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Kenneth Scicluna is an up-and-coming film director and was lucky enough to be chosen as Malta’s representative in a project initiated by Zentropa the Scandinavia’s largest film company co-founded by famous ‘Dogme’ director Lars von Trier. The Dogme school set down a set of ‘vows of chastity’ for filmmaking including that shooting must be done on location; the sound must never be recorded separately from the images; the camera must be hand-held; all optical work and filters are forbidden; the film must not contain superficial action (murders, weapons must not be shown) and the director must not be credited. Most of those rules have since been broken by the school. Kenneth’s five film minute film along with those well-known directors including Peter Greenaway, will be shown at St James Cavalier starting 29 September (see page 33)
What inspired you in the direction of film making?
It was not an inspiration. It was always there. What’s funny though is that I came to it in a roundabout sort of way. I’ve always been fascinated with cameras of all sorts, and when I was very young I found a treasure cove at my nanna’s - a Super 8 projector, and lots of reels. I would go through the films frame by frame. Then, I used to (still do) enjoy reading and writing. School essays were hijacked, and characters made to romp through jungles and hilltops with sunsets blazing behind them. I used to enjoy making animations on computer. And in fact it was only whilst at university, where I was supposed to be reading for a degree in Maths and Computer Science, that I finally spat out that make films is what I want to do. I quit and joined the Communication Studies course, because of the film and video production credits.
Did you follow the cinema lectures for Saviour Catania at the university? What was your impression of them?
Without trying to imply that any shortcomings of mine are his fault, I wouldn’t be where I am today without Dr Catania and his lectures. Without ever having touched a camera, or been on a set, Salvu has taught me more about filmmaking, than anyone else ever will. His lectures are a goldmine of knowledge, not just about cinema but also about literature, art, dance and theatre. I have received my most complete of education in the hours I have spent in those lecture rooms in his classes. When we were researching The Isle, our short film, Jean Pierre (the co-writer) and myself went back to class. Whenever we had a new draft of the story or script, Salvu was the first to read it.
It is a shame, and it angers me that he is not given the recognition he deserves. And we are the ones who are missing out.
Which directors, and films or parts of films, do you regard as the high points of cinema?
A high-point of cinema occurs whenever you have a director who further develops film language, and makes it his or her own. A director who can give inflections to his or her story by using all of the elements at his or her disposal, in a way which has not been done before.
I cannot tell you absolutely which were the apexes of cinema history. I can tell you which ones have affected me. Directors and films like Murnau – Nosferatu (1922), Epstein – The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), Dreyer – Vampyr (1932), Hitchcock – Vertigo (1958), Konzintsev – Hamlet (1964), Polanski – Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Tarkovski – Solaris (1972). There are others, like Kurosawa, Bergman. But these are the ones I hold closest to heart.
What is your impression of the Dogme school and their impact on world cinema?
My impression is pretty low, although I am aware that it’s impact was quite astounding. What Lars von Trier did was to strip down filmmaking to its bare essentials, and ritualise the whole affair. Of course the idea that directors have to take a vow of filmic chastity drew the attention of the media at large, and he put Denmark back on the cinematic map (although arguably it was never off the map, because Dreyer’s shadow looms so large and everlasting).
I don’t like Dogme because it tries to do away with a lot of essential formative principles of filmmaking. Making a narrative fiction is not making a documentary. Even the more eminent of realist filmmakers, Sergei Eisenstein, is known for his treatises on montage, and on the use of counter-point sound. Dogme requires filmmakers to film in existing locations, using available light only, and available music only. So not only does this result in a very ‘unpoetic’ film, but also has driven some directors to extremes. What if you need to have a scene play out in a field, at night, with the Nocturne playing underneath? Do you install a Bösendorfer on the grass, and film the scene in pitch black darnkess? Between you and I, even Zentropa have told us that they are now pushing away from Dogme.
Could you tell me something about the film that you directed to be included in ‘Visions of Europe’?
It is an auto-critical, allegorical story about the lack of a national vision, culture and identity. A nation of empty husks. Of which we too are part. We may try to go beyond, but probably never will because of the way this nation has brought us up.
How has your film, with the 25 shorts from each EU state, been received?
To be honest, I don’t know. What I do know is that it went down well with the other filmmakers on the project, who all liked very much the visual texture of the film. They loved the cinematography, and they told us so themselves. Whilst at the Copenhagen festival, I stayed around after one of the screenings, and asked the audience what they thought. They found it to stand somewhat taller than most of the other films, but they also thought it was a bit too cryptic for an audience which may not be familiar with either Malta or Böcklin. A review which I found online, also said pretty much the same thing.
What other cinematic works have you worked on?
If you mean as a director, then there’s only Genesis, which is also Malta’s only feature film to-date. As an assistant director I’ve worked on U-571, and a few others.
What can be done to improve Malta’s ability to put itself on the filmmaking map?
Improve the education. Introduce proper art courses into primary and secondary school curricula. Start the appreciation of music, dance, literature, art, theatre and film at an early stage. Bring back the study of the classics. Without a good foundation we will never go beyond the crass stuff which we see on television.
And then, make funds available. No country in Europe makes films without funding from government or art foundations.
What have been the high and low points in your career so far?
I would not call it a career, I don’t think I ever will. It is what I do. There are films that I want to make, and I’ll be perfectly happy if I am given the opportunity to make them. So those are my high-points. The low-points are when I cannot make films and I have to go back to television to try and earn some money to make or study films.
What are your future plans?
All seems pretty bleak at the moment. I was supposed to be studying film again for the next three years, in New York. But I had to forfeit my place at the university because I could not raise the kind of money that was needed to pay for tuition, and had to come back. I still think that I have a long way to go before I can even start to think that I have what it takes. Which is why I’m also trying to get myself into the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema at Cinecittà. My friends Jean Pierre and Dennis are also trying to get me to work with them on documentaries, something which I feel I am not completely ready for as yet.
More than that, I have wishes for the future. To live a happy life with Sabrina, my wife, and to make the films that I want to make.
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