"I would become rich if I made a bad but successful movie"

"The Trio from Belleville" has been one of the most beloved cartoons in Russia for many years. Its author Sylvain Chaumet has since made only two paintings, and the third, which so far has the title "A Magnificent Life", has just been shown in Cannes. This is the biography of the great French playwright, director and writer Marcel Pagnol, who created his famous works in the 30-40s. Immediately after the premiere, Shome told us in an exclusive interview that he would like to come to Russia and that he had good news for the fans of the "Trio from Belleville".

"It's a long business to come up with, write, and film"

— Where did this cartoon come from? I haven't heard from you for so many years, and suddenly there's a story about Marcel Pagnol.

— I wasn't going to make this movie. It's just that about eight years ago, Nicolas Pagnol, Marcel's grandson, contacted me and offered to make a documentary. Since some things have not been preserved anywhere, I thought that we could make them animated reconstructions, short inserts in the plot. But Nicolas liked them so much that he decided to persuade me to do it as a full-meter animation. Nicolas is a very, very nice guy. And he knows how to convince. We became friends. We started trying animation options. And in the end, eight years later, we're in Cannes.

— And I heard that for the first time you presented the project at the Annecy festival. That was four years ago.

— Yes, the presentation was there, and something was already ready. But from that moment on, everyone was waiting for the film, we had to finish it. Four years ago, we didn't have a script, I was working on a storyboard, and then we made a movie for about two and a half years. Actually, we finished it a couple of weeks before Cannes, and we were finishing the sound.

— You have many years between projects. What is the reason for such slowness?

— Because they need to be done for a long time. And it takes a long time to find financing. Besides, I did not only animation, I also shot a game picture.

— Yes, "My Attila Marcel", it was released in Russia. We watched it.

— The last full-length film that I released was twelve years ago. Then I did other things that interested me. They were short films, but they're all very vivid. For example, I made an episode of The Simpsons, made a video for singer Stromae, and this video has garnered 150 million views on YouTube. I also made the opening video for the second Joker, and the first three minutes are like a cartoon. Anyway, I was busy all the time. In general, it's a long business to come up with, write, and film.

— Hollywood's "Joker" somehow looks strange in your filmography. How did you get there?

— The director, Todd Phillips, wrote it to me. A very, very nice man. He sent me an email, and we started talking. I told him that I watched the first "Joker". And that I liked him. And he says to me: I wanted to start the second "Joker" in the same way as the "Trio from Belleville" begins. A cartoon. Let's do it in the style of Betty Boop or Tack Avery cartoons. I really like Avery, all those screensavers of his with the Warner logo. Actually, when I was little, I dreamed of making a movie that would open with the Warner logo. Todd wrote the script, sent it to me, and we did it. It took a year, because I was working on the story of Pagnol at the same time. But I like the result.

— The film "A Magnificent Life" is in a sense about perfectionism. It seems to me that this is exactly your topic, and I understand it. We also have a perfectionist in animation in Russia — Yuri Norstein, maybe you know him?

— Of course, I know Norstein!

— Do you think a director and an author should be a perfectionist? Time flies, life goes on, you won't have much time if you're too picky.

— Probably, but I prefer to be a perfectionist rather than be ashamed of the movie I made. I'm working to the max. Otherwise, I feel bad. Pagnol, I think, was the same. He wanted to give the viewer the best in the one and a half to two hours that he would spend in a dark room. You have to entertain people, touch them to the quick, but not poke some nonsense. People have their own lives, and if they spend part of their lives going to the movies, they need to be entertained.

"I really want to visit Russia!"

— If you have such long-term projects, you need to choose a topic very carefully. And your topics are not quite obvious — Monsieur Hulot, Attila Marcel, Pagnol. Probably, what all your films have in common is that they are about cinema. How do you choose a theme?

— It's hard to say. For example, "The Illusionist." There was a script by Jacques Tati, but Jacques did not have time to make the film. I thought it would be great to bring Tati back to life. I have already told you about how I started making about Pagnol. And now I'm working on a spin-off of "The Trio from Belleville", be sure to tell this to the Russian fans of the film! They'll have a new movie in three years!

— Is it a spin-off?

— Yes, and I wrote this story at the same time as The Trio, 25 years ago. I'm currently working on a storyboard. And it will be the same universe, the same mood. Lots of songs, no dialogue, same crazy characters.

— Have you thought about bringing a film about Pagnol to Russia?

—Oh, I'd love to. I was invited to St. Petersburg once, by the way.

— Did you like it?

- But I didn't go. I was busy with something else, I couldn't go. But I really want to visit Russia! There is an amazing culture there, there are several places where I definitely want to go, I want to communicate with people. These places are mostly in the north. I really don't like the heat, so I should like Petersburg. It's not hot in summer, is it? How's it going?

— About the same as in Berlin.

- Oh, great, it suits me. I would really, really like to bring this film, show it, and look around.

— Was it difficult to find financing for such a movie? The hero is specific, but not everyone knows him outside of France.

— No, there were no problems. About four years ago, Sony gave us the green light, so everything was fine here. But in fact, it's not so necessary to know who Marcel Pagnol is in order to enjoy the film. Yes, it's a biopic, but we were guided by Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator," the story of Howard Hughes. No one knows him at all, even less than Pagnol. But there's an interesting story, there's a struggle in it. That's why people love biopic movies, they like to discover new people with a unique destiny.

— You know, it seems to me that another thing your films have in common is that they are anti-capitalist. What do you say? Is this your message to the world?

"It's not capitalism I hate. I hate liberalism. Capitalism has existed since ancient times, people are always buying and selling, that's how society works. But liberalism says that capitalism is above all. I don't accept that anymore. I think people should be responsible for their actions. OK, let's have capitalism, but we need to control it. Liberalism says that you just have to make money, no matter how. But then you have to make a bad movie. I would become rich if I made a bad but successful movie. I decided not to do that, and I remain true to my beliefs.