Hans Petter Moland Interview

Director Hans Petter Moland

Director Hans Petter Moland’s first English language film, The Beautiful Country, was fraught with so many problems and issues–it was shot on two different continents, involved water, children, animals and lots of extras–that it is hard to believe it came together. Moland talks to Chris Neumer about the perils he encountered.

by Chris Neumer

Extra Information

CHRIS NEUMER: One of the things that I really enjoyed about The Beautiful Country was that it was very subtle. It wasn’t like the audience was being beaten over the head with the material. There are certain films where you watch them and it’s like, ‘there’s the music cue, it’s time to feel sad’. You know, little boy’s dying, let’s ramp it up, ramp it up. Let’s get the music in there and let’s get really close up there. And this really didn’t have a lot of that. Was that a conscious choice of yours going in?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I mean it’s a story about real people and real tragedy. A lot of people who have lived through this, who had horrible experiences as refugees and I guess that I felt it would be presumptuous to know why these people were treated with… or not with caution. It would be wrong to just be hard-hitting and sort of debase it through. I have a responsibility to them and I have to do this in the right way. There are so many horrible stories that people have lived through and to not treat it with some respect and to not to be heavy handed in how you tell, it is important.

CHRIS NEUMER: Well, you’ll have to understand that, myself being an American and watching films that Hollywood has produced, this is something new to me. So, I just comment upon it.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: It’s a story that touched me and it’s a story that I think is about human beings. It doesn’t stick out in a crowd and somebody could even pass over and not see it, if they weren’t looking. And yet, it has certain finer qualities that human beings can have. I think to discover those things you also have to try and be gentle in how you lay out the story because it’s not so loud; it’s a quiet time. I like it very much for that reason. And I think that I’m like most people you know who tend to (snaps his fingers) want it quickly and have things happen now. Immediately. There’s a little bit of a lesson in actually finding things that sometimes aren’t so readily available to you.

CHRIS NEUMER: It seems that could be applied to the film as well.  I don’t want to say that this was a slowly paced film, but it was allowed to develop on its own pace. It seems like you could have taken away some of the cutaways and you could have taken away some of the shots of the mountains or the establishing shots–you could have!–but they were in there and they served a great purpose in the film.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I tried. It’s interesting that you mentioned the water buffalo. I was looking constantly for ways to anchor [Damien Nguyen’s character, Binh] in that environment. What is it that would make an audience believe that he belonged to it? What it is in terms of everyday routines that would make him believable as part of this life, this is everyday life. He’s pretty much resigned to it. I wanted him to be accepted as where he’s coming from. He has this gnawing question, you know, about where he came from. I mean he has a purpose. He has a life, not an ideal life, but he has one. And that’s how the water buffalo ended up in film.

CHRIS NEUMER: Was that something that you had specifically planned ahead of time?  You have to get a water buffalo? Or was it that at the end of the day one day, you saw a water buffalo in like a field of water and you were like, “Hey Fred, grab the camera and shoot that buffalo!”

HANS PETTER MOLAND: No, no. It was planned. It was while I was doing research and while I was outside on location. Things change while you’re on location and finding something in that community, I don’t know… I would walk around and look at things. You see people here doing things like it was second nature to them, like using the water buffalo.

CHRIS NEUMER: Were there ever times where you just saw something and was like, ‘Great, there’s a red bird.’  You know, you delegate your camera guy to go grab a camera and go shoot it.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: Occasionally, I think that part of it is–I don’t know if everybody else is like this–but I have great belief in the process of film making. It gives me something and gives the film something. You have to be receptive. Actors do things that are unplanned and that are wonderful. You have to incorporate those things. It might alter your game plan but it means that things will be a little different. I have some feeling about film and life that is a mirror image of your own plans. Very often, that’s a good thing. In my mind I certainly have some limitations and  I have to allow those things to come to be part of it. This also requires you to be very receptive. So you’re scouting, you’re looking for locations and you find new textures, new things. You roll with it and good actors do. Production, design, the whole process, it’s constantly like that and although you start out with careful planning and lots of research. And then you allow things to come in.

CHRIS NEUMER: Having just spoken to Bai Ling about her method of acting, she kept using the words ‘freedom’ and ‘no limitations’ and things like that. She was talking about how she ate the worm and she said, “I kept hoping for him to call cut it but he never did.”  I had asked the question about whether it were ever the limitations, like you can’t go right here and you have to hit this mark or something like that and she said, “Well, you know, you just try, but sometimes you can’t do it.” Did you ever find it interesting working with someone who is as free as she is?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I very often block things months before. I have an idea of what to block and I try to bring that maybe a month before shooting. I don’t know if blocking is a good idea or if it works do something else, but at least I have this idea of spatial relations and pretty much everything else is followed by that. Choice location is very important like that the way that she is affected by that, you know. Because if you want people to stand forty feet away from each other when they’re talking, you need a place where they can do that. (Smiles) In this film, there were limitations.

