The Cutting
A digital movie by Peter Missotten and Bram Smeyers
Screenplay by Paul Pourveur


THE MOVIE

Wout One of us is not telling the whole story.
Frank I’m the one who’s injured, not you.
Wout So what?
Frank So I’m the victim.
Wout Yes, so what?
Frank The victim is always right.
Wout I’m the carer here. And the carer is always neutral.
Frank What about the third man?

Two young men run away in opposite directions to avoid a third one, but got nevertheless stuck in the same place in a dark forest, on a sunken road (a cutting). All three of them approach the reality from a different point of view (relativism, causality and sexuality), so instead of searching a common logic, they try to steal a march on the others in words and deeds. Is it to keep the upper hand over the others or to hold a knife to their throat?

Wout I mean no harm.
Frank That’s what the queen said to Snow White.
Wout Where’s the other one?

A game of victim, carer and offender develops, with pursuits and escapes. A game where the roles move constantly from one character to the next until there is no more hold on the situation. And since there are injured persons, there has to be taken care of them. Sewing!

Paul Dammit! Never pull a fluted knife out of a wound. How many times do I have to tell you!
Frank I’ll carefully stick the knife back into the wound.
Paul That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my whole life!


Frank We won’t be able to have a conversation about the Spice Girls anymore.
Wout Why not? Are you tired of them?
Frank They split. A year ago. One of them double-crossed the others.
Wout When we had our last conversation in the water tower, they were still together, and that was a month ago.
Frank Somebody must be wrong about the chronology.
Wout Somebody must be wrong, period.

The situation shifts constantly between comic and tragic. They lost track and behave like chased animals. Humor about Spice Girls, women and sex splatter around as if it was said by men in their forties. An exagerated thirst for action and bragging leads to sarcasm and indifference. Does it remain a game or will it become horror?

Wout I’m starting to like this strange situation. After a lifetime of seeking security and caution, being confronted with absolute insecurity and danger is new to me. I like it. It allows me to throw everything overboard.
Frank You’re crazy.

The combination of digital and real images joins the strange situation. The combination is not used, as it usually is, to embellish the reality or make it more spectacular, but to estrange it and to arouse a shadow of doubt to the spectator. At first sight everything seems normal, but gradually you discover cracks and burst in reality.

Wout What do you suspect me of?
Frank I don’t trust you anymore. Not like I used to.
I could always rely on you. You used to give me security, trust.
When I had a question, you were the answer.
And now...
I can no longer entrust myself to you.

As a result of their game with what might or might not be reality, everything seems to go off the rails and they risk to be swinged back and forth in a ruderless world. As the film evolves, the overpowering chaos is unbearable. Appealing to some security is in the end inescapable to get a hold on reality.

Paul First verbal violence and then physical violence. In the end, one of the two wins.
Wout Why do you have to make everything seem so predictable and simple?
Paul It’s got nothing to do with predictability, but everything with logic. In for a penny, in for a pound.

At the end, the resignation gets the upper hand. The furious ritme and the fights (in words) die off slowly. Exhausted by the running through the forest, and by the endless discussion about the character of truth, the wounds all three of them got by now take their toll. Dying, they look at the starry sky and forget about their quarrel to make the crossing in an inner calm.

Frank I want motives again.
Wout To distinguish again between past, present, and future.
Paul To explain the present with the past and predict what is going to happen from the present, or to be able to predict anything at all....


