Michel Franco: I Never Think About the Films I’ve Already Made

Director Michel Franco, a prominent voice in contemporary Mexican cinema, held a Masterclass at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival, where he shared with the audience his distinctive approach to crafting his acclaimed films.

 

The Sarajevo Film Festival developed its Masterclass program as a space where leading contemporary filmmakers engage with audiences and reveal the secrets of their craft. Yet the conversation with Mexican director Michel Franco at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival could not begin without first turning to the city of Sarajevo itself.

“When I was first invited to screen my film at the Sarajevo Film Festival, I told myself I had to accept. You only get a chance like that once in a lifetime – to come to Sarajevo. Who knows when another invitation would come,” Franco explained to the audience at the Bosnian Cultural Center, before quickly adding: “And here I am now, probably for the tenth time in Sarajevo, which has become my second home.”

Just as Franco loves Sarajevo, so too does the Sarajevo Film Festival audience love his films — something evident at the packed Skenderija screening of his latest film “Dreams”, starring Hollywood actress Jessica Chastain. The film was met with applause, though its director did not stay to watch it.

“I never think about the films I’ve already made. And I never watch them again. Three years ago, I was with Miro Purivatra in Croatia, at the festival in Slano, when my film 'After Lucia' was being screened. We didn’t actually watch it, but it was an open-air screening, so I caught a glimpse from a distance. It seemed good, but I had no urge to get closer and watch it. That’s because I don’t want to live in the past — I want to live in the present,” said Michel Franco, whose films such as “New Order”, “Chronic”, “Sundown” and “After Lucia” have won multiple awards at Cannes and Venice.

In the conversation, moderated by Ennis Ćehić, the award-winning filmmaker born in Mexico City, Franco also reflected on his beginnings and his decision to forgo film school and start making films right away.

“When I was young, there were only two film schools, and getting in was a long and painful process I definitely wanted to avoid. They preferred students who already had a degree in something else, but I just wanted to make films. I didn’t want to finish a law degree first just to be able to direct,” said Franco, who quickly moved from words to action. He began shooting short films, often with no budget, and embraced making mistakes deliberately.

“I made bad short films. I shot around fifteen of them, and maybe only a third had any real meaning. That was my film school. I made films, I made a lot of mistakes, and that’s how I learned,” admitted Michel Franco, who still today not only directs but also writes his own scripts and produces his films.

Through that process of trial and error, he developed his own method of filmmaking — one that is, in fact, very simple. He always shoots scenes in chronological order, edits immediately, and if he doesn’t have the budget to film exactly what he envisioned, he adapts to the budget he has. All in order to keep making films.

“If the budget isn’t big enough for a large cast, then I’ll come up with a story that doesn’t require many characters,” Franco said, summing up his straightforward vision of filmmaking. Because he shoots chronologically, he doesn’t work with a script supervisor, and at times he films without a production designer or costume designer. How does he manage that? By having actors show up on set in their own clothes - just as Jessica Chastain did in “Memory”, wearing pieces from her own wardrobe.

That approach has allowed him to keep up a pace of nearly one film per year. And always on his own terms.

“If I have to cut the budget from 1.5 million to 150,000 dollars, I’ll do it, because I want to make the film. I don’t want to wait ten years for the next one. Time is the most valuable thing we have, why waste it waiting?” Michel Franco said candidly at the Sarajevo Film Festival Masterclass.

“My primary interest is people. And it always has to be a personal approach. Good films, at least in my case, never start with the intention of telling a story about a subject and only then turning to the characters. For me, it’s always the opposite: first the characters, then the story, and out of that story, the theme emerges,” explained Franco, who devotes great care to writing.

He is extremely disciplined in this part of the process: when he writes, he commits to five pages a day. Even if inspiration strikes, he stops once he reaches page five and continues the next day. Saturdays and Sundays are off. “Everyone needs rest,” as he puts it.

And once everything is written and prepared, that’s when the real magic begins with the actors.

“I love working with great actors, because they’re imaginative and often elevate what you’ve written, making your story much better,” admitted Michel Franco. That’s also why actors love working with him — even if the fees aren’t high, performers like Jessica Chastain, Tim Roth, and Peter Sarsgaard are eager to take on roles in his films.

“The real trick is to surround yourself with talented people who understand what you want better than you do,” Franco revealed as his “secret” to a good film, but quickly added:

“Still, you must never forget that film is the vision of a single person. Many people work on it and all of them are important, but there always has to be one person whose vision guides the process. Most often, that person is the director.”