Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Tales of an Alien Director

What about the differences between French filmmakers and Hollywood filmmaking? "In France, we imagine Hollywood in terms of terrible artistic pressure, but financial [freedom]. The surprise on Alien Resurrection was that there was artistic [freedom], and that the real pressure was money." Then again, Jeunet adds in the studio's defense, "It's a principle, whether it's commercials, shorts or features: you never have enough money to make the movie you want."

I ask Jeunet how it felt to do all this without his cohort, Caro. "I missed him sometimes, especially when we were working on costumes," he answers. "Caro did work on the movie a little bit. He did sketches of the costumes and hair and those ideas made it into the movie. It was so tough every day--sometimes 16 hours a day--and there were so many things to decide that I would have liked to be able to deal with one thing and nothing else while Caro dealt with other things. Honestly, though? It might not have been that bad in the end, because with time being what it was, I had to step back a little bit and let the details take care of themselves."

Jeunet leans forward slightly on the couch. "It's odd that I somehow felt less pressure on this movie than on The City of Lost Children," he confides. "I didn't write this movie. Directing a film you've written is like giving birth to, then raising your child. Directing a film that you didn't write is like raising an adopted kid. It's rather nice. It's probably easier to do better work this way because I'm more objective. Also, I have an enormous studio behind me here. I hope the studio is going to make a lot of money on this movie, but it's not as if it's with a French producer who, unless he makes money, is going to be on the street. So, I guess I'm a little cooler. Now, of course, if this movie is good, one kind of pressure will go down, but another kind of pressure could rise."

Given Jeunet's apparent equanimity, not to mention the primal, dreamlike quality of his films, I can't resist asking if he's ever engaged in anything like psychoanalysis. "Therapy?" he asks. "I think that's very American. The answer is no. I don't want to be cured. Obviously, I'd have to change jobs."

What if Alien Resurrection, with its kick-butt underwater action sequences, and its creation of a new strain of monster, the Newborn, wins over fans and critics in a major way? Will Jeunet be tempted to tackle another installment? "Clearly, it's much better for a new director to be involved each time. Each of the films has been so close to and typical of the directors who made it, whereas the last two Batman movies have been done by the same director. The next Alien should be very different from this one. Each film should renew the series. [In any case] I wouldn't want to do another American film right now. I want to do a quiet, personal film next--without special effects, without the pressure."

So, according to its director, is Alien Resurrection a worthy successor to its scary, hellaciously entertaining, unsettling predecessors? "I'm not far enough yet from it to talk about its mood, its feeling, its strengths," Jeunet observes. "I have to say, I've had all my shots and vaccinations against big success or big failure. You've got to keep an even hand, keep yourself cold and detached from it. I hope people will like the movie. I hope the things I love in the movie will remain in the final cut. In fact, I pray nightly that the things I love will stay in it. But, you see, all I want is freedom. I don't want to be, I want to make."

_____________________________________________

Stephen Rebello interviewed David Caruso for the October issue of Movieline.

Pages: 1 2 3