Peter Weir on Being a Filmmaker_Marianne Gray

8/2/2019 Peter Weir on Being a Filmmaker_Marianne Gray

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The painter Henri Matisse once saidin an interview, 'An artist mustnever be a prisoner of himself, aprisoner of style, a prisoner of

reputation, a prisoner of success etc.' I foundmyself, at an early point in my career, justsuch a prisoner, trapped and unable to goforward. It was at this point that I had acurious daydream. It was like a little story -perfectly realised - and was set in Asia. I was

to meet the guru of directors, the greatmaster, the director of directors. He was sofamous he had never made a film, like anarchitect who had never built a building. Hedid not need to; he was a genius. He lived on

top of mountain and it was very difficult toreach him.

As a pilgrim I went up the mountain,waited some days and was finally permittedto see him. I went forward and he sat withhis back to me. You were only allowed onequestion so I waited. He did not look at mebut finally he said, 'What is your question?' Ianswered, 'Master how must I be and goforward as a director?' He was silent for a

while and then, again without turning hishead, he said: 'You must care and not care,both at the same time.' That was it . I havethought about his answer ever since.

I think what it means is that if you care

PeterWeir

on being

a film-makerMarianne Gray attended a master class by Peter Weir atthe Taormina International Film Festival in June 2004.Weir gave an intimate self- portrait.

Peter Weir


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too much it blocks the unconscious, and it isthat part of the mind that is freed by notcaring.

I would like to talk a little bit about ascript. Firstly, and more important than thescript, is the idea. The idea is so important. Itcan be fully formed; it can be a notion; it can

be an emotion. I have had it in every form. Ofcourse, sometimes you read a book and youwant to make a film of it but sometimes thestrangest origin will provoke a story.

For example, on holiday in Tunisia in the1970s I found a little Roman head in a field,a sculpture, and what was curious about thiswas that as I had walked across the field Iknew I was going to find something. It wasforeknowledge. I began picking throughpieces of marble and eventually saw threeparallel lines which was a hand attached toa head and the movie The Last Wave

resulted from that experience.One thing leads to another, in this case,

from the Roman head to a meeting with anAborigine. When I told him about the thefeeling I had before I found the head, he feltthere was nothing strange about it. He believedthat it was normal and he told me aboutpre-cognition and extra-sensory perception.Following your idea is a precious thing.

Next, I would say, comes the talking. I findit best to work with someone - anotherwriter - and such collaboration begins with

talking, just talking. I think the best book Ihave read on the subject is Jean-ClaudeCarrire's The Secret Language of Film. At itsheart is its most interesting point aboutworking with Bunuel. I loved their ritual

which would begin in the morning withtelling each other their dreams. Then theywould talk through the morning, have alittle siesta in the afternoon and in theevening they would meet for a drink and telleach other a story, any story, truth or fiction,thus exercising the muscle of the storyteller.

Working recently with a writer on adifficult adaptation - and by way of anexercise - I thought up the worst story Icould for a movie: the story of a lost dog.Every day we would spend half an hourtalking about this lost dog just to provideexercise for our 'creativity- invention muscle'.Carrire talks a great deal about the strugglebetween left and right brain, between theconscious and logical part of the mind andthe uncontrollable unconscious, and allowseach their place.

I think an even better way to start a script

is by writing a short story since this is a freerform than a screenplay. For example, youhave a scene where a man arrives to meet awoman in a restaurant. In the screenplay youwould write interior restaurant, day, the mancrosses to the table. You would probablydescribe the clothes he is wearing and somebasic facts about him. You would describethe woman too, her look, her clothes, andonly then would you have the dialogue. Inthe short story, as he crosses the restaurantyou can describe his memory of the first

restaurant he went to as a child with hismother and father; the woman can watchhim approach and dream about what mighthappen in the future. It is a legitimate formof writing, the short story. The screenplay is a

It's w hat you don't see that really matters

PicnicatHangingRock:PatheDistribution

TheCriterionCollection

Carrire talks agreat deal about thestruggle betweenleft and right brain,between theconscious and

logical part of themind and theuncontrollableunconscious, andallows each theirplace.


