“The Artist” Director Michel Havanicius Sounds Off

“The Artist” director Michel Hazavanicius’s bold choices may result in an Oscar being handed to him on Sunday, but he says the risks were easy to take. And while his future films will not likely be silent, he tells PopcornBiz  he may not be done telling stories about Hollywood.

I’d assume there was a certain kind of creative risk involved in making “The Artist,” and as much fun as it was to take it, do you feel validated and motivated to take similar or even bigger risks with each of your pictures?

Actually, for me it was not so risky because this is what I wanted to do, so when you want something you don't look at the risks. The risks don't matter. You look at the pleasure that you can have. I think that the producer took risks because he didn't know what I was going to do and which movie that I wanted to make. So he took the risk, and I don't have to take risks, even for the next one. That's not the point. I want to make good movies. My project is to make the best movie that I can make. If it's very classical it will be very classical. A comedy – I can make a comedy. I'm like any human being: sometimes you want to make people laugh and you try a joke, and sometimes you want to have a serious discussion about politics, for example, and you have that discussion. I don't have a mono-function; I know that some people, they make comedies and they are the funny guy for all their lives. But I think there are two kinds of directors, the ones who always make the same kind of movies, which can be great, and the ones who would change every movie or every two movies. I think that I'm maybe more of the second category.

You said so much about cinema and the entertainment industry, relevant to both then and now, in this movie. Do you think that'll be a theme that you'll ever revisit, or did you say what you had to say about it?

I don't know. I don't know who I will be in two years and who I will be in five years. I mean, it's a naïve way to talk about movies and stars and everything. It's really a love letter. Maybe in ten years my point of view will be a little more bitter. Who knows?

 

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