Swiss filmmaker Fabrice Aragno (“Dimanche”) who served as Jean-Luc Godard’s multi-faceted collaborator and creative confidant for the better part of two decades, heads to Locarno for the world premiere of his latest feature “The Lake” (“Le Lac”).
It competes for Locarno’s top Golden Leopard in the fest’s main International Competition, bowing on Aug. 14.
Turning the minutia of life’s fleeting encounters into displays of visceral emotion, the project sees the filmmaker surrender further to the scene. Unburdened from heavy dialogue, the landscapes speak volumes and the middle-aged protagonists are left stoic, only their heavy expressions and agile frames holding the space between the tangible and divine as they handle a rugged five-day sailing race on a large lake.
“I entered the world of cinema because I see it, and feel it, as an art form at the crossroads of painting and photography (the image), music (sound and silence), dance (movement) and poetry (for the silence it also evokes). It seems to be the ideal art form for expressing the inexpressible,” Aragno told Variety.
“Before using words, I see an image that can be 12 metres wide and six metres high, with eight audio tracks, and darkness, and silence. The fact that we can bring in captured reality and turn it into a composition, that we can film faces like landscapes and landscapes like characters, I leave room for that. Everything is over-said, decried, crushed by words and knowledge — that we no longer see. It’s not bad to allow time to think without dictation,” he adds.
An artist who believes in serendipity, Aragno admits the project built over time as opportunities gave way to the narrative structure of the film. Ideas and relationships flourished, coaxing him to fully develop the project.
“In 2013, I had the opportunity to create a video work for a major exhibition in Switzerland that brought together painters who’d painted Lake Geneva. From Turner to Courbet, Vallotton, and even Dürer. They wanted to include filmmakers, and therefore Jean-Luc Godard,” he explained.
“Working on these paintings and facing the majestic lake, I was struck by the contrast between what it expresses through what we see (here, through the prism of the painters’ sensibilities) and what it resonates within us, in our invisible interiors. I found this relationship surprising. I called the video work I was doing ‘The Invisible’ precisely because feelings, which are invisible, are expressed by what we see in front of us, the ‘visible’ of the lake and its visible variations, of our invisibilities. I then thought it would be interesting to really go into this visible realm to express our invisible feelings,” he continued.
The scenic appeal is undeniable, nature’s majestic prose both frames and dwarfs the tumultuous affectations of the characters. Electric rose gold sunsets play opposite mystifying fog-laden mountain ranges and dense clouds that harbor torrential downpours, while French actress Clotilde Courau (“In The Shadow of Women”) and Swiss professional sailor, Bernard Stamm, brave inward storms with unshakeable grace.
The director speaks to the breadth of their talents with vigor, having met Courau at Locarno 10 years ago, and admits his leads made a compelling duo in the film — which counts on their prowess to assist the images they sail through.
“They found each other, rediscovered each other, in front of our cameras! Neither actress nor sailor, but two beings, alone, together, caught up in the torments of life, of time, of the loss of things, the return of the essentials,” he relayed.
“The Lake” is produced by Casa Azul Films, who represent world sales. It is co-produced by public broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS).