New Delhi: Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. To say that music plays a powerful role in the overall aesthetics of a film would be an understatement. The media conference venue at the 50th International Film Festival of India today hosted a group of directors and actors who used the power of music in their films. The cast and crew of the movie ‘The Seven last words’ and director of the Belgian movie ‘Cleo’ participated in the media conference.
Recalling the origin of the film, one of the seven directors of ‘The Seven Last Words’ Kaveh Nabatian said that the film is based on Franz Joseph Haydn’s classical masterpiece composition ‘Seven Last Words’. “Though its base is a religious text, what makes it an interesting universal subject is the idea of man facing his mortality. In the beginning I thought of directing the film myself. But that would have been only one person’s perspective. It was important to have more than one perspective”,he said.
On the role played by music in the film, Nabatian said that it is music that unified this film. “ The music in the film is super intense as it is dealing with ideas like death, rebirth, freedom and abandonment. Though the composition of Haydn was written in the late 18th century, its music speaks to the present as well, “ he explained.
Sharing his experience on film making, co-director of ‘The Seven Last Words’ Mr. Juan Andres Arango said that the film was a wonderful and refreshing experience to shoot as they have got complete freedom to react in a very personal way to this work. Another co-director Ariane Lorrain complemented that the film has got only music and theme as leading threads. Actor of the film ‘The Seven Last Words’ Jerome Pouliot said that it was a huge challenge for him to express without using words in this film.
Director of ‘Cleo’, Eva Cool said that the film is about a young girl who loses her parents in a car accident and how she is coping with the grief by way of music. The movie also talks about hope, she said. “It’s a universal film that everyone can rely upon. It’s also a personal film. I lost somebody in a car accident.”, she added. Emphasizing the role of music she said that music by Russian classical composer Rachmaninoff played a very important role in this film.
Backgrounder
The Seven Last Words
The Seven Last Words sounds out experiential states and rituals particular to humanity, based on the seven themes expressed in a musical composition: forgiveness, salvation, relationship, abandonment, distress, triumph, and reunion. Seven award-winning Canadian filmmakers of diverse origins and art practices explore a wealth of human experience and feeling, based on the seven phrases at the origin of Franz Joseph Haydn’s classical masterpiece, interpreted by the London-based Callino String Quartet.This film was selected for International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019. The movie opens a new dialogue between film and music.
Cleo
Cleo, the debut feature film of Director Eva Cools is about Cleo a young girl who survives a traumatic accident and the music plays a crucial part in the process of rebuilding herself .The movie is competing for the Centenary award for the best debut feature film at IFFI. Flemish screenwriter and film director Eva Cools has directed four short films which have been nominated and awarded at various film festivals.
