Spoiler Interview: Ruben Östlund on ‘Force Majeure’

 

You talk about the films in Sweden that we’re not seeing over here. What else is happening over there? We get a lot of the art house films but are there a lot of genre films, are there a lot of action movies coming out Sweden that we just don’t get to see?

I think they make around 30 Swedish movies a year, so it’s not very much. Most of them are like in the middle. They’re not very commercial, they are not very artistic. They in between, and I think that’s because of the funding system. The funding system was invented to support artistic movies, but nowadays we have one leg in the business, film business, and one leg in the artistic part of the film industry. So the films end up to be nothing.

Yeah, the problem with film is that, next to architecture it’s the most expensive art form on the planet. You want to make something back from it. You can’t always take a loss.

Yeah, yeah.

 

“All the films I have made before have never made any money.”

 

Did you have to convince someone that Force Majeure would make money?

No, no actually not. And all the films I have made before have never made any money. For me, that’s…

How are you making money off of these?

Then I mean, we’re making money during the production of it. So if we’re producing a new film we can get salary for ourselves. For me, it has been very important that my films have been in Cannes, because that’s a way of motivating; they have artistic value you must admit.

Even if they only make it in, you must admit it.

Yeah. So my three last films have had a premiere in Cannes and that’s been very important for me.

Does everyone at Cannes just know you now?

Yeah, this year I think they quite know me, most of the people there.

That’s cool. Have you done a film that didn’t get into Cannes?

First film.

How would it feel if you didn’t get in one year?

Well, of course it would have been painful because we had also had this goal so outspoken, so my second feature I said, “Okay, we are aiming for Cannes. We will have a release in 2008 in Cannes.” I think that attitude is much more common here in the U.S. but in Sweden it’s like, you shouldn’t think too much about yourself.

You’d sound like an egomaniac.

Yeah, exactly. And they don’t understand. In Sweden they have a problem understanding that by setting high goals you are increasing your performance. You are making the performance better. But instead it’s like Lutherans, you know that Lutheran attitude.

Modesty, etc.

Yeah.

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