Denis Côté Introduces His Film "Ghost Town Anthology"

"Essentially, I wanted to write a script about the Other and the fear it inspires."
Notebook

Denis Côté's Ghost Town Anthology is exclusively playing on MUBI from April 21 - May 20, 2020 in MUBI's Luminaries series.

Denis Cote

Above: Denis Côté. Photo by Eladio Agudo.

INSPIRATION

At the time of writing and shooting Ghost Town Anthology, my main inspiration was "present-day Quebec, Canada." I feel that people today are very afraid of losing the sense of comfort that my homeland offers. This fear presents itself in various ways—no need to say more about the current Covid-frenzy—and our resistance to change is fierce. The rise of populism in the media, the migrant crisis, the reluctance to be open to other people and identitarian closure are all themes that interest me. Laurence Olivier’s book is a poetic collection of slices of life and disjointed stories, and I tried to keep its spirit. Changes and tears in the social fabric are fascinating phenomena, and I designed a story with holes in it where the supernatural could creep in, bringing multiple anticlimaxes. It’s not a complex script, but I enjoy playing with tone; I like when things aren’t easy to define or categorize. Essentially, I wanted to write a script about the Other and the fear it inspires.

I also thought of the many times I’ve been asked to make a horror film. I started down that road during the writing process, but I gradually shifted toward a rural tale that straddles the line between social realism and the supernatural. I prefer to distort the rules of genre film rather than follow them. In the end, the film uses metaphor and explores themes that interest me, instead of turning into a zombie movie or a horror film full of easy jump scares. The movie asks more questions than it answers. Those who follow my work have learned not to expect readymade answers or to be hit over the head with a message. You have to enjoy getting lost and swimming in ambiguity without the promise of an epiphany. The journey is always more interesting than the destination.

COMMUNITY

It was hard to write a film in which the main character is the community. I thought of Altman and other masters of ensemble films and chronicles. It’s also difficult in the editing process to find the right balance and to find an elegant way to transition from one character’s fate to another’s, from one tone to another. Since there’s very little opportunity to become attached to anyone in particular, the main character becomes the village in winter.The film is a uncatalogued of little fears and everything has to make some sort of sense.

There’s some deadpan comedy in the film, but I am quite critical of the vaguely xenophobic behavior that surrounds me, both here and elsewhere. I’m struck by the opposition to diversity as well as the paucity of cultural offerings outside urban areas. Our towns are suffering silently. Even in the cities, whether it be among film lovers or other cultural centers, anti-intellectualism and a lack of curiosity are gaining ground every day. I think of this film as a reaction to all that.

STRANGERS

There are new "people" appearing in the area. They are the dormant conscience of the village. They are both the past and future of our rural regions, the areas we pay no attention to and that we allow to die through our, and their own, indifference. The dead come back to warn the living. They seem to say, "If you do nothing with this memory, this history and this territory, we will take it back." They are also strangers who the townspeople must now live with. That’s the indirect way I chose to talk about immigration and the fear it provokes among the most wary of us. The figure of the monster in film is often a symbol of lost humanity. It always carries an element of romance or nostalgia. These revenants fall into that tradition. I allow the metaphors to slowly float by and the viewer to catch whatever speaks to them.

It's always interesting to explore fear as a narrative's driving force. My villagers all had a routine and a certain comfort level before Simon’s unexpected and sudden death. I decided to change their relationship to everyday life by inviting a kind of ultimatum into the village. But this ultimatum is only slightly alarming. Everyone seems to get used to the bizarreness that settles into the town. I really like that. Those who are sleepwalking can easily adapt to a new state of things, while others go into panic mode.

LOOK

I wanted to deviate from the formal authority of my earlier films. The agony of Irénée-les-Neiges had to flow through the film-making process. I didn’t want to plan as much or box my actors in. The filming was freer. I didn't impose strict limits or guidelines on my director of photography, François Messier-Rheault. It did me a lot of good. My previous film, A Skin So Soft, was also more fluid and less calculated.

The story called for the use of super 16mm, with its desaturated, grainy and dusty look. I didn’t want to embellish the town’s fate, because there’s nothing to embellish. Raw, memorable, loose… These are all adjectives that were part of our discussions. I feel as though this film is a bridge between my documentaries, which are pretty bare-bones, and my dramas, which are more robust and assiduously made. This middle ground pleases me a great deal.

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