about output next film Ao last Neanderthal , Based on the novel Ao old man (ed Auberon).
Marc is a good friend for several years, including the sensitivity on the subject of our prehistoric ancestors is very close to mine, and it is therefore with great anticipation that I expect to be able to get to show the film version of his first novel *. A truly great film about Neanderthals, what exciting news! Of course, Marc has seen the movie premiere and then, as I am very curious and concerned about the outcome, I asked him many questions about his feelings about the adaptation of his novel.
We had the idea to make this discussion a short interview to share with you the opinion of Mark on this film event which will be released in September in all France but with a large tour starts previews these days (see details of the tour HERE)
course, if you want to react to those comments, feel free to leave comments, Mark or myself will answer you with pleasure.
Enjoy
* We'll talk soon no doubt of his third from elsewhere (which concludes the trilogy of the last Neanderthal) I think the greater good (see this post of February)
Interview with Marc Klapczynski.
The opinion of the author on the film THE LAST AO Neanderthals adapted from his novel. ER: How did the project to adapt your novel?
K. Ao, the book was published in 2003, and if I remember correctly, Jacques contacted me late in the year. He had read the book all at once, and he was very enthusiastic. He wanted to see quickly. We met in Paris in early 2004. I remember that impatient because the transfer of rights to adapt a little too dragged his taste! Finally, the film has taken six years to complete, but during all this time Jacques has never ceased to be impatient! I pay tribute to the extraordinary tenacity and strength of conviction he has shown to achieve his ends. I followed the ups and downs, periods of doubt, disappointment, I can testify!
ER: Six years ... And during that time do you want to give your opinion about the sets, costumes? Is that at some point you have participated in writing the script?
MK No. I would probably have imposed my participation but I felt the reluctance of Jacques. I knew he was afraid they can not agree and the project bogged down, especially since I had no experience in writing a screenplay. We do not yet know enough. Plus the uncertainty and difficulties he faced, he might have thrown up.
For cons, I think it was important to him that I support. It took into account my comments and my suggestions. The presence of a polar bear and a hybrid child, for example, I'm not there for nothing.
ER: Haaa ... The case of a polar bear! Tell us a little because there may be people who will believe that there are polar bears on the Riviera or that Neanderthals lived on the ice!
MK The case of a polar bear! In my opinion, we still hear about it!
No, the men of this time did not hunt polar bears! This is a unique event, highly unlikely, as part of a novel and a movie. Polar bears have been around at least 500 000 years! As they do today, they probably attended the ice floes of northern Europe and Siberia. Occasionally, they may sink into the earth behind a reindeer or musk oxen. At the time, men do not live in those areas where they will reach a sustainable position as 20 000 years later. That's why nobody has ever seen polar bears. I'll confiding something Ao is the only one to have met one!
ER: Thanks for the confidence! What I felt while reading your novel is that it is precisely because this meeting, the trigger of the story is extraordinary, almost fantastic, that builds the legendary character of Ao "the man bear ". I hope this will be very noticeable in the film. Then, just after having seen what is your opinion about the movie?
MK I think it took a lot of courage to make this film. In the absence of benchmarks and precedents, it was necessary to innovate, invent, as far as possible avoid the pitfalls and clichés, try to give the characters and situations of credibility while maintaining sufficient visibility for an unsuspecting audience. The exercise was dangerous.
In the end, it gives a haunting film, a tale of initiation that can touch all audiences. The realism of the scenes, combined with a poetic and idealized approach to the nature of the report make it an unusual film, carried by a couple of endearing actors inhabited their roles. There are a lot of energy in this film. The reconstructions are particularly neat. The emotion is flush throughout. Jacques has managed the feat of making a film at once dramatic and intimate in a prehistoric context grabbing.
I do not want to reveal anything but I can say that we take in an eyeful!
Some may find the connection too idealistic or too pressed, others will seek to raise a few anachronisms and approximations, but I'm sure most of the spectators let themselves be carried away by Ao and Aki in this prehistoric tale to through beautiful landscapes in Europe. With a nice soundtrack.
