Fernando Meirelles blew away the entire world with his powerful breakout film, City of God which went to garner four Academy Award nominations. Meirelles is now turning his eye to, The Constant Gardener, an American style political thriller with a twist because at its core it is a love story that defines the phrase opposites attract.
Check out the official site for The Constant Gardener
Daniel Robert Epstein: You took over The Constant Gardener after another director dropped out, what was that like?
Fernando Meirelles: It was very quick actually because I was not going to jump into another film. I was working on a personal project at that time to be shot in Kenya. I was researching that and then I went to London and they gave me the script and the story was set in Kenya. I said Wow, maybe I should do this film. The process was very quick. [producer] Simon [Channing-Williams] was ready to go. I decided to postpone my project for seven months and just jump on this. 40 days after I read the script I was looking for locations.
DRE: The novel, The Constant Gardener, was banned in Kenya, was it tough to make the film there?
FM: Yeah, the first idea was to shoot in South Africa. I was so sad because I was coming from Kenya so I tried to convince the producer to go to Kenya to see what the film would look like and then we would go to South Africa to prepare. This was just a ruse to try to convince him to shoot in Kenya. Then we went to South Africa, and on the second day of our visit, he said Were wasting time here we should really shoot in Kenya. Simon had to convince the Kenyan government to let us shoot this film there. Also we wanted help from the high commissioner but in the book the high commission is not very well pictured. But they knew we were going to do the film anyway so they thought doing it in Kenya would at least help the film industry in Kenya.
DRE: You revealed the ending of this film before the actual ending of the film. What does the jumping around in time do for you?
FM: Since I didnt have much time to understand the script and we first edited the film in a leaner way, starting with Justin meeting Tessa and then they move to Africa and Tessa would be killed after 45 minutes. That way was very boring. We were a bit lost and not very happy with the material. Finally, we went back to the book and in the book, Tessa dies on the first page and so we decided to try that and it really worked. So we tried many different ways to try to organize the story and the way we see the film now is the fifth try.
DRE: Did you work with [The Constant Gardener author] John Le Carr at all?
FM: Yeah, we spoke a lot. We had meetings and he was always very open to come to the office in London to discuss the script and try to explain things during the process. He was very interested in doing a good film because since hes John Le Carr he had the final approval on the directors name, on the cast, on the final script and on the final cut. A very powerful man. But he used this in a positive way, because he never told me what to do or how he wanted things.
DRE: What memories of Africa did this film leave you with?
FM: Now Im really interested in shooting stories in Africa. Theres like a wave of African films now coming out and it seems like the media is rediscovering Africa. We had Hotel Rwanda last year and now this one and many more soon to come. Brad Pitt is shooting something on the Ivory Coast. So I think in the next few years were going to see a lot of films set in Africa, which is great.
DRE: In the past few years, many actors, writers and directors mentioned that City of God was something that really affected them. What was all that attention like for you?
FM: It was totally crazy and unpredictable. City of God was a film that I shot in Brazil with unknown actors, not glamorous at all. It was a story about something that is happening in the country and I did it thinking about a Brazilian audience. My plan was that the film would sell 500,000 tickets in Brazil, which is excellent for a Brazilian film. Then it went to Cannes. It sold 3 million tickets in Brazil and got a lot of awards and nominations all which came from nowhere.
DRE: Did you have your choice of what projects to do next?
FM: I had a lot of offers from studios to do other films after City of God, but I was interested in doing this film about globalization. But when I signed onto Constant Gardener I felt like I was just going to wait for the Americans to come and tell me what to do because I had always heard stories about the studios, but it was really totally the opposite of that. They were really nice and smart people who never asked me to do anything that I didnt want to. They were always very helpful and very smart.
DRE: How was it melding a thriller and a love story?
FM: I think it was really finding the right focus for the story because our first cut was three hours and we had a lot of thriller elements and a lot of political drama elements in the film and also this love story. The film was a bit out of focus. I had some documentaries on pharmaceuticals inserted in the film and at some point I took them out. It took us a long time to find the right angle on the film.
DRE: In the film, the internet is obviously a big part with the way the characters communicate with one another; do you use the internet a lot?
