“It would be strange not to feel somehow moved to face what is happening”

Thirty-nine years old, four films under his belt, Ari Aster he is one of the most loved names by cinephiles all over the world: young ones, who invariably mention him as one of their favorite directors, and even great old ones like Martin Scorsesewho has often expressed himself more than positively about his films. The last of which is Eddingtonwhich has been talked about for months now, ever since it was presented as a world premiere in competition a Cannesand which debuts Friday 17 October in theaters throughout Italy after the preview on the 16th at the Rome Film Festival.
Precisely in a room of the Festival headquarters, the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, I met Aster, a vaguely Allenian character in his enthusiastic expression and full of pauses for reflection and even more so in curling up in the chair of the set where he was placed, almost crushed by the figures on the poster looming above him (who are, after all, his protagonists, Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal).

Eddington it was initially labeled as a contemporary westerna definition that actually makes sense, but it is above all a film in which genres overlap (modern Western yes, but also comedy, thriller and action) and whose real point of focus is the desire to tell, with satirical and over the top tones, the many cultural, social and political contrasts that animate the United States today and a good part of the so-called West.
In short, it is something very far from the horror cinema with which Aster made himself known throughout the world with Hereditary before and Midsummer Then. “I never started from a genre when thinking about the films I wanted to make”, he explained to me Aster. “I never started out saying ‘I want to make a horror film’. I start from a subject, from a story, and from there the question becomes understanding which is the best genre to deal with it. So talking about the world in which I have crossed different genres is a little difficult for me. It’s a kind of strategic move: with Hereditary I thought the best way to tell the story of a family that was falling apart was to make a horror film. Midsummer it was a sort of commissioned film, a challenge for me to see how I could make folk horror personal, and so it sort of became a story of separation; with Beau is scared I was guided mainly by an idea of ​​world and tone, by this nightmarish humor. AND with Eddington I wanted to make a film about the times we live in, at least in America, which is the place where I live and know; and since I lived in the southwest at the time and grew up in New Mexico, it came naturally to me to make a western, especially because the western is a quintessentially American genre. I don’t know what my next film will be, but I won’t start thinking about the genre: I will start from the story I want to tell.”

Eddington: the film trailer

Aster he is not the only one who, in this period, has proposed to tell the reality of American society, and Western society in general. From this point of view, his Eddington it forms a kind of ideal triptych that he also comes to understand One battle after another Of Paul Thomas Anderson (which Aster has seen and thinks is a great film) and After the Hunt Of Luca Guadagnino (which he hasn’t seen yet). I ask him why he thinks three such different authors talk, in equally different ways, about something so similar.
“The fact is that the current situation is crazy. We are experiencing a moment of great transformations, and this throughout the world, not just in America”, he replies. “I think that it would be strange not to feel at least a little moved to face what is happeningto confront it, especially because the situation is really intense. Somehow, if you don’t use what’s happening, what’s happening will end up using you”.

Another somewhat common trait between the three films, which in Eddington explodes sensationally, is to use a very strong irony, in this case a truly explicitly satirical key, on the photograph of the present proposal. Aster he comments on his personal choice thus: “We are living in a potentially catastrophic era, certainly very dangerous and very scary, but it is also true that one of its defining characteristics is that it is incredibly absurd. I think one of the most insidious things about this historical moment is that it is dangerous and scary but also impossible to take seriously: just think of the meme culture we are surrounded by. I felt that when I had to make a film about today, the most important thing was to talk about its obscenity and its stupidity. But at the same time, also the horrible sides, and especially the way we are all encouraged to dehumanize each other. So to make this satire that tries to broaden the gaze as much as possible and include as many elements of current culture as possible was to talk about figures with whom I don’t agree and try to highlight their humanity, and try to understand what drives them to behave in a certain way; and, on the contrary, take characters who have the same inclinations and beliefs as me and be a little more merciless towards them, shaping them with a sharper chisel than usual. It was a way to look at myself in the mirror. CThere are characters in the film that I think the film presents in a somewhat harsh way, and I see myself a lot in them”.

Below, the original video of the interview with Ari Aster: