jim sheridan (Dublin, 1949) is one of the most interesting filmmakers to emerge on the European scene in the late 1980s. After devoting himself to theater at the beginning of his career and shining there as a playwright, he achieved great success among the public and … Criticism when I debuted as a director with my own film in 1989 “My left foot”. starring Daniel Day-LewisHe won his first Best Actor Oscar, and this film marked the beginning of a collaboration between the two that would later lead to other very notable achievements such as Drama. “In the Name of the Father” (1993) and “boxer” (1997). Yesterday, the Irish director received the Giraldillo of Honor Award from the 22nd Seville European Film Festival, in recognition of his entire professional career. Additionally, he announced his latest feature film. ‘recreation’he wrote and co-directed David Merriman And it is a reconstruction of one of the most shocking events in recent Irish history: the never-held trial of British journalist Ian Bailey, who was found guilty in absentia of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. The drama, which has a distinctly theatrical feel, is also an homage to Sidney Lumet’s classic “Twelve Men Without Mercy.”
—What does it mean to you to win the Giraldillo of Honor Award at the Seville European Film Festival?
–I was surprised and very honored to receive this. I love Seville because of the sun and the music. I really wanted to come because this was a great escape from the northern winter.
—In addition to being a standard-bearer for European cinema, the festival is also an important champion of auteur films. What do you think about the uniqueness of this competition for filmmakers?
—I think it’s great because it’s getting harder and harder to make auteur films. The more time passes, the more movies become the lowest common denominator. However, I think there are significant advantages to streaming platforms. At the European Film Academy, I say that European cinema needs to have a common language, and thanks to technology, this is becoming possible. I think it’s going to change the movie experience everywhere.
—Your films have given a particular perspective to Ireland’s social and political conflicts.
-Yeah. I remember coming to Spain often many years ago. I went to northern Spain several times when there was a terrorist problem in the Basque Country. I told them that “In the Name of the Father” tells the story of a nonviolent father. People misunderstood the story and thought the film was about revenge against the British, which it actually wasn’t. That film captures a story against injustice, but at the center of it stands out the gaze of a nonviolent father.
—Your films have deep ethical and emotional dimensions.
-surely. I’m trying to get to the truth of my situation. James Joyce said of Ireland: “History is a nightmare from which we are just waking up.” We didn’t choose to be complicated. We didn’t choose to keep fighting all the time. It is the history we come from. Our country is perhaps the most documented post-colonial country in the Western world.
—You’ve always had great actors, especially Daniel Day-Lewis, who is considered one of the best actors in the world and has starred in three movies with you. What was it like working together?
—It was great working with Daniel and it’s great to see him again in his son’s movie. He’s a very good actor, but more than that, he’s a great person. He has a deep sense of humanity and is also a poet. Choose to work to get to the truth instead of being the problem. He is very specific in applying his interpretation of the method. He does not apply his interpretation like a madman, but runs it with many directions.
—So you totally understood Daniel Day-Lewis when he took a break from the film industry for a few years to focus on his personal life.
-of course. It’s like a battery needs to be charged. I think he’s functioning at such an intense level that it takes up a lot of energy. Sometimes I feel like I have so much baggage that I have used up all the energy to move forward.
—How can you combine social realism and the exploration of the poetic and spiritual in a film?
—Social realism is the origin of my theater. I’m trying to capture invisible emotions. When emotions are invisible, the visible interferes with the invisible. I’m not interested in creating illustrative images, I’m interested in deeper truths. I’m not sure I’m that strong when it comes to creating images for paintings. My strength is emotional truth. People misunderstand what the movie is essentially about. The viewer thinks it’s a myth or a story, but in reality, at heart it’s a very simple interaction with the viewer. What matters is whether I believe it or not. This is a very religious thing. It’s deeper than the usual mythological stories. What I mean by this is that when people go to the movies, they project their beliefs onto what comes off the screen. If those beliefs eventually collide, the person will no longer believe what they see. And if you can’t believe what you see, you’re out. You have to capture people’s beliefs.
Q: Why do you keep talking about the Midwestern states?
–In deep America, there is no European culture or collective culture, and there is a high degree of individualism. “Taxi Driver” screenwriter Paul Schroeder displayed a high degree of Protestant individualism. The strange thing is that everyone understood Protestant individualism. That’s the movie that ends up becoming popular. That’s much more difficult to achieve in a collective film. When you translate from Ireland to Spain or France, you have to find a formula to overcome what comes from the most primitive culture, not in the most negative sense, but in the most primitive and religious sense. Movies love cruelty and scapegoating. The movie is violent and easily veers off to satisfy the primal origins of violence. I already left those things behind. I think it’s hard to do sex and violence on a movie set. I just don’t understand. In cowboy movies, when the cowboy kisses the girl, the kids think the movie is over and yell, “Boo!” The adults shushed them. But the kids were right. Because I understood that you can’t combine masculinity and femininity in the middle of a movie. I have to wait until the movie ends. The best kiss is the one at the end of “Cinema Paradiso.” It’s hard to believe in kisses. It’s so primitive that you can’t get into it because your emotions disappear. Movies can be so intimate.
—Your latest work, “Re-creation,” depicts a trial that never actually took place, and also incorporates a very theatrical perspective through the actors.
–That movie was difficult. I was making another movie and suddenly I ran out of money. We had to make a very quick decision to limit the story to one set. I decided to pay tribute to Sidney Lumet and his “12 Sympathizers.” There was only 5 days to shoot this movie. I had to find a solution. In the end, I liked what I got with this story. It’s interesting because even though it shows a very limited palette, the movie tells a lot of truths.
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