FILM INTERVIEW: TARSEM SINGH
Tarsem Singh Changes the Way Audiences Watch Films with Universal’s ‘Immortals’
If you haven’t heard of Tarsem Singh before, you should have, and you are about to see him on a very large scale, as he directs the lavish and large-scale Immortals film, which stars Freida Pinto, Mickey Rourke, Henry Cavill, Isabel Lucas, and Luke Evans.
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Mr. Singh is what I like to call an underdog and an auteur -- the kind of auteur who should be mentioned in the same breath as David Cronenberg, Michel Gondry, and Luc Besson, and if you don’t recognize those names in film cinema, you must. In fact, Mr. Singh -- whose landmark music video, “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M., put him on the map -- has been making compelling cinema ever since. In the feature film realm, it all started out with The Cell. A dark serial killer film starring the most unlikely of heroines in Jennifer Lopez, and of which, to this date, is probably the most ‘remembered’ role of her acting career. He followed this up with the wildly entertaining and imaginative The Fall, which won accolades the world over without carrying a major ‘A’ List actor.
Yes, Mr. Singh is the real deal, so it’s no wonder that the producers of 300 came to Singh when they wanted to bring a visual tapestry of Greek Mythology to the big screen. After all, the visual auteur directors who work in this medium are few and far between.
With Tarsem -- who admits he likes to work within the scope of visual storytelling and proudly boasts his wielding of the camera like a famous painter wields a paintbrush -- does not disappoint in Immortals. In fact, his ability to bring characters to life and give them character within the roles they play is simply magnificent. I was fortunate enough to sit down with the visual auteur for a few questions to reflect on his upbringing, his career, and the future.
Harish Rao: It’s great that you are finally doing a large-scale mythological movie. Have you found that, compared the previous films you did -- The Fall and The Cell -- you are now going bigger and bigger in scale and scope, or does it matter at all?
Tarsem Singh: It doesn’t matter at all. I just look at it in the way that the bigger ones are so much easier. All your problems are sorted out. In a movie like The Fall, you pretty much do everything yourself. I would love to mix them up. There is a different [type] of fight in each one of them. Like how much milk are you going to let people put into your coffee is the question. If it's a personal film, you can make it as black [for coffee] as you want. It’s a question of making sure I am represented enough in the film -- enough of my philosophy and look.
HR: In reading a little about your background, it would seem, like many Indians who decide to pursue a field of artistic achievement, you too experienced conflict on your journey. How did you use that as motivation in your career?
TS: I cannot think of a single culture where you tell your dad you want to be in film and they say, "Yes." So it’s always an uphill [battle] for 99.9% of the people. It’s not an industry that statistically works for people who come into it. Indians being more profession-oriented will always want you to go into being a lawyer, doctor, or engineer.
HR: Your films (The Cell, The Fall, Immortals) all seem to have not just an artistic theme but a very strong sense of Art History, if I may presume. Is it a fair assumption? If so, who are your favorite artists?
TS: I would say that what you grew up with is what defines you and would have loved. For me, you have to be making it for generally a Western audience. They wouldn’t really go for an Egyptian Hieroglyphic animation film. So you have to find it within their culture and what they will accept.
HR: How much of your Indian background do you pull into your movies, especially from a filming, music, and artistic perspective?
TS: If you have to sit down and say, "Hmmm, I’m part Greek, part this..." How much I traveled as a child is the only thing that makes my stuff more unique. Every year, we used to go for vacation to Iran because my father was an engineer there. So growing up watching visuals of films that I do not understand the dialogues of must have had a very big influence. And then seeing Hindi movies [that] I adored as a kid, and of now I have seen one in the last 25 years, these [all] seem to go to the back of your head. If you have to pick and choose between your references, it [tends] to be a problem. You just have to say, "This is me." I’m 50 years old; this is me.
HR: Your next movie is Snow White, and your visual style is really amazing for this type of story. How is your approach going to change for that film?
TS: It doesn’t when you start somewhere. When you do one film, people think [that’s] who you are. You are a dark guy who wants to do serial killer films [The Cell], or you do a small, personal film [The Fall], or he wants to do arthouse stuff, and then suddenly I mixed it enough that they say, "We don’t know what the f*** he wants to do." I want to do a “kiddie” movie. Their question was: "Well, you tend to be dark. Do you want to do a darker version?" and I said, "No interest, because my darkness tends to be darker more than most people’s appetites in this culture." They will try to make me pull back, so I want to make a kiddie movie. I would like to make a cartoon movie one day. I’d like to make puppet shows, I don’t know.
HR: Do you want people to notice your body of work as a film director? Does it really matter about your Indian background?
TS: If the person is making consistent work the way they want to make it, that’s enough. Right now, I am enjoying the visual medium. I think I would like to make non-visual films. Those I will tend to look for really strong scripts which I tend not to look for now when I do these [visual films]. I am hoping that I have a body of work and people recognize: that’s him, embrace it or not. It would be good if they did. I would get to make more movies.
Relativity Media's 'Immortals' is released on November 11, 2011.
