Interview with “Robot Dreams” Writer/Director, Pablo Berger

Full transcript of Interview with “Robot Dreams” Writer/Director, Pablo Berger.

0:09KT: Pablo is a Spanish award winning film director and screenwriter with four feature films and 25 years in cinema.

0:18KT: Robot Dreams has received accolades, including being nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards and winning at the Goya Awards for Best Animated Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. Robot Dreams is in Australian cinemas April 11. Pablo, thank you so much and welcome to the For Your Reference podcast.

0:39Pablo: Thank you, KT. It's my pleasure to be talking with you today.

0:44KT: I would love to start off with just saying how much fun it's been listening and watching interviews of you, whether it's through film festivals or the special screenings that you've been having as well. Um, and just to say again, congratulations to the awards.

1:00KT: I read Eduardo's book. Um, and watch the film Alive, but I haven't watched Society of the Snow yet. But congratulations on all of the love and deserved success, um, of Robot Dreams so far.

1:13Pablo: Thank you. Thank you, KT. It's been an amazing journey, you know. It's been a, more than a Robot Dreams, it's Pablo's dream.

1:22Pablo: Because to start at the official selection in Cannes, go to Annecy, which is the Cannes of Animation, hundreds of festivals, European Film Award, we won Best Animated, Goyas. And of course, the cherry of the cake, the Oscars. It's been an amazing journey. And now I still have a few more months of, like, heavy work.

1:45Pablo: Because so many countries are releasing the film now. Like in Australia, it just released in Mexico. I'm going to Italy in a few days. Germany. So, it still is very exciting. For me that the film is getting released in the world right now.

2:00KT: And it's, yeah, it's definitely got everyone's attention. I would say it's KT's dreams as well.

2:05KT: I loved, loved, loved this film. Um, my partner and I, Oti, we have this podcast and we love animation. And I think Pablo, while we have everyone's attention, I just want to echo what you say, what a lot of very learned, very smart people say, animation is not a genre.

2:24Pablo: Yes, completely. Thank you, KT. So I made this film for you and your partner. If you, if you, if you like it so much, yes, we have to repeat this, this, this sentence until we don't have to, you know, and. You know, Guillermo del Toro, when he got the Oscar for Pinocchio, he was very clear about it. Animation is not a genre, it's a medium.

2:47Pablo: And Guillermo or myself, which we, we moved from live action to animation, we know it clearly, you know. A director can make a film with a camera or can make it hand drawn or can be a stop motion. There are many ways to tell, to make a film, but it's not a genre. Genre is a comedy, it's a thriller, it's a horror.

3:08Pablo: We have to be treated as equals. You know, and I, and I, and I see it so clearly in our ceremonies in festivals, even from other colleagues. So it's changing little by little. There's like, there's like what we call it crystal ceiling that we have to break. We have cracks, but we have to insist. We can tell sophisticated, complex, dramatic, beautiful stories.

3:35Pablo: It's not only for children. Yes, children. There's animation for children, but you can make animation for everybody. Like Robot Dreams.

3:44KT: And I like animation. There's like an elasticity. That's there that you don't necessarily get in live action as well. And, you know, even though this is your first sort of entrance animation, you talk about how you storyboard from start to end in the filmmaking sort of process and how the drawn sort of characters are also actors to you as well.

4:06KT: Um, and also, I guess, trusting in your team and their expertise and being able to get in and that sort of thing. But I really applaud it because. There's something special about animation that breaks through the cynicism of adult life. It just like really pierces through the heart and I really felt that with Dog and Robot.

4:30Pablo: I'm glad what you say. I agree with you. You know, if I talk about my experience as a live action director, I, I honestly feel that I, an animation director was inside of me because as you said, I storyboard all my films. So when I came to, to make Robot Dreams for me, it was very natural to spend one year, one year and a half storyboarding.

4:52Pablo: The only thing that I had to do is to make a substitution. The actors became animators. And, and of course a director has to direct the animators. For me, my objective, my main goal making Robot Dreams is to get great performance from the drawings. So I had to get great performance from robot, from dog, and all the characters.

5:12Pablo: The same that when I work with actors. So that for me was, was very, very, very important as well, you know.

