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Public Service: Extended interview with the director

posted 14 years ago by cyclgrrl
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INTERVIEW WITH WRITER-DIRECTOR SEBASTIAN SILVA

She’s More Or Less Family
The Maid is a very emotional film for me. I can narrow it to one sentence – “She’s more or less family.” It’s that ambiguity. It has to do with struggling with not being able to love or be loved. Neither the maid nor the people in the household know where they stand in terms of emotional connection or affection. I was really young when I first had an experience with someone coming into the family like that. I would go against any kind of authority in my house. Our family’s maid was like a second mother, but I didn't want a second mother. The maid has the right to boss you around. She's in charge of you and yet at the same time she is not your mother. So you’re tempted to be a rebel because you think you can fight against her without any serious consequences, because she’s “just the maid” and not really your mother. But she's not “just the maid”. She's someone that's living at your house 24-7 and she really is in charge of you. The closest character to me in the film isn’t Lukas, its Camilla which is a little embarrassing. In the film Camilla goes against Raquel because there is a jealousy between the two of them. I didn't have that jealousy with the real maid but I did have the rebel thing.
I have a big family and a lot of siblings. Most of my siblings didn't have the same authority issue with the maid and just felt that she was working there. They were nice to her, she was nice to them, and there was no social conflict or anything. They lived a little more oblivious to that social phenomenon that was taking place. I was against having a live-in maid like Raquel and I think that made me conscious and curious enough to wonder about what this person was doing in my house. Since I was against having a maid, I had to think more about it. Raquel in the film is sort of like a lost soul in economic need that comes to this bourgeois family in this third world country at a very young age. That's what they say at the beginning of the film – “Raquel, you've been here for over 20 years now. You came here one year before Camilla.” She got there when she was so young and is from such a totally different background that she has been slowly crushed and absorbed by this upper middle class family’s values and ethics. For 20 years she's been operating from a 16 or 17 year old’s emotional intelligence and just been going slowly crazy. She doesn't have a social life at all. I used to wonder if the maid in our house was as mean to me as she was just because she hasn’t had sex in twenty years!
Before Lucy comes Raquel’s strongest relationship is with the mother of the house. It's a professional sort of thing but here's an emotional, profound bond between them. It’s co-dependency – it’s just not out there in the open because they're from different social backgrounds. I think that's how people are with their jobs sometimes. It's rare when a boss in this type of situation, meaning the mother, would sit down with the maid and have like a very deep conversation over a glass of wine together.
In the US people will hire a nanny that will come for the day or whatever, but here an au pair or a nanny will often share a similar cultural or social background with the family they work for. She probably has studied something or she wants to study something, she has friends and she's got a life. And either way a cleaning lady or a nanny who comes for a day or three times a week is just doing a job, you know? What I’m portraying is the maid that lives with the family and works with them 24-7. In Chile it’s more of an anthropological problem. They're like nuns - the uniform, the work, the little room, hopefully a TV, and that’s it. That kind of life can really ruin your emotional intelligence.

I grew up among these kinds of maids and I’ve made art pieces and shorts films that touched on the subject before this. The maid issue has been stuck in my head forever. I made a photo album about a maid that stayed with my family one summer. I was like 15 years old and she was there doing the housekeeping and I had to work and so I took a lot of pictures of her and made a photo album of her. Later, I made a short film called El Mal de Canary that had a maid in the film who would always wear a gorilla mask and every time she would go out of the house rain would start pouring just on her. The maid in it was really disturbed, and it was kind of like she was cursed. With this film I wanted to exorcise that theme in a more solid, serious, mature way.

