INTERVIEW WITH 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.