Cinema for me is…
Emile in 23 Frames
1. Describe yourself in ten words.
Calm, detached, empathetic, kind, interested, dreamy, nostalgic, silly, observer, creative.
2. Your best quality? Your worst habit?
Good observer, overthinking.
3. Your dream job?
Movie director/ writer.
4. What do you like most about your country?
It’s calm and it has good living conditions.
5. Your favorite dish in your country?
Kniddelen, a specialty of Luxembourg.
6. Which word or phrase in your native language do you like the most and what does it mean?
Geckeg. It means silly and/or crazy. I like the way it sounds.
7. What European capital have you visited lately?
Paris.
8. Other than your own, which European country would you love to live in?
France.
9. What does Europe mean to you? 3 values.
Equality, safety, democracy.
10. What film made you fall in love with cinema?
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014, CA).
11. Your favorite film theatre? What do you like about it?
Ciné Utopia in Luxembourg City. I have plenty of memories there, almost all positive. It’s a very welcoming place that screens all kinds of movies.
12. Who is your movie hero?
Daniel Craig’s James Bond.
13. Which movie director would you like to be?
Xavier Dolan, because while I don’t necessarily like all his movies, I can’t help but admire his willpower and the diversity of his filmography.
14. Briefly describe your favorite scene.
The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011, US): The beginning of the movie, more particularly the segment about “nature” and “grace” . As always with Terrence Malick’s latest movies, it hardly follows conventional scene structures: brief images of a child admiring nature, of a family playing together, of sunflowers and moving curtains are interwoven in a montage that is, to me, deeply evocative of childhood. It perfectly embraces the erratic nature of memories.
15. What are the 3 best European films you have seen in the last year?
Jusqu’à la garde (Xavier Legrand, 2017, FR)
Chiamami col tuo nome (Luca Guadagnino, 2017, IT)
Climax (Gaspar Noe, 2018, FR)
16. Which film character do you most identify with?
Joel Barish in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004, US).
17. Your favorite soundtrack or song?
Jon Hopkins: Emerald Rush.
18. If you had to live in a movie, which one would you like it to be?
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012, US).
19. Your life becomes a bio-pic. Who plays the role of you?
Gaspard Ulliel.
20. Which talent would you most like to have?
Drawing.
21. What is your most treasured possession?
Family photos.
22. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
All kinds of writing.
23. What is your motto?
It’s all about practice.