Olivier Assayas Talks about 'Idol's Eye' and 'Maps to the Stars' in Cinemateaser Magazine (France) + Translation

Olivier Assayas Parle d''Idol's Eye' et de 'Maps to the Stars' dans le Magazine Cinemateaser

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Translation after the cut

Translation:

You are about to film 'Idol's eye' with Robert DeNiro, Robert Pattinson and Rachel Weiz. Why do you film with Anglo-Saxon actors? Is this a way for you to make an american movie without having the constraints? It's surprising that after 'Carlos' you haven't had offers to make movies over there ...

Oh but I've had plenty! I was offered the scipt that became 'Captain Phillips'. The movie about Wikileaks too. Beautiful projects. I read them carefully but it finally did not happen. It's always difficult for me to go into action. I have some freedom in the European cinema which is quite addictive. It is difficult, after having had a taste of this freedom, to go to Hollywood, even if they pay you a high price. I don't want to film, to edit, and after that, to see a guy put my work in the trash. The idea of someone watching my rushes and telling me what to do is impossible. I'm too spoiled. 'Idol's eye' is a script that I wrote based on a true story. Some of the funds are american but the producer of the movie is my friend Charles Gillibert. It reassured me because we will stay european and keep the final cut. We are going to shoot over there, with american actors, but it will still be a european movie. It makes them laugh when I say that over there but for me it's the same thing as if I was going to shoot in Beirut. I bring my team and we're going to manage with American "indigenous." 

At Cannes Film Festival, you were in competition against David Cronenberg's movie, Maps To The Stars. Both of your movies talk about the film industry. But while Cronenberg portrays a monstrous and grotesque Hollywood, your movie is surprisingly kindly and almost gentle with this circle. You don't go out with the same people?

(He laughs) Apparently! Already, I am less confronted with Hollywood that David Cronenberg. I am at a distance away, I observe that from my corner. So I must be more protected than him. Bruce Wagner, his screenwriter, lives in this circle and knows it by heart. The description they make of this environment is cruel and violent. Me, i'm not interested in this point of view. However, I think that Maps To The Stars is sometimes very close to reality. The scenes with the young actor are vertiginous, so much they seem both realistic and grotesque. It's a movie about Hollywood's dehumanization. Whereas mine, on the contrary, seeks to show that there are human in this business. You know, every time I met Hollywood's 'specimen', I was struck and seduced by their duality. They are not as alienated as that. They are very aware about the game they are playing. Afterwards, I think that unfortunately, the kind of 'specimen' Cronenberg is describing in his movie exists. The beauty of this business is that everything and its opposite coexist. It always amuses me when producers and studio executives give me long speeches about their taste and their absolute vision of cinema. All that fuss but they produce the same kind of thing, far from their supposed 'ideal'. Hollywood is schizophrenic, that's what gives it all its charm. People who are still surprised about it nowadays don't know anything about the film industry. This is why American cinema is exciting. You never know who it is and where it goes.

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