. – If I love it I am open to the idea’. And that's how he joined the team.”.
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Steven Spielberg chose to end holocaust drama “Schindler's List” With “Jerusalem of Gold” Naomi Shemer's. You, too, decided to sign off. “The Painted Bird” With a special performance of another moving song by Shemer – “Eucalyptus Grove” (When Mom came here,). Why actually and whose execution? “I'm a director who genuinely believes that every movie summons its own music.. I know it sounds a little crazy., But when I had the final cut of the movie in my hand, The movie whispered to me: ‘Vaslav, Listen, I don't need a soundtrack.. I don't want music.. I don't need #8217;. Indeed the film is music-free. But because the credits at the end last for eight minutes,, And because it's unpleasant to sit in a movie theater quietly – I was wondering what music would accompany the credits and I had no idea. Then Itaka Tsvezzarova, Who plays Ludmila in the movie and she's a great singer., She happened to send me a link to her performance at a Christmas concert on #8217;, in which she sings the #8216;eucalyptus grove’. When I opened the file and heard the performance straight I knew it was the music for the credits!
“After a few days, I Googled the ‘Eucalyptus Grove’ And Naomi Shemer., To understand who the rights belong to. Google gave me an address and number in Tel Aviv. I picked up the phone., I called and said,: ‘Listen, I'm making a movie and I have an interest in a Naomi Shemer’. They asked me why.. I told them I just loved him.. Send me documents and conditions, Signed, I paid for eight minutes and I had the music.. Since Naomi Shemer's original song is about three minutes and forty, I bought rights to eight minutes., I asked a #8217 to make him an adaptation so that it would be longer and I let Itka sing it.. ‘Eucalyptus Grove’ He's a wonderful song and he's connected to the movie., Because he deals with childhood, too.”.
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