Gay Paris!—Sebastien Lifshitz - French filmmaker - Brief Article - Interview

BOY MEETS BOY. ACTION

HOWARD FEINSTEIN: Can you tell me a bit about your background?

SEBASTIEN LIFSHITZ: I studied art history, specializing in contemporary art. I am a big fan of historical photography from the 19th century till now, from Julia Margaret Cameron to Cindy Sherman. I was a cinephile as a child. It was a refuge for me, as was art. After school, I was in despair, because I wanted to do everything: music, theater, cinema, painting, photography. After a few years, I realized that cinema was the medium that gave me the opportunity to use them all.

HF: Do you think this is a rich period for French cinema?

SL: There are a few interesting new directors. But in France now, film is more about social things, or "special" characters. French cinema doesn't care enough about form and style.

HF: You cowrote the script for the critically acclaimed Presque Rien [Come Undone], which you directed, too. It's the story of a summer love affair between two teen boys, with Stephane Bouquet. He's also the protagonist in your docu-drama, La Traversee, in which you follow him on a transatlantic quest to the U.S. as he searches for his biological father.

SL: Stephane is my best friend. The film was an extension of what we always do, mixing fiction and our lives in cinema. I love artists who do that, like Nan Goldin. When you look at her photographs, you see her as a director, too.

HF: How did you mix fiction and your lives in Come Undone?

SL: I spent a summer on a beach, and I observed a boy there. My holiday wasn't so exciting, so over four nights I wrote a story about that boy. Over the next six months, everything changed in my life, in a bad way. And I added to the story what had happened. I mixed winter and summer, two opposite movements.

HF: Was the beach observation anthropological?

SL: Well, the boy was very cute, so there was an element of desire. [laughs]

Howard Feinstein is a film journalist living in New York. Left: Sebastien Lifshitz wears clothes by HELMUT LANG.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group