Jasmine Valentine chats with Moon, 66 Questions director Jacqueline Lentzou…
The relationship between father and daughter can often be incredibly tough. Following her estranged father’s sudden ill health, Artemis (Sofia Kokkali) makes her way back to her native Athens to care for him following his diagnosis. A visually stunning introspection of psychology, self-worth and communication, Jacqueline Lentzou is a director that’s comfortable to stray away from the crowd.
What drew you into focusing on the relationship between an estranged father and daughter?
My life. Not only in that aspect of disease, but the general strangeness of the relationship, the lack of communication, the difficulty of expressing very natural things like love. They have all been problems since I can remember because both my parents have those particular issues. So it’s life.
As you were making the film, did you ever think that cinema in general is missing a depth of exploration in that way? I was trying to think of other films that came to mind that examined a father and daughter relationship in a bit more of a realistic way, and I can’t really think of any.
There is one. Not extraordinary, but rather heartwarming. Somewhere, by Sofia Coppola. It’s dark and sad, but still somehow touches upon that distance.I remember watching that theme in the past and feeling that the protagonist herself has been through that fatherly loneliness.
But in general, it’s a part of the cinema that needs to be more explored. I don’t see myself as someone to fill in the gaps of global cinema for sure. I mean, I’m just doing my own thing. And really most of the time I don’t even know what’s happening around me in terms of the trends, the currents and stuff, which is funny and problematic at points.
Do you think, for other people coming into the industry, just doing your own thing and doing what feels natural is the way to get the best work, or the work that you’re the most proud of?
I think that people enter the industry for different reasons. That’s something that we all have to keep in mind. I don’t judge any reasons or intentions, but I know that some filmmakers make it clear that they want to go to festivals and have those experiences. I know that there are filmmakers whose aim is to get an Oscar. And then there are filmmakers that really care about making films. That’s it. I belong to the third part, and I think that because I did put all my heart and soul into every single project, it reflects in energy. I’m there in that moment when making films, and I’m very grateful. The fact that some people really feel the love in the film I think has to do with my love of the film.
I love that the film has such a beautifully vast sense of visual language. How much does art influence your work going into a project?
Not so much a particular art form, but the process of collage. I love collages. I even make some so I really like the idea of getting different materials, different textures, different images, and creating something new consisting of several different parts. And this was the ‘logic’, or ‘non-logic’ that I employed in these scenes. When I was editing and shooting, I closed my eyes and I saw the film in my head. The moment I sense something doesn’t feel right, I’ll say “let’s put in something else, let’s do something different”, like cooking in a way. So it’s not particularly performance art or photography or any of these things that have affected me. For sure unconsciously, but consciously the collage process is an important one.
For the more personal side of the film, how important was the sort of Greek family dynamic to telling the story?
It was very important. By showing this tragic comedy, you need to get an idea of the family that the father grew up in. So gradually, we can tend to think “okay, if this guy was gay and this was his family, he had no way of expressing it”. These people are openly problematic and insensitive I would say, because there’s a woman (in a particular scene of the film) who doesn’t know the language and they don’t seem to feel for her at all. I think it would be a very different thing if that didn’t not exist because they provide a pinch of reality. Particularly the way they talk and see things. They never even asked him anything. At some point, his brother says “it is what you get” in front of him, which is very hard, but also true. I have been present in such a situation and this is where you wonder what’s going on. How can you be seeing this? But then you have your own answer because he’s also wounded himself.
How difficult was it to portray MS and a realistic road to recovery?
It was really hard. To be honest, I was very afraid because I was aware that this was the face of the whole film. It was a pivotal aspect. We were very lucky because Lazarus Georgakopoulos (Paris) unfortunately had a friend that passed away with MS. So it was in his life, this disease. And at the same time, we were very lucky to find our technique practitioner, who focused on a particular body muscle awareness technique. They worked very intensively with Lazarus that summer. So at some point, Lazarus was entering a state where he was not acting that he couldn’t walk. He had undertaken a very particular training and he was entering this state that was an interesting and intriguing thing to watch. We were on the lunch break, and he was normal. And then in one second, he became super sick. And then when you wanted to take him out of that place, it wasn’t easy.
Moon, 66 focuses a lot on reconnection through physical intimacy. How important was it to portray that the way you did? It’s almost as if physical and vocal revelations are kept completely separate.
Yeah, totally. This was what I really knew should happen, in the sense of knowing how you can’t really speak with your father, or really communicate at all. I thought it was an extra layer of difficulty, too. To be in a position where you have to be around the father all of the time, to be watching them, but at the same time not being able to speak with them at that particular level.
So this adds a very big burden to the psychology of Artemis. This is where the character shifts — she’s a daughter, he forgets that and she becomes the carer. And then back to being a daughter again. So it’s a constant change, which is very important for physical intimacy. It’s so weird, because this is when words really have no meaning. When you have to carry your dad because they cannot walk. You forget that words exist in a way. You just focus on the task. So it gives you a particular clarity on what has to happen when you really touch them, hold them, or caress them.
When you’re dealing with things like caring for somebody with MS like the LGBTQ+ focus, how do you zone out of responsibility that other people might put on the film?
It’s very easy. I’ve never felt any responsibility apart from myself. I am a filmmaker. I decided to become a filmmaker at a very young age, and the only person I have to be responsible to and to be honest with is myself. And if this is lost, then we don’t have good films. There are people I meet who want to have a dialogue like filmmakers from all around the world, and I know before I see their films if I will personally be drawn to it — just by seeing how honest the filmmaker is. If in their dialogue I sense that they’re trying to keep up with the trends because they want to be in festivals, or they want to be invited to events, you lose something which is for me the most important thing: authenticity. It’s a key factor for honest artwork to be authentic. Things aren’t going to be loved by everyone. But the people that love them really love them. That’s a treasure for me. That’s why I’m doing my job.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★★★★ review of Moon, 66 Questions here
Many thanks to Jacqueline Lentzou for taking the time for this interview.
Jasmine Valentine – Follow me on Twitter.