5:19KT: I have a very long list, um, of books and graphic novels to read and I've added Robot Dreams to it as well. Um, there's something about, I guess tapping into the loneliness, the disconnected sort of mess that you might have in a big city like New York and finding a way to fill it in without dialogue.

5:42KT: And this isn't your first film without dialogue, um, but this is based off of the graphic novel as well, Sara Varon. Um, how was it being able to I guess, let the moments live and breathe without that sort of dialogue. Did you find it a challenge or did you find it as, I guess, a beautiful sort of opportunity to express it a different way?

6:06Pablo: Well, for me, it was, was an opportunity because I was looking, I had made a dialogue free film before, 10 years ago, called Blancanieves, that it was releasing in Australia as well. And I enjoyed the process so much that I wanted to repeat, but I wanted to do something different. So the fact that this, this, in this occasion, it was animation.

6:29Pablo: And in this occasion, it had sound in a way, it doesn't have dialogue, but there's a very complex sound design. The characters, the scream, laugh. You know, so definitely it has sound and for me to make a dialogue free or a nonverbal film connects more with with what I call a sensorial experience. It connects more with going to the concert, going to the opera, going to a ballet, more like to dream awake.

7:00Pablo: Almost like hypnotic experience. There's something about Robot Dreams or Blancanieves or film that doesn't have dialogue that it takes the audience to a different place. It's like a different experience. So I think it's like, I think we call it normal films when the actors talk. Yeah. It's. In a film like doesn't have dialogue, there's more space for the audience to complete the story.

7:26Pablo: And for me, that's, that's very important. And also you said something before that I, I didn't continue explaining, but it was for me very important. You said like, when you film, when you see a film that is animation, you know, it, it almost feels more cynic. The cynicism is broken in a way. dreams. What I wanted is t would be children for one hour and a half and the children would be adults for one hour and a half.

7:56Pablo: I want the, the, the adults, you know, be like a little kid because some of my happiest moment in my life is when I was watching animation on TV or in the cinema. And the other hand, children, somehow we, we don't treat them as adults. We, we, we, sometimes we treat them in media, in books and cinema, that they're not very bright, like they have to be silly.

8:22Pablo: No, no. I like the idea when I was growing up and my parents would take me to the cinema, or I would watch a lot of films on TV, films from the 40s, 50s and 60s. They were for everybody. They were for kids or adults for cinephile. I don't know what happened in the, in cinema when there is a moment that, Oh, now there are films for art house.

8:44Pablo: Oh, these are films, commercial films.

8:46KT: I think it's marketing, Pablo. Marketing.

8:51Pablo: But there are labels. And I like the idea that film can cater to cinephiles, normal audience, and children. And I think Robot Dreams is one of those cases.

9:02KT: And it's, it's such an accessible film. And I think. More and more global or even Western audiences are getting used to subtitles.

9:11KT: And I think that also speaks to animation as well. There's less of a barrier of like, Oh no, I, this is a cartoon. Why would I watch this? And actually digging into the gems. That we have along all the little boogies along the way, you know,

9:28Pablo: I think it's true is changing that there's some things there are many bad things are bad about globalization, but there's also many good things about globalization.

9:38Pablo: International cinema is traveling more.

9:41KT: Yeah,

9:41Pablo: maybe that forms you can see it in the Oscars, you know, this year Anatomy of a Fall is there, or Perfect Days. A lot of interest on the best film. So I think cinema taste is changing, and it allows film from all over the world to travel better. And that's the case of Robot Dreams.

10:02Pablo: The Robot Dreams is a global film is getting released all over the world and I'm so excited that it's opening April 11th in Australia. It's one of the countries that has been loyal to my work. All my films have been theatrically released in Australia and I'm very excited too. Because I think Australian cinema, and of course Australian audience, they look for something different.

10:26Pablo: Something that is. Humor, something that is emotional. So I feel very close with, with Australian cinema. I almost feel like, you know, I, I get you, I understand you. And I think you understand me and you get me. And I think that's why my films, they, they play so well in Australia.

10:45KT: It's interesting you talk about global because it's like, Oh, it's a Spanish director.

