A FILM BY LUKAS MOODYSSON - TrustNordisk

When we were at Patpong in Bangkok, right there among
the go-go bars and tourists and market stalls, I was aware
of thinking 'wouldn't it be brilliant if Mammoth happened
to turn up right here in one of the stalls that sell pirate
DVDs' A physical message in a bottle. But I don't believe
in having a specific plan: I don't want to create a robot
that I can send out into the world by remote control."
"The things that prompt you to do what you do are also
closely interwoven. I'd need to go into analysis to get to
grips with where one thread starts and the other ends."
Can you give an example of that kind of interweaving
"One of the reasons I made Together was that I wanted to
make a film with people who had beards, because I found
beards so highly amusing. That for me was just as important
as the thoughts I had about the way we live together,
as important as all my imaginings about they way people
lived when I was a child, what they thought about and
what they did."
"I'm also drawn to things that are problematical. A lot of
films in my head haven't got made simply because I didn't
feel challenged enough by them. I think I always need
to feel 'I'm not going to manage this' or 'I can't do this'.
Fucking Åmål (aka Show Me Love) felt like an incredibly
bad idea, virtually inappropriate, for a grown man to make
a film about teenage girls. Similarly with Together, where
I felt a resistance towards making a costume drama, and
not being able to go out onto the street and film because
all the cars would be wrong. Lilya 4-ever involved a film
in a language other than my own and a subject of which
I had little knowledge, not having grown up in some poor
hole of a place in Eastern Europe, didn't feel I had sufficient
cover. And whilst I'm very critical of those aspects
of our lives that are violent and sexualized, making A Hole
in My Heart felt idiotic, too. Then Container… a far, far too
limited, strange project."
And if you were to transfer those feelings to Mammoth
"There were lots of things that went against the grain with
me prior to Mammoth. I had no desire to travel round the
world or shoot a film in hot countries, nor to get involved
with anything that touched on Lilya 4-ever, and even just
taking on such a gigantic project seemed like a very bad
idea indeed. But it has a double edge, of course, a mixture
of self-punishment and doing something for which you feel
a desire."
Filmed on three continents and more than three years in
the making, Mammoth is one of the biggest Swedish film
projects ever undertaken. It was preceded by extensive
research and a global casting process. And even though
Lukas Moodysson has often remarked that it felt like
being on a hugely enjoyable school trip, "demanding"
and "enervating" are two words that have often cropped
up in connection with the work, sometimes even "sad".
"We were really lucky to find Sophie (Nyweide, Jackie),
she's exceptional. But when we ran screen tests in America,
in would troop these small, well turned-out and amazingly
well-drilled nine year-olds. They had photographs with
them, like models, and when a girl was wearing the same
sweater as in her photograph, I jokingly asked if they had
just taken the picture. 'No, it was my agent who said I should
wear it.' I thought that was incredibly sad. The children in
the Philippines, on the other hand, were certainly polite and
well brought up, but by no means so ingratiating. Some of
them, who didn't say a word, drove you crazy. But at least
they were themselves."
Other episodes Moodysson describes as "plainly comical".
"In America there's a complete system of agents and
middlemen who cause unnecessary, quite bizarre problems
just to show their clients that they're doing something.
Then there were things like the time we were going to shoot
at a museum, and suddenly asked to pay 50,000 dollars
if we stood inside a certain glassed-off area. If we stood
just outside it, we'd only have to pay 10,000 dollars. Unbelievably
strange rules. Not only that: the paparazzi were
hanging around us all the time. Sometimes we managed to
outsmart them and get across to the other side of the city
unnoticed, but lots of takes were totally ruined. The photographers
just walked in front of the camera, came right up
close and showed no respect at all for anyone. That was an
awful experience."
What were your reasons for wanting to make a film on
the scale of Mammoth
"Possibly it comes back to the allure of something new.
I'm not interested in the exact number of people who go
and see the film. But I am interested in making it broadly
accessible. If I were to make a film that was partly shot in
the Philippines, there would be no point in making it small
and low-key, since the chances of anyone in the Philippines
actually being able to see it would be minimal."
"I also think I wanted to do something bigger purely from
a craft aspect. We film in 35 mm, with bigger negatives,
bigger cameras, better images. Mammoth is the glossiest,
sharpest film I've ever made. For a while I planned to shoot
the film in 70 mm, which is basically dead for everything
but the IMAX format. Extremely expensive and far too
technically complex."
"Both technical and aesthetic solutions should always have
a practical dividend. A visual style that's too precise often
impinges on the actors' territory and prevents them from
moving freely. In Mammoth the camera remains at a distance,
it's not right up in people's faces, and I think it gives
a more human perspective. Personally I'm fascinated by
such a viewpoint, by watching somebody walking out on a
balcony, then mentally zooming in on them. Or going to the
supermarket and observing people at a distance. Because
distance doesn't have to equate with detachment: there
can be passion, warmth and empathy there too."
Of the many elements that comprise Lukas Moodysson's
work on a film – from the idea to writing the screenplay,
through research and preparation prior to shooting,
then editing and post production – directing is the part
in which he feels least comfortable. He certainly enjoys
being with his actors, but the time he spends with them
is relatively short.
"There's so much else to do, decisions to make, a camera
has to be moved from one street to another, and I find that
kind of thing extremely boring. On the other hand I do enjoy
the preparation: it's very enjoyable to sit and discuss what
clothes the characters should wear, for example. There's a
childish playfulness in it, like playing with dolls or Lego."
"In Thailand we had a bungalow where we kept the makeup
and costumes, and that was the best place of all, just being
able to go in there, sit down and talk among the clothes."
It hardly comes as a surprise that it is in writing the
screenplay that Lukas Moodysson claims to feel most at
home. He has been a prolific writer since childhood. At
first he thought it was fun simply to put down words on