About Montsouris

It’s difficult not to be charmed by Montsouris, an autumnal film in which two characters awkwardly try to make a documentary about a park. The event occurs as they’re looking for the mundane, and a first comic duo is followed by a second, equally farcical, one. With a masterful sequence shot and an unexpected reflexive epilogue, Guil Sela reveals his obvious mastery as a filmmaker in this gracefully modest film. 

The Comic and the Mundane 

“One day in Naples, my camera was stolen. Five minutes later I was with a couple of police officers. One of their phones rang and it was the main title theme of Game of Thrones. The situation was so far-fetched that I couldn’t help but laugh. Everything is like this. Life is full of those small logistical aggravations that upend any moment. For me, comedy is born in the ruthless retranscription of life’s little ironies. 

I also wanted to dedicate this film to my grandfather. He was a Holocaust survivor and managed to become an extremely witty person. He was a keen observer, interested in homo sapiens, and he kept a notebook in which he would jot down all the coincidences he happened to witness. Much like the film, it’s an ode to drivel, if you will. And maybe, if you pay attention to the little everyday things, to the mundane and coincidences, you end up addressing larger issues.” 

“We film. Period.”

“Once you’ve shot something, you’ve captured an event, what are you supposed to do with the footage? Is our role merely to show what is there, or to say what we think one way or another? In other words: to judge. This question weighs on my mind. I know that society progresses and demands that artists be politically engaged. I do take part in current struggles, however, as a director, I have a hard time telling myself that I must map these ideas before filming. I believe it would result in a pastiche or an advert. Actually, the directors I admire don’t judge. One of the duos in the film shows you parts of that issue, and two possible answers. I couldn’t decide, but Montsouris shows this inner strife.”

Quick and easy

“This is the quickest, cheapest film that I have made. I was tired of waiting for funding for my projects and I had some 16mm film left from a shoot. I wanted to make a film with a sequence shot and two people who witnessed something. I didn’t know what that something would be yet, and that became the start of the film, showing that hesitation. 

Then, everything happened very fast, the idea for Montsouris came to me late August last year and in November I’d finished editing. It was as if I remembered that being a director was first and foremost going out with a small camera and filming things.”