''Three days happiness” (encuentro con el director)
10 noviembre, 2012 0
Three Days Happiness es una de las películas de Focus que tuve el placer de ver. Está dirigida, escrita y producida por Dimitris Athanitis, con el que tuve el placer de hablar personalmente (gracias a la traducción de Enrique Torres).
Three Days Happiness sigue la vida de tres mujeres durante los mismos tres días. Mujeres cuyas vidas están conectadas aunque ellas lo ignoran. Los hombres, que no salen bien parados, hacen de enlace en las vidas de estas mujeres.
Three Days Happiness describe una Grecia contemporánea aunque con problemas intemporales. Las historias podrían tener lugar en Madrid, Londres o Francia. De hecho, uno tiene la sensación de estar viendo una película producida en Francia (ya sabemos que todo lo que se produce en Francia tiene un tono francés, pero no es el caso).
El espectador que desconozca la obra de Athanitis quedará gratamente sorprendido si se acerca a su filmografía a través de Three Days Happiness —como es mi caso—. Nos encontramos ante una película atmosférica, sobria, con los diálogos justos; todo está contado con las imágenes y las acciones. Es evidente que nos encontramos con una película de un director/guionista que ha madurado su técnica y que se siente seguro de sí mismo.
Con el cuerpo aún sobrecogido por Three Days Happiness me acerco a Dimitris Athanitis, y pronto se revela como un hombre cordial, que me habla como si fuera un amigo de hace tiempo.
Me identifico ante Athanitis como guionista y le digo que me ha sorprendido el uso de los diálogos, que la historia está prácticamente contada en imágenes y acciones. Quiero saber si concibió Three Days Happiness en imágenes y posteriormente añadió los diálogos o escribió un guión lleno de diálogos y los fue recortando.
“Escribo mucho y me quedo con poco”, dice Athanitis. “Concibo la película como un todo. Algunos diálogos se añaden durante el rodaje. También me gusta tener un storyboard plano a plano”.
Le pregunto si es partidario del guión de hierro como Hitchock.
“He pensado en escribir un libro sobre Hitchcock”, dice Athanitis. “Es uno de mis directores favoritos. Los otros son Buñuel y Terence Fisher”.
(En ese momento pienso que Hitchcok, Buñuel y Fisher son tres directores sobrios, que también prefieren resolver las escenas con imágenes antes que con palabras. Ciertamente, en Three Days Happiness podemos encontrar ciertas referencias de estilo a estos directores).
Le digo que relativamente me sorprende que Three Days Happiness no haga referencias a la crisis: es una película intemporal, que habla de cosas que pudieron suceder hace diez años o que podrían suceder dentro de diez. La única referencia a la realidad social es el plano del bar donde sólo hay africanos.
Dimitris cuenta que no ha querido tanto hacer una historia de la crisis, como hablar de la familia. Para Dimitris la familia es más que el padre, la madre y los hijos, puede estar formada por un personas que pertenecen a un misma etnia o nacionalidad. Cuenta que las familias son grupos reducidos, antisociales, que apenas existe la solidaridad. “La crisis también es la crisis de las relaciones humanas”, dice Dimitris. Considera que la incomunicación entre las personas y los grupos también contribuye a que la crisis no se resuelva. “Un escritor extranjero dijo que Grecia es un país en que todo el mundo se lleva mal con todo el mundo”, dice Dimitris. “Eso es lo que he querido contar”.
(En ese momento pienso que en Three Days Happiness las protagonistas se relacionan con un cristal entre ellas. La prostituta rusa mira a la librera a través de un escaparate; la librera mira a los africanos a través de una puerta de cristal; otra de las protagonistas ve a la prostituta rusa en una grabación en vídeo. El cristal es una metáfora que explica que las protagonistas son conscientes las unas de las otras, pero no se relacionan, no se comunican).
Le pregunto si la crisis ha afectado a la producción de la película.
Dimitris responde que la producción empezó muchos años antes de que la crisis estallara, y coincidió la finalización del film.
Finalmente le pregunto qué conoce del cine español.
Dimitris responde rápidamente: “Almodovar, Amenabar, Buñuel, Bardem, el director, y Jamón, Jamón”.
Nos despedimos con un fuerte apretón de manos.
Three days Happiness-Interview with the director
Javier Melendez
Section Focus Europe European Film Festival in Seville 2013 was devoted to
Greek cinema. It
was an opportunity to see films that hardly reach the Spanish theaters, which
is strange, as Greece is a
country of European and Mediterranean culture like Spain.
Three Days Happiness is one of the movies of the Focus I had the pleasure of seeing. It is directed, written and produced by Dimitris Athanitis, with whom I had the pleasure of speaking personally (through translator Enrique Torres).
Three Days Happiness follow the lives of three women during the same three days. Women whose lives are connected, although they ignore each other. The men, who did not stand out well, have to go out of the lives of these women.
Three Days Happiness describe a contemporary Greece, although handles all time problems. The stories could take place in Madrid, London or France. In fact, one gets the feeling of watching a film produced in France (we know that everything that is produced in France has a French tone, but not in this case).
The viewer who does not know the work will be pleasantly surprised-like myself did- if Athanitis approaches his films as in Three Days Happiness. We are facing an atmospheric film, sober, with just needed dialogues, everything is told with images and actions. Clearly we have a film of a director / screenwriter who has matured his technique and feeling confident.