THE DIRECTORS

Peter Missotten
Born September 4, 1963. Graduate of the Higher Institute of Arts St Lukas in Brussels, department Video 1988. Since then he's been active as a free-lance video maker and designer. In 1994 he was co-founder of De Filmfabriek, a production company which stands for quality video- and multimediaproductions in a cultural atmosphere.
He realised different video’s with young actors, often based on literary sources: ‘De Blinden (1992)’, ‘L’intruse - onder voorbehoud (1993)’, ‘De dood van Titiaan (1994)’. In 1995 he directed the theatre play ‘Virgil’, based upon texts by Antonin Artaud.
With An-Marie Lambrechts and Anne Quirynen he realised the video-installations ‘The Mindmachine of Dr. Forsythe (1993)’ and ‘Everything will be allright (1997)’ and the digital film ‘The Way of the Weed (1997)’. In 1998 he worked with Erik Sleichim and Blindman Quartet on the video ‘Meer’ and the videoinstallation ‘Blind Wings’. He also realised a videoinstallation for 'Faust', directed by Guy Cassiers.
For Muziek Lod, he elaborated decor and design for the performances ‘Sands of Time’ (1998) and ‘Anton’ (1999).
With the Filmfabriek, he participated on the making of the cd-roms ‘Dzigarom’ (on contemporary media art in Flanders) and ‘Die Zauberflöte’ and since 1999 the graphic design of the roTheater.
In 2000, he realised the experimental movie ‘Aiax’ and the philosophical thriller ‘The Cutting’, based on a screenplay by Paul Pourveur.
Recent theatreprojects are ‘S*CKMYP’ (2000), a collaboration with Peter Verhelst en Eric Sleichim, and ‘La grande suite’ (2001) with Guy Cassiers and Eric Sleichim.
Plans for 2001 are a.o. a movie with Jan Lauwers and Needcompany, a film based on ‘Verhemelte’ by Peter Verhelst and the graphic design of the roTheater.


Bram Smeyers
Bram Smeyers was born mai 26 1977. He studied graphic design at the Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten Sint Lukas in Brussels. He acted in several plays e.g. ‘Iets anders’ (1994) and ‘Het Hamletmachien’ (1995) directed by Paul Peyskens and later in the movie ‘Aiax’ (2000) by Peter Missotten. in 1998 he directed his first play ‘En toen...’, a co-production with the Zuidpooltheater Antwerp.
He started working at De Filmfabriek in 1999 as graphic designer and director. He cooperated on the graphic design for Ro theater, Rotterdam. He was involved as dramaturgist in ‘Bonte Was’, a cd-rom project for Steunpunt NT2 and the University of Leuven. He co-directed with Peter Missotten the digital movie ‘The Cutting’, based on a screenplay by Paul Pourveur. ‘The Cutting’ was first screened during the KunstenFESTIVALdesArts 2000 in Brussels and later selected for the international film festival of Rotterdam.
With Peter Missotten he adapted and translated ‘Aglavaine et Sélysette’ by Maurice Maeterlinck. It became ‘k heb moete botsen’, a multimededia-play, which was shown in Brussels, Leuven and Antwerp.


INTERVIEW PETER MISSOTTEN AND BRAM SMEYERS
I
Multiple meanings as the heart of ‘The Cutting’?
Sure, for several reasons. First, there was the preparation that was very simular to the way of producing in theatre: a long rehearsel period and create the whole thing at the première. For us, this première was the shooting, that happened very condense. By dividing working with the actors during the rehearsels and during the shooting between the two of us, we also gave life to a multiplicity in interpretation.

By working together, you create a fixer unity?
Yes. You don’t make movies alone; because of the complexity of the medium, it is always teamwork. In this movie, it is impossible to play just one layer. There is one from the screenwriter Paul Pourveur, two from the rehearsels and directing during the shooting, another from the interpretations by the actors, and the mixing by Nico Leunen. By working with several people and giving them responsability, you get much more colours.

The actors also have their own point of view.
Yes, not only because of the different characters, but certainly also by their different approach to acting. Joost Wijnant is an actor who doens’t know beforehand what he will do physically, who can’t repeat the same thing, but at the same time knows to move within extreme limits. Geert Vaes carefully prepares every move, but as he had to play with someone like Joost, he continuingly had to reconsider everything. Benjamin Verdonck plays very intuitive and impulsive. The captivating is that their way of acting is opposite to the way of thinking from the characters they play... Last but not least, everything plays on nearly one, non-evident, place, i.e. a dark wood. And it works!

Much praise also for the screenwriter and the mixage.
What was nice of working with as well Paul Pourveur as Nico Leunen, is that they didn’t do what was asked, but the results they made were astonishing. The idea was f.e. three guys of about twenty, and Paul Pourveur thought of man in their fourties, or wanted three women, and that causes a consant friction in the movie; as if reality gets sick by the strained relations. The situation works in several ways, so you get a constant shift between comic, filosofical and captivating; the movie constantly jumps from the one layer to the other. At the end, you also get a different movie, when they are dying together en saying goodbye in a nearly buddhistic way. This change was wellcome, because we couldn’t see any wood no more...

