Isabel Coixet

“The world is wide”, Isabel Coixet tells us, and putting limits on creativity is not an option for her. Much less if it is about cinema. That is why she has directed films in Spanish, English and French. Coixet uses the languages ​​she knows interchangeably, because she expresses herself in the universal language of cinema. And she controls it so well that she has been recognized with the 2020 National Film Award.

With a career marked out by films, awards and creativity, Coixet has gone through the University School of Arts TAI to describe his shooting dynamics, the secrets of his career and offer a series of suggestions for young artists based on his experience.

His first contact with the world of audiovisual creation came somewhat by chance, since "I come from a family where there was no connection to cinema," he tells us. "As a child they gave me a Super 8 camera and I started making domestic shorts." And from that camera and with that childish enthusiasm, Isabel began to develop her creativity.

"Because of those things of fate, I started working as a creative in an advertising agency," she recalls. “The agency had a production company and I began to watch shoots, to study how some of the great cinematographers lit, to see how things were done, how they were edited, how they were staged,” she says.

SUCCESS FROM HONESTY

Tenacity and honesty with herself, these concepts define two of the values ​​on which she has based her career and which she has recommended to young artists from TAI: “I always do what I think I have to do”, he comments. “The way I am, I think it's a real miracle that I've made so many movies,” she says.

“In this sense, I can say that I have had some success. Sometimes that stubbornness and that kind of defense of freedom at any price has made me not do certain things or do other things that have not been well understood ”, he confesses. “But you also learn to ignore the opinion of others. Things hurt more before. Now they irritate me, but they don't hurt. That for me is a great success, ”she admits.

“I could have chosen to do commercial comedies in Hollywood, which offered me a few,” he says. “But since I was little I have felt the tendency to choose the dangerous and curvy path. I think it is something innate, I look for the difficulty, and sometimes it happens to me, ”she says. “My life could be a little easier. But the goat throws into the mountain… and my mountain is steep”.

Isabel Coixet has confessed to the young artists of TAI longing to have been part of a film school in its beginnings: "I never went to a film school and one of the things I miss is having people with whom I can share points of view, stories, things I would like to tell" .

And it encourages people to live with enthusiasm, to taste their first steps in the world of cinema: "Being a young filmmaker is the most fun thing you can be at this moment in the world," he says. “Being about to learn all the tools that will allow you to tell stories must be a great experience.”

Any advice for young artists studying in TAI? "There is little advice: don't put your own money into your movies, don't listen to the critics," she warns. But above all, a suggestion: “above all, tell stories that are close to who you are, not who you would like to be”.

A CINEMA OPEN TO THE PARTICIPATION OF THE SPECTATOR

Because that is a fundamental part of Coixet's work, that the public has an active involvement in his films. In this sense, he assures that his cinematographic concept has been evolving. “I feel more and more like leaving loose ends in my films,” she confesses.

“Before, I was very worried that everything would shut down. Now, based on my experience as a spectator, I like to keep thinking about the film and for the film to change the next day, for it to be something alive”. And this has a lot to do with her experience as a spectator. "There are times when I see that the scriptwriter and the same director are talking about themselves through the mouth of a character, I disconnect," he says.

In his talk with the students of TAI Various questions have arisen about the subject matter of his creations. Is there any theme that hovers over him in his filmography? Coixet points out one: "In the end, loneliness is more than love, how we live it, how we fight it, how it marks us," he reflects. “That feeling of being born alone and dying alone and that what we live in between is a kind of fleeting company is my theme. More than love, ”he observes.

But the long career of the Barcelona director does not stop at fiction, but has also been incisive in analyzing current affairs, directing documentaries on very diverse and sensitive topics such as the situation in Chad or the situation of the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. “When I make a documentary I seek to know”, she tells us. “So far they have been very specific creations. For example, when I did the one on Chad, she observed that the memory of the victims was being erased. When I shot the one with Baltasar Garzón it was at a time when they were trying to remove him from the judiciary and I think there was a legal path that had to be respected, ”she explains.

COIXET AND THE WOMAN

The female protagonists of Coixet's films stand out for their naturalness, they are women of all ages, who do not have to respond to the canon of beauty that appears in many other films. “For me it is something natural. In the end, each director takes people who somehow finds attractive, even if they do not match the canons of beauty. manifest. "I see some actresses and I say, the same is good, but there is something that I do not believe." One thing in this sense she is clear: "I have never sacrificed something that I wanted for the sake of it being commercial."

On the other hand, Isabel Coixet admits she is fed up with the concept of women's cinema. “I carry it with tremendous fatigue. Although it is true that, at the same time, promoting the concept of the feminine gaze is important, because we are half of the world and without us, the world's gaze is not complete”, she points out.

But, beyond this claim, it stresses the need for the author's role to be recognized, whether or not she is a woman. “It is important to stand up for your vision, because you are not only a female filmmaker, but you are yourself. That is where the role of author comes in, ”she defends.” Everything is delicate, but in the end you get used to it, I think it is becoming more and more diluted and the ghetto where they sometimes put us has a barrier that I think will soon dissolve”, she indicates.

A PARTICULAR FORM OF SHOOTING

For Isabel Coixet, being on the front line is essential. with the community TAI She has shared that she is the camera operator herself in the films she directs: “I am always the operator of my films. On all occasions I have maintained a very fluid relationship with the photo and lighting people. I have always thought that I could make a living as an operator for other directors, ”she confesses. The reasons are simple: pragmatism and fun. “Above all I do it because I don't see anything on the monitor and, besides, I find it much more fun. I like to start rehearsing with the camera. I think every director has to find his way."

Precisely, running away from boredom also determines his way of shooting. Isabel Coixet escapes from the eternal filming. "It's just that I get very bored if I do a lot of takes," she explains. "Also, I think that when it happens that in the third take everything is not correct, there is something in your approach that is not right."

For this, he always surrounds himself with trusted people on filming, although he does not have to repeat the team with which he works. “There are a lot of people I want to work with and I do it as soon as I can. There are a lot of people I like and they do things very well and it's really hard to work with all of them." Isabel is very clear about what she wants from the people she collaborates with: “I want to work with nice people, with whom you can have a drink, who take their work seriously, but not themselves”.

What is very clear is that he prefers to direct his own scripts. “I know that I can direct someone else's script, and yet I feel more comfortable directing my stuff, my scripts, whether they are original or adapted. It snows in Benidorm is an original script, but, for example, The Library was an adaptation. I respect scriptwriters a lot and when directing someone else's script there is an servitude that I just don't see, ”she explains.

He has also delved into the difficulties of production and the admiration that this work arouses in him: “I admire producers a lot, because I understand that it is very difficult. It is about selling the product with festivals, international sales agents. It's very complicated."

There are many aspects that must be controlled for a producer. “Producers have a lot to do and a lot to move that escapes me, especially in Spain. You have to make such balances between the ministry, the television… They tell me and I don't quite understand it”.

And to conclude, nothing better than highlighting that film that he remembers most fondly. It is always difficult for a filmmaker to choose, but Isabel Coixet is committed to Things I Never Said to You. Because? "It was a film that I was dragging and writing for a long time and that went through all the producers and distributors in Spain and nobody saw it," she recalls. In addition, “it is a film in which those things that no longer exist, such as telephone booths, appear. Also, at that time people thought it was a bit 'martian' that we were shooting the film in English,” she asserts.