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Exclusive Interview With Director Damián Szifrón On Wild Tales

Argentine director Damián Szifrón is about to break out in a major way, internationally. His dark comedy-thriller Wild Tales, a collection of six revenge stories that he wrote and directed, reportedly received a ten-minute standing ovation when it premiered at Cannes.

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How long have you been thinking about these stories? Are they recent or did you come up with these long ago?

Damián Szifrón: The first one is old. I had that idea a long time ago and I always thought of it as a great short film. I didn’t find where to put it or I didn’t want to make shorts anymore. I was making other feature films. But it was there. Then, I was writing other features, a science-fiction trilogy which took very, very long and I couldn’t finish it… these small ideas began to appear and they completely took me out of the other stuff I was writing. So, I said, I think there’s something here, and I let them grow, but not to allow them to become a new feature film. I tried to compress the story and the conflicts to their very minimal expression.

Some were very powerful short stories and they made me freer as a writer, because I could end something perhaps in a night, two nights. Suddenly, I had four, five, six [stories] and I noticed that they were all connected and linked thematically. All I needed was a title that explained the whole thing. Wild Tales was feeding. Afterward, I thought of inventing a character that comes out from a story and gets into the other, or to have something that links the whole thing, or have a final scene with all of the characters meeting. I used to think that in the wedding [the final story] the other main characters from the story could appear dancing over the final titles. But, it was not the nature of the thing.

I think it was more similar to an anthology book, and I truly love anthology books. Usually, you don’t get the same director [for each chapter]. As one person, you can control the energy of the whole thing and make it feel like a single experience.

How has your experience on television helped you for making shorter stories on film?

Damián Szifrón: I’m sure it has. I’m not afraid of diversity. I truly enjoy the different stories and to have them all together in the same film. I like the cuts from one to the other. Initially, I like that one’s in a restaurant during the night with the rain, and then you cut to another one on the road, in the desert with the sun.

The musical score from Gustavo Santolalla is very folk-sounding. It doesn’t mesh well with the absurd, dark humor of the stories. Why did you choose him to do the music?

Damián Szifrón: I truly love spaghetti westerns, and most of directors born in the Seventies do, because we saw all of those films. I truly like the fact that you have Morricone and Piccioni… all of the people who made those wonderful soundtracks, they connect more wit the feelings of the heroes than the real situations. You have these calm tunes that are very deep and they give the whole thing a more epic scale. I like the way it sounds. It makes the whole thing weird. I think [Wild Tales] is a weird movie more than an action movie. That’s how I planned the sound.

Were you inspired by other revenge films?

Damián Szifrón: No. There are a lot of people that talk about the Monsters films that Dino Risi made in Italy back in the sixties. I hadn’t seen those films before shooting this one. I tried to find references and, truly, I didn’t. Of course, I think of Pulp Fiction and films like that. But, suddenly, I finally saw the Monsters films and there is a lot of energy, and a sideways aspect of that film that plays well.

Have you been coming up with more of these stories?

Damián Szifrón: I have some more, but they were not as wild as these ones [in the film]. One was a very intelligent thief story. They were short and powerful, but they were not wild. I think, eventually, we could have a sequel, called More Tales or More Wild Tales. But, for me, I’m happy with this [film]. I don’t need the sequel. But I do like to write short stories, definitely.

What is up next for you?

Damián Szifrón: I’m writing some new stuff, after what’s going on with [Wild Tales]. I’ve received a lot of screenplays but a lot of invitations to write something new for American audiences and in English, so I’m thinking of doing a film in English as a next step.

That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Damián very much for his time!