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bastard, it is without literary credibility.I hate scripts. I remember meeting Stanley

Kubrick and I said I hated scripts; apparentlyhe did too. Somehow it takes the blood outof the writing for it to be put down like that.When I am writing a script, I put it down ona tape recorder and I try to make it like aradio play. I make all the sound effects likethe wind blowing and the horses gallopingand then I play it back in my car whiledriving through the traffic. This makes itlegitimate, like listening to the radio, and youhear the bad and the good bits.

Now I would like to move on to casting. I

think that you can succeed with a good ideaand great casting but of course, it helps if thescript is also great. When casting, thedirector is like a detective in a missingpersons' bureau. There is a descript ion of themissing person and many people comeforward claiming to be that person and it isfor the detective director to decide who isthe real missing person.

The most extraordinary casting I've beeninvolved with was Billy Kwan for The Year ofLiving Dangerously. I cast a woman as a man

which was a very dangerous thing to do. Itwas not in the script. There was no benefit inthis deception. The description of the missingperson was for a 5ft tall, Chinese-Australian!Well, I cast someone in Australia, a man, andwe began rehearsals with Mel Gibson but itwas not working at all. I asked Melwhat the problem was and he saidthat t he guy irritated him and that hecouldn't work with him. We triedrewriting the script but it still didn'twork so I paid off the actor and wentlooking for someone else. I went to Los

Angeles and New York, with a ticket leadingme to Manila where we were filming, and Ihad to find Billy Kwan on the way.

In casting I like to 'read' the other actors,which involves the actor looking into myeyes and not the camera while I say thewords of the other characters - man, woman,child - so that I can feel the emotionalrelationship. With every applicant for thepart, I could feel a problem until for almostfor a joke we tried Linda Hunt. She lookedlike a man with her cropped hair; she was the

right height and had excellent experience.We met and everything was perfect. Herfeminine sensibility in the role made itintriguing instead of irritating so we decidedon this dangerous path.

Now to the shooting. Generally speaking Ido not like rehearsals because it becomes tooworked out and everything is too logical.Instead I like to spend time with the actors,go for dinner, take a walk and talk aboutanything but the story. I think we are allAborigines in that information comes to usmuch more than just via the lips and, if

anything, language can be deceptive.Sometimes, if the actor wants a rehearsal, Iwill do improvisations. For instance, withGerard Depardieu and Andie Macdowell in

Green Card - a story in which they weresharing an apartment - I rented a little

apartment and Gerard cooked food for them.

I would have other actors telephone thehouse and we would improvise and try andmake it a little bit like real life.

I spent a week on the set ofFrenzy- AlfredHitchcock's last English film - and he onlyever said one word on the set, the mostimportant word 'Cut!' The actors would arrivewhile he was sitting in a chair, the firstassistant would call 'Action' and they woulddo the scene. The actor might then come andkneel before his chair and say, 'I think Iwalked a little too fast; I did not have the

right expression,' and Hitchcock would justlook straight ahead and say, 'OK, take two.'He had already made the film in his mind.

When you work on an American studiopicture, a dangerous climate develops: them

and us. I would say to the crew, there is themand no us; there is only the picture. There areundoubtedly many traps in a studio picture,the major problem being how to retain yourindividuality under pressure. The answer liesin never taking a film unless it is deeply partof your creative DNA. I have seen others introuble because they took a film for ambitionor a creative actor or something. For methere is no difference in the creative loveaffair between the independent picture andthe studio picture. But the studio will put theheat on.

I remember a crisis on Master and

Commander. The studio wanted to go oneway and I another. They asked me to try itboth ways. I replied, 'Gentlemen, think of meas a doctor. You have cancer and I am tell ingyou how I will operate. I am a specialist andif I do it your way, you will die. This is not adebating society.' Many studio executives areintelligent and frequently have legal trainingand are used to arguing the case for theaccused. You must therefore have conviction.

