Talking to ...
Peter Mettler about filmmaking and his cinematic inspiration
16.10.2023
Swiss-Canadian director Peter Mettler was awarded the Golden Dove of the International Competition at festival DOK Leipzig for his cinematic diary WHILE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS. SWISS FILMS talked to him about filmmaking and his cinematic inspiration.
Today you hold master classes, but who inspired you back then on your way to becoming the filmmaker you are today?
Back in school there was a Super-8 film club where you could after school, get a camera and shoot some film. I tried that, and it was immediately clear that I liked this medium, as a way of seeing, as a way of expressing musicality and as an accompaniment through any kind of exploration. I was 15, 16 years old, when one of the films that really struck me was THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH by Nicolas Roeg with David Bowie. It was my being a fan of David Bowie that brought me to that, and in that film, I was introduced to a new language. Bowie appeared as an alien, he was hyper-intelligent and invented all kinds of things on earth, an outsider with a different perception of reality. I related to all of it and it got me interested in filmmaking.
When I became more serious and went to film school there were lots of folks; Michelangelo Antonioni, the new German cinema – Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog, and then experimental cinema, the American Avant Garde, like Stan Brakhage or Michael Snow, So, it’s quite a mix of influences. Musical sensibility, as well, was a major influence.
Are there things in filming that you would no longer do today?
I think I’ve veered away from psychodrama; the incorporation of actors and scripts and so on to suggest inner visions. Instead, I’ve been applying my interest in visualization within the real world, something like what they call documentary. But it's not really documentary. It's more an interpretation of experiences from within the real world that are oriented by explorations of themes. But one day I may return to fiction drama, with a whole new approach, influenced by what I’ve been doing for the last many years in sensorial-documentary-essay form. (A genre yet to be properly named!)
Is there a long-cherished project of yours that you have not yet been able to realize, but that you would like to tackle?
What I'm working on now (WHILE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS) is one of the things I've wanted to do for a long time. An approach that has a healthy level of freedom and exploration built into it, and functions outside of a feature-length film structure. It is a process-oriented exploration that will end up being several films that are that are woven together through chronology. Simple observation and acknowledgement of the way things unfold in everyday life will be key – and how we create meaning and narrative from that.
It seems that there is not much time left for other projects.
Yeah, it's true. This project is really a diary, so it's engaging things as they unfold. I try as much as possible to be present for that, and not think too far in other directions.
What influence does it have on your work that you work between Switzerland and Canada?
It's a huge influence. I would say that the dual citizenship, the dual life, the dual upbringing has considerably influenced how I work and who I am and how I live. For decades now I've gone between the two countries. I have been part of European film culture and part of North American film culture. And those cultures have influenced me, but also the constant shift in perspective of diving into one culture and one language, and then the other, gives you a particular view on the other. It encourages a sense of working associatively, which my films do quite heavily – work by association. They present associative elements for the viewer to react to. So, yeah, it's been a big part of my makeup and an influence on the aesthetics of the films themselves.
Do you have time to watch films from a younger generation?
I've been quite in retreat lately, working myself. I haven't seen that much except for people that I work with, or people who ask me to be a consultant or a mentor. To be honest, I'm working almost alone on this series of films together with the editor Jordan Kawai, and more recently with Cornelia Seitler, producer at maximage in Zurich. Now we have started showing two parts publicly, so I’ll start to reconnect a bit with the scene and hopefully catch up a bit on the films that are out there. But filmmaking requires a lot of time and focus. So regrettably, I haven't been able to keep up with what other people are doing.
In an interview, you described yourself as a curator and showrunner. Here's your opportunity to name five films you adore, you could also mention your own films.
There are so many! Some films that gave me some kind of epiphany: a number of films by Johan van der Keuken, one of them being AMSTERDAM GLOBAL VILLAGE. Andrei Tarkovsky’s films, the first I saw being NOSTALGHIA, THE PASSENGER by Michelangelo Antonioni. And a sort of a seminal film that every film essayist mentions, but it had that effect on me too, was SANS SOLEIL by Chris Marker. And as you mentioned it could also be one of mine: GAMBLING, GODS AND LSD. When you live your life as a filmmaker and you are fully engaged, of course each film is a hugely meaningful experience that becomes a profound part of your constitution, quite different than someone else’s film you would watch in a theatre. Of course, one’s own films are going to be some of the most memorable experiences in your life.
And the final question: If you would have to explain your way of filming in three words?
Well, because it's a silly question, I'm going to give you a silly answer: “Go with flow”.
If you want to know more about Peter Mettler and his approach, you can watch the stream of his Master Class at DOK Leipzig.
The VOD platform DA Films is presenting a curated Peter Mettler retrospective online in collaboration with SWISS FILMS and DOK Leipzig.