Aliki and Petros are a conventional upper-middle class couple. They live in a house very well located in a residential area where they enjoy all the comforts. in the mornings, Aliki is going to do running around the house, They enjoy their pool and dinners with their friends on their luxurious terrace. But there is something between them that doesn't seem to fit this supposed image of prosperity.. So, little by little, We will discover that the marriage is living a life that does not belong to it..
This is the plot of the movie All the pretty little horses, second feature film by Greek director Michalis Konstantatos that is presented in this edition of Cinema Jove. Konstantatos' film delves into the intimacy of this couple in a subtle way, building a story that is put together, as he tells us in this interview, not only about the wickers of a plot, an argument, but in the small details, in the gestures. Each element adds to a whole that becomes compact, solid, about a story that takes us to our recent past, to the consequences of an economic crisis, to from 2008, whose footprints are still felt among us.
When I saw your movie, At first I referred to the films of Yorgos Lanthimos, but if Lanthimos' cinema presents us with his vision of reality from the strange, the extravagant, while in your film the strange arises from reality. What was your intention in that sense??
My film addresses a reality that is present in society. I believe that stories are hidden in reality, before our eyes and there is no need to invent them. My way of working to build my films is to do it from the characters, more than from the plot of the movie, the argument. Treating the characters and entering their depth, we can see those situations that are hidden.
Nevertheless, It is perceived that your film is based on a very solid and precise script. How was that work of conceiving the story?, to build the structure of the story?
To begin with, I am inspired by sounds., not only in music, also in the sounds of reality. Those sounds produce the images of the film and, from there, step to actions. Then, work with the characters and, from there, my writing flows, It is almost automatic because I have already worked with all the previous elements, and so I build the framework of the script. For this film I was inspired by a trip I took in 2013 for my previous movie, Luton, where I spent the summer in a place similar to the one in the movie. There I saw a couple that was a little strange, having a coffee. So, The woman looked at the coffee and then looked in a very strange way towards her partner.. That was the image that triggered the story.
The script is one of the strengths of the story, but then your film is also supported by other elements that perhaps developed during filming. Two of these elements are the silences that exist between the characters and, above all, those looks they have between them. How did you add those parts to what you wanted to tell??
I think the most essential thing in communication is silence.. The word always comes to the end, when you need to vent or express something. These looks and silences of the characters actually precede the structure of the script., that's why his inspiration in that couple, that she had that strange behavior or non-oral language and that it was perceived in the strange way in which that woman looked at her partner. In silence you find that which is hidden, that's why I'm so interested. It is in the silences where the characters end up revealing what is at stake in the film.
Another element is the relationship of the characters with the spaces and voids that appear in the image.. These gaps are part of the story, They also tell the story.
I have an obsession with the painting, with the composition of the image because it is like a micrograph in which everything is. I believe that spaces have a very close relationship with people., with the characters. When a vacuum is created, This has a lot to do with the psychology of the characters., there they show how they feel, how are they. When we see a human being with his space, we already have a complete understanding of the person, instead of a mere painting in which we only see the character, the figure.
Another relevant issue is that slow tempo, the dilated rhythm that marks the film. What conditioned that particular aesthetic decision??
For me, that tempo is something that is marked by the characters., They are the ones who choose the pace at which the story unfolds.. They choose the plot and what happens and, somehow, they follow them. The truth is that time is something that is very despised nowadays.. If time is dilated it is in contrast to how life works. In our world we can't stop, we can't go slower, We can't stop the life we live in. What worries me is what happens when people hit the brakes.. What I'm looking for is that viewers don't just see the plot., the action, but rather that they experience the film as if it were an experience. That's why the tempo of the film develops in such a long way., to give the viewer the opportunity to enter that frozen time of the characters.
The drama that marks history is sustained by the economic crisis of the 2008. Somehow, We end up understanding that part of the characters' problems begin with their fall some time ago.. I read a review about your film that said that, in that sense, I was a little late when it came to describing that crisis or its consequences. But I think not. It seems to me that, somehow, We are still carrying that crisis. This is something that seems to happen in Greece or Spain, like southern European countries. What is the situation in Greece at the moment?? What wounds has that fact left??