With the body still overwhelmed by Three Days Happiness I approach Dimitri Athanitis, who at once reveals himself as a kind man, who talks to me like a friend from long ago.
I identify with Athanitis screenwriting and say that I was surprised from the use of dialogue, as the story is told in virtually images and actions. Let me know if conceived Happiness Three Days in pictures and later added the dialogue or wrote a script full of dialogues and was cut.
"I write a lot and I'll take some," says Athanitis. "I conceive the film as a whole. Some dialogues are added during filming. I also like having a storyboard frame by frame. "
Three Days Happiness is one of the movies of the Focus I had the pleasure of seeing. It is directed, written and produced by Dimitris Athanitis, with whom I had the pleasure of speaking personally (through translator Enrique Torres).
Three Days Happiness follow the lives of three women during the same three days. Women whose lives are connected, although they ignore each other. The men, who did not stand out well, have to go out of the lives of these women.
Three Days Happiness describe a contemporary Greece, although handles all time problems. The stories could take place in Madrid, London or France. In fact, one gets the feeling of watching a film produced in France (we know that everything that is produced in France has a French tone, but not in this case).
The viewer who does not know the work will be pleasantly surprised-like myself did- if Athanitis approaches his films as in Three Days Happiness. We are facing an atmospheric film, sober, with just needed dialogues, everything is told with images and actions. Clearly we have a film of a director / screenwriter who has matured his technique and feeling confident.
With the body still overwhelmed by Three Days Happiness I approach Dimitri Athanitis, who at once reveals himself as a kind man, who talks to me like a friend from long ago.
I identify with Athanitis screenwriting and say that I was surprised from the use of dialogue, as the story is told in virtually images and actions. Let me know if conceived Happiness Three Days in pictures and later added the dialogue or wrote a script full of dialogues and was cut.
"I write a lot and I'll take some," says Athanitis. "I conceive the film as a whole. Some dialogues are added during filming. I also like having a storyboard frame by frame. "
I ask him if he was in favor of iron script as Hitchcock did.
"I thought about writing a book on Hitchcock," says Athanitis. "It's one of my favorite directors. The others are Buñuel and Terence Fisher. "
(At this point I think Hitchcock, Buñuel and Fisher are three directors sober, they also prefer to solve the scenes with images than with words. Certainly in Three Days Happiness can find certain style references to these directors).
I say that I am surprised that relatively Three Days Happiness do not make references to the crisis. It is a timeless film that talks about things that might happen ten years ago or could happen in ten. The only reference to the social reality is the scene with the bar where there are only Africans.
Dimitris has not wanted much to make a crisis story, prefers talking about the family. To Dimitris family is more than the father, the mother and children, can be formed by a person belonging to a same ethnicity or nationality. Greek families are small groups, antisocial, solidarity barely exists, between them. "The crisis is mainly the crisis of human relationships," says Dimitris. He adds that the lack of communication between individuals and groups also contributes to the crisis is resolved. "A foreign writer said that Greece is a country in which everyone takes bad with everyone," says Dimitris. "That's what I wanted to tell."
(At this point I think in Three Days Happiness protagonists approach the glass between them. The Russian prostitute to the bookstore looking through a window, the bookseller looks to Africans through a glass door, another protagonists go to the Russian prostitute in a video recording. Glass is a metaphor that explains that the players are aware of each other but are not related, are not reported).
I wonder if the crisis has affected the production of the film.
Dimitris responds that production began many years before the crisis broke out, and the end of the film coincided.
Finally I ask what he knows on Spanish cinema.
Dimitris responds quickly: "Almodovar, Amenabar, Buñuel, Bardem, the director of Jamon, Jamon".
We parted with a firm handshake.
"I thought about writing a book on Hitchcock," says Athanitis. "It's one of my favorite directors. The others are Buñuel and Terence Fisher. "
(At this point I think Hitchcock, Buñuel and Fisher are three directors sober, they also prefer to solve the scenes with images than with words. Certainly in Three Days Happiness can find certain style references to these directors).
I say that I am surprised that relatively Three Days Happiness do not make references to the crisis. It is a timeless film that talks about things that might happen ten years ago or could happen in ten. The only reference to the social reality is the scene with the bar where there are only Africans.
Dimitris has not wanted much to make a crisis story, prefers talking about the family. To Dimitris family is more than the father, the mother and children, can be formed by a person belonging to a same ethnicity or nationality. Greek families are small groups, antisocial, solidarity barely exists, between them. "The crisis is mainly the crisis of human relationships," says Dimitris. He adds that the lack of communication between individuals and groups also contributes to the crisis is resolved. "A foreign writer said that Greece is a country in which everyone takes bad with everyone," says Dimitris. "That's what I wanted to tell."
(At this point I think in Three Days Happiness protagonists approach the glass between them. The Russian prostitute to the bookstore looking through a window, the bookseller looks to Africans through a glass door, another protagonists go to the Russian prostitute in a video recording. Glass is a metaphor that explains that the players are aware of each other but are not related, are not reported).
I wonder if the crisis has affected the production of the film.
Dimitris responds that production began many years before the crisis broke out, and the end of the film coincided.
Finally I ask what he knows on Spanish cinema.
Dimitris responds quickly: "Almodovar, Amenabar, Buñuel, Bardem, the director of Jamon, Jamon".
We parted with a firm handshake.
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