Mathieu Turi is a French director who surprised us in 2017 with Hostile, an interesting sci-fi production supported by Xavier Gens and which, as in this one, explores human emotions. After enjoying the amazing Meandre, we had a chance to talk to him.
Matheiu Turi, Director of MEANDRE
Mike y sus Chinos: First of all, congratulations for your terrific movie. Meandre has been a breeze of fresh air (although claustrophobic) in the sci-fi genre. Our impression is that it's going to be one of the best sci-fi films of this year, and it will be a tough movie to beat.
Mathieu Turi: Thank you so much! :)
MysC: It's been 3 years since the premiere of Hostile. How’s it been the writing and production of your new film, Meandre?
MT: Actually, I wrote the script for MEANDRE during the development of HOSTILE, and just after the shoot, my producers wanted to do it, so it was kind of quick, even if the word “quick” in this business can mean a year or two… So in 2019, we were ready to shoot and we did from November 2019 to January 2020, during 32 days, in a French studio near Paris.
Matheiu Turi, Director of MEANDRE
MysC: The movie almost starts with Lisa inside the tube, a labyrinth full of traps where she must learn something she still doesn't know. How do you start writing this story? It feels like something you have experienced, metaphorically speaking.
MT: I would say it comes from different sources, but I always try to put myself in, so there is something at the same time personal but also universal which is the idea of claustrophobia. I’m not claustrophobic at all, but I remember that, when I was a little boy, I used to go under our house, where I had to lie on my stomach to move, and It was a creepy feeling. Also, in ALIENS by James Cameron, there is that scene where Bishop needs to travel in a narrow tube, to go from a building to another, and I was terrified, being sure an alien would pop up… but nothing happens in the scene, and I was even more terrified :). And more seriously, the movie is about loss, mourn and pain, but also hope and the determination we need to live in this world, so I guess everybody can put something personal on it.
MysC: Continuing with the script, when we finished the movie there were a lot of theories about what has happened to Lisa. Most people agreed it was some kind of purgatory, something religious. Our opinion it's a little different since we see traces of Buddhism in it (the monster, the suffering, learning to accept things in life, the love, the forgiveness, and finally the ascension, almost literally, to the enlightenment). What did you intend to explain?
MT: This is a very interesting question, as my idea from the start was to put that religion or/and philosophical vibes around the story. It’s not a gimmick, it’s at its core. I won’t spoil the movie, but I really wanted to put Lisa in a position where she had to go through all the process: death, love, forgiveness, peace, etc… And for that, she needs to fight physically AND emotionally. So, this is indeed important to me. I also wanted to mix the idea of science-fiction and religion, and the concept of faith in general.
Still of MEANDRE with Gaïa Weiss
MysC: Next, we want to talk about the direction. How difficult has been to plan in advanced, together with the director of photography, all the sequences of the journey that Lisa does?
How did this affect to the art department too?
MT: That was the challenge from the start: shooting a movie in a very narrow space, without forgetting to be meaningful in the camera movements, the shots and the rhythm. So, as I always do, very early in the process, I draw every shot. EVERY shot of the movie, so I have a very clear idea of what I want and what I need. And after that, me and my DOP, Alain Duplantier, we worked on the “how the hell we will achieve that? “part. This is where ideas come and go, and where the creative process is at its best, because everybody try to find new ideas, better concepts or sometimes illumination on a scene that become something new. We worked also a lot with our Production Designer Thierry Jaulin on the sets, and it was very VERY complicated. The main reason is that we couldn’t have just one very long tube, because it would have been impossible to shoot in it. So, we had to imagine several pieces of it, one for each trap, with all the mechanisms and some movable panels to shoot through it, and some other long portions to all the “calm” moments when she just crawls. And even for that, we had to create some crazy rigs, like a little cage on wheels that fit perfectly to the tube and could move up, down, ahead and forward. It was kind of experimental!
MysC: It's very interesting how the lights and monotony of colour, contrast with the high alerts on Lisa's bracelet and the colours of the tests. How did you imagine all the scenes? Why these colours?
MT: The idea we had with Alain, the DOP, was to be very experimental with the colours. First, he had the crazy idea to light barely exclusively with the light from the bracelet. We had to find a very expensive led system, which we could morph to a bracelet (actually four of them), and who could change colours, be solid, etc… We also needed to hide a cable in the suit, which contained batteries for it to work. Then, we decided to play with the colours and the contrasts, mainly the dark blue/grey of the tube going against the yellow/gold/green bracelet. The idea was that the coldness of the tube, representing death, was enlighten by the warm and the hope represented by that gold. Like a sparkle in the night. Then, for the traps, we worked on lights coming from the tube this time, with aggressive colours, acid green, blood red, fire orange, etc…
Still of MEANDRE with Gaïa Weiss
MysC: Regarding the actors, there are only 4 of them in the movie. Gaïa Weiss has all the weight in the film. Was it difficult to choose the character of Lisa?
How was the preparation for her role?
MT: Casting was not easy, but I was lucky enough to have Gaïa accepting the part, and boy she nailed it! It was complicated, not only about being alone in the tube, but because she had to be always at her best physically AND in her interpretation. And she is in EVERY shot or so. I’m grateful I had the chance to work with her, she completely had the movie on her shoulders, and she gave everything. Peter Franzen was awesome too. I really wanted to work with him, and he’s as kind as he is professional, always trying to push the envelope and doing more. It was a dream to work with him.
MysC: Can you tell us some anecdote from the shooting?
MT: I could write a novel with anecdotes from it ^^. But I would say that one in particular is the day we put the tube on fire. I didn’t want full VFX fire shots, so we basically… send fire in the tube! We did it the last day (obviously), on an outside lot, by night. It was kind of friendly, with all the crew watching the SFX fire guys working. And the idea was to put some fire in it, for maybe one or two seconds, to avoid the set to be completely wasted. We put two cameras on it, sending the fire… but the fire guy couldn’t stop the fire! It was safe for the crew, as the cameras were piloted from distance, but the entire part of the set was destroyed on take one. We were lucky that the shots were AMAZING for the 10 seconds we needed, and we were able to do take 2 and 3 or some other part of the tube. But 90% of the fire shots are from that take. Sometimes you got just lucky… This is movie magic!
Still of MEANDRE with Gaïa Weiss
MysC: And finally, tell us about future projects, if you can. What's next on your mind?
MT: I have TONS of projects, but you know, in this business, you have to work on several projects to make one of them real. Some I can’t talk about, but I’m also working on a big medieval film, adapted from a famous French comic book (can’t talk about it, or I’ll get killed :)). I would love it to be my next project, but it’s so big that I think I’ll have the time to shoot another movie before that… All I can say is that it won’t be a comedy ;)
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