 |
| Rodolphe Burger and Francis Soetens in Conrad & Crab |
Tell me about how you came to the idea of a shaggy cop story, complete with literal shaggy cops?
Claude Schmitz: In my previous movie, The Other Laurens, I had these two copas, who were secondary characters, they had little parts. I had great pleasure to work with these two actors who are, in fact, non-actors. Rodolphe Burger is a musician, a rock star. And Francis Soetens is not really an actor but has been working with me for I would say 10 years in my movies and plays. After The Other Laurens, I wanted to make a spin-off with these two characters because I thought there was something very specific and interesting in the way they worked together. They didn't know each other before The Other Laurens, but there was a kind of alchemy between them. So I started to think about the spin-off, to find a way to increase their relationship and to see what would happen with them if I gave them bigger parts.
You satirise a certain sort of ageing bloke here but is it fair to say you also have some sympathy for the devil?
CS: Absolutely. I have a lot of sympathy for them. It’s an anti-action movie. I was interested in the fact that they are old because there’s a kind of melancholy in the movie. It’s about people who are older and it’s near the end of their story – it’s their last hurrah. It’s about rebirth.
Tell me about casting Samia Lemmiz, as Francis’ love interest because that’s also a crucial role?
CS: Samia isn’t an actress. When I was in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Rodophe was giving a little concert and she was there. I felt she had something interesting, a specific energy. I tried to do a little scene with her and Francis to see how they matched and she was fantastic. She has something very simple, very truthful.
How did you decide where to set it?
 |
| Claude Schmitz: 'There’s something poetic that interests me in people who are non-professionals' |
Also, it’s in a little valley. It made me think about things like Twin Peaks, for example, that kind of atmosphere. It’s very specific. I wanted to do something with the town and the people – the people you see in the movie are the real inhabitants of the town.
So did you shoot at the gem fair itself then?
CS: Yes, we shot during the mineral and gem show itself and then after the show with the real people of the town. The idea was to make a kind of portrait.
The show on the TV within the film, Dogs And Motorways, is a genius idea, what was your your inspiration for that. Were those segments challenging to shoot?
CS: I had the idea in Amsterdam. I smoked a little bit of the kind of substance you find in Amsterdam in my hotel room and it was very late at night and I saw a show. It was not about dogs and motorways. It got me thinking about those very strange shows you have late at night. So I had the idea to make a show that is a little bit pointless but why not about dogs and motorways. The other idea was that Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines is just near the border of Germany. So I had the idea to make the show in German. It was not so difficult to work with the dogs because we cast some people who had dogs and just had them play with them. We found that great guy Timo Egger. He’s a friend of my girlfriend who lives in Berlin. He’s not an actor. We met and I asked him, “Do you want to play the guy from Dogs And Motorways?” and he said, “Okay.”
There’s a Gallic flavour to the humour, including a running joke about a character being Belgian. Is that a response you’re familiar with as a Belgian working in France?
CS: Absolutely, because you know Belgium is a little country and there is always something between Belgians and French people, because France is a big country. We are like the little brother of France.
Why do you prefer to shoot in France over Belgium though?
CS: It’'s a good question. I’ve never shot in Belgium even though I’m Belgian. Why not? Belgium is too close for me, I have difficulty imagining stories in my own city. It's very bizarre, but it's like this. For me, France is like a more exotic place and I have more capacity to imagine stories in a place that is not my home. That’s why Francis is important to my films and my stories because he brings the Belgian mood and he brings something that’s very specific.
You’re originally a theatre director and I assume that in that capacity you're working with professional actors all the time, yet now you're working uh in film you're largely working with a non-professional cast – tell me a bit about that?
CS: I have always worked in theatre and in movies with professional and non-professional people. It’s not new but in theatre it's more difficult, of course, because you have to rehearse a lot. It’s easier to work with non-professional people in movies because you have to just take something, then it's done.I've always wanted to always create a mix because I’m always interested in finding something that is not too fabricated. I’m interested in the friction between the construction and the reality. There’s something poetic that interests me in people who are non-professionals.
Conrad & Crab - Idiotic Gems premieres at IFFR on Saturday.