ER: You have all the appearance of being very happy with the way in which your novel has been brought to the screen! The adaptation is faithful?
MK When we met for the first time, there are more than six years ago, Jacques told me he wanted to make a very faithful adaptation of my novel and I know that it was sincere. But as many as writing and rewriting the screenplay, he found it difficult to wear certain aspects of the novel to the screen, including all the psychological part, the changing relationship between Ao and Aki, difficulty of subtle exchanges and situations, complicated to implement effectively and images in a film with dialogues reduced. There are situations
parent, the struggle with the bear, and Ao Aki course, the relationship with the child, the spiritual quest of the hero who seeks its place in a changing world, the next tale of initiation, western prehistoric The humanistic approach ... The novel is the material from which the film was shaped. But if parentage is obvious in the end composition is original. There are scenes revisited, inspirations and extrapolations which are also a personal work. The novel and film have their own consistency.
Jacques had to do a lot of concessions and fight for his project. But today I know he is happy. Insofar as I allowed him to make the film he dreamed of achieving and it is a beautiful film, I will not hide my joy! There was initially Ao, a novel. Now there is a trilogy and a film. I just finished a youth version of Ao which was close to my heart. There is also a very nice album, a poetic text, beautifully illustrated by one Emmanuel Roudier ago ... your comics. Prehistory and Neanderthals are honored. And each piece contributes in its own way. In the present context, the disappearance of this man that can challenge us.
Neanderthal fascinated me since childhood. Like you, like Jacques, I am proud to have contributed to his rehabilitation and the interest it today. Where Ao, the book was published, seven years ago, the assumption of crosses between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon was considered fanciful. Today, we discover that this man we sent a small part of his genetic heritage before it disappears ... In his film, Jacques took over with all his energy and conviction. Against some opinion, he dared me to follow my intuition. In fact, he was ready. He waited just read it all somewhere!
In the end, Jacques made the film he saw reading the novel. It is his vision that has imaged by following the direction towards which resulted in his own sensibility.
ER: You can specify a bit?
MK A movie is always a shortcut with one side a bit cartoonish. With less than two hours to tell a story, you must choose a direction that will give life to images. Do not forget that Ao is only the first part of my trilogy. With a thousand pages, it can afford to refine and nuance.
Beyond recognizing the full humanity of Neanderthal that I defend, and found perfectly in the film, the "pacifism" of this man possibly be considered "feature of the case" would be an extrapolation .
In my novels, men Neanderthals are generally no more peaceful or more aggressive than the Cro-Magnon. They are simply human. These are formidable hunters, the first to have managed to stay in Europe for a period of glaciation. They are the ones who have tried more different kinds of stones. For nearly a hundred thousand years, they remained the masters of the tundra. I am convinced that the encounter between these two humanities has contributed to cultural shifts that characterize this period. That's the approach I advocate in my novels, against the bias of a Cro-Magnon conqueror and innovative disembark in Europe with its wealth of artist parietal and new techniques in his luggage. Want
consider Neanderthal man as a representative of a predetermined group culturally stereotyped behavior, would seem simplistic. You can not simultaneously claim to full humanity and denying its diversity. The behavioral diversity is precisely a characteristic of humanity. It should be borne in mind that talking about Neanderthal man is to speak of a species or at least a subspecies, not a nation, ethnic group or even of a race. Between a Neanderthal in the Middle East, plains and plateaus of central Europe or southern Spain, there was necessarily very significant cultural differences. Some were probably more peaceful than others, including within the groups, as individuals. That is the only certainty.
In cultures of peoples of other hunters and gatherers, taking life is not a trivial matter. The relationship to death is complex and ritualized. This is what is in my novels. Some clans are reluctant to take the lives of others because they fear the resentment of death and family, others the contrary, it increased power draw.
In the film, Ao is resolutely peaceful. But ultimately, this approach does not betray the spirit of the novel. Ao Aki and belong to this category of men and women who are breaking down walls and move humanity.
ER: Thanks Marc.
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