Sickness and wounds also take a central place...
An open wound opens another reality, that has nothing to do with the outside. So you get the link with quantummechanics, that the position from where you’re looking determines what you will see. The other reality that is opened, is negated; man wants to sew the outside as soon as possible to get rid of this confrontation.

The title also refers to al the lines that cut through everything.
No only the landscape is cut in two by the cutting, but also the wounds, the active montage and the TGV are ways of cutting, dividing things. This refers also to the myth of the possibility to repair everything. The cars are not only a point of orientation, but by their technicity maintain their capability of being repaired. In exremis, this can also be said about the hunt for the kick of young people, who think everything (even a severe wound) can be repaired.

The digital effects add another layer to all this.
The digital effects are not meant to create special affects, but to sew constant doubt among the spectator about what he sees, about which reality he perceives. A lot more has been shot virtually than most people think, like the garden in the beginning, the inside of the train or the car trips. That makes is extra captivating, because you feel something is wrong, but you cannot explain what goes wrong.


THE SCREENPLAY

Paul Pourveur
Paul Pourveur is screenwriter and playwright.
He realised e.g. the screeplays for the following series and movies: ‘Adraen Brouwer’ (5 parts), dir. Peter Simons (BRT), ‘Congo’ (BRT, 7 parts with Bert Van Hoecke), ‘Windkracht 10’ (Bible - with Erwin Provoost), a Multimedia/BRTN production, ‘Onheilsbode’ (Robbe De hert), ‘Medea’ (René Huybrechtse) and Euro-Obsession’ (European Scipt Fund).

He also wrote amongst others following plays: ‘Congo’, dir. L. Vandervorst, ‘Parade’, dir. Guy Cassiers based on Cocteau, Satie, Picasso, ‘White out’, dir; W. Keessen, ‘Contusione è minima’, dir. W. Keessen, ‘Noorderlicht’, dir. L. Vandervorst.


INTERVIEW PAUL POURVEUR

What is the starting point of ‘The Cutting’?
Peter wanted to make a movie in a cutting, by night, a sort of thriller. I was already interested in
quantummechanics, had already made a play about it and the perception of reality. In quantummechanics, there is the principle that as long as you haven’t decided, you are able to be in two different, opposite conditions, like a cat that is and living and dead at the same time.
This I elaborated: suppose two people did something wrong and flee in two opposite directions. As long as the third, the pursuer, hasn’t decided which way to go, he finds himself in the two places. That is this cutting, where the three of them find themselves in the mindscape of the pursuer.

Three characters and three ways of thinking?
Yes, in a way they represent the three different lines a person can follow: emotion, ratio or the third who puts everything into perspective and chases the others to see what way of thinking will win.

The talk they use seems to come out of the mouth of people in their fourties...
I wrote the Cutting for older men, but Peter prefers to play with young people. Young people don’t have much to look back, as fourties have. That creates the contemplative aspect in the movie.
This gap between the age of the characters I thought of, and the age of the actors, intensify the absurd character, the abstract situation.

The structure of the scenario luckily causes unity...
The screenplay I wrote, was used as it is in the film, what doesn’t happen that often... There is a double structure in the film, on the one hand the story of the pursuer who chases the other two, and the fragmantated sructure. There is a continuingly crossing between the trinity chaser - victim - carer and secondly the argumentations and scientific quotes.

And the way back to the quantummechanic and the quotes of Einstein?
The quotes of Einstein work as a relativating of reality. If you take away all emotion, alle mythology, all that is human, only pure objects are left, everything is reduced to moving between pure objects. So everything is braught back to its pure essence, what doesn’t mean it gets easier. The world has become more complex than f.e. thousand years ago, and ‘The Cutting’ tries to reproduce this complexity.


THE ACTORS

JOOST WIJNANT
Born in 1980. Acted in the film ‘Rosie’ by Patrice Toye and in the movie ‘Aiax’ by Peter Missoten. He also played in ‘k heb moete botsen’, a multimedia theatre play by Bram Smeyers and Peter Missotten. This play was shown in Dilbeek, leuven and Antwerp.


