'I just wanted to do something funny," says Lukas Moodysson, of his bouncy new film, We Are the Best!. "Or certainly something full of energy and hope."
Whoa. Have the body snatchers invaded Sweden? Can this really be the same auteur who gifted us the human trafficking tragedy Lilya 4-Ever (2002), the filthily experimental A Hole in the Heart (2004), and the unflinching globalisation drama Mammoth (2009)? It's been a long time since Moodysson's early funny ones, Togetherness and Show Me Love. And, just to dampen the mood, the novelist and film-maker has produced "a long and boring book" and screenplay about the death of his father.
“It’s a very interesting thing,” he says. “And very complicated. Sometimes the happier I am, the more open I am to all the sadness in the world. And sometimes when I’m feeling bad, I just don’t have the energy to do anything that is depressing in any way. But then there’s the complicated business of everything in between. I’m always confused by what I’m doing. It’s like I’m walking around in a dark forest. Just because I take a different direction doesn’t put me out on the motorway. I’m still confused in the forest.”
He laughs. As only Moodysson would. For every musing that makes you think of a film by his late countryman, Ingmar Bergman, there’s a punch-line. And vice versa.
A feminist, a socialist and a Christian, Moodysson is every bit as engaging and complicated as the art he creates. His singular, uncompromising approach doesn't always win friends and well-wishers. When Show Me Love won all the major prizes at Sweden's Guldbagge film awards, he told the audience to pay their taxes and avoid eating meat. He was booed. Mammoth was roundly jeered at the Berlin Film Festival.
“I’m just doing what I do,” he shrugs. “And I try to think as little as possible about my position or what other people think of me. I’m very happy to be able to make films but I don’t really know a lot of other people who make films. I only know the people I work with.”
Early in his career, when critics and commentators were reaching for phrases such as enfant terrible , he often characterised himself as an outsider. Can Swedish cinema's most recognisable brand, a director described as a "young master" by Bergman, still be working from the margins of the industry?
“It’s a psychological thing. I’m an introvert. I don’t have a lot of friends in general. So it’s just normal that I don’t hang out with film directors. I can’t remember the last time I had a conversation with another film director.”
By contrast, We Are the Best! (Vi är bäst!) is anything but introverted. An exuberant teen comedy set in Stockholm in 1982, this multi-award-winning crowd-pleaser follows three 13-year-old punkettes as they form a band, bounce on beds and get up to all kinds of mischief. The film is adapted from an autobiographical graphic novel Never Goodnight by the director's wife, Coco Moodysson.
How much input did she have, I wonder?
“Well, once I decided to ask Coco if I could direct a version of the film, we both agreed it wouldn’t be a perfect version of the book. Her input wasn’t any greater than it ever is. Because I always ask for advice about everything. But I had to make the script my own. And she was really tired of the subject. She had lived through it. She had created the book. She didn’t have much energy for it anymore.”
The triumvirate of youthful leads (Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin and Liv LeMoyne) make for lively, noisy company and jointly won the Best Actress award at the Dublin International Film Festival. Unsurprisingly, it took time and a great many auditions for Moodysson to stumble upon such extraordinary young women.
“I was looking for what I’m always looking for, which is a rare sickness or talent – I’m not sure. Someone who is very present and very relaxed in front of a camera. I did a lot of improvisations with the children. And just as you would with adult actors, you want someone who can bring something of themselves and their experiences to the part. So I just wanted them to surprise me. I never decide what I’m looking for before. Because I’m looking for someone who adds something to a character.”
At heart, We Are the Best! is a joyful celebration of a particularly teenage love of music. It's a level of connection only a few souls maintain throughout their lives. Is Lukas Moodysson still wired for sound? The pictures of Rihanna on his and Coco's Tumblr feed suggest as much.
“I still allow myself to be a fan of things. My wife and I are enormous figure skating fans. And that’s important. At the same time, I’m not nostalgic for youth. I’m not saying that’s it’s great to live in complete state of childishness. I’m very happy getting older. And hopefully a little bit smarter. But maintaining an openness to the world and still getting obsessed with things – that’s really nice to have even when you’re 45, like I am.”
Figure skating?
“Yes! I think it’s the combination of how it’s a sport but also a way of artistic expression. With figure skating they walk out on the ice and there’s a big risk that they will just fall and look silly and enormously vulnerable. But when they don’t it’s a fantastic triumph.”
Once again, We Are the Best! suggests that Moodysson is more comfortable writing for women. Is that fair? Or accurate?
“Men are boring to write. Maybe I’m just hiding. I’m not sure. But I feel more like a lady inside. I have trouble identifying with traditional masculine roles. I cannot drive a car. If something is broke I cannot fix it. I’m better at making food and watering plants.
“So I’m very happy to have a masculine wife who can fix things and who can drive a car. And when I buy her jewellery I always end up wearing it myself.”