Writing/casting/writing

The writing process was actually amazingly easy to me. Most of the things I described in the screenplay were scenes or situations that I really experienced growing up. Everything felt real to me so I had a treatment very quickly. I also felt like I had the characters. Both Catalina who of course plays Raquel and Claudia who plays Pilar worked on my first film La Vida Me Mata and I developed the script with them in mind. Claudia is my old, old friend, hates TV and has never done anything she knew she wouldn’t be proud of. Catalina has done a lot of theater but she’s also been on Chilean TV soap operas, and sitcoms playing small roles for years She's a very serious actress but she she's not afraid of losing her dignity. She doesn't give a *beep* She's got a son and she needs to feed him so she'll just do whatever she has to. When I first thought about writing "The Maid" and pursuing the project I thought of her as the main character right away. But when I called her and I offered her the job, initially she said, “*beep* you, man. I've done too many maids!”' She actually has portrayed like 17 different maids in sitcoms and soap operas. The maids on TV in Chile are always these girls showing their boobs and are just sort of silly characters. I told her, “I'm sorry, you're just the perfect one for this role. I promise you this is going to be a different kind of maid.”

I co wrote the screenplay with my ex-boyfriend Pedro Peirano, who is a very well-known writer in Chile, and has done some very good cult TV shows. Catalina was pretty excited about that, so she agreed to read the script when we were done. Finally she said, “I love the screenplay, I like Pedro, I like you, I loved La Vida Me Mata,” and she was in it.

Pedro and I argued a lot about the scene when the mother sees the scratched pictures. It's really in your face and scary and a little risky to do that because it's kind of like you may enter into another genre. It's something that’s more in the direction of a suspense or thriller kind of story. American audiences and people who haven't really dealt with a live-in maid or someone living and working in their house full time tend to assume that the film is going to go somewhere else during that scene. But we never thought that there was that thriller tension with her. I never expected that audiences would think that the maid might kill someone when we were writing that scene and none of us thought of that while shooting the film. Since Raquel is sort of based on real people, I knew that character would never get really violent with anybody.

The humor in The Maid is not based on jokes. For me comedies are really hard to watch when they're defined as comedies because you know they're going to try to make you laugh. I prefer it when the humor in a script or film makes you nervous and tense and laughter is just one possible reaction. There are just these human, uncomfortable situations in life. It’s like the scene of Sonya going up to the roof. It's a little off but she's so tough and it's totally possible. It's kind of outrageous and it's kind of crazy but I like the tone that that scene gives to the film.

Home Grown

We shot the film in my family house. What you see on screen is where I grew up. Raquel’s room was the maid's real room down to the side table and the covers on the bed. All the decoration is the maid's decoration. The kitchen, the parents' room –everything that you see in the film was the way it was when I lived there. It felt so good to shoot it there. Since it was my family house, we could spend as much time as we wanted beforehand to do some sketching and storyboarding and camera blocking so we could run a lot of long takes. That really helped out. It made us go so much faster in production and we were able to shoot the film very cheaply in just 16 days.

It was always an organic kind of process. That's my family house. The actor that plays Lukas is my real brother. So the whole film was really a portrait of my family. It's a very intimate portrait of a part of my life. It was still a very stressful shoot. I mean it was fun just because we were making a film but sometimes I would go inside the bathroom and just like freak out about things and then go back to the set and smile and pretend that I was having a good time.

We used exactly the same camera as on my previous film a Panasonic P2 HD. It's not really a high res camera, like the Red, which looks too crisp and sharp when you blow it up to 35mm film.

Music

I've been involved in different music projects and have made a few albums - six albums actually. I’m good at melody, at pop-y sorts of melodies, and I’m good with lyrics I think, but I don't really play an instrument. It's just like I know like seven guitar chords and that's it. When the kids are are playing ping pong in the film and you hear a song in the background? That's one of my band's songs. Actually it’s a remix that someone else made of our song. La Vida Me Mata, the first film I made, had a traditional score that was kind of like Danny Elfman meets John Brion meets… me. But it was more of a fiction film – a dark comedy/film noir in black and white with special effects – kind of like a fable. I didn't really think about the music while writing the script or while shooting The Maid. When I watched the first cut I initially thought I would have not a traditional soundtrack but more like really creepy, scary piano, almost silly sitcom type tunes in specific places like when Raquel tries on the sweater in the walk in closet and looks at herself in the mirror. But that wasn’t good. It's not really a silent, somber film. It's not that serious feeling. It’s also not that quiet. The film has so many organic noises. Raquel's always working, the kids are always messing around somewhere – you always hear stuff. The nakedness, the nudity of the sound, was really appealing to me. I had so much organic sound that I decided to just not use sxored music and it was the best way to do it. It felt good and it gave the film more of a real sense to it which is what I was looking for while shooting it and while writing it. I just tried to be as real as possible.

