The director of ‘Furiosa’ and creator of the action saga Mad Max reflects on the language of cinema, the power of stories, the opportunity of a female warrior and Elsa Pataky
Legend has it that the Mad Max saga was born in the emergency room of the hospital where a doctor named George Miller (Brisbane, 1945). On the other side of the zoom, from London, and just after having walked through Cannes, the now director neither agrees nor disagrees. He simply lets the myth grow. “This is how we understand the world. We tell ourselves stories to console ourselves, accompany us and understand what surrounds us. It is never a good idea to contradict a good story,” he comments with amusement. At 75 years old, Miller seems to enjoy almost everything: his profession, the cinephile enthusiasm with which his latest action delirium has been received and the ridiculous fact that an interview that could have been done in person a day earlier, ends up being perform in the distance because of the rush. ‘Furiosa: From the Mad Max Saga’ It is the fifth installment of the series and, another reason for contradiction and even laughter, the first of all in terms of chronological order. Now we forget about the ‘Crazy Max’ and we focus on the furious Furiosa, which gives life Anya Taylor-Joy close to perfection. And the rage.
- It has been written that Furiosa is the first icon of the latest feminist wave. Do you accept this definition as good?
- I think my role is more modest. I am, first of all, a storyteller and the fact that the protagonist ends up being a woman obeys a narrative logic. We wanted to make a film that took place entirely on the road. I speak of ‘Fury Road’. He had to spend it all in three days and two nights. Then we think about the human element. And that was when the idea of a plot that revolved around five wives fleeing from a warlord arose. Let’s say that, naturally, we thought that the one who would lead that escape was a female warrior. Something like this is a constant in many cultures. If it had been a man, it would have been the same old story…
- Was there not, then, a vindictive motivation, so to speak?
- If anything a personal reason. I went to an all-boys school. When I studied at university, only 30% of the students were women. And that has been changing until the situation we find ourselves in today. Which is not equality yet, but we are tending towards it. It is inevitable that this would end up creeping into history. But I don’t consider myself a pioneer. Before Furiosa was Lieutenant Ripley. And I remember that in the ‘westerns‘ that I saw as a child, among the overwhelming majority of men, there were exceptional figures like Calamity Jane. Furiosa is the heir of Lieutenant Ripley and Calamity Jane. Furthermore, I would dare to say that the warrior woman has been in all folklore and children’s stories. But yes, it has been difficult to assume that action heroes are also women.
- In his films there is little talking and many times the dialogues are almost part of the soundtrack, they are not significant…
- The syntax of cinema that we still use in the era of special effects is the one created in the era of silent films. This is a 130-year-old art and the fundamental concepts were already established in its first soundless stage. When it comes to action movies, we haven’t come this far since Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd. They have already developed the main resources. They were silent films, but they had sound inside them. A movie should be perfectly understood by a deaf person. I aspire, like Hitchcock, to make films that do not need subtitles in Japan.
- On some occasions he has used the expression pure cinema to refer to the action genre. It’s funny because at the festivalscigars‘Like Cannes, what you see the least is action cinema.
- For me it is pure cinema. You could use the analogy of music. I try to make my cinema look like music is heard and that the relationship between the score and what is heard is similar to that created by the images on the screen.
- In the late 70s and early 80s when the saga emerged, the dystopia it illustrated was identified with the future. Now, what we see is almost an allegory of the present with a society with a shortage of resources controlled by a few and on the brink of climate cataclysm… How do you handle the role of prophet?
- All movies are allegories of the present. Whether set in the past or the future, they all talk about the present. All the stories we tell ourselves have a single function and that is to contemplate ourselves and try to glimpse who we are.
- A few days ago, Coppola said that you shouldn’t trust politicians to fix anything. Only the artists have the key. Do you share that idea?
- Until a certain point. It is a constant in any culture that art or stories explain and propose solutions to the world’s problems. When we did not know what the mechanism of volcanoes or tsunamis was, we invented God. Right now, thanks to science, we understand many more things, but we still lack many answers. The mysteries are still there and growing. There are still many things that baffle us and make us afraid. And the stories that cinema provides us, for example, are a way of facing our uncertainties. But is nothing new. It is not a problem for today’s politicians. I live in Australia and live with one of the oldest cultures in the world. Their stories explain the cosmos, the stars, how the world was created, where to find food… It is the best possible example of what I am trying to reason about. Theirs are stories that explain the unknown and make the world coherent. Coppola is right, but he is not new…
- What was it like to incorporate the first Spanish woman into the saga? I mean Elsa Pataky.
- Elsa and the entire Hemsworth family (Chris shares the spotlight with Anya Taylor-Joy) are truly exceptional. The way they lead their lives seems to me to be really wise, despite their youth. I remember that we needed an actress who rode a horse very well. I knew that she and her children did horseback riding. As soon as I suggested it to her, she showed incredible ability to jump and shoot from the saddle. Then later, the need arose for an actress who rode a motorcycle very well. And once again she proved to be an expert. She is in excellent physical shape. Furthermore, this way the children could be with their parents during the filming.
- Will there be more Mad Max installments?
- There are already more stories written focused on understanding the context of Fury Road. I would love to work with other younger directors. For now, we’ll see how it works.’Furious‘. But yes, I would like to continue.
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