For young film-makers, I give you thislittle tip: the clock is ticking, the money is

being spent, the area is lit and the camera ishere. You finish the scene. Now, what can bedone for free? The scene may be set in abedroom in the morning and you say, 'Let'sgo because we have to do the scene in thestreet,' but I say, 'Give me five more minutes.'

To the director of photography whomI saw swit ch off all the lights, I ask for

just the bedside lamp. To thewardrobe, I ask for some pyjamas orsomething to wear in bed. I then sayto the actor, 'What can we do? We

have a night scene in this room. Maybe you

are reading a book?' The actor says that hehas another idea: maybe he has insomnia,maybe he's sleepwalking or sleeping upsidedown or in bed fully clothed. Anyway, out ofall this often comes a scene from the hiddenlife of the story.

As for the cutting period, when I firstscreen a picture - the first cut - I get what Icall the rough cut blues. If that is all there is,it's depressing. All of those dreams and allthat work in two hours! Where has it allgone? In all my films, only once was it there

for me, only once.So begins a wonderfully creative period:

the final writing period. I collect all the videoassist tapes, hundreds of hours of recordedmaterial, including all the takes we did not

The screenplay is a bastard, itis without literary credibility.

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print. Then again I become the detectivelooking for clues, for little moments. Maybetake six was cut halfway but maybe the actorhad a particular moment, maybe threeseconds, which were magic, so I mark andtape it and it may become a new scene.

At night I play music (I play music allthrough the shoot too). I put on the headset,have a little wine and tobacco, and I playmusic for maybe an hour or two. It is prettyobvious what I'm doing: unjamming theconscious mind and allowing theunconscious to come through. Music stopsthe voice in your head. I also play the film

silently - sometimes with music - becauseyou learn a lot when the story comesthrough with just the pictures, the image.

I screen twice a week, every week, eachcut, once on the big screen and once on atelevision screen. Screen, screen and screenit.

I mentioned music a couple of times. It isso important. I give you a quote from anAustralian poet Gwn Harewood: 'Words cannever say as music can, that unsayable gracethat leaps like light from mind to mind.' I

think I aspire to make fi lms like that. Muchof the music I have used to inspire me hasended up in the film, for instance,Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto inPicnicandRichard Strauss in The Year of LivingDangerously. When I was playing that musicLinda Hunt came and asked what itwas. She said she loved it and Ithought it fitted her character.

Sometimes I find that I cannot putinto words the feelings for an actor soI will say that I think their character isin a piece of music in some mysterious

way. Linda took the Richard Strauss -the four love songs - and she was so in lovewith the music that I put it into the scene. IfI were an architect, I could never just do theplans; I would have to be the builder too. Forthe architect, if he puts a window here anddoesn't like it, he can change it and put itover there. So it is with a script; there is afeeling on my sets of a restless mood becausewe might be rehearsing a scene beforeshooting and it is not working. What shall wedo? The film is alive and it is like life.

I would just like to make a couple ofcomments on audience. Sometimes on aFriday night when you find yourself in amultiplex with the swirling crowds, thegarish colours, the popcorn, the shrill trailers

and the vulgarity of it all, you may wonder'How can I make films for these people?'

How have I survived? It is not reallysomething you can think about too much. Ineither make films solely for the audiencenor solely for myself. I make them tocommunicate an intense feeling that hascompletely absorbed me. I make it with a

budget proportionate to what I consider isthe reach of the film. I think of the audiencea lot when I am writing and when I amshooting. I think the audience would bethinking this. I think the audience would beexpecting that.

Maybe that comes from my early t raditionin theatre: I was an actor in universityreviews and became very sensitive to theaudience. I like to entertain people and itseems to me to be a worthwhile life. I amreminded of a cartoon I saw in a magazine.There is a tired, worn-out, old lady standingat the box office and she looks at a poster onthe box office for a movie. She says to theclerk, 'Will it give me back my sense ofwonder?'

