Originally Posted by
Kaufman
Of all things, why frogs?
Oh, the frogs falling from the sky! The question of the ages! [Laughs] Well, I just liked the idea. I read about it. It really happens! So that was the initial reason; it just seemed cool, but then as I thought about it, I realized how to fit it into my story. Because it’s like, if it’s raining frogs, then there’s no sense to anything. Nothing you believed to be true holds. And I wanted to look at that and, more importantly, force the audience to sit with that thought: that there is an irrationality to all of our lives and until something so out of the norm happens, we can’t see that. I want people to see it and think about it. And frogs are green, which is the color of nature. So in a way frogs represent the natural world and I’m saying, “Look, the natural world is falling the fuck on top of you. Look up, gaddamn it, and take notice.”
What made you decide to use sequences of weird historical coincidences as a framing device for the film?
It’s a promise. A promise to my audience. I’m saying, look at these stories. They’re all weird and bizarre and maybe true or maybe not, but, hey, if you give me four hours, I will give you a story just as weird and wonderful and amazing as these stories, because this stuff does happen in the world. Y’know? The world is bigger than we think.
Is the end of the film cathartic or unresolved? Is there some hope at the end of the day? Or will the sadness just go on and on?
For me it’s totally cathartic! It’s hope and wonderful and I cry whenever I see the movie for that reason. But of course it’s sad, too. And I cry about that as well. For Mercedes and me it’s important to look at the whole spectrum of feelings that any situation creates. Love is great, but it’s also hard as shit. It’s a lot of work and sweaty and embarrassing. But the surrender to it is so beautiful. What else is there, really?
The problem with traditional movies is they usually have to have it one way or the other: happy or sad. For those people who need it, we have a happy ending, but for people who want to look deeper, the movie is saying, yes, love is real, but the road to it is complicated and you’re going to make terrible messes along the way and you need to go on anyway.
My goal in my work is to show that motherfucking paradox, because I believe that it is in this paradix that you find life. That is what my work, at least at this point, is really all about. It’s complicated, y’know? Life is fucking complicated. Too many filmmakers don’t want to deal with that. They want to dumb down their vision for mass consumption. Listen, I don’t think it’s an accident that film is an art form that utilizes a lens. Filmmakers are the eyes of a society. We see and we reflect. We need to show what is wrong and painful. But a true lens is all encompassing; it also shows all the motherfucking hope and beauty in the world.
Bookmarks