CHRIS NEUMER: For example?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: For instance, shooting at night or being out in the water and having accessible light only here and not there, it forces actors to work with some restraints.

CHRIS NEUMER: You mentioned a certain budgetary constraint. What was the budget on this?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: It’s real hard to say exactly because a lot of people’s contributions came by working for less than what they usually get paid. But, I’d say roughly out-of-pocket, about five million dollars.

CHRIS NEUMER: That’s a very good-looking film for five million dollars. I was thinking about you trying to pitch this story to somebody, and saying, ‘I need the money and we’re going to have to shoot on two continents and we’re going to have God knows how many different locations and then we’re going to work with water and–oh, we’re going to shoot at night too–and work with children and animals. You talk to 100 people and 99 of them think you’re crazy and 1 of them is like, “Maybe.” Did you have a hard time pitching this?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I think that you’re correct.  It has the things you say it has; all of those dos and don’ts

CHRIS NEUMER: Mostly don’ts.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: In terms of limits and budgetary limits there certainly were some, but it’s a story that came to me and impressed me. The limitations were there from the start.  Either you accept this and think that you can make it for this money or you don’t. I’m sure that it’s just as easy to [ask for] 50 million dollars, but I don’t know if that would have been any better. Well, for me as a director, yeah it would have been different. I would have been allowed to do some things, some scenes would not have had to be cut. But also, with more money other concerns apply, you know other restraints, other limitations. So you always work with limitations, either money or time or whatever. Mostly it’s a combination of time and money. You pretty much choose the limitations that you want to work with.

CHRIS NEUMER: I know that you were over in Asia shooting at some point in time and then over here.  I know that you were in New York and I know you were in Grosse Pointe, Michigan for a while–I have relatives there, so I can commiserate with what it’s like being there–did you find that your background–

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I liked Grosse Pointe.

CHRIS NEUMER: It’s nice. But I need some difference. You need some diversity.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I was sixteen years old.

CHRIS NEUMER: I guess when you put it like that it’s harder to argue.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I came at sixteen years old. It led up to what my imagination thought a good American life would be.

CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, big houses on the lake, lots of greenery.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: Yeah, when you live outside of the United States, you see American film, you hear American music…

CHRIS NEUMER: And then you find out that the rest of America is nothing quite like Grosse Pointe.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: It gave me a chance to be myself. People there will very open minded and very curious as to who you were. It gave me a chance to be myself.

CHRIS NEUMER: But with your background, and you know, did you find that working on this, I mean this really is an international film. I mean it’s all over. I can’t even imagine scouting locations on several different continents for a five million dollar film. Did you find that your background assisted you or hindered you?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I’ve actually seen quite a bit of America, so, I had ideas about what this country looked like. I’ve driven across this country too.  I lived here for enough time to at least feel that I had a good starting point perhaps to approach that part. I had been to Vietnam in ’93, just sort of by chance. Part of my fascination actually with Vietnam was its natural beauty. To be able to shoot this film there was great, so I was very happy. I liked it and I liked the process of scouting.

CHRIS NEUMER: Having visited and going working in two vastly different situations.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: Absolutely, but you’re right, on this budget it’s a costly process. Just the airfare to go to these places and other options as well. Thailand and China.

CHRIS NEUMER: Did you work with mostly local crews?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: It was a combination. I had this notion that doing it Norwegian style, if you will, with a small crew, with a manageable sized crew.

CHRIS NEUMER: Out of curiosity how many people roughly make up a manageable crew?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I think if you can make a film between 30 and 40 people every day that everyone will know each other and be on first name basis. Then you can sort of hold each other to some sort of human relationship; it’s small enough that it’s intimate. You’re not dealing with a prop man who’s far removed from someone that you know. You are next to somebody that you do know. You are next to a human being, so you have to relate to them. As the crew gets bigger, it becomes less personal and I think at some point the addition of people becomes a hindrance. Or at least, you don’t get as much out of the second hundred people as the first hundred because it’s a whole huge logistical problem. From time to time on the film, we had a lot of people in the crew. Sometimes we had 130 people in the group.

CHRIS NEUMER: Which scenes were those? 

HANS PETTER MOLAND: For instance in the refugee camp, you know with the 600 extras.

