We spoke with 'Night Call' director Michiel Blanchart about filming Brussels at night, incorporating current events into his film, and more.
Check out our exclusive clip from Night Call: https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/520208/night-call-exclusive-clip-a-desperate-villain/
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Check out our exclusive clip from Night Call: https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/520208/night-call-exclusive-clip-a-desperate-villain/
Dread Central
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Follow Dread Central on social media:
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Hey, how are you?
00:01So nice to meet you.
00:02Likewise, I'm fine.
00:04How are you?
00:05Good, congratulations on Night Call.
00:08I love this film.
00:09I love your approach to action and everything about it,
00:12but I wanted to just hear from you first.
00:14What was it like making a feature
00:16going from meeting your first feature film?
00:20It was daunting.
00:23Super exciting, but very rough.
00:26It was a pretty ambitious project,
00:31especially for a first feature.
00:33I was gonna say, it's pretty ambitious for a first feature
00:36and I love that, but it is daunting.
00:38It's gotta be.
00:39Yeah, I always love to try to make it
00:42a little bit bigger than possible
00:44and chew a little, what's the expression?
00:47A little bit more than I can chew.
00:48Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, pineapple does.
00:50You can chew.
00:53But yeah, no, I love that
00:55and it was a super exciting project
00:56and I feel like even though it was difficult,
00:59especially also because it's a Belgium movie
01:02with a quite small budget.
01:04I mean, it's a big budget for a first time filmmaker
01:07here in Belgium, but for a movie this size,
01:10it's quite small.
01:11And so it was very hard on everybody,
01:13but I also could feel that everybody was super excited
01:16to do something quite different.
01:19We're more used to do really intimate dramas
01:22or social films here in my country.
01:26And so this kind of proposition
01:30got a lot of people excited, I think.
01:31So that's why they worked hard through the night
01:35and the cold here and we shot in the middle of winter
01:39in Belgium, which is not great.
01:40Oh, no, not the middle of winter.
01:43Yeah, I mean, actually more at the end of winter,
01:45but that year, that's when the cold was the coldest.
01:50I got too much heat on the shoot.
01:53Oh, no, oh my God.
01:55I'm getting too warm in these.
01:59But I love that you shoot so much at night.
02:02And so it was night, it's night call,
02:05but you shot at night.
02:06You didn't try to fake nighttime basically.
02:09We did like, cause yeah, the entire movie is by night
02:13and we did maybe a quarter of the shoot
02:15was like day for night and interiors,
02:18but actually most of the interior had like big windows
02:24or we play with exterior, interior.
02:27And so they weren't in the end,
02:29we thought we could do like half and half,
02:32but actually it was not possible.
02:33Also because you cannot like switch every day,
02:37do night and then because then the-
02:39Oh, your sleep schedule gets up.
02:42Yeah, so basically at some point we were like,
02:45okay, it's just easier to do almost everything by night
02:49just to keep this rhythm.
02:51Yeah, oh Lord, I know that night shoot life is difficult,
02:55but-
02:56I think too, if it wasn't for the cold,
02:58I must say I like it.
02:59I like it for two reasons.
03:01First, because that's kind of my schedule.
03:06Like I love to work late and I hate to wake up early.
03:10It's not that I need a lot of sleep,
03:12it's just for some reason I hate to wake up early.
03:16And I love the fact that you're working
03:19when nobody else is, there is kind of a freedom,
03:22a feeling of nobody's gonna bother us now,
03:25we can do whatever we want.
03:27And so the whole crew is also more focused.
03:30We want to get through this,
03:31we want to go home and get some sleep
03:33and there is no distraction.
03:35You can call your friends or your mother,
03:38you can go have a drink on the break,
03:40you can go buy something, everything's closed.
03:42It's just us together as a team making something special.
03:48That's amazing.
03:49That's actually a really good point.
03:50That's so cool.
03:51But I wanted to know locksmith,
03:54what a cool kind of like conceit to start with.
03:57Was that where it started with a locksmith for you
04:00with the idea?
04:01Like what about that was so interesting
04:02as a kernel for a film?
04:05That was probably,
04:07cause to me every project is born from the encounter
04:11between a few different ideas,
04:13or at least between to say it kind of simply
04:18like a cinematic idea and more of a thematic idea
04:23or a subject.
04:24Yeah.
04:25And so here, I think the movie is,
04:29it's several different things that click together.
04:31It's the locksmith was probably the oldest idea I had.
