Belgian Directors Give Cinema Master Class at the  Cannes Film Festival 2009

How the Dardeene Brothers make great films

Amongst the bustle and hype of the Cannes Film Festival, sandwiched in between the dozens of parallel film showings, an important and very interesting annual event almost goes unnoticed at Cannes: the Cinema Master Class (Leçon du Cinema), this year given by the acclaimed French-speaking Belgian directors Jean -Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Looking very relaxed and casual, in front of a packed auditorium with many disappointed Festival participants left outside, « the Dardenne Brothers », as they are known, both told us in their own way in one-and-a-half hours the technique of how they make their successful films- of course always together. « Neither of us considers himself  a film director » Jean-Pierre told us, « each of us is half a director, and together we make up one director, indivisible »

The Dardenne brothers are no newcomers to Cannes- in fact all their films after 1996 have come to the Festival and won one or other award. In 1996 their first major fiction film, »La Promesse » (The Promise) written and directed by them was presented in Cannes at the parallel event of the « Quinzaine des Realisateurs »(« the Directors Fortnight ») and created a stir, going on to win several international awards. Their next film « Rosetta » won the Palme d'Or in 1999 (the first ever Belgian film to do so) and the main actress in it Emilie Dequenne won the best Actress Award although she had never acted in a film before. In 2002 their following film « Le Fils » (« The Son ») won the Best Actor Award for Olivier Gourmet and in 2005 they won the Palme d'Or for the second time with the film « L'Enfant »(« The Child »). Their most recent film « La Silence de Lorna » (Lorna's Silence ») was selected for the Festival in 2008 and won the Best Scenario Award. As the brothers are both only in their fifties, we can expect to see many more films fom them in  Cannes.

So how do they make these interesting  and successful films? The Master Class focussed on the methodology and technique of film making rather than on the choice of subject- matter and content of the films, though we were told that their philosophy was to make a movie only when they feel they have something worthwhile to say. They feel that a work of art has an impact on society and their films, though fictional, are realistic depictions of the life, problems, conflicts and aspirations of working class people in Belgium, dealing amongst others, with parent-child relationships, social exploitation, alienation, marginalisation. But they tell us, to make a film, you must not just find an idea- you must find a character, situations, objects, locations. Their ideas come from observing carefully the world around them, listening to people and their stories, discussing between them what they have seen and heard. Their starting point is always real life.

The Dardenne Brothers have had no formal training in cinema and appear to do most things  differently than the conventional rules of film making . Jean Pierre studied  drama  and Luc  philosophy but  after their studies they started working together as assistants to director Armand Gatti, making documentaries. Since they launched into fictional film making themselves two decades ago, they produce their own films, write their own scenarios and direct their films always together as a team. In fact, as they explained, they prefer to do themselves tasks other film makers delegate, in order to have full control on the process. For example, they do their own casting and interview and choose themselves their actors. They made a conscious decision that they do not want well known actors in their films, so that the audience has no previous point of reference for the face and can concentrate undistracted on the character presented in the film. They advertise for actors, interview even non- professionals or new graduates,  and after the pre-selection, test the short-listed 2 or 3 actors with real scenes from the film before final selection. Their directing style is to allow the actors to use improvistion and spontaneity around the scenario, often making up their own dialogue. And they let the actors fill in themselves elements about the past of their characters, believing that the less you tell the actors, and the more freedom you give them,  the better.

The choice of location is also made by the Dardenne brothers themselves, mostly in and around their native region of Liège in the south of Belgium. They video extensively different locations, even acting out scenes themselves or with the actors to determine the best spots and shooting angles. They rehearse extensively on the spot and only shoot a scene when they feel the actors are  completely ready – which means that they normally  shoot a scene only 2 or 3 times at most. They prefer to shoot the scenes in the sequences  they appear in the film. Much of the shooting  is by hand -held camera, and the camera often  follows the character closely, sometimes from behind, being part of the action rather than a neutral observer from an on-looker's viewpoint. They shoot in natural light or normal indoor light conditions – the electrician's intervention being only to strengthen the existing lighting  rather than project light. The soundtrack is mostly that  recorded during the shooting, with natural sounds and background noises being often preferred to music or artificially created sound effects. Finally, no make up is used on the actors (with the exception of their most recent film), natural face colour being preferred ( to the point that skin colour and reaction can be an important factor in the choice of an actor, as was the case in Rosetta).

All in all, I found this year's Master Class  from the Dardenne Brothers  fascinating as well as very  educational for any aspiring film maker, and Jean-Pierre's and Luc's  style of presentation  direct, honest and engaging as well as humourous. They responded to questions from the presenter and commented on selected clips from their films rather than giving a dry talk, which made it even more interesting.

Started by the Festival in 1991 with  a Master Class given by Francesco Rossi, the event has attracted a list of prestigious lecturers that reads like the Who is Who in film making: Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone, Milos Forman, Nanni Moretti,Wim Wenders, Wong Kar-wai, Stephen Frears,Sydney Pollack, Ousmane Sembene, Bernard Tavernier, Francis Coppola, Theo Angelopoulos, Youssef Chachine, Emir Kusturice. Hearing them speak  on cinema , sharing their knowledge and experience of film making and learning what are the important things  for each of them in their creative process is a real  priviledge and an interesting, though little known, aspect of the Cannes Film Festival.

To find out more about previous  cinema Master Classes at the Cannes Film Festival, read the book  « Les Leçons de cinéma du Festival de Cannes « – Collective Work (in French) 320p.  , published in May 2007 by  Panama  ISBN : 9782755702552

By Joanna Tachmintzis

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