Rubber
Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki
Story : RUBBER is the story of Robert, an inanimate tire that has been abandoned in the desert, and suddenly and inexplicably comes to life. As Robert roams the bleak landscape, he discovers that he possesses terrifying telepathic powers that give him the ability to destroy anything he wishes without having to move.
Opens April 1, 2011
Runtime:1 hr. 25 min.
Interview with Director Quentin Dupieux
(Q) : How did you get a tire to move like that?
(Quentin Dupieux) : Everybody’s asking, which is funny because there are so many movies with incredible special effects and this is just a tire rolling.
(Q) : But quite convincingly.
(Quentin Dupieux) : Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Basically, we had one prototype with some shitty electronics, like basically it’s like a hamster in it. It’s like a small, very heavy remote controlled car. It’s not a car but it’s something that goes inside and pushes like a hamster; that’s it. But that’s just for 20 shots. Everything else it’s just a puppeteer operating the tire with two fingers a frame. That’s really easy. But I guess the magic works because you see this wide shot where the tire rolls and then stops and rolls again so you think “Okay, it’s working.” And then for every other shot, even if it’s like close-ups and obviously someone is off frame doing it you forget about it maybe, I don’t know.
(Q) : It was very effective.
(Quentin Dupieux) : It was like going back to the ‘20s. I hate CGI. I can watch movies with CGI, what I mean is I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to shoot something and then work it on a computer. I like to shoot something real so we never thought about any digital solutions. It was always okay we’re going to shoot something. We did some tests with wires for example, and it was not good because a tire is heavy, it was really hard to operate a tire with some strings; it was almost impossible.
So we decided to create this thing, but we had like three prototypes. We had two first prototypes and they were not able to work, it was a nightmare. And then just before the first day of shooting we had this very good prototype which was working. Basically it was just able to roll, make a stop, and roll again, and sometimes it was able to turn left or right, but it was not really working.
(Q) : How do you go about shooting something like this? I’m sure you have your standards when it comes to shooting a person and two people having conversations, but how do you go about framing a tire where it’s so effective?
(Quentin Dupieux) : Yeah but that was part of the excitement. You know I shot with s still camera, the Canon 5D, and it’s a small camera and it’s so easy to operate. Suddenly you can go everywhere, you just have to put it on the floor and then you’re ready to do a shot. So probably because I know three months before the real shoot I just bought the 5D and I was in Corsica in the South of France, and I was just doing some tests with a tire and I was just by myself in a field. I was throwing the tire and then shooting it, and when we watched this on the computer it was already a movie.
It was like okay, we don’t need more; it’s a movie. And then we just transferred this stage on 75mm and we watched this in the theater and it was a movie. It was incredible. It was just me with a tire and it was incredible on screen. Your question was about how is it to shoot a tire, but I think because this camera is very different from every other camera it captures the light in a special way. Because it’s so small it was really easy to create the language around the tire. Like I said, it was like okay let’s go on the floor and do this. Click, it’s shot, it’s done. That would have been a nightmare with a big camera.
(Q) : And they’re less expensive too.
(Quentin Dupieux) : Yeah, of course yes. You can find a big camera for nothing. When you’re shooting a small movie people are nice to you. It’s not a money thing, it’s more like for my first feature we watched the film on 35mm and I just realized it’s very slow actually. You do a shot here and then you say okay I want to go here and you need an hour because you have to change the lighting, you need three assistants for the camera, and you have to change everything around. It’s really complicated.
You need an hour to do another shot because it’s not here, now it’s here. It’s very complicated. And with this camera of course it’s cheaper but also the good thing is it’s faster. Everybody in the crew and the actors were amazed by this because they used to wait a lot on a shoot and this was just like we were shooting all day long. Nobody was waiting. So to me that’s the revolution. I do thing “Rubber” looks great. It looks cool and that’s brand new. Usually when I see a shooting in the street it looks ridiculous. They have like 12 trucks and all these lightings, all these things. It’s really heavy usually to make a movie. Now we can make a movie with almost nothing, which is really exciting I think.
(Q) : Is that where you see independent filmmaking going at this point?
(Quentin Dupieux): Everybody is using this camera these days.
(Q) : Yeah people are using cameras like that.
(Quentin Dupieux) : It’s everywhere.
(Q) : It’s easy to set up the lens and everything so you can do that with different lenses.
(Quentin Dupieux) : Yeah, it’s really easy to operate; that’s the point. A 35mm camera, even if it’s sexy because you print on film and there’s like the magic of the product because you have to develop, it’s like making photos. But the good thing is you are ready to go. You just take the camera out of the bag and you’re ready to shoot. That’s very new and I did some commercials and like I said my first feature film was shot on 35mm and it’s slow; it’s like a nightmare. I was depressed when I did my first feature. It was too slow and suddenly you have like 10 minutes and you can shoot and then you go back to waiting.
(Q) : Do we have any influence on the film? Because there’s a ‘70s movie called “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” where tomatoes are actually attacking the people. It’s a very kind of funny concept. Do you have any ideas coming from any movies previously?