CHRIS NEUMER: It was such a huge scope.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: Days like that you require enormous amount of catering and wardrobe assistance and whatnot and have a need for people that you may not even see. A lot of days it was more intimate, but for those few days it was very manageable.

CHRIS NEUMER: Now, Nick Nolte’s presence on the scene, he was good as Steve. How would you go about working with him. I’m sure this is a question that you haven’t got asked at least twice today. You can keep it short and give me your stock answer…

HANS PETTER MOLAND: No, no, I actually like to answer. I found him to be incredibly generous and he is very hard working. Of course he’s hard working. I think that it’s like with people who are really good at something. I find very often now that achieving quality is hard work. It’s not because of who I am or because it’s something that I have a talent for. Everybody out there has the talent. There is a certain humility I think that some excellent people have. I have found it repeatedly working with good actors and Nick certainly has approached his work with great seriousness.

CHRIS NEUMER: Was there anything specific that he would do or any talents that you could see in him this role?  Or was it just his ability to get into character that you could tap into that you would say “Aaah, I get it because he’s preparing this way or doing that.”

HANS PETTER MOLAND: We rehearsed for really long and then we shot. You work out the details of the character.  We talked about aspects of the characters and fantasize about things that may have asked in regard to his life. But it’s just knowing each other. It’s a way to get to know each other and find out who this human being is. I just felt very comfortable with him.

CHRIS NEUMER: What was it that made you comfortable about him?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: He is a gracious human being. I think it’s what actors and directors like in each other; they like to work or play around. They do so in order to find out what’s going to make this good.

CHRIS NEUMER: So, he was a professional?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: A very kind human being, so it’s somebody who is nice to play with, you know?

CHRIS NEUMER: Did you guys ever have any specific goals of not making the blind guy a stereotypical blind guy?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: We talked a lot about how it would manifest itself.

CHRIS NEUMER: No sunglasses. I like that. I like the fact that he comes in and the sunglasses are off.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I don’t like to give away ideas in this film, at the end. I guess I can tell you, just don’t tell the rest of the world.

CHRIS NEUMER: Who do you think I’m telling? I’m just here talking for me, but I will resist in telling other people.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: No, but I think that it’s nice that you don’t know. There’s something wrong with him from the perspective of Damien’s character or when he arrives there. This man that stands there and you know, he has been wondering for so long what the response is going to be and I wanted it to be something that was hard to read.

CHRIS NEUMER: This is where he brushes by him?

HANS PETTER MOLAND: Yeah, where Damien is looking for any sign of what this man’s reaction is. And mistaking it for being a big hostility, like, “I see who you are and I’m not very happy about seeing you here.” and he walks over and take a piece of the leather and you think that maybe he’s going to hit him.  There are all these mixed signals that can make you feel like, “Oh this is a big mistake.”

CHRIS NEUMER: With the spirit of the movie, I was really afraid he was going to go a long way for nothing, but, it was nice to see the way that it turned out as it did.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: And so the blindness isn’t something to just find out about and I like that part, it was good. You now, something discovered.  The blind man doesn’t say, “Look, I’m blind.”

CHRIS NEUMER: He doesn’t have the cup with the change in it that he’s rattling.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: It’s just something that Damien has to find out for himself.

CHRIS NEUMER: Something that works with that scene is the idea that you don’t know right away that there’s something wrong with him. Nolte is sort of a commanding presence. He gives off an energy. It’s like casting this big imposing guy and then finding out that in a certain way that he’s disabled.  You don’t automatically put two and two together.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: For him to not make a big deal out of it, that was what was important. That’s his life, so he had very, very sound ideas about what blindness does to a human being.

CHRIS NEUMER: Even as a physical sense. If it turned out that Steve was somebody in the shape of Woody Allen, who is a small, meek, wiry guy, it’s sort of like, you’re wondering what’s wrong with him, but instead Nolte is a big six-two guy, who’s got the voice. He just scares you looking at him, on film that is. It seemed that played in well too.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: I’m very happy with his performance. I think he’s wonderful. Pretty heavy part to nicely be able to deliver.

CHRIS NEUMER: And in a short time too.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: The whole film is about who this guy is and what this is going to be like.

CHRIS NEUMER: It’s quite a build up. It’s kind of like the shark in Jaws, except with a humanistic drama. Wow, I think I just came up with my own pull quote there.

HANS PETTER MOLAND: You’re interesting and I like the fact that you see the qualities in it that you do. We worked pretty hard on it to make it live on its own terms and to have people respond to it is really gratifying.