Raquel and Lucy

The obsession Raquel has with Lucy could maybe fall into a sort of a sexual thing but I think it’s more that Raquel's in love with Lucy and worships Lucy. She needs her. It's more emotional than erotic. It’s like she's her first friend. Lucy's the only person that has embraced her and cried with her in her life. Raquel begins depending on Lucy. She needs her and wants to be with her. You can see in the way that she prepares the breakfast for her. She looks so devoted to her and she wants to make her happy in such a childish way. I think that's the tension between them. I don't really think Raquel would ever kiss her on the lips or touch her… But yes, she might spy on her. Maybe if Lucy is talking on the phone Raquel would be listening. It's that kind of obsession.

If I were to see the film for the first time and I don't know anything about it, I would say Raquel was a virgin. So and then she has the chance to have sex with this man and she refuses it. And I think it's not because she's a lesbian, I think it's because she's just afraid of sex and afraid of masculinity and afraid of that world because she is so inexperienced. She's not ready to begin.

The fight scene with Sonya, also reveals something that Raquel had never been exposed to - physical violence. Locking the doors, the cat, the vacuum - she’s always been passive aggressive and never really physical until she fights with Sonya. And when Raquel locks Lucy out and then discovers her sunbathing topless, it’s a total provocation.
Lucy knows that she’s going to shock her. She wins her over by shocking her and confronting her.

The End

The ending has a weird feeling for me. I've felt it with the maids at my house growing up. They would get a day off and I would see them putting on their make up and doing their hair and going out in a fancy outfit and it would just feel so sad to me. But that sad feeling is so patronizing. I hated it, but I could not avoid feeling it. When Raquel runs in the end, it makes me really sad to see her happy just because she’s jogging. It's such a small joy and it's so patronizing to feel sorry for her like that and I hate that. That feeling has a lot to do with the film and why I made it. I think perhaps I'm overcoming that feeling and trying not to judge what amount of happiness is right or enough for another person. I always get goose bumps in that scene no matter how many times I watch it. A lot of people have said that it's a happy ending, that the movie has this beautiful sort of conclusion and I’m always tempted to say, “No, not really. She's still working for the family, Lucy is gone, I mean she’s just jogging, for Christ's sake!” We watched her become so inspired by Lucy’s family Christmas that when Raquel’s mother calls she feels so sorry that she hadn’t had that with her own family. We watched Lucy leave so Raquel is alone again. She was afraid of sex so no sex for her either. There is a little redemption for Raquel but it's very little. It’s a small transformation because real redemption is something that comes very slowly.

My friend Gabriel was the gaffer on the film and an awesome DP. He's really smart and I really trust him. I remember him telling me “the end when she's ironing stuff and she goes to her room and she lies in bed and she turns on the TV and she's really sad? Cut it there.” We looked at it that way and it felt so empty. You want to go for what you really feel inside your heart sometimes, even though it could be seen as clichéd or cheesy. Human beings are cheesy. I didn't want to just make another one of those films about a suffering South American woman. I want the goose bumps from time to time, you know?

[–] cyclgrrl 14 years ago

TrustMovies: We’re talking to Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Silva. Is Silva Spanish? Portuguese?

Sebastian Silva: That’s a good question. I think Silva is actually Portuguese but they claim that it is Spanish. But I don’t know from where in Spain, so yeah, I think it is Portuguese. We were just talking that it might even be Jewish. Who knows? I have heard that in some Jewish communities in Portugal, that they changed their names to names like Silva. I am not saying that I am Jewish because I don’t even know.