10:49KT: Oh, it's in New York. And there's like so many like layers to it. But you also went to film school and you lived in New York for 10 years. And, um, I've never necessarily been to New York. Um, I also think I speak Spanish for when the subtitles are gone. I don't speak Spanish, but it was so nice to see the textures, like the background characters weren't little scribbles.

11:11KT: Like they felt like real characters that could have their own. Sort of adventure. And that comes with experience and being able to live and breathe in a city like New York as well. So it was really great to be able to feel the world of Robot Dreams.

11:26Pablo: I think that's very important part of Robot Dreams.

11:29Pablo: Like I want the audience, when they buy the ticket and they go to the cinema to watch Robot Dreams, they travel in time to a New York in the eighties that has vanished. So it had to be. perfectly portrayed. You know, my, my closest collaborator, Yuko, she's been working with me for many years. She's from Japan.

11:48Pablo: Also, we talk about globalization. This is a Spanish French co production. So yes, films, a city like New York is full of people from different races and different, you know, cultures. Different backgrounds. And that's what attracted me very much about the city, you know, the diversity. And I think that's something very positive about globalization.

12:08Pablo: One of the positive things about the diversity.

12:11KT: Did you, I guess in regards to like storytelling in Robot Dreams, because it's such a beautiful tapestry. In a way that maybe people aren't used to experiencing. It is very accessible and you can have younger audiences that will enjoy it as well. Um, was there a sort of balance in making sure that younger audiences could access it as well as making sure there's enough texture and sort of obstacles along the way?

12:42Pablo: No, honestly, no. I'm a very. selfish director. I make films for myself, you know, I'm, I'm, you know, if it doesn't work for me, if I don't get emotional, if I don't feel it, if I don't get it, I don't think people are going to get it. So I always make the films for myself and I hope people can, can connect. But, but no, this, this film, the point of view of this film is an adult film, you know, but, but we knew, as I said before that, you know, if you treat a child as an adult, they're, they're going to, to, to get the story.

13:22Pablo: Films are like, I think films are like lasagna, depending the background, your age. Uh, your experience, you're a different layer. So, and that's fine. You know, I think cinephiles, when they come to see Robot Dreams, the film is full of Easter eggs. There are cinephilia, there are references. If you, if you, if you're like a normal audience, I go to the multiplexes once a week.

13:47Pablo: You know, there's actually,

13:48KT: and

13:52Pablo: if you're a kid, you're, you're going to see this, this, this lovely drawings because the drawings and animation, definitely children's get excited when they see these colors and the music. And at the end, definitely I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those films that the parents, the grandparents, the uncle decide to bring their, you know, normally With this massive campaign with fast food chains and commercials on TV, they decide what movie they want to go.

14:22Pablo: Most of them are very bad. And sometimes parents and grandparents, they have to suffer the film they choose.

14:27Pablo: This is for the first time a film that the adults can choose for their, for their kids. And hopefully, They're going to love it as well as adults like the film.

14:38KT: Absolutely. Um, and I'm going to wrap up with our final question.

14:42KT: Before I do, whenever I'm sitting at a beach, whenever I'm listening to Earth, Wind & Fire, and also in an interview, you talked about Porco Rosso being the first Miyazaki film. Whenever I think of these things, I will think of you, and I will think of dog, and I will think of robot as well. Um, but I'm going to wrap up with our final question.

15:03KT: We finish off our reviews with a recommendation. So what film would you pair with Robot Dreams as a double sort of feature?

15:11Pablo: Oh, that's a good question. Well, I will, I will encourage people to review a film, an old film from Charlie Chaplin, City Lights, which is one of my favorite films. And it was a big inspiration for, for me.

15:28Pablo: And I'll tell you, because Charles Chaplin, he invented dramedy. He invented tragic comedy in cinema. He plays in his films, laughs. Tears and I think Robot Dreams also has that you have laughs and tears. Chaplin is the master. I'm just an apprentice, but it will be a a great double, double feature.

15:51KT: Pablo, thank you so much for your time and all the best for on the worldwide release of Robot Dreams.

15:57Pablo: Thank you, KT, for getting the megaphone and telling all your listeners to go and see Robot Dreams on April

16:03KT: From my people, Mālō, from Oti, my partner's people, Asante. Thank you so much.

16:09Pablo: Thank you.