Just in light, the fact that light exists, grows, death, all that. And I don't mean lovely sunsets and animals, but for Nature with a capital N, for what you feel when you're in nature, the ambiances. I loved it as a child, and I thought, "That's my starting point." The second thing I thought was, "What's the feeling? What's the emotion?" And the answer was a profound, deep awe for nature. It's more than about survival, it's about life in general. Now if I say yes, I have to come up with something straight away." And there was a theme which I loved since childhood - the "castaway on a desert island" theme we all know so well. One morning I received an email from Studio Ghibli, especially from Toshio Suzuki, saying "If you're ever thinking of making a feature, we're interested in being the producer." And my first reaction, obviously, was, "Oh my God, this is too good to be true." But then what do you do? "You don't have a feature, you haven't thought of a feature. I had to think up the story straight away in one go. On the origins of The Red Turtle's story: The film is already terrific, and the background just makes it better. There’s so little information online right now about The Red Turtle, and his responses were so cogent, informative, and interesting, that Emily and I decided to transcribe and post de Wit’s responses. Normally, post-screening Q&As are short, messy affairs where audience members ramble through questions, too many of which start with “This is more of a comment than a question,” or “As a filmmaker myself, I’d like to tell you about my experiences.” And often the filmmakers are just as rambling. And so was the Q&A after the TIFF screening where Emily Yoshida and I watched the film. The wordless, immersive film is a unique experience. That’s because The Red Turtle is something new for Ghibli: an international co-production directed by Dutch animator Michaël Dudok de Wit, and animated in France and Belgium by a series of animation companies. But as the trailer for The Red Turtle shows, the film doesn’t follow Ghibli’s house style at all, and it’s about a man alone on a desert island, rather than the usual kids interacting with a big, chaotic environment. One of the great experiences of the Toronto International Film Festival so far was The Red Turtle, billed as the latest from Japanese animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli, producers of films like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, and many other visually gorgeous films about spunky young characters discovering their place in the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |