\n<\/p>\n
\n\tJoachim Trier left San Sebastian Film Festival attendees in awe at an event Sunday morning where the Sentimental Value <\/em>director spoke candidly and eloquently about his career.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Danish-Norwegian filmmaker, an Academy Award nominee for his 2021 romantic dramedy The Worst Person in the World<\/em>, is also known for Reprise <\/em>(2006), Oslo, August 31st <\/em>(2011) and Louder Than Bombs <\/em>(2015). His most recent project, winner of Cannes\u2019 Grand Prix this year Sentimental Value<\/em>, is screening here at the 73rd San Sebastian Film Festival.<\/p>\n \n\tThe film follows Trier\u2019s frequent collaborator Renate Reinsve as Nora who, along with her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), are faced to confront their strained relationship with their father, a fading director named Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgard). Elle Fanning also stars in the movie as a U.S. actress, Rachel Kemp, hoping to be in Borg\u2019s next feature.<\/p>\n \n\tTrier spoke \u2014\u00a0and Reinsve, in attendance, watched on \u2014\u00a0at the discussion in San Sebastian where he fielded a myriad of questions about his journey to film stardom and working predominantly in Europe. The director explained how he set the precedent to have final cut on all his films when, in the wake of the success of Reprise<\/em>, he was tasked with finding a U.S. studio to work with.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI need final cut, I\u2019ve had it since film one,\u201d he began. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s a moral implication of taking responsibility for what the actors give a director \u2014\u00a0if they show their emotions, their bodies, whatever \u2014\u00a0we created a movie [and] I carry the responsibility of what they bring to the final product. No one that sits in some studio capacity and invests money should decide that, in my opinion. That\u2019s not how art is made\u2026 [I have] a moral responsibility towards the cinematographer, maybe being away from his or her family for months on end to work on the vision that me, as a director, and all the others in the team created. To have an external power of financial interest come fuck around with that material diminishes the trust between us and the group.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019m not going to shame people,\u201d he added, \u201cbecause it\u2019s damn hard to make a film and many, many, many films are made every year where the director didn\u2019t have final cut, and they\u2019re wonderful films.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTrier admitted that demanding final cut made it \u201ctough\u201d to get a film financed and while some U.S. producers showed immense support, Reprise <\/em>was made out of Oslo, Norway and in collaboration with France. \u201cI\u2019ve worked in the European financing system my whole career and I\u2019m super happy about it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \n\tThe financing system for cinema in Europe, while it has given Trier \u201ca platform to express myself very freely,\u201d he also believes it is constantly under political threat. \u201cRight-wing political movements are always trying to diminish the idea of soft money support for the arts across most countries in Europe\u2026 We need support. And most art has always been supported by someone with an intention of not just making money, but supporting expression and artistic endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tSkarsgard and Fanning in \u2018Sentimental Value\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Neon<\/p>\n \n\tAt the same time, Trier said the need to have total creative control over his films is something that producers should be in support of. \u201cIf you [look at] film history, a lot of the films that commercially worked have also been made by directors that are deeply involved in the script process, deeply involved in the editing and has had a sense of control \u2014\u00a0the achievements of personal expression is at the core of some of the most successful films, financially.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTrier continued that his championing of his actors should be mirrored by financiers\u2019 attitudes towards filmmakers. \u201cMy approach to shielding, protecting, loving, nourishing [actors] is how producers and financiers should work with directors. Don\u2019t employ directors unless you really want to support them and love them and help them, and [same with] writers and editors\u2026 I want Renate to do well, I want her to do something wonderful and I\u2019m proud of Renate as a director. I think financiers should feel like that with directors and the creative team.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAcross the session, Trier covered an extensive range of topics, from grieving the late David Lynch and the intersection of film and love (\u201ctenderness is the new punk!\u201d), to believing in the power of the \u201cEuropean auteur\u201d and the cinematic universes they build. When discussing Sentimental Value<\/em>, Trier, father to two young children, admitted his own fear of failure as a parent played a huge role in writing Skarsgard\u2019s part.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI said going in, \u2018I\u2019m really scared of failing as a father.\u2019 And it\u2019s very symbolic to make this film for me, because I don\u2019t want to be Gustav,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Norway, we have had a lot of progression [for] female directors over the last 15, 20 years, and that has been great for us male directors too, because we have gotten a focus on [a] good set culture, where the macho energy is lessened and it\u2019s not just all tough guys.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThis has allowed filmmakers in Norway to have \u201cprivate conversations\u201d about balancing being an artist with having children, he added. \u201cActually, the feminist discourse around cinema has helped men also allow ourselves bigger freedom of figuring out how we make movies [as parents].\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe San Sebastian International Film Festival 2025 runs Sept. 19-27.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joachim Trier left San Sebastian Film Festival attendees in awe at an event Sunday morning where the Sentimental Value director spoke candidly and eloquently about his career. The Danish-Norwegian filmmaker, an Academy Award nominee for his 2021 romantic dramedy The Worst Person in the World, is also known for Reprise (2006), Oslo, August 31st (2011)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[304,1930,82,2985,5875],"class_list":{"0":"post-22878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cut","9":"tag-films","10":"tag-final","11":"tag-moral","12":"tag-responsibility"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}