CYNTHIA A ENCORE LES CLÉS
29-year-old Argentine director Gonzalo Tobal got the first prize at the Cannes Film Festival Cinefondation three years ago for one of his previous short films, Ahora todos parecen contentos. In CYNTHIA TODAVIA TIENE LAS LLAVES, his new film, a young lady recalls her ex-boyfriend through his memory, his tastes, his appartment. the main difficulty of this film was in the length of some takes that included long parlaments for the actress coordinated with choreography and camera movements. But that decision of mise-en-scène was one of the points that interested me the most to deal with in the making of the film tells the director.

 

Entretien avec Gonzalo Tobal, réalisateur de Cynthia todavia tiene las llaves.

1. What made you first want to make films (a film, an actor, a place, an anecdote…)?
The films I watched when I started getting into the film world, mainly at Sala Lugones, Malba and Bafici in Buenos Aires. The Antoine Doinel saga. By the time I made my first shorfilm I was completely fascinated with “Les 400 coups” and Truffaut´s shortfilm “Les mistons”.

2. Choose three words which best describe your view on cinema. Why?
Trip – Love – Death. The three of these are things that take us out of “normal time” into a new time, which is different. A time out of time. I think films do this same thing: take you out of ordinary life by creating a new time, which is “next” to normal time.

3. Where did you get the idea for this film? Was it difficult to shoot?
I wrote this film after a separation. One day I discovered my ex-girlfriend’s keys in my bag, and wrote the whole monologue in one go, sitting in a café. Then I kept it for a couple of years sleeping in my computer, and I decided to shoot it last year, after another separation. I had been immersed for more than a year in the writing of a feature film script, and I wanted to leave the desk for a while and shoot something that I could do without a big production structure. This film seemed to be easy: just one actress, just one location. But films are never easy. I think the main difficulty of this film was in the length of some takes that included long parlaments for the actress coordinated with choreography and camera movements. It was hard to get a take done where nothing failed. But that decision of mise-en-scène was one of the points that interested me the most to deal with in the making of the film. It was also a problem to solve how to get a good and clean sound, considering all the film relied on the voice of the actress. The location that I liked the most was noisy, and finally we had to stop the traffic in the front street each time we where about to shoot. So this was also something to coordinate with the rest of the things.

4. How did you feel when you found out your film had been selected by LaSemaine de la Critique?
I felt thrilled and honoured to have this opportunity to present the film.