Katya Marletta, interviewed exclusively for FabUK Magazine, the director François Vautier, talking about his movie “Recoding Entropia”, part of the 6 VR works representing France (among 31 VR works in total) in the Venice VR Expanded category.
- The 77th Venice Film Festival edition is an extraordinary event in an extraordinary historical context that celebrates Cinema and Culture with courage, passion and energy. How do you feel to be part of this exceptional edition (named the n°0)?
© Alain Briant François Vautier: I am very happy to be part of the selection in this edition. We have a very strong connection with the festival and its crew.« I Saw The Future », our previous film, had been selected in the 2017 edition. For us VR film creators, Venice is a special place as it is the first cinematographic ground that welcomed VR projects, the first place where VR was integrated as fictional objects. Indeed, this year, the edition named n°0 seems exceptional. The pandemic situation has paradoxically revealed the true nature of VR, which is virtual access to a universal cinema.
- Cinema has always been a way of asking questions about the type of society we’re striving for and a way of understanding what it means to be human. What is the Cinema to you and what is your vision of it? What is the role of “Art” during this unprecedented time?
François Vautier: Art in general, cinema more particularly, has always been the expression of a mood, a tone, a vision. It is the indicator of a time, a space, and sometimes a future. As a filmmaker, I try to draw the outlines of a time and guess its perspectives, happy or more dubious. What makes VR special is its capacity to outreach the simple notion of exposition or expression, to make “touchable” issues from today or from tomorrow. The themes I enjoy exploring (evolution, human becoming, sideral experience…) prove this desire. - “Recoding Entropia”, the name of your film which is part of the 6 VR works representing France at the 77th Venice Film Festival, intends to tell about evolution of form, species, and intelligence. How was this project born and what is the message you want to convey?
François Vautier: Following « I saw the future », a film which helped decrypt the predictions of writer Arthur C. Clark, and « Odyssey 1.4.9 »,designed as a tribute to S. Kubrick’s masterpiece « 2001, A Space Odyssey », « Recoding Entropia » is the new opus of aanthology dedicated to evolution. Iaim to offer a complete immersion in an environment designed as infinite and staggering. It is a reflexion on the imaginary and the future of humankind, which questions the relationship we have with time and space. What amazes me, beyond chaos and the cycle of time, is the notion of living organisms, which I love to explore all the way since its emergence. A singular entropy that I see as a space in itself, a subject to investigate. - The word entropy finds its roots in the Greek ἐντροπῐ́ᾱ (entropia), which means “a turning toward” or “transformation.” The word is used to describe the measurement of disorder.At a first glance, the “transformation” of the original shape into a multitude of different objects may be interpreted as “chaos”. Is this the final meaning or do you want to resemble human kind’s evolution?
François Vautier: « Recoding Entropia » suggests in its title a change, an evolution. Beyond the inherent chaos, it foreshadows an evolutionary and transcendental thematic. My films always aim to observe the cycles and mechanisms of the living without moral questioning. I envision humanity’s future, its changing processes and its movements like a passionate observer. My filmmaker’s view focuses on the notions of multiple mutations with a poetic approach of the living.
- what about your next projects?François Vautier: « Beta Aquari », currently in its development stage, will be the last opus of our anthology. This film in interactive VR will immerse us into the deepest part of the abyss, in an imaginary universe inspired by Jules Verne’s work. Moreover, we are writing a science-fiction feature film completely thought and developed for VR, with live-action images. Following our experiments on the past matters, this movie aims to offer a unique experience, fully cinematographic.
By Katya Marletta