Day Watch is in cinemas this week, and to celebrate D+CFilm has an interview with director Timur Bekmambetov for your delectation. We’ve decided to run it in two parts, if that’s okay with you. Tune in tomorrow to read part two. Click here to watch the trailer.

How would you describe the difference between Night Watch and
Day Watch?

Timur Bekmambetov: The first film was very provocative. People said, ‘Wow, there are vampires in Moscow!’ But the second one is more about the story and what was happening with the characters. The first movie was for men, and so perhaps the second one is for women.

Was it harder to make after the success of the first film?

If anything, it was a little bit easier, because we’d already shot something
like 30 per cent of the second movie before the first – we just had to adjust it for release.

Would you say it was a fantasy film?

No. I think it’s a very realistic film – it’s just that something unreal is happening. I don’t like the term fantasy. It’s not that interesting to me. What’s interesting about these films is what’s happening with the main character, Anton, who’s played by Konstantin Khabensky, because he is a real human being. Everybody has two parts, light and dark, and when you have a problem like Anton does in the first movie, with his son, then it becomes a big problem because your whole world, everything breaks apart and all your fears are unleashed. This happens in real life, to real people, and these are Anton’s demons. It’s not a metaphor for human suffering – it is human suffering!

What is the main theme of these films? Is it a comment on the age-old struggle between good and evil?

I think that the main message from the movie is that there is no good and bad in this world, there is only dark and light. There’s a big difference - light represents responsibility and dark represents freedom. This conflict is more real nowadays. We are very smart now. We understand that ‘good’ means what’s good for you, but for another person it can mean the opposite. It’s a really very childish way to see things – it’s very black and white and it doesn’t work. But look at it another way: freedom or responsibility? That’s a very important decision, and we have to make it every day.

So would you say that these are political films?

I think they’re philosophical, which means political, ethical and, I don’t know, sociological. I think it’s a very important question. There’s no discussion of it in the film - it’s just a story, it’s entertaining, and that’s all. I know that the way to deliver a message is to put it in a dramatic context, create conflict, and people will feel this. I’m not a teacher!

There’s a great deal of humour in Day Watch…

Yes. We are healthy enough to be ironic about ourselves!

Particularly in the party scene, where Anton’s son starts to become a man. What can you tell us about that?

It was a real party, and we invited a lot of famous Russian pop-cultural icons. For example, if it had been in London we’d have invited someone like, I don’t know, maybe Madonna! People like celebrities, masses like them, and they are sucking energy from them. They live because they’re sucking energy out of their fans. It happens with politicians too. There was a communist politician there, a big bald guy, and Konstantin, during the party, went up to him and starting singing a communist song. He didn’t know the words! So it’s sort of a fake world, and we decided that that world would be good for the party scene. Celebrities and politicians are really dark. It’s in their nature. Dark means freedom. And they’re really free.

How did you film that scene?

We shot 15 scenes for the movie, but we spread it all out, in a four-hour party. We’d shoot a three-minute scene then spend five minutes reloading the camera. Then we’d shoot a three-minute scene and spend ten minutes preparing. Everything was planned from the beginning. We had the exact timing for every cue. And I invited a TV director to come and control the cameras, because there were 15 of them. It was very interesting behind the scenes. There were ten people: the DoP, me, this guy from TV, the first AD… everyone was in front of the monitors and during the moments when the cameras were all shooting, everyone was like, ‘CAMERA FIVE: LEFT!!! CAMERA EIGHT: RIGHT! AAAAAAHHHH!!!’

Was that difficult to direct?

Energy-wise, it was great, because when you’re shooting normally it’s just the director sitting in front of the monitor, the camera rolls, and then you call, ‘Cut!’ The process is very logistical. Sometimes it’s different, like when you’re going to shoot an explosion, but normally it’s a very boring process. But this was a real adrenaline rush. Every actor had a microphone and every cameraman had a microphone, and there were microphones by the monitors too.

Were you happy with what you filmed?

Yes. But I was lucky. I wouldn’t say I was necessarily happy, I was just lucky to have everything done, because it was a very risky project and a very risky idea to do. The idea was that we would have to recreate the real ritual, the traditional ritual, of a Russian birthday party, and it’s a birthday party where the guests are Dark Ones. And since the Dark Ones represents freedom, we invited famous Russian faces and personalities, because they represent freedom. But it’s difficult to manipulate those kinds of people because they are such personalities: I can’t say, ‘Go over there,’ or ‘Stand here.’ I simply had to entertain them to get the right reactions.

Posted by Thin White Duke

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 6th, 2007 at 2:13 am and is filed under National, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.