George Miller's "Three Thousand Years of Longing" was written thousands of years ago, but wait between films directed by "Mad Max". often feels longer.
Seven years after Miller's "Fury Road" stormed the movie screen, the 77-year-old filmmaker has spent his 20 years on a lot of the temporal. With that in mind, I finally returned to the movies. and eternal.
Three Thousand Years of Longing, which hits theaters August 26,Tilda Swinton plays a scholar named Alicia. Alicia is a "narratologist" who specializes in stories about stories. Her wish-fulfilling gin (Idris her Elba) emerged from an old glass bottle purchased at Istanbul's Grand Her Bazaar.When her mind failed to make her wish, he gave her 3,000 years of her tells the story of If “Fury Road” beats the blistering, straightforward narrative line of “Three Thousand Her Years,” adapted from an A.S. Byatt short story, she ruminatively skips through time. This is an intimate room piece sculpted with magnificent proportions.
Swinton called it a "big movie" when she, Elba and Miller gathered in a hotel room in Cannes, France earlier this year. was increasing production in Toralia.
In the discussion that followed, the three were clearly enamored of being together again after surviving the pandemic and filming the movie. "The belief in jumping over the highest hurdles," Swinton said of Miller's long effort of gesturing. "Who won to jump over that bar?"
Comments edited for length and clarity.
AP: The film opens with wonder and fascination, like an endangered species in the modern digital world. Is it the feeling that the three of you connect?
Swinton: I'm really happy to hear you use the word 'enchantment'. It's about enchantments. It's about faith. It's about a willingness to leap and an inherent openness to change. Not necessarily threatened, but potentially hidden. Reality is overrated.
ELBA: As an actor, you also live in this strange reality. A bit like gin. People look at me and say Can you give me something? "A photo, an autograph, anything is fine. I really wonder who I am. Who am I. But I recognize my role as a storyteller in my life and in society, and as someone who makes people believe that something is incredibly important.The Master himself It's great to be able to sit in a room with (gesture to the mirror) and talk about storytelling.Enchantment is a great word. I don't think it will go away.
Miller: What's really interesting to me is that despite all these technological advances, we're definitely wired for story. It could be argued that more stories are being told today than ever before. I was really impressed by the fact that Napoleon read all the books that existed at that time. Now it's impossible to read all the books or watch all the TV shows and movies. I think the story is irreplaceable. I think they are constantly evolving. In the census of the United Kingdom, when people were asked what their religion was, a very high percentage named Jedi. It replaces one form of myth with another. I think the more chaotic the world is, the more people tend to get absorbed in the story. Sometimes those stories can get toxic.
Swinton: We have now been reminded very clearly that whole nations, whole cultures have been told stories and that it is possible to believe them to the exclusion of other stories. Maybe what we're talking about is a kind of porosity of stories, open to many stories.
AP: As you look back on Russia's war in Ukraine, when you started "Three Thousand Years," were your thoughts on the moment storytelling shaped your own life?
ELBA: My father started saying, "Let me teach you something for free." This is my late father.
Swinton: Would you tell the story to his son?
ELBA: If I drive to school, I try to avoid phone calls. The only way to make him seem interested in me is to talk. And you won't believe it. This plane, they've taken the wings off. ' In that magical moment he listens, the question is a rich one.
AP: George, as a myth-maker who can conjure up the world, you're not all that similar to Jinn. What drew you to films that explored the essence of storytelling?
Miller: One of his favorite quotes about stories is the Swahili storyteller. The narrator concludes the story by saying: It was good and it belongs to everyone.” There is no question whether the stories, once told, will grab attention, and that they will somehow mean something to people. I know I struggle with it. I can't get up and speak spontaneously well. But I can do it in super slow motion telling the movie. Come on... after all, it's only 100 minutes.
AP: Tilda and Idris, making a movie like this makes you think about why you as an actor have to tell a story.
Swinton: I've never made anything like this. In a funny way, this movie is about one of my favorite things. It's one of the reasons I'm here. I always find it very difficult to get something out of my head and tell others. But the fact of doing the gesture is very touching. This movie is about that, but very clearly made. Actually shooting with George and understanding how he constructs the architecture of the film, even if the film is about something very amorphous and very tender, is a masterclass. Keeping the center soft is something we talked about a lot.
ELBA: I'm a bit like George. I was fascinated by his father telling stories, but I wasn't very good at it. He remembers when he went to an all-boys school. I was one of the funny boys. In drama class, the kids couldn't do that. they couldn't believe it. The teacher's words, "Please believe me," touched my heart and I still can't forget them. All of a sudden I was able to tell the world's greatest stories because you made me believe I could. I really recognized the irony of working with George and Tilda, so I'm playing a guy who has to speak honestly to get his freedom. I was playing a man Idris wasn't allowed to take off her socks, and I had to tell these honest, compelling stories.
AP: George, you first encountered this short story in his late 1990s. Why do you think this movie stuck with you for so long?
Miller: I have many stories. A little Darwinian. Some of them claim themselves. I thought it was a very powerful story. It's like a metal detector or a Geiger counter, something actually activates it. You say: "Oh, there's a rich seam somewhere in here." I don't know where it's going. We can. Time will tell. I hope the story belongs to everyone.
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