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Friday, February 24, 2023
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Kristen's interview with Grazia Magazine at the 73rd Berlinale
YOU’VE BEEN A MEMBER OF THE JURY AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL IN 2018, BUT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU’RE THE PRESIDENT OF A FESTIVAL. WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST THOUGHTS WHEN YOU RECEIVED THAT CALL?
Talking about film without having the added pressure of “promoting” a film is a rare indulgence on this scale. The conversations you have with collaborators while making a movie are quite different from the ones you have as a non-complicit audience member. Meeting people from different corners of the Earth that have come together to explore the reasons why certain films incite or raise new questions. This is heaven to me. A condensed intensive shared experience… one that should change your mind… change your view… I can’t wait to be a different human at the end of these two weeks, these 19 films, the innumerable conversations. And to have gleaned new insight and new perspectives from fellow artists that I have immense respect for.
HOW DO YOU SEE THIS NEW ROLE AND ENVISION THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE? WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENT DO YOU WISH TO BE? A CHIEF CONDUCTOR OR MORE OF A COLLEGIATE JURY MEMBER?
The president’s job is to mediate and to learn. To mitigate bias. But when you’re dealing with an ephemeral subject such as we are, art being subjective as it obviously is… I think the main role I have taken on here is to make sure everyone feels heard. Seen. I have been on one jury in the past (at the 71st Cannes Film Festival in 2018) Cate Blanchett, who was the President of the Jury, set a prime example. You could hate a movie and deem it a foot of extraordinary accomplishment. You could love something that feels impotent in regard to its larger effect on the world. Our job is to enjoy each other’s vastly different experiences in this life and see how they bounce off the works of art presented to us as a whole.
AS YOU’LL SOON EMBARK ON A NEW ADVENTURE AS A MOVIE DIRECTOR WITH YOUR DIRECTORIAL DEBUT “THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER”, DO YOU THINK YOU’LL GET ANYTHING OUT OF THIS EXPERIENCE?
I have been preparing for my role as a film maker since I can remember. The privilege to externalise your inner life, to show people something as you see it so you can hold each other that much closer is what I have surrendered to. It’s what I’ll fight for. It’s an unstoppable inclination. So whoever I am at the end of it is for others to assess. Based on whatever spits itself out of the body and onto the screen. Good or bad I do believe it will reflect the truth of a moment in my life.
YOU’VE BEEN A CHANEL AMBASSADOR FOR SO MANY YEARS. HOW IS IT TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY A FASHION HOUSE FOR SUCH AN EVENT?
Chanel has my back. I have theirs. I could call it armor, second skin… It’s an evolving story. We have roots and a lot of room to grow together so I am nothing but delighted to keep exploring and playing with such incredible artists. Virginie is a treasured collaborator and inspiration.
HOW DID YOU CHOOSE THIS LOOK FOR THE OPENING CEREMONY?
I chose the look for opening night based on feel. I feel light in it. And present. I think it has the perfect amount of structure and activation. The deer on the dress symbolises freedom and tranquility to me. Self-possession.
HOW DO YOU SEE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHANEL & CINEMA EVOLVING? AS WELL AS YOURS WITH VIRGINIE VIARD?
Virginie is a lover of art and of humanity. It’s so clear in the work she produces. It is cinematic. Our art hold hands. I hope those concentric circles continue to overlap… eclipse.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING PROJECTS FOR THIS YEAR?
‘Love Lies Bleeding’ is Rose Glass’s second film, a follow up to her first which was one of my favourites of the year it came out. She has a knack for highlighting darkness and reminding us it’s in all of us. She also has style and an eye for the strange. Her films are atmospheric, sexual, toothy. ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ should make us scared of ourselves and celebrate a marginal, not too often broadcast sweetness that is authentically queer and special and far from overtly conscious of itself. ‘Love Me’ is a movie about all of us. The ironic one-ness of individuality. Steven Yeun and I play the traces of us all, left behind by the infinitely expansive reflection of the internet… trying to love itself. Trying to love each other. I haven’t seen it but the way the directors Sam and Andy will present these ideas, visually should be revolutionary. Their ideas are prescient and well within reach of us all. It’s startlingly base. It’s both optimistic and gravely realistic. They are visionaries. Can’t wait to be let in on what it will look like.
Read more on both Stewart’s CHANEL Haute Couture dress, and beauty look, below:
Stewart wore look 48, from the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2023 collection: A white petticoated dress embroidered with a floral motif revealing a bustier embellished with foliage and deer over a multi-layered skirt with organza.
