The Man Who Sold The World R: Swel Noury, Imad Noury Land: Marokko 2009 Drehformat: Red Format: 35mm, Farbe Länge: 108 Minuten Sprache: Arabisch, Französisch mehr Informationen TRAILER / Flash

Casablanca in der nahen Zukunft. Das Land befindet sich im Krieg. X und Ney sind junge Männer um die dreißig. Die beiden wohnen zusammen, und die Beziehung zwischen ihnen ist sehr eng. Zwar sind sie wie Brüder füreinander, doch zugleich ist eine gewisse sexuelle Spannung zwischen den beiden stets präsent. Nichtsdestotrotz verliebt sich X in ein schönes junges Mädchen – in Lili. Und als Ney sie kennenlernt, verliebt er sich ebenfalls in sie. Es ist der Beginn einer wunderbaren Dreiecksgeschichte. (...) Der Film der beiden jungen marokkanischen Regisseure Swel und Imad Noury basiert auf einer frühen, 1849 erschienenen Erzählung Dostojewskis [aus dem Berlinale-Programm]

How would you describe the aesthetics of your film?
We wanted a very strong aesthetic. The lighting was based on strong bold highlights plus Cyan and Navy filters. We wanted it to be as violent as possible, aggressive.... but at the same time colorful. It was all about creating a special mood for an imaginary world. All this mixed with a 2,35 format (Scope), a hand-held held camera and a lot of contrasts.

Why did you choose Red over other HD formats and analogue film?
The RedOne is just another format. It's not HD, it's not film, but it's great. In our case we decided to work with the Red because of the production issues. We already made our first feature, "Heaven's Doors" in 35mm. We also did our short movies that way. And the costs are way too much for a $500,000$ budget movie. This time, we could shoot everything we wanted, without thinking about the rolls, about the lab, etc etc... Since the narrative structure of the movie is built with tons of flash cuts, you really need to have a lot of material.

What was special about shooting with Red (e.g. compared to 35-mm or
other digital formats)? Was it your first time with Red / digital or are
you used to it?
It's the first time that we've worked with the Red... and no, it won't be the last time. Of course we would love to make the same work with a chemical process but it is way too expensive. And there are lots of great things about shooting with the RedOne camera. For example, it's a small camera, not heavy at all (like a 16mm one), what you see is what you get, no scratches... you just press the button and shoot, it gives you a lot of freedom, you can change the speed during the take, a good slow-motion...

What was your shooting ratio?
Well, our case is a bit different. We probably are the first movie in the world that used the Red with anamorphic lenses. If not the first one, then one of the very first... It's been an experience since the camera wasn't set for that. We really wanted to shoot with the Hawk lenses again. But the thing was that we could never see the image right on our screens because the picture was totally distorted. We risked a lot till we ended the post-production.

Why did you transfer the film to 35mm?

Even if they say that the Red picture is just like the 35mm one, it's not exactly true. The shape of the Red is very "clean", smooth.... Not like film which is full of dots. We also transfered the film to 35mm to work the picture even more. Once the digital color grading was over, we had to do another correction, chemical, in the lab. And that is what definitly changes the aspect of the movie.

One good word about Red (or two):
We could say lots of good words about the Red. But if we had to sum the work up, it would be: Probably the best quality/price ratio camera in the world.

One bad word about Red (or two):
There are some little bad things about the Red that are probably gonna disappear in the new ones. You can't go to the limits of contrasts, not like film. So if you push your image a lot (like we do), you're gonna find the pixel very quickly, and pixel can't compare to grain! And there are still some problems with the night sequences, specially if you push them too much in contrast. There's a whole debate concerning the Red on whether you should underexpose or overexpose depending on the postproduction you plan to have. In our case, we underexposed it and we found problems pushing stops.Turning on the camera is really slow, like a computer. So be patient if your card is full and you have to shoot some more takes. And you are always afraid if the hard drive fails, if the computer breaks!!...

The questions were answered by Swel Noury and Imad Noury.