BENJAMIN VERDONCK
Studied at the Antwerp conservatorium. He acted by: het Zuidelijk Toneel, Hollandia, Walpurgis, Nieuwpoorttheater, de Roovers, Lampe en participated in music theatre: ‘Charms’ (Walpurgis), ‘Happy Days’, ‘De Fenicische Vrouwen’, ‘Der Stein’, De Val van Mussolini’ (Hollandia), ‘Wat ik zou willen als ik niet was wat ik ben’ (Hollandia, later version by Monty), ‘De Hydra’ (Monty) and ‘W’ (Het muziek Lod). He also acted in several short movies as ‘Violette’ by Alex Stockman.


GEERT VAES
Follows dramatic arts in the second master degree at the RITS, Brussels. Won with ‘Tapis plein’ the price of the public of the theatrefestival ‘Voix Gras’. He played in ‘Things we do for love’ by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Jan Steen. He also acts in the movie ‘Hide and Seek’ (2000) by Gerrit Messiaen and Rob Visser. From 2001 on, he will perform in projects of TRACTOR, a theatre collective in Leuven.


INTERVIEW JOOST WIJNANT

What is ‘The Cutting’ for you?
‘The Cutting’ is at the first place a movie about three people who find themselves in an unpossible, absurdist situation, that theoretically is possible but does not appear in reality. It’s a movie about absurdity, the link between mind and reality, the game inbetween.
A constant feedback between the theoretically imaginable and the affective realisable?
Not only the realisable, but also that if you cross the line, if you think too long in that way, this absurdity may become part of reality. I often have the feeling that with your mind you can manipulate reality and that reality can manipulate your mind. In this way, sometimes you are able to determine what you perceive by the way of thinking. Like the Duracell-rabbits that all of a sudden walk across the road.

Also for your character, Frank? Sex and the Spice-Girls?
Frank just thinks with his dick, reason is not his cup of tea. He follows his feelings and tries sometimes to follow the thoughts of the others, but only as long as he can follow. He has the feeling he’s stupid.

Is it possible then to speak of real characters?
The characters are near to another, they are more like peaces of stereotypes than real characters. No character has a constant identity, the different stereotypes often slide away towards the others. They do follow certain mental processes , but take parts of the others, not only the roles of victim, carer or chaser, but also the way of thinkig.
The original idea was that there would only be one character that followed the three mental processes in his head to take care of the situation. That’s also a reason why they are so close to each other.

How did the making of ‘The Cutting’ pass?
Fun, I really amused myself. I always lived near a big wood, and it was like going back to my childhood. Benjamin Verdonck was constantly climbing trees and running around, anyaway, we had fun. Sometimes it was cold with irritating moments, but in the end, it was nice. I just love working with the Filmfabriek. The only disadvantage was that there was no woman on the set...

I suppose the whole thing happened in another way than the recording of ‘Rosie’ by Patrice Toye?
For ‘The Cutting’, we worked with a smaller team, what gives more freedom. Also the difference between on the one hand 35 mm where everyhing has to be planned because of the focussing, and on the other hand the compact light camera that gives more physical freedom, was great. The recording was also more intense; in stead of one month, everything was recorded in two weeks for ‘The Cutting’. As this happened at night, we also were cut off from the outside world and constituted one family.

What was the repercussion on the acting?
There was not only this greater freedom, but we also played constantly together with three actors, where for ‘Rosie’ I only had to play with one actor and didn’t have much to do with the others. The preparation was also more intense: Bram rehearsed three weeks with us before doing the shooting. And, on set, Peter also took care of the direction, so that there was a complementary between the preparation by Bram and the vision of Peter. In the studio there was still much freedom, because the crew was even smaller and it wasn’t fixed in advance what was going to happen in the studio.

What makes working with the Filmfabriek so special?
The guerilla-mentality. The impulsive way of working. Peter’s catch phrase is ‘Forget everything, just do it!’ or ‘Think slow, act fast’, as well for the acting as for e.g. camera and light. And in such a method, I recognise myself. I never prepare the physical play; I think about the role, follow the inspiration of the characters, but never prepare the concrete performance. I prefer to build emotionally on rough concepts, and that makes working with the Filmfabriek so enjoyable.