04:35Like I had like a list of like jobs where I'm like,
04:39that would be a great job for a character.
04:41And the night shift locksmith was definitely up there.
04:46And I always thought like, what a great start to a movie.
04:48Like what happens when he opens the wrong door?
04:51So that was maybe the first idea,
04:54but when everything clicked was when I had that,
04:57plus the fact that I want,
04:59I always wanted my first feature to take place in one night
05:02because I love that kind of movie.
05:04I love the fact that it's in a way coming of age story,
05:08but it happens in a very short amount of time.
05:10And I think that can happen in life.
05:12Like I think your life can like suddenly
05:15something so big happens to you
05:17that it can be such a pivotal moment.
05:20And I think cinema is the best tool
05:23to express those kinds of experiences.
05:27And also the talking about police brutality,
05:30which unfortunately is still a very relevant topic.
05:34And everything, when all those elements came together,
05:38that's when I started writing.
05:38So I had a pretty clear vision
05:40of what I wanted the movie to be when I started writing.
05:43I tend to take a lot of time to just collect ideas
05:45and suddenly some story forms.
05:49And that's to me where it really starts.
05:52That's amazing.
05:53And I do love that you include the political,
05:57the socio-political situation in Brussels,
05:59but also the world in this.
06:01I think so often it's so easy for filmmakers
06:03to ignore that,
06:05but I love that you confront it
06:06and you include it in this narrative.
06:08I think that's so important to have that in here.
06:12Well, it's just that I, again, it's not like I was,
06:17I didn't do a movie because I had to express myself
06:20about the subject.
06:21It's more again, like when things click together
06:25and suddenly you feel the urge to tell a story.
06:27Yeah.
06:28But I'm not like, I'm not a,
06:31I don't know how to say in English,
06:32but a sociological expert.
06:34I'm not a politician.
06:35I'm not, what I love to do is tell stories
06:40with the cinematic medium,
06:43but then I have to talk about something I care about
06:46or at least represent the world I live in, in some way.
06:50I think that's, I wouldn't say a duty,
06:53but I, unconsciously I feel that responsibility
06:56and anything you do will be political one way or another.
07:00So, but I do want it to be about cinema.
07:05I do want to use the tools of cinema to talk about
07:08our current day or about something that's dear to my heart
07:12or that angers me, but it's never,
07:15I'm not like, oh, okay.
07:16I absolutely want to talk about that.
07:18So let's find, so let's, yeah.
07:23It's not a message.
07:24I'm not like, I don't have a message
07:25and then I put it into a film
07:27because that's not my type of cinema.
07:30I need, like I said earlier,
07:32I need to have an encounter between a cinematic idea
07:35and something deeper that I care about.
07:39So here it was very clearly, I love this idea.
07:43I always love like a classic thriller with an innocent
07:47that is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
07:49You know, the classic Hitchcock thriller.
07:51It's so good, it's so good, yeah.
07:54And where it resonated very, to be very specific,
07:58where I thought that there was a movie relevant
08:01to make today in that genre was that oftentimes
08:04in that typology of movies,
08:06you have the moment where the hero,
08:09the main character decides or not to call the police.
08:14And it's always like,
08:15because that's what you're supposed to do.
08:17And usually there is like a bad excuse,
08:20like they don't believe him or for some reason he can't
08:23because the bad guy says, if you do that,
08:25then we're going to kill your wife
08:28or just there is no reception or some reason.
08:35And here I'm like, okay, no, actually deciding
08:38or not to call the police is a real subject matter.
08:42And I wanted in this movie to be in the shoes
08:47of the character and feel like, oh no,
08:49if I was in that situation,
08:51probably I wouldn't call the police either.
08:53And he has good reasons not to do it.
08:56I'm not saying he's right not to do it.
08:58That's a bigger discussion.
08:59And I like that movie, that discussion,
09:01but we understand why he doesn't
09:04and why he suffers the consequences of that decision.
09:07Yeah.
09:08It sounds like you are like a big cinephile.
09:11How did you get introduced to film?
09:13Like, has it been a lifelong thing for you?
09:15A love of film?
09:17Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm not born into it
09:21in the sense I don't have a particularly cinephile family
09:26or I actually go to theaters until I was,
09:31I think seven or eight.
09:32So it took a while for me to actually go to a movie theater.
09:36So I discovered cinema on VHS on tape
09:39when I was very little.