Beauty-wise, her skin was prepped with N°1 DE CHANEL Revitalizing Serum, followed by the Les Beiges Water-Fresh Complexion Touch (launching soon). The warm eye was created using the Les 4 Ombres Palette in Candeur et Provocation, the Stylo Yeux Waterproof liner in N°36 Prune Intense, and Stylo Yeux Waterproof liner in N°928 Eros. Stewarts lips were painted with Rouge Coco Flash in N°116 Easy.
Kristen talks to Archie Wingate at the 73rd Berlinale
Question: I suppose we have to start with talking about how being President of the Berlinale came about, because when you were appointed, I didn’t see it coming?
Answer: No, totally. It was a total mindfuck when I got the text. I don’t want to be a pessimistic fuck, but there is no doubt that it’s… mutually beneficial. Like it’s clear that it’s great for them, they get some publicity off my name, which I’m completely game with because the more attention film festivals, even huge ones like this one get, the chances of more films that, usually wouldn’t get attention, do.
Q: In the Q&A yesterday, you referenced ‘group-thinking’ as a collective jury, which at first sounds Orwellian as fuck, but when looking at it in a positive perspective, it’s something really quite incredible and highlights, I don’t know, the importance of going to the movies to see films, but particularly with people.
I’ve always *loved* watching films with other people because of this. I mean I love watching films on my own, but with people you can just sit there and two hours later and have such a strong opinion on what you think of the film, and then someone else says something the complete opposite, and you think, fuck they’re right. Even if you don’t think they’re right it’s an incredible experience talking about this with other people in realtime, and this has just been augmented whilst being on this Jury. I mean I don’t feel like I am the “President” because I am surrounded by so many incredibly talented and proflic people, and when we deliberate every day, it’s just incredible to listen to all these different opinions on the same piece of work. We all look for films that push boundaries and take risks, those are the one’s that tend to take home the biggest prizes at film festivals, one that push the envelope, although films that tackle things that have already been tackled but in a different and fresh perspective equally get the chance. It’s just, yeah, a brilliant experience to watch a film and have a deeply personal experience and then compare it and contrast it to other people’s experiences and come out from *that* with a completely different perspective.
Q: I do have to ask… Team Edward or Team Jacob?
A: Team Edward all the way man.
Q: You seem really content with what Twilight has become in your life these days. Like you were taking the mickey of it in the Q&A, and you don’t seem, I don’t know, embarrassed that you were in a franchise like that in a event like the Berlinale.
A: No, completely. After Twilight ended and even during, it wasn’t what I wanted to be remembered for, like I had been acting for close to a decade before that franchise, worked with some amazing directors, and was annoyed that that’s what, I don’t know, all journalists were talking about. But I think the work I’ve done since then has sort of, I don’t know, bought me enough credit to start fresh.
Q: You definitely seem to be having a moment. You’re playing Susan Sontag soon, you’re aiming to shoot your directorial debut at the end of the year with Imogen Poots, you’re President of the Berlinale, and I’m sure there are multiple projects knocking around that we don’t know about, all the back off a nomination for ‘Spencer’ at the Academy Awards. For you is there any that stood out more than the others, or does this just feel the norm now for Kristen Stewart?
A: I don’t know man. You can never know. I mean it’s incredible, the nomination was great, and definitely felt like a culmination of the work post-Twilight, but yeah. I think particularly after the pandemic it’s been great to hit the ground running with all these amazing opportunities, but yeah, you can never really know in the moment.
Q: Still rocking to Pinegrove?
A: (laughs) Every fucking day. Are you a Pinegrove fan?
Q: Yeah I am, I saw them in London last Spring and haven’t been able to stop listening to them.
A:That’s so cool, I haven’t met many fans of them outside of America.
Q: I’m a sucker for indie pop/rock so they fell right into that sweet spot.
A: Same man, I can’t get enough of it all.
Q: We’re probably really insufferable for all our friends, listening to the moody indie music all day and never stopping to talk about it.
A: (laughs) yeah there was a period in time when I was self-conscious about it, so I tried to emigrate to other types of music to broaden my horizons, but honestly fuck them, I love it.
Q:Yeah I’ve been barred, by myself, from ever talking about Radiohead in front of other people.
A: Yeah I was in a *massive* Radiohead phase at your age. In Rainbows man. Can never get it ouf of my system.
Q: I think instead of fangirling about specific minute marks in ‘Weird Fishes’ I’ll end it here and let you get back to your group thinking.
A: (laughs) Thanks man. Really nice chatting to you.
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