Are you satisfied with the result?
Actually, yes. First I had seen a piece of the first rough edit, and that really didn’t satisfy me. The acting wasn’t good, the dialogues didn’t stop, what made it quite hard. The thrillerelement wasn’t in it yet, neither the beginning or the end.
After the opening, I was really happy, the thrillerelement was in it and did work. The beginning is very strong, and last but not least, as I hadn’t seen them yet, the rabbits were hilarious.


THE PRODUCTION


De Filmfabriek
Already more than six years, De Filmfabriek is a independent production company for video and multimedia. In that time we have a solid reputation in the production of all sorts of artistic projects. Those aren’t only autonomous projects like ‘The way of the weed’; ‘Saylor’, ‘Les soeurs Lumière’, ‘Aiax’ and ‘The Cutting’ or video-installations like ‘Everything will be allright’ and ‘Plek’ - a coproduction with Bronks.
There are also many scenery and videoprojects for theatres. There was for example the setdesign for ‘Sands of Time’ and ‘Dust Makes Damage’, a videoinstallation for ‘Faust’ and the sceney for “The WaspFactory”. In 2000 De Filmfabriek made their first play ‘k heb moete botsen’.
The last few years we added a lot of multimedia. And we mean MULTI, from digital graphics and webdesign to interactive cdrom-projects (e.g. ‘Dzigarom’, a cdrom about flemmish media-art, ‘Die Zauberflöte”, a coproduction with De Munt, ‘Bonte Was’- a language program for lowly-educated strangers);
Since 1999 de Filmfabriek takes care of the whole graphic design of he ro theater, including the web applications.
The home base of the company is an old milkfactory which has enterely been renovated and redesigned by de Filmfabriek itself.
Our mission is the creative production and direction of art minded videofilms and multimedia projects.


THE SHOOTING

The shooting for ‘The Cutting’ happend in two parts. During the month of August 1999 we shot, digitally, 20 nights with a small crew (11 men) in a sunken road and adjointing forest. Later we worked with an even smaller crew during a week in a blue-key studio. During this we did the extra shots for the special effects. As a result of this, there are lots of keyed images in the movie. The complete post-production (digital editing, the sound-recording and the post-syncronisation, the special effects and other digital effects) were done in and by the Filmfabriek.


THE MUSIC

The soundtrack contains three lines. On one hand there are the solo’s on electronic sax by Eric Sleichim of Blindman quartet, which create a dark universe of atonal sounds, rustles and clicks. On the other hand there are some french songs (by Art Sullivan, Charles Dumont, Barzotti,...) reworked by Diederick De Cock and Thomas Noël. These songs submit to a recognizable and acceptable reality. The third track is a heavy Hip-hop song by Krewcial.


THE CREDITS

Frank Joost Wijnants
Paul Benjamin Verdonck
Wout Geert Vaes

Producer Hans Bocxstael and Anne Quirynen
Directed by Peter Missotten and Bram Smeyers
Scriptwriter Paul Pourveur
Photography Jan Dellaert and Peter Missotten

Editing Nico Leunen
Production De Filmfabriek
Co-Production KunstenFESTIVALdesArtsand INTERARTES

Production Manager Hans Bocxstael
First Assistant Stoffel Van Verrewegen
Best Boy Jan Van Gijsel
Electricians Tom Reniers and Guillaume Graux
Location Manager Johan Ghysens and Gunther Robeets
Catering Dirk Gillis
Visual FX Make-up Fransesco Rossi
Visual FX Wies Hermans and Peter Missotten
Sound-Editing Klaas Verpoest and Nico Leunen
Sound and music samples by Erik Sleichim

Music by Krewcial, Diederick Decock and Thomas Noel, Eric Sleichim


thanks to
City of Wavre, Green Valley, Josse Denonville,
Gemeente Bierbeek, Maurice Vaes, Bronks vzw, Erna en Nele Verbeke, Jelle Van Seghbroeck en Tom Van Deun, Thomas Peeters, Armand Cauwenberghs, Celine Pourveur, Walter Verdin, Miel engelen, Tone De Cooman, Jan Van De Velde.
with support of the Fonds Film In Vlaanderen

	de Filmfabriek - Hoogstraat 33 - 3360 Bierbeek - Belgium tel +32 16 460 100 - fax +32 16 461 276 - areyouvital@filmfabriek.com www.filmfabriek.com