(Quentin Dupieux): I heard about this one, I never saw it. I think it’s pretty bad, right, no?
(Q) : It’s kind of like a student film. You see the hands.
(Quentin Dupieux) : Is it funny at least, yeah?
(Q) : It is funny because tomatoes are attacking people.
(Quentin Dupieux) : No the main influence was “Duel,” Spielberg, the truck.
(Q) : It kind of reminds me of that. The tire’s engine sounds similar to that.
(Quentin Dupieux) : Maybe. That was the only reference because I don’t know if you watched it recently, it’s incredible because he managed to create fear with nothing. It’s just a truck, there is nothing special about the truck. It’s dirty, it’s an old truck, but it’s just a truck. It’s just a guy driving and there’s a truck behind him and you got scared. That’s amazing. I think it’s brilliant and it’s a masterpiece. You should watch it again; it’s incredible. It’s just editing basically because he did tons of shots, like truck driving, interior car, exterior truck. He did a lot of footage and then editing and then there’s tension and it’s only editing. It’s crazy. It’s super nice; I love it.
(Q) : Robert’s a really malicious character but he’s very likeable. What was your inspiration behind it?
(Quentin Dupieux) : Honestly, when I wrote it it was only supposed to be an evil character. In my mind it was like okay it’s just the bad guy. But then, when I started to shoot it I had to deal with a tire, and there’s nothing evil about a tire. So I had to change my mind a little bit and when we did the first tests with the remote control tire, so I had the camera attached to a stick and I was just following the remote controlled tire in the field. And at this point the tire was like a dog. The way it was rolling and behaving in the field it was like a dog. So I decided okay, it’s like a dog, it has to be like a dog, that’s why the shot where he drinks water, things like that. Suddenly it was not just an evil character it was more like a stupid dog. That was the inspiration.
(Q) : Any inspiration from Monty Python?
(Quentin Dupieux) : Yeah, of course. I love them. I mean I’m not trying to be them of course but of course I’m a huge fan so it might be somewhere.
(Q) : Sheila was a very likable character as well. She had very few lines and her lines came towards the end. When she delivered her lines it was between her lines and her accent, we all started laughing. Was that intentional?
(Quentin Dupieux) : No. It’s just a technical aspect. Because we did the film with French financing at some point we needed at least one French character in the cast. So we had to hire Roxane for that because she was living in LA and so it was perfect. I was not looking for a French girl trying to speak in English. She had to take a coach and try to work her accent. Even if it is not that important I think she is doing great.
(Q) : It worked out pretty good.
(Quentin Dupieux) : To me it was a bit strange because I was talking in French to her, obviously, and suddenly when the camera was rolling she was speaking in English. And also the part was a little bit weak in a way. The only comedy she has is with the end scene in the truck.
(Q) : It’s kind of interesting that the police officer mentions this is a drama, it’s not real. Especially with the binoculars who watched it, and most of them actually die by the poisonous turkey. There’s one guy surviving that and this guy has in a sense an opinion himself. Is there a message there?
(Quentin Dupieux) : No, it’s just because we need at least one guy to make the movie exist. I realized that because my first picture is “Steak,” so it was shot in Canada but it was in French. They just put it out; they did a big release, like 500 theaters in France, so that was huge. And nobody really got interested in that movie because the promotion was terrible. They were trying to sell it as a comedy, as a big family comedy, and it was not. The movie was running in some theaters but with no one watching.
I was sneaking in a screening sometimes to see peoples’ reaction, and one day I just sneaked into a theater and the movie was alone. It was rolling but no one was watching and I felt like wow, this is crazy. If no one’s watching what’s the point? So I think the idea came here. That’s why the guy wants to watch the end even if he doesn’t really like the movie but he wants to watch, and that’s why the movie has to keep on.
(Q) : He’s the one asking and changing the story in the end. He’s the one that stood out right from the beginning that is different from the others. I thought you wanted to send a mention.
(Quentin Dupieux) : Honestly, we can find a message everywhere basically. For example, another journalist asked me “Why at some point do the spectators get poisoned?” I just had the idea because at one point I was writing and I felt like okay, I’m bored with the spectators. I don’t want to see them anymore. And that’s the magic of writing; you can do whatever you want. Okay, so I’m going to poison the spectators because I don’t want to see them anymore. But that’s it. You can find a meaning here but I’m just doing this for fun. The script has been written in three weeks. It was almost like writing, writing, okay let’s shoot. So yes now I’ve watched it like 200 times I can find some meanings.
(Q) : What’s the meaning of that whole speech in the beginning? The “no reason” speech. Do you really believe that?
(Quentin Dupieux): No, it’s a joke, but it was supposed to be a warning and also a good way to invite people, to get people’s attention. I had the idea of this monologue because when I started to write the story of the tire I was like okay, do I have to explain why the tire is alive? Because I’m sure people will freak about it. You cannot start the movie with a living tire; it makes no sense. You have to explain in a way. So I decided I’m going to show his first step, like the birth. You se him animated and then he comes to life and starts rolling.
