Bent Hamer: “I like debuts. Directors can’t protect themselves”
Bent Hamer is celebrated at TIFF in the 3x3 section. He is a melancholic and relaxed Norvegian filmmaker. We met right after the Q&A for his feature debut Eggs, which he said he hadn’t seen in a long time. We talked about the misterious ways of cinema and about his career.
What do you feel, now that you’ve seen your first feature film, Eggs, after a long time?
It’s a little melancholic, I couldn’t help thinking about the shootings. Both actors are gone, so it’s hard to just watch the film without not thinking about that time and the people you worked with, so I’m a little mixed up.
How do you find topics for your movies?
You too probably had a book in Romania on how to live your life to become a happy family. It’s amazing to read it, because it’s about anything: how to cook, how to make your clothes, how to live your life, how to ask a lady out. Anything. And that book, when I made Kitchen Stories, it’s just one diagram taken from it.
Does the humour in your movies come with the topics or do you construct it during production?
There are a lot of ideas. I construct it before and during the making of the movie. The script is just a potential. It’s very important to be open minded. You need to be sure you have the possibility to do it, in terms of money, time, organisation. If people come with better ideas, you have to make room for them, and it doesn’t matter if they come from the coffee guy.
How does it feel to make movies in English and then return to movies in Norwegian?
I went to Cannes with Eggs and I met Jim Stark and we wanted to do something together. It would have been interesting to do something in US. He sent me a few scripts, but I wasn’t very positive. Then I remembered I had read Bukowski when I was younger and I thought that there was something about him I wanted to explore. I mentioned Factotum and Post Office, the second was not available, but the first was. Then, I was kind of nervous, I read it again, I liked it a lot and I told him we should try doing it. When you say ‘Yes’ to something you don’t know in a way, it is always scary.
You have made a lot of movies with old men, who have existential problems. How do you see ageing?
I would say that’s a leading question. Old people are aloud to express their intergrity, they do as they want. When you are getting older, there are certain privileges. I stayed a lot with old people when I was young. If I’m still alive and I’m getting older, I feel I am quite happy. As long as you are healthy, it is ok. Everybody say it and now I am saying it myself.
At this edition of TIFF, we can see your latest movie and two of your first movies. Which of them best represent you, at this point in your life?
It’s impossible to say. There is something special about the first one you make – you are quite naked in a way, you can’t deny anything. I like to watch the first film of directors, because they could’t protect themselves when making that movie.
Interview by Ion Indolean
Article published in AperiTIFF.
