Interview: Julie Gavras

Filmmakers with last names like Coppola, Cassavetes, Leth and Gavras don’t enter the film world innocently. Growing up on film sets, there’s a certain expectation that the films of the offspring will channel the genius of the parent. Fortunately in Julie Gavras’ case the expectation is met. 

Blame It On Fidel is the narrative debut of Costa-Gavras' (Z, Mad City) daughter Julie and the naturalism of her father’s camera is reflected in his daughter’s film. Going to law school, then deciding to move into documentary filmmaking, Julie’s steady progression to narrative is a smooth transition. 

It’s not easy growing up with radical parents. It’s even more traumatizing when parent’s switch from a life of luxury to a life of poverty and political activisem in the upheavals of the seventies. Anna, the precious 9-year old heroine of the film endures a radical change of lifestyle when her father decides to become a political activist in Chile and her mother quits her job at a “Marie Claire” in order to research a book on abortion.   

I had a chance to speak with Julie over the phone.

Benjamin Crossley-Marra: How did you work with Nina Krevel-Bey (Anna) to achieve such a natural performance?
Julie Gavras: I think the biggest part of the job was in the casting. We spent something like six months casting the part and saw around four hundred little girls and at some point we realized that Nina was right for the part. It wasn’t just realizing that she could act the role, so I had to go on seeing and training her to make sure she could relate to the character.  This was going to be a fifty-day shoot so I needed to make sure she could carry the performance for that length of time. She was around seven and a half years old when we first met and I continued seeing her for the next four months before we started principal photography. So when we started shooting she was ready.

BCM: Is Nina anything like the character she portrays in the film?
JG: Yes, they're both very strong-willed and resilient. Nina comes from a very different kind of family though. But many aspects of their personalities are similar, for example, Nina’s the best in her class, she gets mad when she gets a bad grade etc. I think that’s important for a child actor to be able to identify with the character. 

BCM: Were there any autobiographical elements within the film?
JG: For the most part I could hide behind the book Tutta colpa di Fidel. It gave me a prop, but of course there are many other elements that are autobiographic. Not directly exactly, like there’s no event in the movie that happened to me.  But there are many things that I used to make it seem more real. Like the relationship between Nina and her brother, in the book she had a sister, but since I had three brothers, I felt I could understand that relationship better. There’s another thing that wasn’t in the book, the part concerning Chile. In the book the father was an engineer, but in the film Anna’s father is a lawyer who becomes involved with the Chilean communist movement. I was inspired to have it be Chile from a film my father made called Missing. I was twelve years old when he made it and I consider that experience my political awakening. 

BCM: What was it like growing up in a filmaking family?
JG: You can’t even really pick up a book without thinking what kind of film it would make. You’re sitting at the dinner table and the entire conversation is about film and film directors. When I was twelve I no longer referred to films by their titles, but by their directors. So when I was sixteen and my brothers had all decided to go into film, I decided I was going to go to law school instead. 

BCM: Did you feel your family would be highly critical of your narrative debut?
JG: The thing is as a family we usually share many things. My mother’s a producer but I didn’t want her to produce it. I maybe let my family read one draft of the script but that was it. I really wanted to do it on my own. I felt I needed to prove that I could do it by myself so that next time, I won’t be shy about asking for their help. It’s like my growing up film.

BCM: How did the production fall into place?
JG: Again, I was very lucky because I read the book around the time I was getting in to directing documentaries. So in between filming two documentaries I was able to adapt the script. I was able to secure a state-fund for co-writers. I finally met my producer, Sylvie Pialat, who had a lot of experience and was able to get it off the ground.  I was also lucky because it only took a year to raise all the money.

BCM: This film has been out in France for a while.  What was the critical reaction like over there?
JG: It was fun because we had a really good reaction from right-wing newspapers. With the left-wing press some critics loved it but others thought I was making a bad example out of politically engaged parents.  It was surprising because I was not expecting that at all. To me the parents are just trying to find their way and who they really are. They’re trying to explain that to their children, but Anna doesn’t want to listen. I think they’re doing their best. 

BCM: How come the film took so long to come overseas?
JG: I have no idea how it works or why distributors decide to release a film when they do. Actually my producers were surprised that it sold as much as it did overseas. I mean this was just a small production it’s not like the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose or a big French blockbuster.  It really had no actors that were known outside of France. So it was impossible to pre-sell before we shot. 

BCM: Did you ever go through a period of ideological confusion as a child?
JG: It’s interesting in some of the scenes that we cut we showed the family disagreeing more, not just about politics, but about familial life as well.  Anna loves her parents but she also loves her grandparents and they’re both very different people. One of the main messages of the film is that you can love people but still be very different from them. In general it’s about growing up and realizing things are a lot more complex then you ever expected. 

BCM: The film has a very loose, natural feel to it.  Did you encourage improvisation at all?
JG: No actually, not at all. People ask me all the time now about how I work which is weird because when you’re on the set you don’t really think about how you're working with others, you just do what feels natural. But thinking about it now I realize how shot-by-shot it really was. Of course when your working with kids they always bring something unexpected to the performance, but I was very specific with them about what I wanted. The adults gave more detailed performances, but again, I was very specific about I wanted out of them.

BCM: Did you watch any films to prepare for the production?
JG:  No, not really. I mean we didn’t have any cast screenings of a particular film I wanted them to reference. When I was finishing up the script I watched a few films with children to get a feel for the type of performance I wanted. I also asked the production designer and the director of photography to watch The Woodsman. I mean the two films have nothing to do with each other, but I liked the aesthetic of that film. The aesthetic was something that we talked about a lot.  It feels like whenever someone makes a film about the seventies everyone has orange chairs, shaggy yellow carpets and plastic furniture.  So we really tried for a less-stereotypical version of the seventies.

BCM: What are some of your next projects?
JG: Well I’ll always continue to do documentaries, but I’ve got some other narrative projects in the works. I never like to talk about them though because I’m way too superstitious in that regard. I recently had a baby, so I just restarted writing a month ago. It’s not form a book, and I’m finding that more difficult when it comes to the actual plotting. 

BCM: Do you think you’ll ever work outside France?
JG:  I hope so. Because there are books that are not French that I’m drawn to and could in no way take place in France. The next project I’m writing is a small French film but there are plenty of English and American books that I hope to get a chance at adapting in the future. It all depends on the project.  I’ve seen some of how Hollywood works when my father made Mad City. You still can get what you want in Hollywood, but its very difficult.  I’m not prejudiced doing a film one way or another. 

BCM: What do you look for in a good film?
JG:  Something that can keep me interested throughout it’s running time.  There can be a message or none at all and that’s fine with me.  Sure I like it better when I feel more intelligent afterwards or when something surprises me or moves me.  But I guess that’s all.  I’m a very good spectator, very simple.  

Koch Lorber Films released Blame It On Fidel on August 3rd.