In his 2017 film “Downsizing” two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne presents an unbelievable antidote to the world’s growing population: the downsizing of the average human being. On Tuesday, the film opened the Evia Film Project, which focuses on green issues. “It didn’t start with the ecological element,” the director tells PvNew at the event, which takes place on the Greek island of Evia, which was devastated by fires two years ago.
Although six years old, the film is ageing well. It is still relevant and even mentions the pandemic in a scary foreboding, but he is not optimistic. “Things are getting worse,” he says.
Payne is known to use laughter to alleviate the weight of the topics he is satirizing in his films. “Oscar Wilde used to say, ‘When you tell people the truth, you have to make them laugh at the same time or else they kill you…’ I like satires,” he says.
But he doesn’t think that they can actually make a difference. “The only way I can see a concrete way that a film has really changed things is when they make a film about someone who did a crime and is condemned to death. And then, the movie shows he’s innocent and then he’s not killed,” he says.
He is also “all for [sustainable filmmaking]” even if he doesn’t know what that entails. “I’m all for it. I have no idea what it means… We’re not going to fly anyone. You have to bicycle. No cars. No trucks. What does that mean? I don’t know what that means,” he says.
“All I know is every movie set I’ve been on for the last 10 years, somebody at the beginning says: ‘Okay, everybody, listen up. We’re not going to have plastic bottles… and that lasts about two days and then it’s plastic, plastic, plastic,” he says.
However, in his opinion, initiatives like the Evia Film Project – which is run by the Thessaloniki Film Festival – keep the awareness of the dire state of the climate and the world alive.
“If the news about the awful fires [on Evia] two years ago, if that doesn’t raise awareness… I think this is a gentle way to maybe maintain awareness… I guess it shows that what happened here is not being forgotten. Memory is an important instrument of change.”
Although he has strong ties to Greece, he doesn’t plan on filming there just yet. “The plan is vague. I’d love to make a movie in Greece. I would like to start making movies in Europe, even in languages different than English. I just got my Greek citizenship last year. But do I have the script yet? No. Actually, one of the two scripts I’m working on right now, if we can crack it, would take place in France and in French.”
By his own admission, he is not a filmmaker who focuses on locations, but rather the story. “It’s always wonderful to shoot in a beautiful sunny place, but it always comes down to what’s the story,” he says.
“The last movie I just finished is all in snow,” he says of “The Holdovers,” set for a November 2023 release.