I began to conceive the film in the year 2013 and continued throughout the 2014. Chronologically, so, It takes place after that crisis. But, indeed, as you say, We have to emphasize that Greece never left that crisis. What I thought about was: and after the shock of the crisis, that? That's why I started with that woman's look. What comes after the crash? But not only does the film talk about that crisis of the 2008, but of all crises in general, because everything that Greek society has been subjected to still influences relations. Nowadays, people value others and themselves according to how much money they earn and the social status they have.. In that context, with a crisis that destroys all that, people are left in a vacuum and cannot synchronize with each other. Y, to talk about the movie again, This tells precisely what happens to the protagonists after the crisis. And if, all we have are wounds. And the worst thing about this crisis is that people did not learn, there was no teaching about it. The worst thing is that people have become more indifferent, more tolerant of any pressure from power. I believe that what happens in Greece, but also in Europe in general, is that we have gone from indifference, what was well-being, to a tiredness about the problems we have now. People are tired of talking about it in their daily lives.. Leave a comment, A post on social media is enough to vent about what is happening around you and this is tragic..
Although it is not talked about, because it is not something that is directly exposed, The film shows a Greece of very different and marked social classes. The main characters try to pretend that they are from a social class, but they live like another, with what, somehow, those differences are exposed. What was your intention?
The middle class appears in Greece in the years 90. That class generated a lot of income thanks to playing in the stock market. These people started living in a bubble, as if they came from a higher class, as if they were aristocrats. But when this bubble deflated, They found themselves in an unclear landscape. In our case, The characters lived in a situation in which they believed they had a lot of goods, but, suddenly, They find themselves in a cloud where nothing is clear and that is where the differences are revealed. Besides, when they are in this house, and see the real owner of the house, In those moments they see themselves as they were before. I mean, They see the prototype and they feel that they are the copy. This is a very clear moment about the exposure of those class differences.
I am very interested in how you work on the differences between the main characters.. He seems to want to support the lie in which they live. But she seems to be holding back something that seems to push her to break that lie.. How did you work on those differences??
Yeah, it's the same thing that happens, For example, between two brothers, which are normally opposite characters in their typology. in the movie, Petros seems to have accepted the situation. He sees himself as the provider of what is necessary for his family., but suffers from not being able to do it. While Aliki asks him to have the assets and continue the life they had before.. However, Then we see that Aliki is slowly waking up from this lie and goes to the opposite side.. While, Petros, How can he no longer be the one who feeds his family?, He sees himself in such great tension because he is trying to give what he cannot give.. And although he knows that that cannot be, don't stop trying. and it's impossible.
Another very interesting element of your film is the role of children.. A figure that is not usually paid attention in this story about the crisis. What role did childhood play for you in this conflict that parents suffer??
Yeah, In my case I don't develop much what happens to the child., but that is precisely why we see and understand what happens to him.. The children, in this phase of their lives, They are the mirror of their parents, the innocent part of his parents. They are also the silent witnesses of what happens to them.. And as happens in cases of crimes, They are so quiet that we find them, we would say, at the end of the investigation. in the movie, the child is the eye that sees everything that happens, until he makes a move which is to offer something to the real owner of the house, and that has important symbolism. Many times, In our daily lives we do not give much importance to children. They are present, but we tell ourselves, "no problem, "they don't understand". Until there comes a time when they do something, an action, that shows you that they do understand, and that surprises us. That was his role.
I don't know if the film has been released in Greece, but, taking into account the issues it addresses, I wanted to ask you how it has been received.
The truth is that, for health reasons, I have not been able to have a vision of the public reaction. The film was launched through the internet and networks. However, When I have attended some premieres with an audience I have received a very warm acceptance, which I find very hopeful. There is a big difference between watching a movie in a theater and streaming at home because the response or reception of this movie is very different.. Being in a room surrounded by people is not the same as being at home., solo. This is how you get past talking about movies, just criticize them, and I think this is the death of cinema.
