"A short Q&A for a portrait" – we kindly asked of filmmakers of this year's Viennale, and their answers are amazing. This is RODRIGO MORENO, director of LOS DELINQUENTES:
1. Why did you want to make this film / tell specifically this story?
First of all, I wanted to revisit an old Argentinian film to deform it, to use it as a starting point and from there to converse, interact with it somehow. On the other hand, I really wanted to contrast money and freedom, work and leisure, adventure and routine. Finally, I also wanted to make a long film, full of spaces, characters and detours. And I think I did it.
2. What was the biggest difficulty you encountered in the making of your film, and how did you overcome it?
The first difficulty was to convince producers about the way I wanted to shoot this film which consisted of a 9 weeks tour of filming split up in different stages in order to allow myself to write or rewrite, shoot and edit more or less at the same time - which I highly recommend. The problem we had was -above all- with financing and lockdown, which had us us shooting this film over a period of 4 years. It was a very enjoyable process but from time to time I thought it would never reach an end. Dealing with that feeling of anguish maybe was the main difficulty along the whole process.
3. What would you like / hope for the audience to take away from your film?
I wish the spectators stay until the end, enjoy the adventure, get a laugh and finally will be moved by the energy of the film so as to rethink their own work and life conditions - and not to surrender.
4. Which film has disturbed you most, and why?
I don’t have any patience with films that speak a language of calculation and speculation. When I see that the main aim or proposal of those films is to force the attention of spectators or even the attention of festivals programmers, it disturbs me a lot.
5. What do you like to do to be creatively inspired?
Travel, see films, spend free time in cities, read books, swim, drink coffee in old cafes, have conversations with unknown people, write, screenwriting, observe people, cats, dogs, listen to people speaking -focusing on their ways of expression-, observe architecture, signs, vehicles, outfits, paintings, photographs, theatre plays, observe people doing their occupations, and sleep well.
6. What, in your view, is the “purpose” of cinema?
Cinema, unavoidably, is the art of registering its present time. No matter what the film is, there is always a registration of present time in it. The evolution of cinema has created a language capable of reconstructing space and time (through shots, cuts, montage, mise en scene, words, movements, and sounds). It's such a big thing, giving us the chance to perceive a "reality" different from "reality". And cinema itself is real because it is a registration of its present time. Of course, it also is a recreation and a representation, due to its language, from fictions to documentaries, from essays to diaries. The trick is to make the spectators believe and at the same time disbelieve what they are watching and listening to, to make them embrace what is happening but also to question it.
LOS DELINCUENTES
Rodrigo Moreno | Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Luxembourg 2023 | 189 min
Friday, October 20, 2023:
11.30 pm - Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus (OV w/ EN subtitles)
Saturday, October 21, 2023:
9.15 pm - Filmmuseum (OV w/ GER subtitles)