09:43My first memory of seeing a movie
09:44and almost my first memory period
09:47is like watching Jurassic Park on VHS.
09:50Oh, what a cool, oh, amazing.
09:54Yeah, it came out in June of 93
09:57and I'm born in June of 93.
09:58So I probably didn't see it then.
10:05So, you know, and I guess in a way,
10:06maybe I had kind of a, I grew up in the countryside
10:10and was alone a lot.
10:15I mean, I have siblings and all that, but they're older.
10:18So I was watching a lot of movies since very early on
10:21and probably maybe too much of the same movies.
10:26Yeah, John Woo and Spielberg again.
10:31Oh my God, John Woo.
10:34That's amazing.
10:35Well, actually John Woo saying John Woo, that's funny
10:37because I was curious about your approach
10:39to directing action.
10:40Cause I feel like, especially as your first film
10:43you're directing so many action sequences
10:46and it sounds like, you know.
10:48I love it.
10:51It feels to me like it's action
10:53and I'm not, it's not very original to say that
10:55but it feels like one of the purest form of cinema,
10:58just creating, just with images and movement
11:03and sound creating something
11:05that immediately brings sensation to the character.
11:10I love the kinetic aspect of it.
11:13I think it's, I mean, it has been said a lot.
11:16I think Tom Cruise talks about that,
11:18that action is actually kind of the descendant
11:21of like the silent era, Buster Keaton and all of that.
11:28Yeah, I mean, it's very physical, it's kinetic,
11:32it's the body, it's telling a story just visually.
11:35And all of that is very pure and exciting to me.
11:39And if we're talking about inspiration
11:42and how I try to use action,
11:45I think one of the most inspiring director today,
11:48and it's funny because it's a long time working director
11:52is George Miller and how he,
11:56I love how he talks about action and how it's,
12:00there is drama that is happening during the action.
12:02He says it like that,
12:04like they're not the action bits and the talky bits.
12:07It's everything is mixed together.
12:09And I really try to, I mean, in my movie,
12:12there are more talkative moments,
12:14there are more like sitting down and talking scenes,
12:17but in a way those scenes are maybe not specifically
12:21the most dramatical scene.
12:23I approached each action scene as a very emotional,
12:28pivotal moment for the character.
12:30The first incident that starts the whole story
12:33is an action scene, it's a violent scene
12:36and violence is emotional to me.
12:38And I wanted to treat it like that,
12:39not just like something pretty and fun to look at,
12:43but something rooted in reality
12:45and where we feel for the character.
12:48And towards the end of the movie,
12:50where we feel for the different characters,
12:52even the antagonists,
12:54I think it's more exciting to see a chase if you,
12:59obviously you are with our hero, with Maddie,
13:01you want him to survive, to get out of this,
13:04but you understand the motivations of Theo
13:06or the other characters.
13:08And that makes the action more involving and exciting
13:11and it tells a story.
13:13And by the way, I'll never thank enough my cast
13:18and especially Jonathan who plays the main character,
13:21but he did such a strong physical preparation for the movie.
13:31Yeah, he had to get in shape a lot
13:34and learn the choreographies
13:36because the important thing was, like I said,
13:39it's not a huge budget.
13:40So we were very short on time.
13:42Like the big chase in the middle of the crowd,
13:45that was like less than two days to shoot all of that
13:48with the...
13:49Oh!
13:50Yeah, yeah.
13:50And so he needs to go again and again
13:53and we need to be fast.
13:54And I needed them to be ready
13:57so that we could focus on the, like I said,
13:59on the emotions and the real acting,
14:03because it's not an action scene
14:04where we just need to look cool and do the thing.
14:07You also need to emote.
14:08We need to see the fear.
14:09We need to see him think, make decision.
14:12And yeah.
14:15That's so cool.
14:16It was such an honor to talk to you about this film.
14:17I love hearing you talk about the process
14:19and what making an action film
14:21and putting more thought into it.
14:22It's just been so great to chat with you
14:24and I really appreciate it.
14:26Congratulations on Night Call.
14:28It's so fun, question mark?
14:32But it's a blast.
14:34I know I've said that it's not just supposed to be fun
14:37and look pretty,
14:38but still I have no problem making like it's...
14:42to entertain the audience.
14:44I think there is no separation
14:47between doing something rough that talks about our day and age
14:51but still make it entertaining
14:52and it's okay to have fun watching the movie.
14:56I'm glad you had fun.
14:58Well, congratulations.
15:00Thanks.