From
Sixth Sense
to
Signs
to his latest film, which hits theaters on Wednesday, M. Night Shyamalan is used to toying with viewers' nerves.
The director is no more tender with Hollywood, which in his eyes has become “
totally dysfunctional
”.
Reconciling “
art and commerce is something complicated
,” said the king of supernatural thrillers, also author and producer of his films, during an interview in Paris for the release of
Knock at the Cabin
.
In Hollywood today, to “
speak in general terms, there are movies that are just incestuous, that are just masturbatory, that just speak to themselves.
Hollywood speaks to itself
,” he said.
“
And then there are movies that say they're made for the audience, and (that think) the audience is stupid.
So they take all the soul out and just make their movie by calculations
,” he continued.
"
These are signs that our industry is completely dysfunctional
."
"Leave the system"
For him, American studios have completely changed from the time of the release of
Sixth Sense
, his first major public success with Bruce Willis in 1999, the year of The
Matrix
, the
Blair Witch Project
,
John Malkovich's Dans la Peau
or even
Magnolia
, all of which have become “
classics
”.
"
The industry was different then, it was about finding the best storytellers to tell stories to the greatest audience, and everyone was working towards that goal
."
To maintain his freedom, the 52-year-old American director explains that he found the only solution “
to leave the system
”: “
I pay myself and make films as small as possible each time by taking big risks
”.
In
Knock at the Cabin,
M. Night Shyamalan takes up his favorite themes, with an isolated family in a cabin deep in the woods, who see four strangers arrive, explaining to them that the end of the world has arrived and that the only way to to avoid is to sacrifice one of their own.
The question that the characters in the film ask themselves is
“do we trust each other, do we trust society, do we trust what we see?” ,
explains the director to AFP.
The weight of fake news
The film seems to want to echo contemporary concerns about "fake news", in which the most outlandish theories can end up causing violent acting out.
In any case, being independent allows the director not to have to ask for authorization to
"put a gay couple at the center of the story",
as is the case with this homoparental family, or if it is
"a good idea of hiring a wrestler”
like Dave Bautista, the actor with the build of a mirrored wardrobe
(Guardians of the Galaxy, Glass Onion),
and who plays the leader of the Knights of the Apocalypse threatening the family.
The key is knowing how to speak to the public, continues M. Night Shyamalan, who explains that it is his “way to stay healthy in this sick industry.
Added to this recipe is the art of the “twist” specific to the director of Indian origin, who made him famous, and which the viewer will look for in
Knock at the Cabin,
adapted from an American novel by Paul Tremblay.