This is an interview I did with Koen Mortier for Inpress (Melbourne). Thus far it’s my favourite DVD release of the year. You can see my review here. Excuse the fanboy elements. It’s just that it’s pretty rare for someone to take such malicious delight in their own nasty humour. In case you’re wondering this may not be a saturday night date flick…
There seems to have been a myriad of barriers placed in front of you in order to get Ex Drummer made. What was it about the material that made you so determined to bring it to the screen?
It was Herman Brusselmans who was the real reason we kept on fighting “til the last drop of sweat. He’ one of the most important writers of his generation in my country, but after five attempts of other directors it became clear that nobody at the Flemish Film Commission was interested in his work and world. I took it on personally as my private crusade because I thought that his literature, with its black and cynical humor, had to make it to the silver screen. I also wanted to prove that arthouse cinema didn’ have to be about intellectuals (which is a misapprehension of the intellectuals and the establishment).
Have you ever had any experience in the punk rock scene? Strangely enough much of what I saw on screen seemed to ring true for Melbourne too.
When I was around 16 years old, punk was in a pretty dead state of mind. There were small punk scenes in villages left and right, but the main intention of it was gone. We had at that time also the “Seaside Festival†which was a kind of post punk music festival where the last highlights of punk were celebrated. The film is pretty much inspired by my youth during that time. We all wanted to be part of the big rock & roll party and the rest didn’ really matter, everyone was kind of nihilistic and the only remains of the punk period were translated by two words: “no futureâ€.
There’s a certain willful nastiness about Ex Drummer, a level of maliciousness that you rarely see in films. In fact it’s so rare that you almost don’t believe its happening even as you are watching it happen in front of you. Was there anything about Ex Drummer that you were uncomfortable or a little nervous about portraying?
In a way I wanted to translate the absurdity of Herman’ work into a literally visual style. Characters standing in a pussy while they talk or being anal raped by a guy who has a penis of half a meter is completely absurd and stupid, of course it became realistic by the way they acted and this dualism is very recognizable in Herman’ writing. He uses names of people that are known in our country and they become characters in his books, it’s weird to read about known people in the most disturbing of details. The only scene that felt uncomfortable was the end scene with Big Dick and Christine. He’ molesting her and at that time she was three months pregnant, the baby turned out to be ok…
The backwards bikes at the start, the upside down character, given the material you would initially expect a less overtly stylised documentary style approach. Was it a difficult decision to employ these strange cinematic techniques?
I didn’ want to make a film that felt like thirteen in a dozen. I wanted to create my own way of telling this story without falling into the trap of documentary. It’s true that I was flirting with the reality and especially with a realistic way of acting, but I also wanted to experiment with style and pictorial elements. That way of thinking is my second nature, every scene can be shown in its own way. I wasn’ making a documentary film and I wasn’ planning to do so.
The making of documentary was almost funnier than the feature, almost more malicious, except that much of the humour came from the fact that these extra features are usually sickening love fests, but everyone on your film uses it as an opportunity to vent about someone. And that someone is usually you. Was your first feature such a nightmare?
It was worse, nobody but me wanted to make this film and nobody was prepared to invest in it either. After the Flemish Film Commission turned down the script for the second time I decided to make a mockumentary around the film and especially around the making of the film. I used passages of the letters where they refused my script to start with and here you go. I wanted to play the loser they took me for, so I asked the cast to talk bad behind my back while I was doing the same about them. I also wanted to show a director who was losing it while he was realizing his dream. At the end of the shoot everyone takes over and his film becomes a monster, his nightmare.
I’ve been thinking that Dries actions seem so strange and unexpected and unbelieving because of the setting, because rock music is messy drunk, fueled by passion, energy and a belief in the rock and roll dream. Dries by contrast is so well thought out, almost meticulous in his ability to tear them apart. Then he just wanders back to his life leaving a trail of destruction behind him, isn’t he meant to be punished for the evil he wrought?
It’s only in cinema where the bad is punished and where redemption plays the biggest role. I don’ see world leaders being punished because of their actions, I don’ even see criminals being punished at the end of their story. Evil is controlling our lives and we can’ even do anything against it – some of us (normal human beings) even vote for them. This results in the fact that many presidents aren’ more than dictators responsible for thousands of casualties. I don’ see any punishment coming in their direction…
Have people reacted to Ex Drummer in the way you hoped?
Yes and no. I didn’ expect the Flemish would react that shocked and that the film would bathe in controversy. I was planning to shock the system and I guess I did.
Are you working on anything else at the moment? Is it as nasty?
My next project is called: “22nd of May’, I have to say that it isn’ that nasty at all, even if the context of the project is a very explosive item nowadays. The great thing is that thanks to “Ex Drummer’ it became easy to find investors.
Bob Baker Fish