But that was not enough still so I decided okay, I’m going to write a monologue to explain the whole thing and basically the sell to the audience the idea, because that was the hard bit, the 20 first minutes selling this. The tire is alive and he’s going to kill people by just shaking; that was hard to sell. So I think the monologue is here for that and I think it works because I think the monologue’s funny. So it gives you the tone of the movie in a way. It’s like okay, this is the tone, this is the setup, so now if you like it welcome, if you don’t you should leave because this is the movie.
(Q) : And when you say sell are you referring back to the financers?
(Quentin Dupieux) : Sorry, no that’s bad English. Selling, make you believe, because it’s a moving tire and I have to sell you the idea to make you believe in it.
(Q) : Why did you use the cop to try and sell that idea? I noticed that you also had a cop interviewing who was viewed as a woman in a different interview.
(Quentin Dupieux) : I’m glad you saw that.
(Q) : I was wondering what the connection was because you could have used any character really.
(Quentin Dupieux) : I know, yeah. Probably randomly I just like the uniform because there’s something ridiculous, I mean there’s something very filmic about a uniform but also it’s ridiculous.
(Q) : Do you feel that uniform reflects American culture in any way?
(Quentin Dupieux) : I don’t think like that. Also I was obviously making, without knowing it, making references. I chose old cop cars, not modern ones. I don’t know why but it’s probably because I grew up with these movies.
(Q) : I noticed where she spoke into the intercom, that was really vintage as well.
(Quentin Dupieux) : Yeah. This cop, I don’t know if you feel the same, but we saw him so many times he’s already your friend. We know him, he’s the cop. He is the movie cop. To me it’s like that, and probably that’s a French point of view but whatever. To me it’s a generic character, like oh movie cop. This, with the desert; it works. That’s it. The main reason I know I’m a little bit obsessed by uniforms. There’s something really filmic about it and my first movie, “Steak,” also starts with a military guy. There’s something I like about uniforms in movies. I don’t know why.
(Q) : Would you be willing to do something bigger with a film or would you want to stick with a Cannon to shoot the film?
(Quentin Dupieux) : No, I want to stick to this format because I like to do everything by myself and I like to be the only one in charge in a way. And when you spend someone else’s money it’s different, you have some kind of pressure. And no, I don’t want to do that job. I don’t want to be a director. I’d rather be a stupid creator because being a director is a different job. You have to deal with many other things, like you have to deal with the writer, you have to deal with the producers, you have to deal with the DOP, you have to deal with some other producer. It’s something different. It’s more like being in charge of a lot of money, and that’s not what I want to do. I’m trying to make funny art, and the movie industry is not about funny art.
(Q) : What’s your next project?
(Quentin Dupieux) : I have two. There’s one I’m shooting in LA in April, it’s called “Wrong.” I cannot talk about it. It’s hard to describe but it’s still funny and special. And the other one might be shot in France next year.
(Q) : Is it hard to describe that first one you mentioned like this one? I’m trying to imagine you pitching this story to financers.
(Quentin Dupieux) : This was quite easy to pitch. Even if they were laughing at me, like “Are you serious? You want to do a movie with a tire living?” it was easy to pitch. This is quite a stronger pitch, like okay it’s a killing tire, that’s already funny I guess. No, the new one I just wrote it and I still don’t have a good pitch.
(Q) : In three weeks again?
(Quentin Dupieux) : No, I little bit more. It’s a bit bigger.
(Q) : Did you pitch this with a short film by any chance? You made a short film before to pitch the producer.
(Quentin Dupieux) : No, but I told you about my tests, the first tests I did in the South of France. Like I said, it was almost exactly what you saw. It was already a movie, like the tire was rolling, looking at things. I was myself already impressed by this test because it was incredibly good, especially because the light was incredible and being close to the tire was fascinating. It was like a two minute short film with no action, it was just a tire, but it was already working.
(Q) : There’s definitely a paradox between “WALL-E” and “Rubber.”
(Quentin Dupieux): Yeah. The whole birth scene when he wakes up and then discovers things, I was calling that the “WALL-E” part. Even if I’m not a big “WALL-E” fan but it’s a bit the same. You’re watching something and you’re just watching. Something is doing something and you’re watching; there’s no story. You just watch something alive doing something. That’s funny.
(Q) : Can you relate to any of the characters, either beforehand when you wrote it or now having watched it? Do you feel like you put any of your own thoughts into any of the characters while you were writing, or now do you see them reflected in any way?
(Quentin Dupieux): No. I’m not putting myself. There is probably more of myself in my music, but you have to break the code. Or maybe I don’t know and maybe you should ask this to some friends. I don’t know.
(Q) : I saw a lot of your musical editing come out in the editing of the film. Would you say that’s accurate?
(Quentin Dupieux) : Yeah. You mean is there a relation between editing music and editing the movie? No.
(Q) : You specifically, how you did it.
(Quentin Dupieux) : Yeah, it’s basically the same. You have some good material and just by cutting you can make it better. That’s the same for music.
(Q) : I just meant your formula because you have a very specific tension in your music and I felt that really came out the way that you juxtaposed the wide shots and the detail shots.
(Quentin Dupieux) : Okay, nice. I’m glad.
End.