Not content with being musicians, the Sparks are also ardent cinephiles.
Brothers Ron and Russell Mael spoke to "20 Minutes" about their collaborations with filmmakers as diverse as Tim Burton or Jacques Tati.
They are called Russell and Ron Mael.
At the end of the 1960s, the two Californian brothers founded the group Sparks, of which Queen, in particular, made the first part, and to which documentary
The Sparks Brothers
of Edgar Wright pays homage to the cinema.
They are back in the spotlight at 75 and 72 years old.
It is to them that we owe the story and the score of
Annette
by Leos Carax, sung by Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver.
And the documentary which comes out in theaters offers the opportunity to Russell, verbose with his jet black hair, and to Ron, less talkative with his small mustache, to confide in
20 Minutes a
few days before going to Cannes where
Annette
has been rewarded with the price of the setting in scene.
Is cinema important in your career?
We've been movie buffs since we were kids and it is certain that some of our songs, like
This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Two Of Us
, stem from our passion for the 7th Art.
We designed it as a film without a picture, but it obviously refers to the westerns we love.
We also released an album inspired by Ingmar Bergman in 2009. It was a musical that we performed in Sweden and Los Angeles and that we would have liked to get on the screen.
Cinema is like second nature to us.
Before seeing you in "Annette", were you able to be discovered in person in "Le Toboggan de la mort" in 1977?
It's crazy that people still remember that James Goldstone disaster movie.
We take on our own role and play on the stage of an amusement park where a mad killer is rampant who lays bombs on the roller coaster.
At the time, we really thought it would be a B series among many.
It has become a classic of the genre we are often told about!
So, we have fun showing off by saying that we played in a film with Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda, headliners we have never met!
What were your best cinema encounters?
Leos Carax and Edgar Wright without a doubt!
Both have made us live our dreams of cinema again.
Leos gave life to our Annette when at our age, we no longer thought that she would see the light of day.
He used our song
How Are You Getting Home?
in
Holly Motors
and we contacted him to suggest
Annette
.
He immediately understood that we wanted to do a kind of anti
La La Land
, namely a musical and cinematic tragedy.
For his part, Edgar Wright gave us this magnificent documentary, a tribute so vibrant that we would never have dared to hope for it.
The passion of these two for our music is an unexpected and priceless gift.
Your most frustrating collaboration with a filmmaker?
Tim Burton!
We had a project with him in the late 1980s. It was an adaptation of
Mai
manga
, The Psychic Girl
.
Everything seemed to be going like clockwork, but the film fell apart when Tim embarked on the production of
The Nightmare Before Christmas
.
It's grieving because the songs are written.
There has been talk of Tim Burton taking an interest in the case again, but we hardly believe it anymore.
Unless
Annette
reminds us of her fond memories ...
The filmmaker you would have liked to work with?
Jacques Tati.
We are fans of his films and their burlesque poetry which corresponds so well to our universe.
In 1974, we were in contact for a joint project called
Confusion
, but he never found the budget for it to be done.
He wanted to entrust us with the main roles of the film.
We understood each other perfectly well despite our very different origins.
Cinema and music are universal languages.
We intend to continue to mix the two.
We also have plenty of projects, including our return to the stage of the Casino de Paris on April 19, 2022.
Movie theater
"Annette": What you should know to appreciate the new film by Leos Carax
Movie theater
Who is Sparks, the pop group behind Leos Carax's "Annette"?
Cinema outings
Video
Cannes film festival
Pop
Documentary
Movie theater
Rock