Dominique Lienhard

August Filmmaker of the Month

After a noteworthy shortfilm, Dominique Lienhard directed his first feature "Müetter" in 2006 with Sophie Quinton and Stanislas Merhar. This movie was well recognized by the press. It was broadcasted on Canal+ and it enjoyed a nice festival's selections (Munich, Montreal, Rome)."Fires in the dark" is his second movie completed at the beginning of this year. The story, original and ambitious with a promising casting says a lot about his festival's career

FILMMAKER INTERVIEW

Filmmaker Interview

Tell us your backstory. How and why did you get into filmmaking?

In 1988, I had the opportunity to go to the Cannes Film Festival where I saw 51 films within 10 days... In particular I remember having seen „A short film about killing“ by Kieslowski. I was deeply moved –and shocked- by this story. At that time, I knew that my dream was to make movies, to tell stories. I found it very fascinating that, by making a film, a stranger, maybe far away, maybe someone with a different culture, will experience the same emotions that I had in my mind when I wrote the script and when I shot the film. Actually I make movies simply to share feelings.

I wrote a script for a short film that I sent to 2-3 producers. I was lucky that a producer was interested in it, so I directed the short-film “The breakfast” in 2001. I travelled with this film to many festivals, among others in St-Petersburg, Russia.

In 2005, I wrote and directed my first feature film, called “Müetter”, which means “Mother” in Alsatian – a German dialect spoken in a French region called Alsace. The film enjoyed a broad festival selection, and was broadcasted in French TV Canal+.

In 2021, I finished my second feature film “Fires in the Dark”. I’m so happy that this film has been shown in many festivals across the globe (45 festivals, 45 Awards), many of them in the USA, and in particular at the Breckenridge Film Festival where it won the Best Actor Award.

What are the specific qualities that, in your opinion, make a film great?

The answer is quite simple for me: a film is great if it produces a deep emotion. That’s it.

Having said that, I said everything and … nothing !

Because, the difficult question for me is the following: what exactly produces an emotion?

Here I am still trying to find an explanation… Why in some films, when I have the impression that at this particular moment the author wants me to cry, I feel then nothing? Why in some films, when I hear plenty of violins in a dramatic situation, I reject the emotion I should have felt?

On the contrary, in some films, a simple detail, a simple voice intonation, a simple look, without a word… and I am overwhelmed by deep emotions.

The eyes of Bruno, a young child, when he sees his father being beaten up after having tried to steal a bicycle, at the end of “The bicycle thief” by Vittorio de Sicca, cause one of the most intense emotions I ever felt.

What films have been the most inspiring or influential to you and why?

“Tokyo Story” by Ozu, is probably the film that inspired me the most. After having seen this film, I wanted to make movies as well. Although the film was shot more than 50 years ago, and although I know very little of Japanese culture, this film moved me very deeply: because it was a family story, because of the loneliness of the grand-parents when they visit their children was so touching. Also because of the art of Ozu: I like the plain and simple way of telling the story, the ellipses he created. Ozu does not shoot many close-ups, but his camera stays at a discrete distance from the characters.

I learned from Ozu that understatement (“litote” in French) is perhaps the most efficient way to create emotion to the spectator. Actually, perhaps the most important point is not to impose an emotion to the spectator, but merely to give the spectator some discrete keys and so to let the spectator feel –or not- a particular emotion.

How many films have you completed? What is your favorite project you have worked on and why?

I have completed one short film, and two feature films, “Müetter” (2006) and “Fires in the Dark” (2020). I think probably my last feature film is my favourite one because I could express more emotions and also more positive emotions in it.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

It always takes me many years (5 and 8 years respectively, for my 1st and 2nd film) to make a film, so the motivation for going on doing the film must be high. Thus, the inspiration, for me, has always come from a very intense emotion. For my 1st film, I once had a nightmare, in which my grandmother was dying and I was upset because I had many “important” things to do and no time to lose spending time with her. From the remorse I had when I woke up came the willingness to write a script on that topic.

For my 2nd feature film “Fires in the Dark”, I was deeply moved after having read the novel “Shipwrecks” by Akira Yoshimura. I was moved by the destiny of the main character, a young boy, by his struggle to make his family survive, but also by the struggle for regaining the love of his mother and the admiration of his father. After having read the last lines of the novel, where, from the bark in the sea, the young boy sees his father coming back, I was sure this story could make a film with intense emotions.

When adapting the novel to movie script, however, the fact that the young boy (he was 10 in the novel) was always so kind, respectful towards his mother and accepting all the laws of the villages, even the cruel one, disturbed me a lot. I wanted the main character to be more active, to revolt against the laws of the village, to enter in conflict with his mother. Thus, among the major changes I introduced, the main character is now 15 years old. And I realized that my willingness to have a hero fighting against the laws of the village and, actually against the gods, is perhaps more a characteristic of European culture than of the Japanese one. I like the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus, who expressed this kind of ideas in “The rebel”. Therefore, I transfer the whole story from Japan to Europe.

What is your favourite aspect of film production?

For my 1st feature film, my favourite aspect of film production was perhaps the film editing, where I could see for the 1st time, by adding all the scenes, a long story being progressively told. With the help of my editor, I had the feeling to create a new world…

For my 2nd feature film, perhaps because the “magic” of creating a film has a bit gone, I would say the most exciting part of film production was surely the work with the actors. I had the chance to work with great French and Belgian actors like Ana Girardot and Igor Van Dessel. It was magic for me to see that a scene that I wrote some years ago, alone in front of my computer, comes now to real life with real people feeling what I wrote. That’s a very grateful feeling. I appreciated Ana’s enthusiasm and the ideas she brought in. For example, Alan recovers the dead body of her mother with his father’s coat: it is a very plain and beautiful gesture. I like to work like this with all of my collaborators: I like them to propose ideas, and then I choose the ideas that I feel correspond to my way of telling the story.

Why did you choose to submit to the Breckenridge Film Festival? What do you look for in a festival where you hope to show your film?

I chose to submit my movie to the Breckenridge Film Festival because the festival is very famous (in the top 20 of USA today) and because I read that this festival is the “filmmaker’s film festival”, which is very appreciated among filmmakers. That was the main point.

Actually, there was also another, a little weird reason: I noted that Breckenridge is located high in the mountains in Colorado. Another passion of mine is cross-country skiing, and I found it great if my film could be screened there in the mountains!

What are the next project or projects you are beginning work on?

Now I would like to work on a war film, in WWII. A story in a little village in the mountains in France, where 8 “resistants” were hidden. The German came. What interests me is the different destinies of the resistants, the German soldiers, but above all of the villagers being impacted by this fight. I would like to emphasise in my story that even in a rude world and difficult time, there are some people – not necessarily soldiers or “heroes”- capable of helping others, capable of humanity and compassion.

MEDIA LINK TO MY PREVIOUS AND CURRRENT FILM

Dominique Lienhard Filmmaker of the Month August 2022-07-12

Short film : « Le petit-déjeuner » (« the Breakfast »). Whole short-film (French)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvLLpw6t5xk

Feature Film « Müetter ». Trailer :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JfH0UZfLac

Feature Film « Fires in the dark ». Trailer (with English subtitles) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6KRn7Y4K74&t=32s

Link to Website :

www.lienhard-films.com

Instagram Account:

@lienhard.dominique