To say that Pablo Berger loves risks is a derogatory statement.. He directed a ’70s tragicomedy—’Torremolinos 73′ (2003), a silent and black and white adaptation of a children’s story—’Snow White’ (2012), a difficult grotesque. -‘Abracadabra’ (2017)- and now, for the first time in his career, an animated film that explores the emotional relationship between a dog and an android in 1980s New York.
‘Robot Dreams’ based on the comic book of the same name by Sara Varon it speaks beautifully and poignantly to both our need to find our soul mates and our ability to move on when the world leaves us alone. And it does so by resorting to powerful doses of physical comedy, a soundscape that captures the chaotic energy of the city, and a visual design whose relative simplicity allows emotions to surface from time, without having to resort to a single sentence of dialogue. time, naturally and without resorting to bad behavior. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
It’s not common for a live-action movie director to decide to make an animated movie. What prompted you to do this?
I never considered the possibility of doing this until I got my hands on Sara Varon’s comic nearly 10 years ago. The fact that it was completely stripped of dialogue caught my attention, and it amused me to read, but above all, it deeply affected me. I reread it years later and it struck me again and I interpreted it as a sign. In any case, I really enjoy animation as a viewer, and I think some of the best movies of recent times are animated.
How do you think ‘Robot Dreams’ connects with your previous films?
It responds to the same creative impulse. I need every new project to surprise me, to enter unknown territory. I often say that every movie is a circus show for me, and as the director I stay on the tightrope doing it. For the rest, ‘Robot Dreams’ opens a new path in my career. If ‘Torremolinos 73’, ‘Snow White’ and ‘Abracadabra’ make up my Iberian trilogy, now I’ve made my American movie, created a love letter to New York, yes, with Spanish-made mediums.
What challenges did you encounter while working in a different format than usual?
Truth be told, animation and live action have more similarities than I imagined before making the movie. After all, as a director, I’m always looking for excitement, whether I’m working with animated characters or an actor standing in front of the camera. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two formats lies in the duration of the process. It takes about eight weeks to shoot a live-action movie like I did, and two years to animate. But it’s worth it. If we agree that every movie is just an approximation of the movie the director had in mind, animation allows the distance between the dream movie and the realized movie to practically disappear.
To what extent does the movie draw inspiration from your 10 years in New York?
Inevitably, it draws heavily on my memories and references. I’ve had it all in New York. I was in film school, I had a love story and then a breakup, I went through seasons of loneliness and sadness, I found love again and got married… It’s a very personal film.
All his movies take place in the past. Because?
I guess it’s because it’s all connected with my childhood or youth, and that’s something I know very well. These were the results of the cartoons I watched as a child and my experiences in the music world. The director I am is a product of the child I am. I know it sounds stale, but it’s true.
‘Robot Dreams’ is his second dialogue-free film after ‘Snow White’. What does your silence concern you?
For me, cinema is a fictionalized narrative with visuals accompanied by music and other sounds. Frankly, there are directors who are experts at using words I love; Tarantino’s dialogues, for example, are pure spectacle. However, I think the simplicity of the dialogues leaves more room for the viewer to complete the movie. In addition, I grew up in a family devoted to music, listening to music a lot and feeling very intense emotions thanks to music. For a long time, my dream was not to attend the Cannes festival, but to participate in Eurovision.