Following, Brazilian director Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro talks about the conception of THE SOUL DETECTIVE. He also remembers the interview with David Lynch, among other subjects related to the last short feature of the THINK TANK series.
1) What were your references for the making of the film?
The basis for THE SOUL DETECTIVE was the filming of my feature BEYOND THE GRAVE. I wanted to create a film from the same creative resources with a complete new result. BEYOND THE GRAVE is a popular movie with experimental echoes. I turned that around and made an experimental movie with popular echoes, resulting in THE SOUL DETECTIVE. I was interested in questions of rhythm, internal movement and the search of new soundscapes. I worked more with free association than in BEYOND THE GRAVE, creating a more fractured scene that, through bits and pieces of action, composes the whole of the short film.
2) How can you define your short-film? How was it structured?
There is no worse person to define an art object than one of its creators. The function of the film director, in my view, is to define the object as visuals and sounds, through editing. Trying to impose meaning in something as abstract as THE SOUL DETECTIVE is an undermining of the hard work. “Years to build and moments to ruin”, Nicol Williamson would say, in the part of Merlin, the Magician [in Excalibur (1981)]. The short was structured over atmosphere and feeling. Not rationality.
3)How was working with David Lynch?
It was nice, like working with the rest of the crew, but with less intimacy and the lack of friendship, two very important ingredients of filmmaking, in my view. It may sound uncommon, but to me the important part of the process was the work with my crew. The special things are, most of the times, nearby, not in the figure of an icon of cinema, but in the hard work and imagination of your own crew. David Lynch's interview was a cool moment as a fan of his work, but as a filmmaker, the important things of the construction of the short film are elsewhere.
4) What is best in life?
(With Austrian accent) To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women. And a good nap afterwards.