FM: Yeah, because I travel so much. In my hotel room here I have this little camera and I talk to my son in Brazil with it. I even watch a lot of television on the internet, Im really a user.
DRE: Many great films have come out of Latin America recently, why do you think that is?
FM: Maybe its because were not inside Hollywood so we dont know the rules. Im not a big thriller fan so when they invited me to do a thriller, I really didnt know how to do a thriller, so I had to find out in my own way. I dont try to do it different, I just do it the way I know and its different.
DRE: I remember after Martin Scorsese did Raging Bull which was shot very well. He did the King of Comedy which was very static with long shots; do you think youll ever do a film where the camera is not all over?
FM: Yeah, it depends on the story. With comedy for instance, you have to stick to the lines that are written in the script. In this film, I was trying to catch Kenya and the mood between the characters and thats why I did a lot of improvisation and I shot it more like a documentary. Ill do different films in different styles. Ive done a lot of commercials in my life. When you do commercials, you imitate very different styles. I feel very comfortable to try different approaches to stories.
DRE: How did you start to make movies?
FM: Im an architect. I liked to draw when I was young and so I started to do animated cartoons to see my drawings move and from that I started doing experimental videos and then independent production for television. From there I did commercials and now features.
DRE: What can you tell me about City of Men?
FM: City of Men is a TV. series that we produced for Brazilian television. After City of God, we wanted to keep working with those young actors so we created this show for Brazilian television. We finished the first year and it was very successful, so this year well be producing another season in Brazil. We sold it to 17 countries and now weve just sold it to Palm Pictures here in the U.S. Hopefully youll be able to see it soon.
Its the story of, two young boys who live in the slum and they are always trying to get some money for their lives, but its a comedy, not a drama. City of God was about drug dealers and a slum community. Now its a story about everyday life in the slum, very funny.
DRE: What is that other project?
FM: Its a project on organization. Im writing seven stories to be set in seven different countries not really connected one to the other. The Kenyan plot is about a Kenyan runner and little by little the story starts to connect but the characters dont know that theyre connected. Its about different visions of this planet from China, Philippines, Kenya, Brazil, and U.S.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site for The Constant Gardener
Daniel Robert Epstein: You took over The Constant Gardener after another director dropped out, what was that like?
Fernando Meirelles: It was very quick actually because I was not going to jump into another film. I was working on a personal project at that time to be shot in Kenya. I was researching that and then I went to London and they gave me the script and the story was set in Kenya. I said Wow, maybe I should do this film. The process was very quick. [producer] Simon [Channing-Williams] was ready to go. I decided to postpone my project for seven months and just jump on this. 40 days after I read the script I was looking for locations.
DRE: The novel, The Constant Gardener, was banned in Kenya, was it tough to make the film there?
FM: Yeah, the first idea was to shoot in South Africa. I was so sad because I was coming from Kenya so I tried to convince the producer to go to Kenya to see what the film would look like and then we would go to South Africa to prepare. This was just a ruse to try to convince him to shoot in Kenya. Then we went to South Africa, and on the second day of our visit, he said Were wasting time here we should really shoot in Kenya. Simon had to convince the Kenyan government to let us shoot this film there. Also we wanted help from the high commissioner but in the book the high commission is not very well pictured. But they knew we were going to do the film anyway so they thought doing it in Kenya would at least help the film industry in Kenya.
DRE: You revealed the ending of this film before the actual ending of the film. What does the jumping around in time do for you?
FM: Since I didnt have much time to understand the script and we first edited the film in a leaner way, starting with Justin meeting Tessa and then they move to Africa and Tessa would be killed after 45 minutes. That way was very boring. We were a bit lost and not very happy with the material. Finally, we went back to the book and in the book, Tessa dies on the first page and so we decided to try that and it really worked. So we tried many different ways to try to organize the story and the way we see the film now is the fifth try.
DRE: Did you work with [The Constant Gardener author] John Le Carr at all?
FM: Yeah, we spoke a lot. We had meetings and he was always very open to come to the office in London to discuss the script and try to explain things during the process. He was very interested in doing a good film because since hes John Le Carr he had the final approval on the directors name, on the cast, on the final script and on the final cut. A very powerful man. But he used this in a positive way, because he never told me what to do or how he wanted things.