I became very interested in still-lifepainting, for example, a vase of flowers. Yousee thousands of paintings of vases offlowers and they have no effect. Then I lookat the paintings of Cezanne, Matisse or van

Gogh and I feel my knees go weak and I haveto sit down. What is that? What have theydone? It is just a two-dimensional artefactbut if I know what it is, I can put i t in a film.

Matisse speaks eloquently about it. Hesaid it is possible for a strong feeling to betransmitted to an inanimate object and it isto do with love. In the latter part of his lifeMatisse refined work to a beautifulsimplicity, for example his nudes. In his earlyworks there were beautiful lines, greatsensuality and immediate charm. In his laterwork, just a gesture or a couple of linescreates the same feelings and although

perhaps initially less charming, they are moreprofound and more lasting. That is the searchfor the rest of my life: that simplicity.

I would like to end with a quote fromMatisse: 'Art may be said to imitate naturemainly by the life the creative workerinfuses into the work. The work will thenappear as fertile and as possessed of thesame power to thrill, the same resplendentbeauty as we find in works of nature. Greatlove is needed to achieve this effect, a lovecapable of inspiring and sustaining that

patient, striving towards truth and thatglowing warmth and analytical profunditythat accompany the birth of any work of art.'He concludes: 'But is it not love that is theorigin of all creation?'

Q and AAudiences are hungry forsomething but they do not knowwhat it is. It is probably art. Howdo you get it to them?I think you have to be patient andnot conform to anything you think

they want.

How did your way of filming change sinceyou started working in the States? Did youhave to give up anything?No. As an Australian, we share a language,the same colonial background and thepopular culture of post-World War Two.Nevertheless I prefer not to live there. I thinkit is better for me to be a visitor, an outsiderand a stranger, and to come and go. I live inSydney and I do not want to become too

familiar with the American culture. My lastfilm was made with American money buthad an English subject andThe Truman Showwas the kind of film that could have beenmade in Australia too. I think good ideas

I hate scripts. Somehow ittakes the blood out of thewriting for it to be put downlike that.

Paramount

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have no nationality. Let us not forget thatthis young art form began without nationalbarriers. It is only language and theownership of distribution that changedthings. It is an international form of art andpopular culture which belongs to us all. Lookhow we refer to directors: no one thinks ofFellini as Italian, he is Fellini. He is his owncountry and when you go to a movie of his,it is not an Italian movie. He belongs to us all.Whoever thinks of Mozart as an Austrian?

In your films there is always a strong bondbetween the male characters. Why do youhave this recurring theme?

Well, my next film has a woman as theprotagonist and I am starting to think likeher, like a woman. In terms of the choice ofsubject, I think it chooses you. For me it is amystery why it should be this one and notthat one. As for the love story aspect of

Master and Commander, it is true there wasa love story in these books, in fact two lovestories, but the majority of the writingis about men at sea. The love storiestook place on land and what I wantedto deal with was a community locked

inside the four walls of a boat.

Do you agree that more filmdirectors should study the otherarts? Eisenstein, when he was filming inMoscow, spent t hree weeks studying apainting by Leonardo before he startedfilming. I think many film- makers are toonarrow in their view. Do you consider

yourself an auteur and, if so, what isWeiresque?I cannot comment on what motivates otherdirectors. What counts finally is what is upthere on screen, however it arrived there. Forme, I need the inspiration of the other arts, inparticular, music and painting and nature.

Auteurwas defined in the fif ties in Franceand I think I probably fit it broadly. Forexample, I think there are two Peters. Thefirst Peter thinks, 'Here is a good script withan interesting star attached.' When my agentrings and asks: 'What did you think?' I say'Beautiful.' He asks 'Do you like so and so theactor?' But when he asks if I'm going to do it ,

I say 'No.' 'Why?' he asks. 'Because the otherPeter does not want to do it.' 'Why?' And Isay: 'You cannot talk to him.'

