2023-05-13 07:00:12
On the occasion of its “Portrait of Los Angeles” cycle, the Forum des images received filmmaker David Robert Mitchell. Inhabited by the works of those who had filmed it before him, he superbly staged the city of angels in “Under the Silver Lake”.
Originally from the suburbs of Detroit, David Robert Mitchell arrived in Los Angeles for his third feature film. Photo LAMACHERE/SIPA
Published on May 13, 2023 at 09:00
IHe has seen films of it, and his own are full of references: in three feature films, David Robert Mitchell proves his mastery of a wide range of American genres. A reinterpretation of the teen movie, The Myth of the American Sleepover (2010, unpublished in France), his idea of Hitchcockian horror with It Follows in 2014, and then Under the Silver Lake, hallucinating film noir, a little shunned during its passage in the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2018.
Originally from the suburbs of Detroit, “DRM” only landed in Los Angeles for its third feature film. But he knows by heart the classics that depict the city: he is well suited to draw a portrait of them. When we meet the American filmmaker before his first session presentation at the Forum des images, in Paris, we discover a man who certainly does not look 48 years old. And who doesn’t seem to have come down from an eleven-hour plane flight either… For his carte blanche, smart, he presents two films “who are dear to him”, but that, above all, he evokes the air of nothing in his own feature films.
“‘Under the Silver Lake’ is a collection of micro-events, images and clues from my experience” Michael de Luca Productions – Good Fear Film – Pastel
First of all, Private (1973), which already haunted the balconies of posh villas… « Is the atmosphere of Robert Altman’s film reflected in mine? A little, but it’s the fault of this goddamn city, and all these films regarding Los Angeles that submerge my subconscious. warns the filmmaker. Afterwards, Body Double (1984), by Brian de Palma: “The most ‘Los Angeles’ movie of all time. I loved rediscovering it once settled in California. It’s a brilliant work on voyeurism, strange and full of changes of tone…”
He is reminded that there are many Body Double In Under the Silver Lake. He nods laughing. And continues: « Of course, just as there are many Courtyard window In Body Double. I love Hitchcock’s films but de Palma takes his language, his techniques, pieces of history and transforms them, takes them further. » Mitchell’s third film also has this “patchwork” side crossed by references and reinterpretations; the filiation is essential, but we will not make him say that he prefers De Palma. “Do you realize what that would entail? I like both of them. I’m not very good at these rankings that sanctify. »
Sarah (Riley Keough) evokes Naomi Watts in the David Lynch film “Mulholland Drive”. MICHAEL DE LUCA PRODUCTIONS – GOOD FEAR FILM – PASTEL
David Robert Mitchell has his own relationship to idols. He cites them willingly, but denies doing so for free. “I’m for the ‘light’ reference, which doesn’t exist for the wink but to share a feeling, what the film arouses in me. » Its main character, Sam (Andrew Garfield), for example, pursues a young blond woman, Sarah (Riley Keough), who cannot fail to recall Naomi Watts in a certain David Lynch film on a certain Californian road. « Mulholland Drive ? I built myself by idolizing Lynch. I wouldn’t want to imitate him, especially not. I love her so much it must be accidental. Because I had already been told followingwards The Myth, for which I thought of anything but that. I’m probably inhabited…” In fact, Sarah evokes a completely different reference: the young woman speaks to Sam from a swimming pool, “the” scene of Something’s Got to Give, unfinished – and cult – film by George Cukor with Marilyn Monroe.
The director is aiming for the same thing with Los Angeles, and continues to reflect images that we already know, while opening new windows. It’s the look of a Michigan native who grew up” super far from the movies, while loving them very much “. He also shot his first two feature films in Detroit. Then moved to Los Angeles, a city he struggled to ” apprehend » at the start, to say to himself that he was at home there. But Under the Silver Lake passes for a “Guide du routard bis” created by a native who knows the city like the back of his hand, with places that we have not seen elsewhere. He tempers: “I come to LA with images in my head, seen in all the movies my whole life. Suddenly, I can reevaluate them by comparing them with the real thing. But the reality presented in the film no longer really exists. It’s a collection of micro-events, images and clues from my experience arriving in town. »
MICHAEL DE LUCA PRODUCTIONS – GOOD FEAR FILM – PASTEL
All the same, we come across immutable landmarks. How many times has Griffith Park Observatory been filmed since The Fury of Living ? The references even begin to intertwine, as in La La Land, where the characters watch the Nicholas Ray film and then race down the hill. David Robert Mitchell also stages it in his feature film on Los Angeles. Sam performs a skit with the statue of James Deen in front of the observatory. When asked what the intensity of the place is, “DRM” sketches a smile. “I wish I had a more interesting answer, a director’s answer, let’s say… But I love this place, and the films that have exploited it. Just going there is magic. In Under the Silver Lake, I think I scrutinized the statue with my gaze as a director. But in real life, it’s not even a movie anymore. It’s just the whole soul of LA in one place! »
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