tMF is thrilled to announce our upcoming interview with Canadian filmmaker Karim Hussain. We recently did a feature on his film La Belle Bête and wanted to find out more of his work.

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In the course of my research, I was quite curious about how he started as a filmmaker, and what sort of movies he likes to create. Apparently, the guy has a rather unique taste and you'll soon discover his types of movies and a chance to discover more about him and his views about filmmaking and the industry in general. Here's a sort of intro about Karim Hussain:

I work in the movies, having written and directed a few of them such as SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY, LA DERNIÈRE VOIX (THE CITY WITHOUT WINDOWS), ASCENSION and the latest one, LA BELLE BÊTE (THE BEAUTIFUL BEAST). I also work as a screenwriter, having co-wrote Nacho Cerda's THE ABANDONED amongst others, and also as a cinematographer on my pictures, and for other directors, most recently on Gilles Paquet-Brenner's upcoming WALLED IN. Beyond making the damn things, I love all that has to do with subversive and radical filmmaking, art, literature, music etc... Movies may be a lie created from light and sound, but I'm a sucker for having the rug pulled out from under my feet with a little malicious flicker...

Here's more about La Belle Bête and his preferred genre in this interview:

It’s based on a classic 1959 novel written by Marie-Claire Blais, one of Canada’s most prestigious and greatest writers. She wrote the screenplay with my production partner, Julien Fonfrède and myself, so it’s been a real pleasure collaborating with such a legend here. It’s a dark family drama about a love triangle between a mother, her son and her daughter. Would horror fans like it? Some might, there are some pretty cruel and strange moments in it, but it will be marketed undoubtedly as a drama, as it’s more that kind of film.

It is shot in Québec, which has a rather popular film scene now and it features some pretty big stars for the French-language film world, like Carole Laure (Sweet Movie), Caroline Dhavernas (Wonderfalls) and Marc-André Grondin (C.R.A.Z.Y). I’m very happy with it, currently finishing the editing. It might seem like a departure at first, but it really isn’t that much of a stretch. It actually has more in common with Subconscious Cruelty than any of my other projects, ironically enough! Also, it’s in 2:35 widescreen, which is a fun format to work in as I’m also the cinematographer of my films. [ read more ]

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His thoughts on his favorite genre, horror films:

Today, I think it’s an interesting time. It’s quite shocking how violent mainstream cinema has become and of course that’s a reflection of the conservative wave in America, where violence is encouraged to solve nearly every single problem, so that’s trickling down into the horror movies. Which makes for some pretty thrilling and nasty moments you never thought you’d ever see in mainstream American cinema, certainly.

However, sex is still crazily frowned upon, especially anything which can be considered “deviant” sex for the conservatives, (witness recent ratings problems for Atom Egoyan’s Where The Truth Lies) which is something I find quite disturbing. Violence okay, sex bad; again the same twisted problem that is ferociously horrific when you think about it. I think the one thing I find lacking in current horror movies, is that even though they are delivering ten fold on the hard-core visceral level, there’s not enough actual reflection on the violence and its consequences. Probably Cronenberg’s last film is the only one to recently really touch that.

That said, I can still sit down and enjoy Haute Tension or Saw 2 and marvel at the extremes they go to and have a blast.

Probably my biggest complaint, not just in horror movies but also in cinema in general, is the lack of good music in them. Many of the scores seem so generic and forgettable. Whatever happened to the great scores from the likes of Tangerine Dream, Goblin or John Carpenter from the 70’s and 80’s that were so influential and memorable? It seems that people seem satisfied with having the music go to the back seat and disappear into a kind of aura mediocrity, which I think is the reason many of the new horror remakes aren’t as successful as the movies they’re based on. People forget that half of the reason the original movies were so good was the music!

But yeah, horror today is working, I think due to the fact that many filmmakers who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s who were obsessed with that heyday of horror are starting to make features and they’re recycling a lot of the successful elements in those films. It’s the right political climate to be angry now, so that kind of thing is working, only the movies now have to deliver bang-up punches in the first two or three minutes, and be ultra-fast, which is a bit unfortunate. Attention spans are getting shorter (everything is instantaneous now, internet, mobile phones, if you want to know something, you know it immediately) and audiences have seen SO many movies. Unfortunately I think some people might be forgetting the pleasure of waiting. So that’s reflecting in the horror movies, but I guess you have to roll with the punches.

In the work I do, I try to explore different kinds of pacing and narrative mechanics, take my time with the rhythm, but more and more my films are going to have take this new cinematic pacing into consideration. The trick is to mix both styles up, I guess. Who knows, because in movies, you NEVER know what will work and what will not. If you are making a film without taking any risks or trying to change the current state of things, well then it’s not very exciting, is it?

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What's on your mind? If you have any questions you like to ask Mr. Hussain, be our guest! But I'll be sending our questions soon, so you better hurry!

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Comments (1)

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I really want to see La Belle Bete really badly!

I agree with everything he had to say about the conservative wave in America ruining true cinematic genius and what not. I live in the States and I hate how everyone overreacts to really beautiful things.

I do have a question for Mr. Hussain: What was it like to work with Marc-André Grondin? I absolutely loved him in C.R.A.Z.Y. and he's one of the reason's I want to see this movie other than the complete awe that I have in the plot.

Lydia , October 11, 2008 | url

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