‘Babylon A.D.’ Director Takes the Promotional Road Less Travelled

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 26, 2008

Matthieu Kassovitz is an unhappy Frenchman. He’s busy promoting his new film, Babylon A.D., which opens this week. The futuristic action film stars Vin Diesel as a mercenary tasked with escorting a young woman from Russia to the U.S. while protecting her from evil cultists intent on stealing her essence. (Pretty much an average Tuesday for me.) It’s Kassovitz’ second Hollywood film after Halle Berry’s Gothika, and at an estimated $60 million it’s his biggest film to date. Oh, and according to Kassovitz it’s also “pure violence and stupidity.”

Kassovitz spoke with AMC TV about the film, 20th Century Fox, and how there is no word in the French language for ‘discretion.’ “I’m very unhappy with the film,” the disgruntled director says. “I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn’t respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience.” He says Fox reps swarmed on the production after weather related setbacks and other budgetary concerns began to appear during production. “Fox was sending lawyers who were only looking at all the commas and the dots,” he says. “They made everything difficult from A to Z.” Kassovitz’s breaking point was when the suits commandeered the editing room and pared the film down to a “confusing 93 minutes” from his original 108 minute cut. Star Vin Diesel chimed in on this count, asking “Am I even in the movie any more, or am I on the cutting room floor?”

Kassovitz continued, “The movie is supposed to teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet. All the action scenes had a goal: They were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters… instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24.” Not exactly glowing praise for his own work, but I’ve watched every season of 24, and even a bad episode (of which there have been many) is still better than most of what Hollywood churns out to theaters. After remembering he was there to promote the film and not take a big fat dump on it, Kassovitz added “I like the energy of it and I got some scenes I’m happy with,” he said right before dropping his pants and squeezing out some more criticisms. “But I know what I had — I had something much better in my hands but I just wasn’t allowed to work… I don’t see how people who went through all these amazing blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Iron Man this summer will take it.”

Kassovitz also directed the stunning La Haine as well as the gory French serial killer thriller Crimson Rivers, and he’s acted in films as diverse as Munich, Birthday Girl, and the beautiful and perfect Amelie.

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Aleric

Yeah.....way to promote your product there buddy, but I understand you are French and probably just pissed off they banned smoking in restuarants in France.

Mister Hand

That's too bad. GOTHIKA was a really stupid movie, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and recognized the director as someone with skill.

Cole Abaius

A little of that UK rivalry in your comments, Aleric? :)

The guy lost me when talking about action driven by metaphysical points of view. Mostly because that word is tossed around so much without people understanding what it means, and because I generally feel the French have difficulty comprehending action flicks. Violence and stupidity is the goal. Trenches of thought action is incredibly difficult to pull off, and the French attempts I've seen spend too much time talking and not enough time blowing stuff up. District B13 works - flat characters, lots of cool stunt work.

But...La Haine is genius. Incredible work. So there might be something to the question of whether an extra 15 minutes could take a film like this from total crap to incredibly entertaining.

Nevernude

hmm...blame Fox. the fact that they want to get their hands on Watchmen and f**k that up to also pisses me off no end. Studio meddling has, is, and will always happen. I don't blame Matthieu Kassovitz at all. Most directors have a firm grasp of what how they want their movies to turn out. Studio pressures mess stuff up very badly.

Bob Funn

I'm so disappointed, no mother Teresa rim job references? no wistful reminisces of past drug use? At least you got a poop joke in.

There was a time when you shot a movie and the story and the way a scene was shot that dictated its length, now we destroy films by cutting out whole sections and shortening scenes (Removing any artform of the editor) in order to fit it within a crappy 90 minute timeframe.

I haven't watched a movie more then twice in the last 10-20 years, not so of movies made before then.

Robert Fure

As Devil's Advocate, I love violence and stupidity. "Other budgetary concerns" and "weather related setbacks." Right. Sounds like someone lost control of his ship and it was spinning towards the whirlpool. And the French aren't exactly known for tightly paced movies, so maybe dropping time is the way to go. There is no real reason films cut from 104 minutes to 93 minutes other than pacing. The cost reduction there is fairly miniscule. If this movie sucks it may have sucked to begin with. When it comes down to it, he was the man directing the action and pointing the cameras. Producers get in your face on everything and it sucks, but thats the system.

"Feast" famously had tons of problems, but the end result was pretty badass.

Romeo Garcia.

very bad!!!

‘Babylon A.D.’ Director Takes the Promotional Road Less Travelled

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