The makers of three Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated foreign films shared the secrets of their craft —and admiration for one another at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s 10th annual Foreign Film Symposium.
Oscar-nominated Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom moderated the panel featuring “Kon-Tiki” directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Roenning of Norway, “A Royal Affair” director Nikolaj Arcel of Denmark and Austrian director Michael Haneke, whose film “Amour” also earned Oscar nods for picture and director this week.
“It’s been a very good week,” Haneke said through an interpreter before Saturday’s symposium on the Los Angeles campus of Loyola Marymount University.
Hallstrom, whose film “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” is up for best picture at the Golden Globes, asked his filmmaking colleagues detailed questions about their approach to the craft during the 75-minute symposium. Do you rehearse scenes? Do you use editing to alter performances? Do you keep the camera rolling between takes? Do you act out the scenes in your head before directing your actors?
Haneke said he rarely rehearses his actors and doesn’t allow them to improvise. Through storyboarding, he knows exactly where the performers need to be in each scene.
“Because I wrote it myself, I have to, in a way, act it out,” he said. “Otherwise there would be nothing.”
The other filmmakers said they also keep rehearsals to a minimum to preserve the spontaneity of the scenes.
Asked which contemporary filmmakers they admire, the 40-year-old Arcel pointed to Haneke and said, “This guy.”
Sandberg, 41, and Roenning, 40, also said they’ve been inspired by their colleagues on stage.
“I’m sitting between Haneke and Hallstrom,” Roenning said incredulously.
Haneke refused to answer, because he said whomever he neglects to mention would be upset.
The 70th annual Golden Globe Awards will be presented on Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and broadcast live on NBC.
