PLOTLINE AND DETAILS
Winter Sun follows the first days of a love affair between two boys in Berlin. Alex and Alexander hook up anonymously and decide to meet up again. They go on a date, share their experiences, their expectations, cook, boat, party, do drugs, have sex and begin to fall in love.
With Alex Kelly and Alexander Scott
A film by Claude Camille Pérès
Written, directed, photographed, edited and sound designed by Claude Camille Pérès
Dialogues: Alex Kelly, Alexander Scott and Claude Camille Pérès
Music: Baby Won't You Please Come Home by Bessie Smith
(Words and Music Charles Warfield and Clarence Williams), 1923
Rock And Gravel by Syd Valentine's Patent Leather Kids
(Syd Valentine, James Helm and Paul George), 1929
Turn Your Fucking Radio Off by Claude Camille Pérès, 2017
85 minutes
English
Berlin
2017
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
There's this idea in cinema of those two different, opposing even, approaches. One would come from Méliès and his magic tricks and the other one from the Lumière brothers who were supposed to put their camera somewhere and record whatever occurs in front of their device.
I remember watching this film by the Lumière brothers, Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory. It's very simple. You get to watch working people leaving their factory at the end of the day. I know I was really surprised by the fancy dresses of the working women. I really wondered where they could put their huge hats. Did they have a dressing room? A locker? I couldn't imagine someone working in those clothes. Keep in mind the movie was supposed to film things as they are, right. So I did a little digging. And it turned out the directors weren't satisfied with their footage so they asked the workers to come back another day to reshoot the whole thing. On a Sunday, after mass. Hence the fancy clothes. The movie was not that realistic after all.
Still, I don't give up on filming things as they happen. That means I don't want to make stuff up. I enjoy a lot contemplative cinema, like Gerry or Jeanne Dielman but, spoiler alert, those movies always end by a dramatic climax. I guess that disappoints me somehow because of the deception, the magic trick, that ruin the whole idea of contemplation or observation.
So I want to keep things simple and I want to interfere as little as possible. I see my job as gathering the possibilities for something to happen and let whatever happens happen.
That means that I welcome the actors as they are. I don't expect them to perform, outdo themselves or prove their worth. I think it's a more mature way to relate to someone. - And the fact that it goes against the toxicity of masculinity is no accident.
Thanks to that approach, I think we're able to capture delicate, simple things that you don't get to see often in movies. There's a scene in this movie where one of the boys is surprised by how fast his coffee got cold. I think I watched it thousands of times because of how simple and honest it is. I must say here, how lucky I was to meet two actors who were up to build this little bubble with me.
I'm happy to put that simplicity, that tenderness out there in this world. I ask the viewer to tap into their empathy. And I enjoy so much sharing that with them.
C.P.
