I grew up in a little industrial town near the border with\nBelgium and Luxembourg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I discovered still photography pretty young and really loved\nit, but ended up studying medecine, as an artistic career seemed something\nunreal. My great chance was to faint too often in the dissection classes. So I\nquit and found myself by pure luck in a cutting room in Israel. I knew nothing\nabout editing but I knew that I had found my nest. I spent the next two years\nworking 20 hours a day, 7 days a week for free, the happiest moments of my\nyoung life. And it has been lasting ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am not really a producer, I am an editor who became a\nproducer through love and necessity. Victoria wanted to shoot Olma Djon very\nquickly, and we had no time to find investors, so as husband and wife, and\npartners in our company Olma Djon Productions, we auto-produced it, as we did\nfor her previous short feature film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
NY Glam: Did you have\nany specific influences growing up that lead you towards the film industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In my childhood, nothing connected me with the film\nindustry, apart from the cine-club where I spent most of my time. I\u2019d see six\nfilms each weekend<\/a>, devouring <\/a>american, russian, italian\ncinema. I guess it planted the seed, even if I had never imagine working in\nfilms one day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: What are you\ncurrently working on?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I just finished my very first serie called\n\u00ab ZeroZeroZero \u00bb. A great one and a half year adventure with\nwonderful directors : Stefano Sollima, Janus Metz and Pablo Trapero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had the chance to cut most of this dark and so ambitious\nserie in Rome, an amazing city which I fell in love with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I should be cutting now Jean-Pierre Jeunet\u2019s next film \u00ab Big\nBug \u00bb, but a virus came up\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have cut all his films and I am always impatiently looking\nforward to be spending time in my cutting room with him, it is such a privilege<\/a>\n! I guess we\u2019ll have to wait a little more\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the meantime I am giving a hand<\/a>\nto another dear friend of mine, Siegfried. I have cut all his films too, and we\ntake advantage of my free time to fine cut his next film \u00ab Bengali\nVariation \u00bb, a wonderful hide and seek<\/a> love story he shot in\nIndia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: What were\nyour main responsibilities on this film?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On \u00ab Olma Djon \u00bb I was not only the editor (I\nwouldn\u2019t have let anyone else cut it of course), but I tried myself as a\nproducer too. This film was her debut, and she had this crazy idea to shoot it\nin Kazakhstan. It was so bold that I decided to co-produce it with her. We are\ntalking about an independent cinema with a very low budget and a very huge\nambition, this is a real challenge ! I went out of my comfort zone (my\ncutting room) and put myself in the snowy Kazakhstan minus 20\u00b0C, to help this\nincredibly challenging project. I was so lucky and happy to be able to get a\ntotal support from my friend Arman Assenov whom I met when I was cutting \u00ab\nAmanat \u00bb, by Satybaldy Narymbetov. He and his daughter Arielle Assenova\nco-produced the Kazakh part, providing camera, grip, transportation, costumes,\netc\u2026 This adventure could\u2019nt have happened without their complete <\/a>support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have been in love with Kazakhstan and his people since I\nfirst discovered the country six years ago, and showing the very soul of Kazakhstan\nthrough Victoria\u2019s eyes was an incredibly intense experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in Paris, I organized the post production, the easy\npart for me. All my long time friends in the industry not only accepted to come\non board<\/a>, but insisted on giving us without counting all\ntheir time and talent. I will never thank them enough for their friendship and\nthe level of their commitment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: Can you tell\nus about your experience in working with the director and actors in this film?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What was my experience working with a director who is my wife ?\nThat\u2019s a very interesting question. We both had to forget we were a couple, and\nstart acting as editor and director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have a lot in common, but her vision and touch are unique,\nand I listened carefully to her explanations about the way she wanted the story\ntold, in order to mold <\/a>my soul into her\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She made me become a better person helping me to dig deeper\nin myself while cutting \u00ab Olma Djon \u00bb \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Actors have been incredible. With such a low budget, we\nneeded a total devotion, total collaboration. They gave it. The level of their commitment\nwas amazing. For example<\/a>, Natasha was 5 month\npregnant and she didn\u2019t hesitate one second to follow Victoria, and I assure\nyou that it was really cold out there, at night in the snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they delivered such great performances ! <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: What was the\nmost important thing for this movie to achieve from a narrative and character\nstandpoint?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This film nearly is a silent movie. So you need to tell the story without words. Or with very few. And it is about connection and communication. So you need to find a different way for story telling, you need to be in the core of the story, every little detail can play for or against it. It is a very delicate and very intense process<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: What other\nfilms have you produced?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Only Victoria\u2019s previous short film \u00ab Menin\nKazynam \u00bb. I am a one director\u2019s producer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But my career as an editor spans <\/a>over\n40 years and I have been so lucky to meet all these great directors whith whom\nI shared so many incredibly creative experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: What makes a\nfilm interesting for you? What are three qualities that you look for in a\nmovie?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When I choose a film to edit, I know that I will spend a lot\nof time with the director, and this time is my life, so I have to choose a good\nand interesting person. The quality of the director is my main concern. Of\ncourse the script has its importance too. And I am always looking for a\ncinematic ambition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: What project\nhelped you launch your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have no career as a producer, as \u00ab Olma Djon \u00bb\nis our first feature film. So let\u2019s assume that it will be the launching one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nyglamour.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Herve-Schneid-by-Oksna-Kanivets-683x1024.jpg\")
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