What do you think of contemporarycinema?I watch a lot of movies. I love movies. It is alit t le miracle when a movie works and I think

it is meant to be like that. It is very difficultto make them work but when I see myselffail, I see myself succeed. You need failure todrive you on. Each film is like a truffle: youcannot grow it; it just occurs where it will.This is natural, the way things are. There arevery fertile periods in the world, such as, theseventies and the fifties. It is a cyclical thing.I think at the moment there is something of

a creative recession but it will change, justlike the world.

Did you choose the film we saw today andif so, why this particular film and what doyou think of it now, looking back?I think films are like wine: some are meant tobe drunk in the year, others you put down inthe cellar and they are better later. I took thisbottle out of the cellar to see if it still hadtaste and how it was maturing. I amfascinated by this. I find some of my films

have dated and some have not. Maybe Ichose it because our neighbour isIndonesia and there is great changeoccurring in the country among the Muslimpopulation, and so I thought these films

were again relevant.

Is it also perhaps that this filmunconsciously underpins your philosophy?Ambiguity underpins virtually all yourfilms and is the power of many of them, soI wondered what it was that subconsciouslyinformed the choice. Do you see yourselfas a puppet master, working betweenpoetry and reality?Yes, ambiguity is an important part of mywork and sometimes in the United States Ihave had problems with this. It is not ageneral theme for films in the US withnotable exceptions such as David Lynch,

whose 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' was neversuccessful in the US. I think the artisticspirit is not comfortable with absolutes, notcomfortable with political people. I havebeen courted many times by the left or theright, or they have seen a film as left or rightand they wanted to meet me but by the endof the meeting, we do not have any rapport.

The artist must remain a dangerousperson otherwise they can become apropagandist and even if they arevery good at it, it is a cul-de-sac

which shuts down the unconsciousand then all their work becomesconscious work.

There are parallels between LivingDangerously and The Truman Show. Arewe all puppets and how pessimistic areyou?I think I believe there is some kind of balance.I probably have nothing but banalities to sayso I will again quote Matisse who said thatall painters should have their tongues cutout. I like to deal in the shadows. I would say

that I have an optimistic personality but I donot t hink about it too much. I am curious andthat helps guard against pessimism.Depression, yes, I can get that.

But there is always the mystery of somelittle story. For example, coming out of theGreek Theatre the other night , walking acrossthe path was a small beetle, like a tank, andI have been thinking about it ever since.Where did it go? Was it there when theGreeks were there? Does anyone eat them?Just when I am about to fall into some

pessimistic mood, I find a story.From my hotel room I can see a palm tree

and rocks in the sea. Hidden below, there is alot of traffic on the road and I like quiet. Theimage of the tree and rocks is so strong that

Generally speaking I do notlike rehearsals because it

becomes too worked out andeverything is too logical.

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I forget the noise. For me, the image is morepowerful than words so I'm distracted bythings and that protects me.

You mention in your opening remarks thatthere was only one time when you reachedthe editing stage that it was all there foryou. Can you say what that film was and

analyse why it was so for that film and notfor the others?The film was Dead Poets Societyand it justcame together in the second cut. Why? Ithink it was just luck. Chance. I was even alit tle suspicious thinking that I was too lucky.Mostly it is a struggle and necessarily so.

Do you sit beside the editor when he or sheis cutting the film?No, the first thing I say to the editor is thathe or she should cut i t as if it were their fi lm,as if they own it and their name will be on it.

They should be the director with completefreedom. They can cut out all my favouritescenes, drop the wide shot of the battle,anything, because it is the only chance I haveof getting another point of view on thematerial. By then I am rested and I can comeback into the process. We discuss everythingin detail, go away and come back, go awayand come back, and finally I go away towatch my video from the set.

