Bird's Eye View

Philosophical Dreaming from a First Time Feature Director: Sophie Barthes on Cold Souls

Sophie Barthes, director of Cold Souls

Friday November 13th is a lucky day for philosophical dreamer Sophie Barthes, whose first feature Cold Souls is released across the UK. A melancholic comedy starring the brilliant Paul Giamatti (Sideways) as himself. We were already fans of Sophie, whose short film opening the Birds Eye View film festival in 2006, and so were delighted to catch up with her, and learn more about this amazing achievement, and her new baby! Read on for an insight into the intellectual & dreamlife of an extremely talented first time feature filmmaker…

Birds Eye View showed your short Happiness in 2006 – for you, how does the process of making a feature film compare to that of making a short?

I imagine that the difference is very similar to the difference between writing a short story and a novel. In a way it’s much more difficult to write a short film, you only have five or ten minutes to explore an idea, a feeling, a mood. I enjoyed very much making short films: a crew of five people, complete creative freedom without pressure… On a feature you suddenly have a crew of a hundred people, producers, a bond company, investors. You have to be responsible but still faithful to your ideas. It’s a strange dance between compromise and resistance. I’ve learnt a lot in the process. I’m always very critical, so I can see all the things I would do differently today. You can only learn cinema by making it. A first film is full of imperfections, and sometimes that’s what is charming about it, but I think the objective is to develop and grow as a filmmaker and try to master the craft a little bit better every time you get the chance to do it.

Cold Souls has a haunting, dream-like quality. I read that the inspiration for this film came from a dream you had. Could you tell us about the dream and how it influenced the atmosphere and storyline of the film?

The idea came from a very strange dream I had three years ago. I use my dreams quite a lot in my writing process. In the dream, I am waiting in line in a futuristic office. I am holding a box, like everybody else in line. A secretary explains that the box contains our extracted souls. The doctor will examine it and assess its problems. Woody Allen is also in line, just in front of me. When his turn comes, he opens his box and discovers that his soul is a chickpea! He is furious. At this point, I feel extremely anxious. I look down at my container but the dream ends. So I never saw the shape of my soul… I think dreaming and watching a film are very similar experiences, you’re lying in the darkness, and seeing images that you cannot control.

Cold Souls movie poster

I remember as a child that my favorite tale was “ The Princess and the Pea”. I never fully understood the meaning of this tale. But now in retrospect, I realize that the pea has a strong symbolic meaning. How can such a small thing disturb the Princess sensibility so much? And in Cold Souls or in my dream, how can such a tiny soul, a simple chickpea, create so much turmoil?

I love films that have a dreamlike quality.

Did you have any other influences or inspiration and if so what were they?

When I had the dream I was reading a lot of Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic work. I’m also very influenced by Surrealism as a movement and interested in poetic science fiction. As a teenager discovering the playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd was a revelation (Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean Tardieu…) I grew up reading Boris Vian, watching Buñuel films and loving the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst. Among my favorite films: Jean Luc Godard’s Alphaville, Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and Fellini’s 81/2. I think my favorite filmmaker is Bergman. I particularly like Persona, The Silence and Hour of the Wolf. And of course Woody Allen (Love & Death, Sleeper, Manhattan, Annie Hall, Everything you always wanted to know about Sex…).

The film strikes a clever balance between humour on one hand and a kind of philosophical melancholy on the other. How easy was it to create this delicate equilibrium without the film becoming either an out-and-out tragedy or comedy?

The tone is definitely tricky. It was intentional to blend comedy and tragedy but I’m conscious that it requires a lot from the audience. Some people can’t deal with the shift of emotions or tone. They need a unity of tone. But for me it’s closer to how life is. In a given day, I can go from a profound melancholic state to euphoria or lightness. I was trying to go for a Chekhovian tone. There is something so delicate in the Chekhov, a sadness infused with absurd moments of comedy, the quiet sense of despair, nostalgia, hopelessness. Most people see his plays as tragedies but I think they are very comic too, especially “Uncle Vanya”. He knew how to blend comedy and tragedy so perfectly.

How did you secure such a big name as Paul Giamatti as the lead for this your first feature film?

It’s been a long bumpy journey! But in a nutshell, I wrote the script for Paul Giamatti. Luckily, I won a screenplay competition at the Nantucket Film Festival in 2006 and by a strange coincidence meet Paul in person, who was there to present an award to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. I told him about the dream. He got intrigued. Few days later he read the script and accepted the role. This never happens. It was beginner’s luck.

My favourite moment is when Paul Giamatti has to admit to his wife that he had his soul extracted – when she asks if he is now soulless, he tells her no, but has to sheepishly admit that he bought a Russian poet’s soul on the black market. To me this scene is typical of the kind of humour in the film: a mixture of the absurd, satirical and deadpan. How easy was it to write and direct comedy?

Paul Giammatti in Cold Souls

That’s funny, it’s also my favorite moment in the film. I find comedy is much harder to write and direct than straightforward tragedy, because a comic character has to be tragic underneath. Laughter is a very mysterious thing. What makes us laugh? I think Jerry Lewis had a good definition, when he said: “The premise of all comedy is a man in trouble.”

Do you feel your film carries any specific message or is it open to interpretation?

I don’t think films should carry messages. Advertising or political propaganda do carry messages. I think a film should be watched like a painting, totally open to the viewer’s interpretation. I strongly believe that the process of watching a film and dreaming are very similar. Only the dreamer can interpret his own dreams.

How collaborative was your filmmaking process?

One of the most rewarding aspects of making Cold Souls was the collaboration with the creative team: cinematographer, composer, editor, casting director, art department, sound, costume department etc… There is something very beautiful in putting together different talents and seeing the film coming to life. All the attention is usually directed to the film director but we forget how collaborative filmmaking is. Andrij Parekh who is my life and creative partner and the cinematographer on Cold Souls brought a very specific style to the film. I learnt a lot from him. The camera rewrites the story continuously. I couldn’t imagine making this film without him. By the end of the process it’s difficult to say what comes from whom. That’s the beauty of cinema as a medium, it’s very collaborative.

We hear you have a new baby, congratulations! How do you feel being a mother affects women filmmakers in the industry?

It’s a bit early for me to judge, as our little daughter is only 10 weeks old. It’s certainly going to be challenging to pursue a career in the film industry while raising a child. She has changed a lot my perspective on life, sense of priorities and time.

What’s next for you? Any projects in the pipeline?

I’m a bit superstitious to talk about the future but I’m writing two scripts at the moment, a surreal one, and a darker one, linked to psychoanalysis. I’d like to continue exploring Surrealism and go deeper in the vein of the absurd: tone mixing comedy, satire, irony and melancholy, characters caught in dreamlike, nightmarish or hopeless situation, dialogue flirting with clichés and nonsense…

Cold Souls is released on Friday November 13th. Please do support Sophie on her opening weekend! For more information check out our First Weekenders Club page.