The chinese director, Bi Gan was only 29 years old. However, his second film, “A great journey into night,” in the room today, is screaming of maturity and has all of the masterpiece. Meeting. Bac Films At the time to meet with a filmmaker, the 29-year-old who produced one of the most beautiful films that it has been given to festival-goers to explore at Cannes last may, it is a little impressed. Bi Gan is humble, he jokes, doesn’t take himself seriously. First, it relies on the chance to explain how he ended up making films. Then, turning a innocent question, the young chinese director, says more about itself and to understand his work and his cinema. AlloCiné : What was the starting point of your inspiration for this story ? Bi Gan : When I made Kaili Blues [his first film] I shot a scene at the side of a building. The whole environment of the building fascinated me and I decided that I would write a story for the film. It was A great trip into the night. The report at the time, the way in which the past, the present and the future mingle, was something that was already in Kaili Blues and can be found here. Where did you get this report at the time ? This mixture was already present in Kaili Blues, but in a way fuzzy, and unconscious. Besides, I had used a phrase buddhist for the control of these timing differences, so that the viewer will not get lost completely in the film. This time, I am more clear with time. The time is that of the story : when you change the timeframe, change of scene. I love this mix and I think that this is certainly due to the food where the alcohol. (Laughter) Bac Films A great trip to the night You are very young, yet the story exudes maturity. What is your secret ? In the history of cinema, and especially French cinema, there have been filmmakers even younger than me ! I think it has nothing exceptional, everything happens at the right time. I’ve already forgotten the pain and I don’t remember that cheerful moments, but objectively, gain in maturity, it is very difficult. When I realized Kaili Blues, I had absolutely no idea of how to make a movie. There, it was a bit like that, I didn’t know even how to use a walkie-talkie, so I was crying all the time, until my assistant told me that it would be still more convenient that I use the walkie. Of course, ten minutes after, I had already lost. Truce of joke, it was extremely complicated because I had to reconcile the artistic approach and the practical approach, which was completely new. It is for that besides that I have put more time than expected and needed more budget than expected. You bring the 3D during the film, in agreement with the narration. We can say that there is an experimental dimension. How has intervened to make this choice ? Before the shoot, everyone was asking me to tell the story of the film, but this is not my way of doing it, so I said to the people : “It is a film that is classic and modern at the same time. “What I wanted to say by this is that if you look carefully in the history of cinema, the 3D and the 2D work at the same time for a very long time : this is obviously not my invention. The dimension of modern is to put that standard practice at the service of what I wanted to tell, through memory and dreams. If you want to know how do I come up with this idea, I will answer you that it certainly is related to the food or the alcohol ! (Laughter) what is it that brought you to the cinema and what were your influences in particular for this film ? I lived in a city that is very far from the cinema, so it is rather by chance that I started to make films. Rather, it was a utopian dream, first, as if I told my parents that I wanted to build a spaceship. If I’d lived fifty years ago, I would probably have become a writer. It is the development of technologies that offered me the opportunity to make films. For A great trip in the night, it was the place that really inspired me, as I told you, but also my burning desire, physical, to make another film. It was natural. Bac Films A great trip to the night : “I couldn’t see more than a solitary man to watch a movie,” How have you been working on this amazing clip ? It’s also crazy to me, I never really asked the question. What I have done is to give the technical department my new scenario each time he moved and every time, they were forced to change the organization. I am not a specialist in the technique, but I refuse to be limited by this. We did many tests in situ, using different cameras, machinery, different objectives, reflecting on how to link the machines together and operate them. What are routine test, in the end ! What is your first memory of the viewer ? The films of actor and director in hong kong Stephen Chow ! This was before the divorce of my parents. They took me out very often in the unique cinema of Kaili. At the time of their separation, they continued to take me to see movies together and they were always films of Stephen Chow, but I noticed the differences in their relationship. For example, they were closer to hand. After the divorce, my father took me alone to the cinema to see the films of Stephen Chow and I couldn’t see more than a solitary man to watch a movie. For me, the memory of cinema, it is the memory of the loss of a woman. In the films of Stephen Chow, Stephen Chow is always able to find the perfect love, and it is the opposite of life. This is why I love the cinema. DR The Mirror, Andrei Tarkovsky (1974) Your film evokes a lot of The Mirror, Andrei Tarkovsky. It is easy to imagine that you have seen ? Yes, of course, I saw it. I am looking for non-stop my inspirations in Tarkovsky : a certain beauty to the film, a gaze attentive to the nature, a mystery that bores brutally and always with the nostalgia of childhood. He wore more attention to his childhood as the hero of his films, and this is the case of the Mirror. The installation of A long trip to the night that people discover in the room is the same as the one presented at Cannes ? No, and it is very different. The new version will be more like a fairy tale, it is closer than I dreamed. I would describe it instead the version of Cannes, as an explosion of my passions. I like both, but the version room may be the most interesting version. What are your plans ? I’m going to rest first ! I would like to make an adaptation of a novel, but I don’t know which one yet. I would like to change again my vision of the world. The trailer for A long trip to the night : A journey into the night trailer VO