Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier got honest about fatherhood during an in-depth conversation event at the San Sebastián Film Festival. In the Basque city to present his Cannes-winning drama “Sentimental Value” — Norway’s official entry for the best international feature film Oscar race — the director was asked how he “relates” to the film’s main character, Gustav Borg. The fictional film director played by Stellan Skarsgård is professionally renowned but emotionally distant, having traded a healthy relationship with his two daughters for a lauded career in film.
“You’re asking a big question,” pointed out the director. “This is the first film I made while having two children. I said going in, ‘I’m really scared of failing as a father,’ and it’s very symbolic to make this film for me because I don’t want to be Borg. We shot in Oslo, I could go home every night, and that was a big deal for me. That was one of the big achievements of this film for me, too.”
“I was longing to have children,” continued Trier before pivoting into commenting about how feminist advancements in Norway changed the way parents work on set — both male and female. “We’ve had a lot of progression [with] female directors over the last 15, 20 years. That has been great for us male directors too because we have gotten a focus on good set culture where the macho energy is lessened. It’s not just tough guys but also private conversations about balancing being an artist with the demands on you as a director, and also having children.”
“The feminist discourse around cinema has helped men allow ourselves this bigger freedom of figuring out open conversations around how we make movies,” he highlighted, before adding that he feels he is an “okay father even though I’m a film director.”
The filmmaker said he was being “very personal” with his answer to the question because he felt it was an “important one,” especially given he had children later in life and wanted to be a “responsible parent.” Trier recalled a moment during the pre-production phase of “Sentimental Value” when assistant director Lars Thomas told him to leave the office to catch his daughter’s kindergarten play. “Just run now. You don’t want to be Gustav Borg,” said Thomas. “I saw the play and wept because she was great. I’m being a bit cheesy here, forgive me, but those things matter.”
Trier’s preoccupations with a healthy set are also a testament to his directing philosophy. When speaking about his role on set, the filmmaker said his job is to sit next to the camera and show actors “love.” “It sounds cheesy, but it really is. And if I’m not open to the possibility of the unexpected, we won’t create something that has life.”
“The directorial position is so often this man of power,” he reiterated. “It’s macho bullshit. I feel the opposite. Yes, I will have to lead the team and make up my mind and be quick, but ultimately, it’s a humble position of just gratitude. Like, ‘O.K., we are going to try this thing and we could fuck it up but I believe in you.’ That’s what matters. Outside the set, we’ve got to do a lot of fighting to get the money and make sure no one steps on our creativity, but on set we have to be humble towards the actors.”
The Norwegian auteur also retains full control creatively outside of the set, emphasizing that he won’t negotiate his final cut rights. “I’ve had [final cut] since film one,” he said when recalling how he spent some time in the U.S. following the success of his 2006 debut “Reprise,” which got picked up by Miramax and did well outside of Europe. When Trier tried to make his sophomore feature in the U.S. afterwards, he realized the industry post the 2008 crisis was not as open to creative autonomy and auteurship as they were in the late ’90s, when major studios launched independent labels and placed their chips on more daring filmmakers.
“To me, it’s a moral implication of taking responsibility for what the actors give a director,” he added of final cut. “If they show their emotions, their bodies, I carry the responsibility of what they bring to the final product.”
Once Trier realized he wouldn’t manage to make his sophomore feature within the U.S. studio system, the director looked back to his home country. The result was “Oslo, August 31st,” which he called a “panic reaction” to taking too long to follow up on his debut. “When I did ‘Reprise,’ 80% of directors only made one film,” he pointed out, adding that his second feature spawned out of a desire to prove he could make a film “really fast.”
Trier made a point to emphasize that his English-language debut, “Louder Than Bombs,” might have featured major American talent such as Jesse Eisenberg, but was still made within the European financing model. “I only work in the European financing system, and I’m super happy about it. It’s given me a platform to express myself freely,” he said, noting that this freedom is “constantly under political threat.”
“Right-wing political movements are always trying to diminish the idea of soft money support for the arts across most countries in Europe,” he continued. “It’s important that we have a system that protects free expression through the arts. We need support. Most art has always been supported by someone with an intention of not just making money, but supporting artistic expression.”
The director emphasized the importance of the European financing model not only when it comes to production but, vitally, distribution. “I think it’s important to be aware that there are incentives to distribute films between our cultures. So when I grew up watching Pedro Almodóvar’s films, and what [I] like about him is the feeling he has a universe which is his. When I was growing up, I didn’t want to see him go to L.A. and do a heist movie.”
Neon will open Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” in limited release on Nov. 7. The San Sebastián Film Festival runs Sept. 19-27
