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The director Radu Jude is one of the main representatives of the Romanian film miracle that has been stirring up the festival for 15 years.
After Cristian Mungiu and Călin Peter Netzer, Jude has now also won one of the A festivals: The Berlinale awarded his “Bad luck or: Crazy porn” its highest prize.
An interview with the Warhol fan, people watcher and kendo fighter right after the award was announced.
WORLD:
Would you agree that porn is one of the last taboos these days?
Very, very many people look at them.
But one hardly talks about it.
Radu Jude:
Yes, you are probably right there.
Although, if I think about it correctly, it depends on the country we are talking about.
In Romania, for example, there are a lot of contradictions.
On the one hand, studies have shown that my country is one of the top users in Europe when it comes to porn use on the Internet.
But would people admit that?
Hardly likely!
So my new film was about holding up a mirror to society.
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WORLD:
But we all look the same in a mirror.
Jude:
Yes, but if it's a distorted mirror - and that's what I thought of - everyone sees something different.
That depends on the angle.
And of course also on what experiences you have already had in your life.
And also what you want to see.
But for me it was about something completely different.
I want to point out that in our society in Romania we have many things that are terrible.
But nobody talks about it.
It can be violence or corruption.
But when an amateur porn video shows up, everyone goes nuts.
You can rely on that.
WORLD:
Are you concerned that some people will not watch this movie because it starts with a hardcore porn scene?
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Jude:
Well, we should leave out all sensation and try to look soberly at what happens there at the beginning.
A man and a woman have sex.
Happening all over the world all the time.
We wanted the audience to see what the parents get to see too.
There is nothing scandalous here.
No extreme types of love.
But you are right in this respect: if there are critics of my film who want to prevent anyone from thinking deeply about it - for example about the mendacity in the society of the country in which I live - it may well be that they say: “Well, you can't take this film seriously because it starts with a porn sequence!” But that's the problem for these people, not mine.
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
Private erotic video recordings of the school teacher Emi, on which she can be recognized despite the mask, end up on the Internet.
Emi's career is suddenly in jeopardy and she has to deal with appalled parents, priests and other moralists.
Source: microFilm
WORLD:
Even if it annoys you, I have to stay briefly on the subject of porn.
If you take an amateur porn and incorporate it into your film, it becomes part of your film and thus cinematic art.
Do you agree?
Jude:
Yes, that is absolutely correct.
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WORLD:
So can porn be art?
Jude:
Oh, I can't answer that easily.
For one thing, I don't see my films as pure art.
Many other things play a role here, such as anthropology, human studies.
But to get back to your question.
I see it from a different angle.
Do you think bicycles are art?
WORLD:
Probably not.
Jude:
But when Marcel Duchamp or Picasso take bicycles, build them into their works, put horns on them and the like: then they become art.
And afterwards, if someone removes the wheels from this context again, what are they then?
Then you can use them as bicycles again.
At least I see it like that.
WORLD:
Your film consists of three parts.
First the video.
In the end, the tribunal of the indignant parents.
And in the middle like an encyclopedia, a collection of facts about life.
How did you come up with it?
Jude:
Well, it started with the fact that I wanted to break free from the form of a conventionally narrated film.
I had the beginning and the end.
And for the middle I had thought of a kind of dictionary - I had never seen anything like it before.
A dictionary of the things my film is about.
And then I allowed something that many of my colleagues would certainly never admit voluntarily: that there is chaos.
Sometimes in the middle of the creative process, sometimes in the head.
It is perfectly normal for painters like Jackson Pollock to accept that.
Usually not in the movie.
I wanted to illustrate this chaos and looked for all sorts of material.
It went on for two or three years.
Books, internet.
I've used all sorts of things.
Then cut it together.
But an hour was a bit too long.
So I cut it down to 30 minutes.
WORLD:
You don't show your hometown Bucharest in a particularly beautiful light.
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Jude:
How should I when people treat the city like that?
She is gray.
There are building sins everywhere.
If there are beautiful buildings, then they are from a long time ago.
You have to film it in order to be able to show later generations what it looks like in our country today.
There is a saying from Walter Benjamin that yesterday affects today and vice versa.
When I show pictures of today's Bucharest, I always have this saying in the back of my mind.
WORLD:
Your film is one of the first that we see now in times of Corona, which shows everyday life.
With all the masks and how absurd they are sometimes worn.
But also how thin-skinned people have become in the pandemic.
Was Corona a help for this project for you?
