Arthur and the Invisibles
Directed by Luc Besson
It took Luc Besson, director of The Big Blue and The Fifth Element, seven years to make Arthur and the Invisibles, and he says it will probably be the last film he directs.
“I started 30 years ago and have made 10 films. I’m tired. I feel like a sports guy: Can he beat his record every time? Maybe not. After spring and summer comes autumn and winter. I feel like autumn,” explains Besson. “I have too much respect for myself, for moviegoers and for cinema in general. I can’t just go to Hollywood and take a big check and make a film. It’s an act of faith. I give it everything—my love, my life—and it exhausts me. Out of 10 films, there are four I finished and completely collapsed on the ground—really crying from exhaustion.”
MERIN: Doesn’t the creative process give you energy?
BESSON: Yes, of course.
But not directing. It’s too much like leading a small army—that you have to solve every problem on every level, even the weather. I get so anxious, I can’t even talk to my wife and kids. That’s not good. But I will still make films—just writing and producing.
Doing this animated family film is a real departure from your previous films—in both theme and style. Why did you take this turn? How does Arthur fit into your own arc as a director?
It’s difficult to analyze your own work, but I would say all my films are honest and are about where I was in my life at the time I made them. When I watch them, I get a sense of who I was then. That’s true for Arthur, too—when I feel I want something for my kids. I fell in love with Arthur as soon as I met him. It was while I was editing Joan of Arc, Patrice Garcia [designer on The Fifth Element] brought me a drawing of Arthur sitting on a leaf. I fell in love. I said we have to do this story. That was the start.
I think Arthur reminds me of my childhood. I’m Arthur (played by Freddie Highmore) and Granny (Mia Farrow) is my grandmother. The adventures are pure fiction, of course, but I think they show kids that there’s a balance in life, in nature; that different creatures—the big and small—need each other. Or that the world is in disaster, and that there are consequences for what people do. They may not realize it right away, but the actions have big results that might not always be good. I feel that’s something that needs to be said right now. I feel it for my own children.
While you were working on the script and storyboard, you wrote and published the story as a book. Why?
It had been so long since I’d directed my last movie that everyone in France was asking me what I was working on, so writing the book was the best way to let them know.
Making the movie was very slow and demanding. It happened in stages: writing the script and storyboard meant creating Arthur and his world, which took a five-person team three years doing about 15,000 drawings. Then we shot the film with actors, but no sets, for motion capture. We invented a way to do it without using wires, so the actors were completely free to move.
We filmed the actors one-by-one and that took seven months. Then I edited that film. Then I gave it to the computer guy who drew the characters and took it to 3D. And then we were also getting the voices—in several languages. So, for Korean, for example, we had to shoot motion-capture close-ups with Korean-speaking actors so the animation would really work.
It was exhausting. I was there for five years, every day. It was physically less difficult because I followed a regular schedule from 9 to 11 a.m. At first, that was difficult because I’m used to working with actors and actresses, and they’re very dramatic. And reacting to weather. Here there was none of that, but it was intense. Plus, I had to break away and direct a live-action film in the middle: Angel A, [which is] only in French, about a grown-up man understanding he’s not perfect, and that’s OK.
Your voice cast—at least the English one—is amazing. How did you assemble so many huge stars?
I’m lucky. When I saw all their names on the poster, I almost couldn’t believe it because I saw them one-by-one over the course of four years. Madonna I recorded four years ago. Robert De Niro four months ago. I was extremely happy to get out of the editing room, come here to record Robert and a few weeks later to see Jimmy Fallon. I didn’t feel the impact of having this cast right away—just when you see the finished film. Then, it’s wonderful.
They were all very gentle: We drank a coffee together, and they said yes right away. Madonna was fastest. She’s gorgeous that way. You call her up and she says, “Oh, yeah. OK. When?” With David Bowie, it was that he liked the book. He has a child, and he wanted to make sure the story is OK. I really like that about him, and I felt good when he accepted.
Did you use their likenesses to develop the look of the animated characters?
To some degree, but drawn characters arrived in their own time. Some characters came quickly, like Maltazard [David Bowie], Betameche [Jimmy Fallon] and Darkos [Jason Bateman]—the bad guys. Bad guys are easier. The hardest was Selenia [Madonna], who we finished six months ago. It’s like she’s been in plastic surgery for three years.