OK: We’ll fudge that one, Sebastián. You know, I really loved your movie in a special kind of way because it deals with live-in maids who are important care givers. We don’t see that much about this subject in our country, and when we do it is usually something like Genet’s The Maids or Bette Davis in The Nanny.

There is something cartoon-ish about those.

Exactly. But your movie is so humane. I read the entire interview in the press kit for this film, which is maybe the best I have ever read: so thorough and interesting (Readers: see end of this post to learn how you can access this long and fascinating six-page interview.) So I really don’t have a whole lot more to ask you. Except maybe we could talk a little about what “almost family” -- that phrase the other characters use to describe your main character Raquel -- actually means. My companion and I live with his 95-year-old mother, whose care-giver has been with us for… I don’t know, maybe five or seven years now. And she is… well, we love her so much and we think of her – we refer to her -- as family. But she’s not really family. So there is a constant tension as to…

Where the border goes.

Yes! You grew up with the “maid,” right?
I grew up with several. There was one that was all the way through which is kind of Raquel – what the character of Raquel is based on. And she was there since I was three years old until I was 18. So it was, like, during all my childhood and adolescence, I had to share space and time with a maid who worked and lived at my house. My first reaction to this that I have a memory of – I don’t remember when I was really young, but then I probably got along with her really well -- but later I do remember feeling very rebellious about this third authority figure. You already have a mother and father and then this strange woman comes in and she is bossing you around because she must feed you and take care of you.

Were you always a rebel? Even when you were very young?

That’s what I don’t remember. I guess not.

I would think you would might have loved her in some way.

Exactly. That makes total sense, but what I first remember is rebel-
ling and not getting along with her, even though I have seen pic-
tures where I am happy and holding hands with her. But then later I was always fighting and rebelling against this authority figure who has less authority than your parents and yet who spends much more time with you than anyone else. She is always there.
This was in Chile, right, where -- as you point out in the press kit – maids tend to live with the family 24/7. It becomes their whole life, and this is really bizarre.

Yes, and it becomes some kind of heritage of like…

Slavery?

Slavery and colonialism. I think that slavery is really something else. It’s when you don’t have a choice. But they do have a choice, so this is not slavery..

What country did she come from?

No -- she is from Chile, but from the north.

So from a poorer area, maybe?

Yes, poor, humble, illiterate. That sort of thing. Now, we have a lot of Peruvian women coming to Chile and working in this way. But they get paid even less because they are immigrants.

Chile borders on Peru up at the top?

Yes. And this whole maid phenomenon is really popular throughout all of South America, not just Chile. In Santiago, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, San Paolo and Mexico City. Those are the places where there are the largest amount of maids. In Chile, for instance, there are now more than 250,000 maids, just in Santiago alone. That is a huge amount of maids which represents a really important link in Chilean society. Even the middle class has maids.
For me it was also interesting to finally see a Chilean movie that had nothing whatsoever to do with Allende or Pinochet.

(He laughs.) I know. Lucky -- lucky! Right?

Well, I realize that if I were more alert or Chilean, maybe I would have picked up on some small or subtle things in the movie.

No. Come on, come on – there are none! I have to say I grew up a little oblivious to political matters.

How old are you?

I am 30.

So that’s a little young for the whole Allende/Pinochet thing.

That makes sense, but there are still people my age who are making art pieces that deal with those political events. And I do think that it is really important, too. But I don’t think, like, film-making or films in general always must deal with that political issue. There are so many other things to talk about: so many emotions or dreams to do.

Like what you talk about in this film. I don’t think anyone else has quite covered the subject the way you do.

No, I don’t think so.

The other thing I don’t want to forget to ask you. I think – and if I am treading on bad ground, let me know – but in that long interview in the press kit, it comes out that you are gay, right?

(He waves it off.) Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that was interesting to me because I am gay. And so I thought, gee, if I know this fact about you, I can then make certain associations about your movie – unfairly or not, I admit -- that maybe because you are a gay filmmaker, your movie is more humane or that perhaps you have more of an real interest in the totality of this woman that we might not see from a straight male filmmaker. But on the other hand, it was so interesting to see a film from an “out” gay filmmaker that has nothing to do with politics or nothing to do….

