Károly Ujj Mészáros participant of L’Atelier with ’Liza, the Fox-Fairy’

How long have you been working on this project, and what is your story about?

It’s a bit older than 3 years. The original play that inspired me was written by Zsolt Pozsgai: it’s about a nurse who wants to meet men. When these men go to her apartment, eventually they all die. For example one commits suicide, another has an accident, and so on. Although I really liked the story, I wanted to have a different ending. So I started introducing some new elements, like the figure of a Japanese pop-singer, who turns out to be Death. He falls in love with the nurse, so he tries to get rid of all potential competition. I also introduced a detective who investigates, and falls in love with the nurse as well. However, I don’t want this to be a rosy fairytale, so I tried to sharpen the story with a social edge. It would be like a distorting mirror of our society seen through the eyes of this innocent, naive woman.

How did you imagine the visual world of the film?

Like this [he holds the brochure of the film towards the sound recorder]. It’s hard to record it, but like this. I would like to have a very rich visual world for this film, so I would indulge and spoil audiences with a real cinematic experience. If I say that this is an adult fairytale, I mean this in a very good sense. I’d really like it to be a fairytale with a bizarre world. For example the interior of the house where Liza lives, or the clothes she sews for herself from curtains.

If my suspicions are right, it would be kind of a thriller sliding towards comedy.

I wouldn’t call it a thriller, because we know that the nurse is not actually killing the men, only the police suspect this. It would be something we call an "almost comedy".

You’ve mentioned before that you were here last year too with this project. How did you manage to get into L’Atelier this year?

We were participating in a co-production fair in Sarajevo, where we actually found a German co-producer. The director of the Cinéfondation Atelier, George Golderstern, was in the jury. He liked my project, so he suggested I apply with the material for L’Atelier and so we did. There was a great silence for a while, and then in the middle of January we received a fax, saying that we got in.

How do things work in L’Atelier pavilion?

Well, we have a program, according to which producers, sales-agents, and commissioners come about every hour, to get familiar with our projects. We show them the trailer, and we have this brochure. So far, there has been very intense interest in our project. They say that usually about 89% of the projects presented here are made in the end. That’s a big number.

The beginning of one of your previous short films, Rubberman, reminded me of the style of Lynch. Are there some directors who influence you in a special way?

There are, certainly, but this is quite funny, because everyone tends to see in my film the influences that they actually like. Even in the case of the trailer, some say “it’s a bit like Tarantino, right?” Or “the whole has a bit of Kaurismaki style in it, no?” Or “will it be like Almodovar’s films?” Generally I respond with no to these questions, but there are some influences I do want to use. For example, in the way I would like my actors to play their roles, there would be indeed some Kaurismaki elements. In terms of visuals and lighting techniques there are some features from Tarantino that I like. Oh, and they also mention Jeuné. Well yes, I like him as well, but my film won’t be as sweet as his films. More like this leaf, somewhat bitter.

By Erzsébet Plájás