Issue 14/2013
£ FREE
LORD OF REGENERATION
KILLER NEW SHOES, THE DEFILED, BLACK STAR RIDERS, JONNY COLA, THE SWORD, SISTER, ILL NINO, PEANUT BUTTER LOVESICLE, KILL FOR EDEN, THE OCEAN, THE DEAD LAY WAITING, BURLESQUE, IBIZA OPENING PARTIES, VULGARIA, A PORTRAIT OF JAMES DEAN, SCARECROW, BOYS ON FILM, NEKROMANTIK, BULA QUO, PLANET OCEAN, THE KING OF PIGS, PUNK & DISORDERLY, SKID ROW, LIGABUE, KARYBDIS, KVELERTAK, MELVINS, ADEMA, LL COOL J, IRON CHIC, THE COMPUTERS, HATCHET, GROT, HEIGHTS, RETOX, NO CONSEQUENCE, JAMAICAN QUEENS, DALE EARNHARDT JR JR, AT THE DRIVE IN, THE THERMALS, ENDLESS DARK
MATHIEU KASSOVITZ on rebels, heroes, villains and spoons...
AS NEW ALBUM AND MOVIE ARE RELEASED
By Cristina Massei Based on the true events in New Caledonia in 1988, when local Kanaks killed some French soldiers in their promptly repressed quest for independence, ‘Rebellion’ will leave you with a lot of questions. This is what happens when an uncomfortable truth is exposed, bare naked, without colours or superheroes, no poetry or happy endings: ‘thought-provoking’ I guess is the best word to describe a movie of this nature. I had the opportunity to ask some of these questions to Mathieu Kassovitz himself; that only made me want to ask more but soon our time was over, and I doubt it would be enough even if I invited him out for dinner… I hope this interview answers some of the questions ‘Rebellion’ may have provoked in you, but most of all I hope it will make you want to catch this eye-opening film if you haven’t yet.
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ly n o r o f n o d n in Lo l a v i t s e F t s e be
How did the inception of the film come about? My father gave me a book in 1999 that was an investigation made by some journalist for the Human Rights League that was a different account of that story from what the authorities had given at the time. I was 18 in 1988, the story that we heard was ‘the official story’, and two days later because of the elections we forgot about everything, but what we heard was that 19 guys killed military and took hostages then they got shot – good riddance. My father gave me that book and I discovered a different aspect of that story, not only that but minute by minute there was a script: the characters were there, the conflict, the universal story was there. You based ‘Rebellion’ on this report, but you also read Legorjus’ book; how much did his point of view shape the movie? [Philippe Legorjus is Captain of the GIGN, an elite counterterrorism police unit, sent to New Caledonia to negotiate with the rebels. He left the force after the events of 1988] I had to take his point of view into account; I’ve met him and known him a number of years, which we spent together to try and figure who he was. These guys are professionals and don’t let their emotions take over in decisions they have to make and the responsibilities they take when they do their job, so it took me years to try to get through his skin and understand what he felt; but it was not really about him, what I needed was to use him as eyes for the audience to feel what he felt. ‘What would I have done if I was in his shoes?’, that was the whole idea. It was not inspired by him, but his character was almost the reason to make the movie because of what he experienced, the internal conflict that he has to go through. It is something I can relate to as a member of our communities; we’re voting for people that are lying to us, that tell us to do things that we know are not right. We go to our jobs and do things we know we shouldn’t do that don’t fit right with our personal morale, it’s something I can relate to and that’s why this character was important, but I really made a journalistic work in ten years we got information from everybody. People think the movie’s inspired by his book but it’s not, I almost use the same title [Legorjus novel is ‘La Morale et l’Action’, while ‘Rebellion’s original title is ‘L’Ordre et la Morale’] but he has to be the centre of it because I don’t want to talk about the rebels – we know what they’re rebelling for, no internal conflict, we’re going all the way and if his character wasn’t there I would have to probably invent one, somebody who’s been everywhere. If you look at the movie there’s not one scene without him: what I used him for was ‘Did you see that? Yeah I saw that.’ So I can put it in the movie, because if he tells me he saw that and I get the same info from different people then he was there and I can see it through his eyes and find the truth. It was very important to use him as the centre of gravity. So was it a challenge to humanise a character who by their very nature is so guarded? I don’t care about his emotions, he had emotions but he couldn’t afford to let them really dictate his actions and he’s under orders so it’s not about getting his emotions through; it was about my personal emotions through his experience, to use him as a shell and I played it like that. Continues on back page