O Rei da Evasão, de Alain Guiraudie [na foto], que se estreou no Cinema King, em Lisboa, no dia 11 de Novembro, não é um filme brilhante: fantasista, lento, inverosímil, previsível. Mas o realizador, que entrevistei por e-mail (uma entrevista breve, para recolha de depoimento) em vésperas da estreia, parece ser uma pessoa muito interessante. Excertos da entrevista saíram na revista Time Out Lisboa a 10 de Novembro. Fica aqui a totalidade, em inglês, como no original.
1 - Why did you chose an obese and middle-age actor (Ludovic Berthillot) to play the main character of Le roi de l'évasion?
I was looking for a middle-age actor (because it is a middle-age crisis movie) but not specially for an obese one. Ludovic Berthillot was simply the best of all the actors we met in this casting.
2 - The story of Le roi de l'évasion is very surrealistic. Why is that?
In my movies, I use to mix elements of reality and what I would like the reality to be... I try to reinvent the reality... But for me, that is not surrealism.
3 - Where was the film shoot?
It was shot around the city where I live: Albi in the Tarn, close to Toulouse.
4 - Why is there a frequent presence of the rural world in your work? Is just because of your origins? What do you want to tell us about the rural world?
I was born in a small village. So, this rural world is my world. At least the world I know the best. All French films use to happen in big cities, that means in Paris, in the middle class, I want to talk from another part of the world... I don't like the idea that everything that happens in the world, happens in main cities.
5 - What do you think about the way mainstream cinema portraits gays and lesbians today? You seem to go counter-current. Do you agree?
As you can imagine, I don't like it so much. I specially don't like the fact that homosexuality and sexuality (and even sensuality) would only concern young, urban, beautiful and wealthy people... As movies, television or magazines try to make us believe since the 80's. And personally, I think that fat and old people can be very sexy.
6 - Do you consider yourself heir of directors like Pasolini?
Yes, but I prefer Fassbinder.
7 - What's your opinion on categories like "LGBT cinema" or "queer cinema"?
First, I want to make films for cinema... I don't want to be considered as a gay director... I don't even like the words "gay" or "queer"... Which are just American politically correct words. And I am French, so I use French words to say who or what I am. And I don't feel gay, I feel homosexual... I live as a homosexual. And I make cinema as a homosexual person, which is very important for me... In my movies, the marginality becomes the norm. So my movies are not queer or LGBT, they are movies.
8 - Are you 46 years old? Where do you live nowadays?
Yes, I'm 46 years old and I live in Albi near Toulouse.
