“The Civil War Still Haunts America” | EUROtoday
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LBarefoot in his suede moccasins, his pores and skin tanned by the Utah solar, the place he was nonetheless filming three days earlier, Kevin Costner, 69, appears ten springs youthful. Our Cannes assembly with the star will happen at full pace: the director, actor of Dancing with the wolves And Open Range (his final manufacturing up to now, greater than twenty years in the past), is in the course of filming within the United States a venture as loopy as Megalopolis from Coppola: Horizon: an American saga. A megawestern conceived in 4 movies/chapters – like a miniseries – tackling the historical past of the conquest of the West via the intersecting destinies of a number of characters.
Dismounted to spend forty-eight hours on the Croisette – and never a minute extra – and make sure the worldwide promotion of the primary phase (anticipated in French theaters on July 3), Kevin Costner continues the interviews and can return to the Wild West , the place the cameras are ready to shoot, simply after the screening of the movie this Sunday, out of competitors. Like Francis Ford Coppola, the actor-director-writer-producer additionally spent a small fortune to finance a part ofHorizon, of which he has already filmed the primary two chapters and which he has solely simply began – this week! – the third.
He nonetheless doesn’t know, to today, if he can have the funds to finish this third half, even much less if the fourth might be produced, however the two movies have been written. However, they’ll stay within the steady if the Horizons 1 and a pair of stumble on the field workplace. Distributed by the Warner Bros studio within the United States, on June 28 and August 16 respectively, these two components at greater than $100 million every are an actual leap into the unknown for Costner. They are additionally a thriller to observers since to today we have no idea precisely their sources of financing – besides that the artist would have invested round 20 million {dollars} and mortgaged a part of his land in Santa Barbara (California) to finish the spherical.
The ex-physique guard This will not be his first roll of the cube. In 1990, he had already needed to loosen his purse strings to partially pay the hefty payments of Dancing with the wolves (promised to be a significant blow in keeping with All-Hollywood, which finally ends up consuming its hat in entrance of the movie's 400 million {dollars} in worldwide income) then The Postman, in 1997, a powerful failure from which the actor didn’t emerge unscathed.
Horizon: an American saga, chapter 1which we noticed and to which we are going to return throughout its French launch, will it’s an excessive amount of of a problem for a Kevin Costner who has simply been again within the saddle, since 2018, by the triumph of the sequence Yellowstone (whose door he has simply slammed)? Meeting with one of the crucial emblematic American actors of a sure America of panache, relaxed regardless of the monetary stakes of his loopy venture.
The Pop Point: In what Horizon: an American saga is it your most private work?
Kevin Costner: The most private, I don't know. But it’s certainly a really private venture, because it dates again to 1988, and its realization is undoubtedly additional proof of my stubbornness! I all the time thought this nice story of America was value telling. However, the primary time I attempted to convey it to the display screen, nobody needed it. I made a second, equally unsuccessful try in 2003. I then determined to make 4 movies, which isn’t no less than loopy: no studio needed the primary one, why write three extra? I’d be incapable of explaining this obstinacy, I suppose it comes all the way down to psychoanalysis… But I continued as a result of I stay satisfied that this story can curiosity the general public. I don't care what it's going to value… Well, no, since in H's caseorizon, it's my very own cash! Money is not any barrier to what might be good for the movie.
The pure settings of Horizon: an American saga are notably spectacular. How did you select them?
I’ve a sixth sense for that. I like going scouting. I instinctively really feel whether or not a spot will please me or not. Besides, nobody has ever agreed to accompany me, though the selection of decor is essential! Horizon – apart from a scene shot final Tuesday evening in Colorado – was filmed in Utah.
The specter of slavery nonetheless haunts America, and we now have not recovered from the nation's warfare in opposition to itself to abolish it.Kevin Costner
Were you continue to filming there on Tuesday?
Oh sure ! We began taking pictures the third half on Tuesday and I'm going again as quickly as I go away Cannes! I hope to find the money for to proceed touring for so long as potential.
In Cannes, Coppola declared that his Megalopolis spoke of his concern of the return of fascism, of the autumn of the American Republic. Through Horizonwhich follows a number of fates throughout the Civil War, did you additionally need to discover this topical theme in your nation?
Yes, even when it is going to be mentioned extra in components 2 and three of the saga. The Civil War nonetheless haunts America. The specter of slavery nonetheless haunts America, and we now have not recovered from the nation's warfare in opposition to itself to abolish it. There are references to our current in Horizon. That's as a result of the U.S. Army was busy preventing itself throughout the Civil War [entre 1861 et 1865, NDLR] that the pioneers, with out safety, resorted to weapons to defend themselves, that they had no different means.
Horizon does it owe extra to John Ford or to the neo-westerns of the Nineteen Seventies, as was the case for Dancing with the wolves ?
I don’t really feel “neo” in any respect! I simply attempt to reproduce as faithfully as potential the lifetime of the individuals of that point and the occasions that occurred. Rediscover the authenticity of conduct, language and clothes. I'm a traditional within the sense that I need to reconnect with all that. I positively don't need to reinvent the Wild West! My fashions are George Stevens, John Ford, John Sturges… I additionally like Sam Peckinpah, however, for instance, I don't movie violence in sluggish movement: I don't like seeing it on display screen, the method takes me out of the movie. It's not a judgment, it's simply not my factor.
Francis [Coppola] and I'm the identical: we have to be the one two idiots at present paying to make movies!Kevin Costner
An evening scene in your movie exhibits two pioneers ogling a younger girl member of the convoy who has stripped partially bare to scrub. When they get scolded, you appear to dismiss everybody again to again. Is this your very private and discreet means of discussing sexual abuse, post-#MeToo America?
Not in any respect: in an earlier scene, the 2 guys in query appear fairly good and are serving to others. Then we uncover with the scene you're speaking about that they're not as good as we thought. Above all, I needed to point out how the frontier pioneers who have been a part of these convoys didn't actually know one another, that they have been all simply getting into the identical course. This bathtub scene is a “signature” second of the movie as a result of it exhibits a battle scenario that has nothing to do with a gunfight. It’s the on a regular basis life that I needed to point out. Don't fear, there might be shootouts within the movie.
But I needed the concept of this younger girl who comes from the East, from England itself, who wonders what she's doing there and who simply wants to scrub herself, eliminate all this mud and of all this filth… however which, in doing so, attracts antipathy as a result of it wastes water that have to be rationed. She doesn't comply with the foundations and places others in peril. It was as necessary to point out this as any gunfight within the film. I additionally needed to point out how the voyeurism of those two males degraded a scene that we spectators discover lovely and seductive. But this isn’t a very feminist speech.
Since you might be in the course of filming, why did you are taking the time to return and present Horizon at Cannes ?
Because I’m an unbiased director, I don't have a giant platform behind me to finance me and Horizon must be publicized. I’m very grateful to Cannes which is able to supply us a really good screening this Sunday. Francis [Coppola] and I'm the identical: we have to be the one two morons at present paying to make movies. Do you see these individuals who suppose they’ve seen a UFO and who completely have to inform others on the danger of being taken for loopy? properly Horizon, it's my very own UFO. I've seen this complete film in my head, I can't consider anything and I must share it. And I hope the viewers will comply with me on this journey.
Horizon: an American saga, chapter 1, by Kevin Costner (Warner Bros, 3:01 a.m.). In theaters July 3.
https://www.lepoint.fr/pop-culture/kevin-costner-la-guerre-civile-hante-toujours-l-amerique-19-05-2024-2560535_2920.php