European Films

Though made by a Spanish filmmaker, the film feels decidedly French and not only in its setting but also in its approach to cinema and more particularly its preoccupation with the male gaze. So why Strasbourg and not Paris or Madrid? "Simple," says the director, "because no one has ever filmed Strasbourg and it is a city I like. We looked for a city that could be a bit ambiguous about its identity. In the film, it’s Strasbourg and it is not Strasbourg. It is a city filled with female spirits. On the soundtrack, we can hear a lot of different languages; it is something of a foreign town for both the French and the Germans. It is an ideal town to be colonised by the ghosts of a woman".

Two other major advantages worked in Strasbourg’s favour: the fact that the Alsace region helped the film financially and the fact that it was an extremely easy and pleasant city to shoot in. Explains the director: "There is almost no traffic -- important for the sound recording -- and what there is in terms of pedestrians, cyclists and tramways, it moves at a nice rhythm, almost like a musical symphony. We did not have the money like von Stroheim to pay for hundreds of extras and let them do a complicated choreography, so the movement of the actual venue was important, and life on the streets of Strasbourg has a rhythm that is quite musical. The entire film was shot in public spaces -- as something of a confrontation with the intimacy of the characters -- so the role of this city and the movement in the city was essential".

For López de Ayala, still most famous abroad for playing the title role in Vicente Aranda's Juana la Loca (Mad Love), the making of En la ciudad de Sylvia offered her the first opportunity to get to know the city: "I didn’t know the city before we started shooting there," she explains. "I liked it there, though, it is a very calm and quiet city. We did not work on a large budget, but like we hoped everyone there was very helpful during filming."

Guerín intervenes: "Actually, we shot some images on video before the actual shoot. I wondered whether putting Pilar and Strasbourg together would work, so we went there to shoot some material". The actress, suddenly enlightened, adds: "I remember, this was before we started the actual shoot!" Her director continues: "We put her on a tram and simply filmed it to see what it would look like. I filmed her waiting for the tram as well, just to see how she would blend in or interact with the other, actual people standing there and we got some very nice shots".

Speaking of shots, since there is very little dialogue in the film, the images and the way they are composed take on even greater importance than usual. In the case of En la ciudad de Sylvia, every shot, every view and every look and way of looking counts. “We thought a lot about the relationship we wanted to create between the human figure in the shot on the one hand and the surrounding space on the other,” confesses the director. "When the dreamer is following a woman, he only sees her; the rest disappears. If the camera takes a wider view not necessarily corresponding to the point of view of the dreamer, then it sees all the staples of a big city: the Pakistani rose-seller; the Africans that try to sell imitation bags of expensive brands; the Romanians with their accordions; the female tramp".

The way in which these two views interact is part of the ebb and flow of the film. Says Guerín: "There is this constant tension between the dreamer’s point of view and the way he sees the world and what is going on around him, just like in any life and in any city. Even if the dreamer is absent from the shot, the presence of a tramp we have seen before or even a particular sound could invoke this spectre of a woman. These kinds of mysteries can only be made visible on film. The sound of a bottle rolling on the pavement can invoke the idea of an absent woman".

Since the film is not a classical narrative, the preparations for both the writer-director and the actors differed slightly from their usual job descriptions, López de Ayala confirms. "It is different because there is almost no text to hold on to. It is very much based on the way you look and the way you handle your gestures and your composure. It has to be a lot more subtle than when you are working in the theatre, so it was a very interesting experience for me".

The director, full of praise for the actress who has turned his Sylvie into the ultimate enigma of the female sex, adds: "Pilar is able to actually live in front of the camera. There are a lot of things you can achieve with a camera that you cannot do in a theatre. When you put the camera really close to her face, and she thinks of something, the camera can actually read her mind, or at least the imaginary idea or thing that she is thinking of. That is something extraordinary; it opens up so many possibilities, which is why, for me, cinema is Pilar. You put a camera in front of her and I really believe that what you will get is a good movie".

As for the filmmaker’s own preparation and working methods before and during the shoot, it was certainly not only the screenplay that played an important role. “I am always worried about questions with the word screenplay in them,” the director says with a smile.  "Some films are difficult to imagine ever having had a screenplay. What about Jacques Tati’s films? What would his scripts have looked like? We see that in the early years of cinema, the screenplay was something that was used to create a kind of narrative complexity and to develop the psychology of the characters. But slowly but steadily this system became, for lack of a better word, perverted. Now, in a sense, the screenplay is the thing that controls the capital that a film can attract. It is what the producer uses to find money for his films; it’s his primary tool. So you need to ask yourself when you sit down to write a screenplay: do I want to write something that is going to serve as a proper working tool during filming or do I want to write something that will seduce investors, producers and various committees. Because of this traumatic divide that exists even before the actual film is born, a lot of films are chained like slaves to the words on paper".

Guerín obviously wants to avoid that at all costs for his own films (which probably gives his producer headaches). Says the director: "For me, the screenplay is not the destination, but the point of departure. It is like a pretext I use to get the material, human and financial means to start shooting, when I can start inventing the film.  It is just a basis. I hope to find the little moments, little touches of grace during filming. I work on a sketch of a composition, a sequence beforehand and then I hope to reinvent some things and simply wait with impatience for the input from the others; what Pilar will give me, what the others will give me. I am very open to changes, even radical ones. This, for me, is what I like about making films. I needed to make this film because I had to find out what the point of making it was. If I already knew exactly how it would turn out, I wouldn’t have the desire to make it. In order for the film to be alive, to give something, it has to be a revelation for me too".

This interview was originally conducted in French and Spanish and has been translated into English by the author. The French title of the film is Dans la ville de Sylvie.