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2011 Festival Feature Films (March 24-27)

Director Frédéric Sojcher presents Hitler à Hollywood

director Frédéric Sojcher screenplay Renaud Andris, Lionel Samain starring Maria de Medeiros, Micheline Presle, Wim Willaert, Hans Meyer
running time 1 h 26 min general audience

Synopsis

In this movie, Pulp Fiction actress Maria de Medeiros presents herself as the director of a documentary paying homage to another actress whom she admires, Micheline Presle, whose career started in the early 1930s. Evoking the renowned filmmakers with whom she worked, Micheline Presle mentions Luis Aramcheck, who directed her in 1939. Maria tries to track the mysterious director and in doing so is unaware that she may be putting her life in danger. The fragments of one of Aramcheck’s films, missing since the Second World War, launch de Madeiros on the trail of a forbidden work that could have changed the history of international filmmaking forever, Hitler à Hollywood. Using the form of a treasure hunt, Hitler à Hollywood is a thriller that blends archives and recomposed images, true or false interviews and action scenes.

director/screenwriter
Frédéric Sojcher

actress/director
Maria de Medeiros

actress
Micheline Presle

Interview with director Frédéric Sojcher

The challenge is to interest not only the movie fans, but also the larger audience. The film is a kind of thriller but it is also a comedy; like a comic strip with pictures.

The film has a very special visual universe, what’s the main meaning of it?
It’s like a game between present and past, between main actors and secondary actors. Also, it was for me, a way to caution the audience: Be attentive, it’s not a documentary; it’s a fiction, because I don’t like to manipulate people.

Who influenced you?
The comedy of Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder influenced me. I like David Lynch’s movies, the strangeness, between reality and fantastic. So, I like a lot of different things, for instance Kubrick, for me he’s one of the best directors in the history of cinema.

Javier Bardem was in the film but you cut him. Why did you cut him?
I love Javier Bardem, to me he’s one of the best actors nowadays, but when you’re making a film, you have to choose what’s best for the film. The scene with Javier Bardem was perfect as a scene, but not for the film.

Does your film, in the end, give an answer?
It gives some answers, but not all the answers. My hope, and that’s why I like the movie, is that after seeing it, the audience continue to think about it.

From an interview with Frédéric Sojcher at Cinefest, Miskolc (Hungary), Sept. 12, 2010.