Have you ever thought about making a

film in Italy, on an Italian subject with anItalian cast, and can you tell us somethingabout your latest film?I would love to point a camera at people inthis wonderful country. For most creative

people, we are in a country that inspires us.It is not just the past; it is still here in yourmovies and your design and the way youfollow the story. I often think it would begreat to shoot my next f ilm in Sicily but I willno doubt end up in South Chicago becauseyou have to follow the story.

No, I cannot say anything about my new

film. It is bad luck to talk about what's nextand I am superstitious.

Has digital technology created a cinemarevolution and in which way has itchanged the career of artists like you?Having just done a film with 700 odd CGIshots, I have now passed through thelearning experience and am a convertbecause it enriches the potential of thestory you want to tell. I was working withtop artists at ILM and Asylum, most ofwhose work in this new field was to do with

fantasy, monsters, fantastic landscapes anddoing nature, sky, sea and miniaturescombined with CGI shoots. We would sitand look at a scene with a ship and the sky:the ocean was a plate put in and the shipwas in a tank; the sky was added and youwould say why it did not look right. Youwould analyse nature. I think there is muchmore to come from using the technologyfor realistic effects.

Although I was impressed, I still believethat in the 100-plus years of cinema, the

great invention remains the close-up: to seethe eyes so big, three feet across, the close-upis stunning. I think that the eyes are windowsto the soul in some way and you can lookinto a person through the eyes.

MGM

TheYear

ofLivingDangerously:MGM

1960s focus group

I play the filmsilent ly - somet imeswith music -because you learn alot when the storycomes through with

just the pictures,the image.


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Can you explain further about the twoPeters syndrome?The films that I have said No to that theother Peter liked did not match someshadow in my being, in myself. It 's like thereis one Peter who wants to do something andthe other Peter is like a shadow, and untilthey match up, I cannot do it. One is theunconscious and the other is the conscious.The left hand is the substance, the script thatnumber one Peter says is very good and hasa famous star, but the other Peter, the rightside Peter, won't do it because there must bea shadow that matches the substance. Onlywhen I have that matching, can I do it. It issomething in my creative being that must

match the offered material; when there is amatch, both Peters will say Yes.

In the case of Iraq, the propagandist or thedocumentary or social film-maker can workimmediately, but for my kind of director,dealing with the ambiguities, I have to waitfor my inspiration to come later. So here is afilm made in 1982 about events in 1965, andeven then sensitive Muslim peoplethreatened the production. We had death

threats and eventually had to withdraw toSydney to complete the picture because ofFundamentalist threats such as, 'In the nameof Allah, the One and Almighty, cease yourimperialist fi lm-making activit ies. Stop or wewill stop you.'

What qualities did you find and appreciatein Mel Gibson? Have you thought aboutworking together again and do you have aview on his directorial career?Mel Gibson was uncomfortable in this movie.I was shocked at this. Half way through thefilm I realised that I had been concentratingon Linda Hunt so I apologised to Mel andtold him that I thought he was doing a

wonderful job. He said he did not know whathe was doing, that he was lost, that he didnot understand the guy who was too old forhim. I was shocked but I think thisunsureness, the very thing he was talkingabout, was right for the character. I thoughthe did a wonderful job and has played no onelike him since. We have talked about doinganother film together over the years buthave not found the subject.

As far as his directing goes, I think his lastfilm, The Passion of Christ, was a major leap

for him as a director. I thought he had learnta great deal and I complimented him.

Do you think anyone would be willing toreturn to silent cinema?I think we are waiting for somebody to dothat. The danger is that it would be agimmick, and I think the most recentexample of this, in a different way, was theRussian movie The Russian Ark in theMuseum in St Petersburg. Very dif ficult to do.I think style is a tool, just a tool. If this toolof silence suits your subject then do it, but

not the other way around. Do not start withthe idea of it being silent. I like the Matisseidea that we must never be a prisoner ofstyle; let the style come as the solution andnot the means to the end. I look at myfavourite silent films more or less each timeI prepare for a film and it is wonderful thatwith DVD and video, we can collect them.

