Interview Nicolas Provost (‘The Invader’)

Rotterdam, Park Hotel, January 31, 2012

strong>Nicolas Provost is visibly tired because of the entire press circus that takes place around the IFFR. He wants to make short films again, and not spend days explaining the meaning behind different scenes. A lone wolf, that is the best way to characterize the Belgian, who now and then sprinkles with beautiful phrases: ‘I try to find space that I can fill with my poetry.’

With an accent and a soft voice, the director is sometimes hard to understand, but every now and then he bounces, forgetting that he had days on which he spent 14 hours doing interviews. When it comes to his first film ‘The Invader’, for example. A debut in which it is difficult to speak of a debut, because Provost made nineteen short films before he made a full-length film. Finally, although we should not see his short cinema as an exercise, nor that he was not ready for it. ‘I’ve always wanted to make a feature film,’ says the Belgian. ‘From childhood. From an early age. Instead of going to film school, I went to art school for a while, to learn more about image and sound. And so I started working as a visual artist, knowing that one day I would make a full-length film. But my short films are all works in themselves. The feature film is separate from that. And a second maybe in a year, or a few years. I’m already working on a short film for an exhibition, because that’s what makes my living.’

Although his feature film debut is loved by many people, there is also criticism, which Provost quickly gets rid of. “There are people who say I should make a second film right away, hurry up and strike while it’s hot, because now I’d have a name – that’s nonsense. Why? For that famous industry that pays no attention to art film? Everything the masses go to is mainstream. There is no author’s work in between. My film has been distributed in Belgium, and very well received by all kinds of people, and it is very accessible, but then it is determined that in times of financial crisis people do not want to see such a film. Hallucinating.’

It is therefore understandable that the Belgian director – who received part of his training in Norway – is currently focusing on the world of video art, an expertise in which Provost often shows himself to be an experimental filmmaker. ‘The Invader’ also starts with beautiful and artistic images, although it develops further as a classic character film. The director reports for a reason: ‘It is a form that leaves little room for other things. But of course I want to take advantage of it to find the place for magic. And I found it hard to do it in the middle of the movie or at the end, but I could easily make the movie a prologue and sort of an abstract credits sequence. I thought that was interesting to show: look, this is where I come from; this is my world, and now we’re going to a classic movie. Because I want to make a movie for the masses. I also have that with my visual work. I try to appeal to the masses. In my short work I have learned to always play with film codes and abstract them, while at the same time being as classic as possible. And keep the sound-image ratio at 50-50. Just like Hitchcock, Kubrick and Lynch did. Audio and video run in parallel. It is not the case that we first see the image and only then hear the sound.’

The names of great directors of feature films have been mentioned, but does he want to become that big himself? There are no plans yet for his second long work. Provost: ‘I never plan. The first thing I plan now is not to plan anymore; to stop working with a deadline. That’s very heavy. Working for an exhibition is very hard, and I don’t want to do that anymore. I now try to work hard to live a normal life.’ The Belgian does not close the door completely. “When they come to me and give me a scenario where I feel like I’m being taken, that I could add layers to, that also gives me a return of the film medium itself – so it has to ask itself a question – then I would definitely to do.’ A statement follows that reverberates after the interview: ‘Every filmmaker is looking for a good story.’ It almost seems to be an invitation.