DRE: What memories of Africa did this film leave you with?
FM: Now Im really interested in shooting stories in Africa. Theres like a wave of African films now coming out and it seems like the media is rediscovering Africa. We had Hotel Rwanda last year and now this one and many more soon to come. Brad Pitt is shooting something on the Ivory Coast. So I think in the next few years were going to see a lot of films set in Africa, which is great.
DRE: In the past few years, many actors, writers and directors mentioned that City of God was something that really affected them. What was all that attention like for you?
FM: It was totally crazy and unpredictable. City of God was a film that I shot in Brazil with unknown actors, not glamorous at all. It was a story about something that is happening in the country and I did it thinking about a Brazilian audience. My plan was that the film would sell 500,000 tickets in Brazil, which is excellent for a Brazilian film. Then it went to Cannes. It sold 3 million tickets in Brazil and got a lot of awards and nominations all which came from nowhere.
DRE: Did you have your choice of what projects to do next?
FM: I had a lot of offers from studios to do other films after City of God, but I was interested in doing this film about globalization. But when I signed onto Constant Gardener I felt like I was just going to wait for the Americans to come and tell me what to do because I had always heard stories about the studios, but it was really totally the opposite of that. They were really nice and smart people who never asked me to do anything that I didnt want to. They were always very helpful and very smart.
DRE: How was it melding a thriller and a love story?
FM: I think it was really finding the right focus for the story because our first cut was three hours and we had a lot of thriller elements and a lot of political drama elements in the film and also this love story. The film was a bit out of focus. I had some documentaries on pharmaceuticals inserted in the film and at some point I took them out. It took us a long time to find the right angle on the film.
DRE: In the film, the internet is obviously a big part with the way the characters communicate with one another; do you use the internet a lot?
FM: Yeah, because I travel so much. In my hotel room here I have this little camera and I talk to my son in Brazil with it. I even watch a lot of television on the internet, Im really a user.
DRE: Many great films have come out of Latin America recently, why do you think that is?
FM: Maybe its because were not inside Hollywood so we dont know the rules. Im not a big thriller fan so when they invited me to do a thriller, I really didnt know how to do a thriller, so I had to find out in my own way. I dont try to do it different, I just do it the way I know and its different.
DRE: I remember after Martin Scorsese did Raging Bull which was shot very well. He did the King of Comedy which was very static with long shots; do you think youll ever do a film where the camera is not all over?
FM: Yeah, it depends on the story. With comedy for instance, you have to stick to the lines that are written in the script. In this film, I was trying to catch Kenya and the mood between the characters and thats why I did a lot of improvisation and I shot it more like a documentary. Ill do different films in different styles. Ive done a lot of commercials in my life. When you do commercials, you imitate very different styles. I feel very comfortable to try different approaches to stories.
DRE: How did you start to make movies?
FM: Im an architect. I liked to draw when I was young and so I started to do animated cartoons to see my drawings move and from that I started doing experimental videos and then independent production for television. From there I did commercials and now features.
DRE: What can you tell me about City of Men?
FM: City of Men is a TV. series that we produced for Brazilian television. After City of God, we wanted to keep working with those young actors so we created this show for Brazilian television. We finished the first year and it was very successful, so this year well be producing another season in Brazil. We sold it to 17 countries and now weve just sold it to Palm Pictures here in the U.S. Hopefully youll be able to see it soon.
Its the story of, two young boys who live in the slum and they are always trying to get some money for their lives, but its a comedy, not a drama. City of God was about drug dealers and a slum community. Now its a story about everyday life in the slum, very funny.
DRE: What is that other project?
FM: Its a project on organization. Im writing seven stories to be set in seven different countries not really connected one to the other. The Kenyan plot is about a Kenyan runner and little by little the story starts to connect but the characters dont know that theyre connected. Its about different visions of this planet from China, Philippines, Kenya, Brazil, and U.S.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
van_goghs_ear:
great interview!!! meirelles is a strong voice in modern cinema.
chazstrummer:
Great interview. I saw The Constant Gardener last weekend and thought it was an amazing and very moving film.