Were you surprised that The Truman Showwas a precursor to all the reality showsthat are on television now?

It was a surprise to me. I read a review froma respected New Yorkreviewer (the reviewswere generally good) which was negativesaying that the problem with this film wasthat no one would watch a film like this

Ambiguity is animportant part ofmy work andsometimes in theUnited States I have

had problems withthis.

Call yourselfa director!

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because it was too boring. And generally itwas said that they did not like it inHollywood.

I would like to become a director. Whatwould you say to a person like me in theface of this huge and confusing machine?I wish there were a single answer to yourquestion. If it is your destiny it will happen.

Write, write, and go back and writesomething each day, about whatyou saw, a strange face in thestreet, a strange scar on someone oran odd phrase said to you; use yourpad like a notebook.

Was there any single film you feelwas inspirational and whichprovoked you in the first place towant to become a film director?Many films. It's hard to pick a singleone. I also had several teachers

from the screen who wereimportant to me but I won't namethem because they are known toyou. In the end though, you have to get inthe water yourself.

Do you feel the strain of 'I care', which isa very passionate relationship, and 'I carenot', which is actually a tenet ofBuddhism? Have you ever thought aboutthe nature of creativity, why we create andwhat is the point of it all?

I considered these questions many years agowhen I began a journey along a path to thepoint now where I do not think much aboutthem. I do not analyse. I have trained myself,by and large, to live somewhat spontaneously.

But then moods come and I think of the verybig difference between night and day. I oncesaid yes to a film that I should not have saidyes to because I could do it by day but not bynight. It is another version of the two Peters:at night I would be very upset and say tomyself that tomorrow I would ring and sayno, and then day would come and I wouldfeel I could do it. Now it has become

organic and therefore not a torment anymore.

Why did your guru never make a film?Well, he had made them all in his mind, Ithink. He was beyond that. Why did Jesus notwrite? These people embodied theirphilosophy. There are architects who havebuilt nothing, for whom it is more

theoretical.

Why are you turning to a women's subjectfor your next film?I have a daughter who is the same age as this

character, 32, and I'm interested in the worldshe has lived through and there is someconnection with the story that interests me.It is a different world from the one I knew atthat age. Communication has changed somuch between young men and youngwomen. The way the love story goes isdifferent and I feel this is new territory. Likean explorer I'm going to a new continentwhere I do not know how it works and whichway to go. I like that kind of new journey. Ido not like to repeat myself and it is time fora bit of female sensibility.

Do you feel in touch with today's

audiences?Change is apparent and it is happening sorapidly, we do not know where it is taking us.It is noticeable with audiences under 25 whoare not interested in linear narrative in thesame way. Their interest in a story is not thesame as mine; they do not care if the endingis bad or if there is no good film-makingcraft. They receive information all the time:when driving or jogging, there is music, andthey have game-boys and television. Tuningto the sensibility of a young audience is very

different and they are the ones whowill dictate the changes.You can reach the audience in

several ways but the hard part ismarketing. I would hope to see in thefuture some kind of company thatwould think differently about marketingand production. If we care, we will savewhat we love, but if we do not care wewill lose it. I am one of the front linetroops and when I come out of thefront line, like today, I understand lessand less.

These are anxious t imes and I t hinkwe are made more anxious about thefilm industry and its changes by the

constant monitoring. It comes almostweekly: the patient is looking good, thepatient is in decline. In a way we know toomuch. I think it is better that we get towork in our respective fields to make goodmovies and that we remain calm andfocussed so that the Muse is made todescend.

Marianne Gray is a freelance filmjournalist and biographer based inLondon. She is vice- chairman of t he FilmSection of the British Critics' Circle.

The artist must remain adangerous person otherwiseyou can become apropagandist and even if youare very good at it, it is acul- de- sac and it shuts downthe unconscious and then allyour work becomes consciouswork.

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Documents

Peter Weir on Being a Filmmaker_Marianne Gray