Jude:
Yes and no.
You know, I do martial arts, more precisely kendo.
So not when I'm working on a film, but otherwise I am.
And there you don't just learn to move your body.
You also learn what is behind the sport.
For example the message: “No matter what happens to you.
You can use it to your advantage! ”I also applied this principle here.
When the pandemic struck, we were in the middle of the preparations.
At first there was the idea of waiting.
But I immediately asked my producer what he would think if we incorporated the new everyday life with all those crooked masks.
WORLD:
Were there no concerns?
Jude:
Of course there were.
One of the questions was whether one would even recognize the faces and what the people wanted to express.
My reaction was clear.
Why look the other way when there is something that is happening right under our noses?
Now I am very happy that I prevailed.
And fortunately there was not a single Corona case in the team during the filming, although the numbers went through the roof during the time in our country.
"The horrified faces of the bureaucrats"
WORLD:
Were there no corona restrictions while shooting?
Jude:
We always had to look for alternatives, definitely.
The third part of the film consists of a tribunal.
The teacher should justify herself for having participated in a porno.
We wanted to shoot that in a closed room, like a typical court scene.
But you don't think anyone would have let us into a room, do you?
All good persuasion didn't help.
So we rescheduled and then found this beautiful backyard where we could shoot - Corona-compliant, of course.
But even there the authorities didn't want us to shoot for a long time.
They had closed the yard.
He was sure.
What could have happened if they let people on it?
This is what our authorities think.
We then asked why they don't let children play there?
Fresh air all around.
We looked into the horrified faces of the bureaucrats.
WORLD:
And the overall mood when shooting?
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Jude:
Different than usual. We were all tested all the time.
Everyone was as careful as they can get.
This time the work was very concentrated and spartan.
You know, for me it is part of the fact that you talk to each other during the breaks while eating, sometimes relaxing a little.
Everything falls away.
If everything is reduced to a minimum due to the corona, if there are only a few sandwiches outside, then that is not so ideal.
But we were happy to be able to shoot at all.
WORLD:
Your film has three endings.
Couldn't you decide how the story of the accused teacher ended?
Jude:
Ha, I even had four endings.
There was an ending with tablets.
But then I cut that away.
I like that everyone can choose what they like best.
That gives the film an open ending.
That's what I like best.
Scene from "Bad luck"
Source: © Silviu Ghetie / Micro Film 2021
WORLD:
You showed many of your films at the Berlinale.
You could be called a Berlinale veteran.
What does this film festival mean to you?
Jude:
If you consider that I made nine films and six of them were shown in Berlin, then that's probably true.
First of all, I have to say that I am very grateful to the Berlinale.
Because if the films are invited, if you watch them there, then it is easier for them to find audiences all over the world.
And of course you get a lot more support yourself to take the path you want to go.
The Berlinale is a festival that is bolder than other major film festivals.
WORLD:
Why?
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Jude:
Because I was able to show films here that other festivals would have rejected.
For example, I once had a film that consisted only of photos.
What do you think you have to listen to sometimes.
What do you think?
All the better that there are places like the Berlinale that give you a place to show your films.
The festival is less commercial than others.
That helps filmmakers like me.
On the other hand, I also know that it doesn't make a film any better if it is shown at a festival.
WORLD:
What do you mean?
Jude:
For example, I've been watching a lot of Andy Warhol films lately.
There is one called “Beauty No. 2”.
Hardly anyone saw it.
It didn't run at any festival.
Still, it's a fantastic film.
I really enjoy watching films that are not well known.
It should be our responsibility as filmmakers to see films that one likes to overlook.
A few years ago I was invited to the Forum section of the Berlinale.
There was a colleague who said the sentence: “These parallel series at the Berlinale are for Africans!” It may sound strange.
But I know exactly what he means.
We like to watch films that - let's say - won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
Because they have to be good.
But we mustn't ignore all the others, the little films that are no less beautiful.
They can be just as important.
Just like a small film from Africa that did not make it into the competition at the major festivals.
WORLD:
Is there something that connects all of your films?
Jude:
I would like to go back to the beginning of the cinema.
Film was seen as a new attraction in the fair.
Or as a circus.
Because cinema was much cheaper than circus.
Anyone could afford it.
Cinema was meant to be a distraction.
But scientists have also seen it as a place to study how people relate to what they see.
This is exactly how I see all of my films.
I want to observe and record how people behave in certain situations.
That connects all of my films.
No matter what they talk about.