28/02/2023 - We met the Belgian filmmaker on the occasion of the surprising re-release of his 2004 film in US cinemas

On the occasion of the surprising re-release of Calvaire [+see also:
trailer
interview: Fabrice du Welz
film profile] (2004) in US cinemas with Yellow Veil Pictures, we met with Belgian filmmaker Fabrice du Welz to discuss this phenomenon around his first feature film as well as the director's current situation, 20 years later.

Cineuropa: What caused this re-release in US cinemas almost 20 years after the film’s Belgian release?
Fabrice du Welz: Before Covid, Calvaire was re-released as an "Ardennes trilogy" with Alleluia [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Fabrice Du Welz
film profile] and Adoration [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabrice du Welz
film profile] in a few arthouse theatres in Japan. This is what allowed me to rework the colour grading to erase the overly strong yellows and greens as was done at the time under the influence of the films of Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It is this new, more "primary" master that was used for the DVD/Bluray re-release in France by StudioCanal and the US theatrical copies distributed by Yellow Veil Pictures, which had been seeking to recover the rights to the film for some time. In addition to its theatrical presence, Calvaire will be available a few days later on digital and from retailers as a nice Blu-ray object is planned for those who like to collect this kind of thing, like me. At the time of its first screening in the US in 2006, Calvaire was very poorly received by the press and quickly buried, so I'm very happy with this re-release.

Today, the press is much more positive about the film, which is considered a cult film by many film lovers and some big ones, like Guillermo Del Toro, for example.
Yes, he gave me the pleasure of a quote on the French Blu-ray. I like him a lot. It's true that my films need time, and then critics see or don't see the same things in them as I do, it happens. It's what's happening today in the post-#MeToo context that has contributed to the rediscovery of Calvaire. Journalists have told me that it's an early critique of the toxic masculinity that we hear so much about today, but when I was making the film I wasn't thinking about that at all. Another very present theme is geographical and psychological isolation, which has taken on a new dimension since the Covid confinement. But honestly, I don't revisit my films after the fact. I spend so much time making them that I come to a certain form of disgust and if I go back to them, it's for technical or aesthetic reasons, as with the colour grading of Calvaire because there was a demand, but I no longer approach them thematically. One film chases the other and I always prefer to concentrate on the next one.

Calvaire has been attached to the New French Extremity movement. Do you find yourself in this?
I hear a lot about it, but it's more of a category and not really a genre. It includes films made by more provocative directors in France and Belgium. The category refers more to language. There are so many films, so you have to classify them in groups like the New French Extremity, which covers the first decade of the 2000s and brings together filmmakers like Xavier Gens, Gaspard Noé, Catherine Breillat, Alexandre Aja... Personally, I never think about it.

More or less 10 films in 20 years, you never stop working. Does each project still require as much effort as when you started?
When I made Calvaire, Belgium didn't really have an industry. We were at the very beginning of the public institutions that finance Belgian cinema or of the Tax Shelter and we had to look for money everywhere. Technicians were also trained on the job. Now everything is much more organised and professional, but there are also more people making films. Our industry is tending towards a certain form of standardisation of film or television products, but fortunately there are still filmmakers who resist that and any resistance leads to complications. And then, as time goes by, we become more ambitious in terms of budget and theme, with films that quickly reach a ceiling and are just as complicated to produce, if not more so. This is the case with my next project, Maldoror, which will start shooting soon.

And you have made another film in the meantime, La Passion selon Béatrice?
Yes, it's a portrait of Béatrice Dalle, between documentary and fiction, and it's about our common passion for cinema and the figure of Pier Paolo Pasolini. I shot it in a very short time, in black and white, thanks to the support of Anthony Vaccarello and Saint Laurent. We all wanted to make this film, which is a singular object and which I am delighted to show to a public in theatres before the main course that is Maldoror.

Maldoror deals with a matter of state that literally turned Belgium upside down. Are you dealing with real facts?
It's a period film based on the Dutroux case and set in the real Belgium of the 1990s. I wanted above all to talk about the police and judicial dysfunctions that really took place around this case and they are treated in a realistic way, but the plot is fictional. So it's not the Dutroux case brought to the screen. I've been wanting to make this film for 15 years and it's probably the biggest project I'm going to face. It is Anthony Bajon who carries the story…

Accompanied by actors from Calvaire like Laurent Lucas and Jacky Berroyer in secondary roles...
Because they are my family. They are artists with whom I feel good, as well as some technicians. I really like their company. The humour and intelligence of Jacky Berroyer, the rigour and precision of Laurent Lucas... They are comrades with whom I don't need to talk forever. There is no ego between us, just the work, quickly and well, in the service of a film.

Watch the US re-release trailer below:

(Translated from French)