With gayness!

Yes! Except with the generic, just who you are.

I mean, like, there is definitely a sensibility. You can call it Sebastian’s sensibility, or a gay sensibility. It’s up to you.

But a generic “gay” sensibility is not necessarily the same thing as Sebastian’s sensibility.

Exactly. That is what I am saying. And it’s true: I realized that there was some kind of homosexual aspects of Raquel’s feeling toward Lucy. Not exactly sexual, though. More like admiration. She is, like, worshiping Lucy. She doesn’t want to sleep with the guy. She tries to, but it is maybe too late for this.

Did something like that happen. Between the two maids?

Not really.

You invented all that? It’s fine: It works.

Well, some. The relationship between to the two maids actually took place. At the end of the credits you can see that the film is dedicated to these two women. There was this one maid who went to my family’s house and took Raquel out of her misery by being really compassionate. Not being submissive or confrontational, as were the other maids.

That relationship is what takes the movie to another level. I can’t remember a character that I disliked as much as I did Raquel at the beginning of the film and well into it. It’s humorous, too, of course. But then it all changes -- and without anything fake happening.

Because her process really is organic.

This makes the viewer identify with her: What would this have been like to come here as a young and untutored girl who then gives up her life to serve this family? And to have no sexuality…

And no social life, not even any friends.

It’s amazing that she can even get better – as better as she does.

Yes, it is not a full redemption, but it is something.

But it’s a major something!

Every time I see the film, I see something new. I see the ending again and I am, like, is this really a happy ending? Raquel is left there by herself, and so she is starting to jog and she is even imitating Lucy a little bit: the habit of jogging, telling the same joke that Lucy has told. Is this maybe some kind of psychotic behavior? I don’t know…. Some critics, especially in Chile, have said that the movie does have a political point of view, especially at the end by redeeming Raquel.

No, your ending is happier, but not necessarily happy.

Exactly. The film ends at a high point for Raquel. But that doesn’t mean that she will be happy ever after.

But she now has more ammunition. She has grown.

She has come out of her shell. We have seen her laughing and crying.

Once we realize why she is in that shell, we understand that she literally cannot see or focus because of her deprivations.

I am really glad you liked the film.

Oh, I did! And as I say, it is so unusual to have the viewer change and grow, right along with the character. This is a very wonderful experience to have.

This is a wonderful experience as an artist, to take the view with you on this journey.

What are you working on now?

I am working on several projects but the one that is almost concrete these days is called Second Child, and it is a fiction feature film. I wrote the screenplay in English. It’s an American film about an eight-year old kid who goes on vacation with his family to visit another part of the family. He is homosexual, but he in unaware of his condition – I don’t think you can be aware, really, at that age. But he is definitely going in that direction, and he is in need of male affection.

Is this based on anything personal?

Well it definitely is. I think I am homosexual since I have memory. Not in the way of having an actively sexual life. But just like having feelings toward people of the same sex, and the need of affection and attention.

Sometimes, too I think it can be a visual thing.

Yes, whatever form it takes. Well, the film is about this kid falling in love with his godfather during the country vacation. His cousin is with a friend, a little girl, who has a crush on him, so he is feeling all this pressure and is struggling.

When are you going to start filming?

Well, we are still looking for money.

You want to film it here?

Yes, here! We have done some auditions and are considering some American actors and we’ve also done scouting and locations The project is pretty advanced. so we are just looking for money and then we will be ready to go. It is a summer film so hopefully we will be shooting next year in April and May. That‘s my plan. But you never know with film-making. The environment right now is not so hot. Very hard. If it happens, it happens. That is how I feel with films. They really have to come out organically. You cannot force them. If your force, it changes things. And then it becomes hard and boring. I want it to be smooth and fun. So if it happens, great. If not, I will find something else.