There are directors with enviable self-confidence, such as Nicolas Winding Refn and especially Albert Serra, the esteemed Spanish filmmaker behind works like Pacifiction and Pomeriggi di solitudine, who has wrapped filming on his new project, the first in English, titled Out of This World, and is aiming to have it completed within the year. The cast includes Riley Keough and F. Murray Abraham: the former stepped in on short notice after Kristen Stewart left the project last year, a move that drew the director’s criticism. Speaking about it in an interview with Cineyteatro, Serra described the film as a masterpiece, but beyond that what stands out is the astonishing amount of footage he shot: 500 hours!
Out of This World: Serra and His New Riverine Masterpiece
Albert Serra describes the film as “a bit of a comedy, with other, more serious elements because it unfolds at the outset of the war in Ukraine.” It isn’t, however, a film centered on the war itself; rather, it seems to focus more on the economic tensions between Russia and the United States. As mentioned, there are 500 hours of footage (a thought for the editor), so Serra has said the final cut will be fairly long, at least around three hours. He even compared the editing process to warfare: “you know how it begins, but you don’t know how it ends,” and he said he hopes to complete everything in January or by the end of this year. And here comes the self-praise: “I know it will be very beautiful, a masterpiece, and it will also be funny and positive, which is perhaps the most original aspect today, because all films deal with conflicts. Everyone has problems, everything is unpleasant, but right now I don’t care. I don’t give a damn.”
Serra has not been shy about voicing proud—almost boastful—claims about his work. In a Sight & Sound interview he once declared himself the best, the greatest director, and last year, during an encounter in Barcelona, as reported by World of Reel, he stated that 99 percent of cinema today is stupid and that 100 percent of Spanish cinema is优秀. While editing Pomeriggi di solitudine, he claimed to have achieved an atmosphere no one else had reached before. As for actors, he quipped, “they should pay me to appear in the film.” In short, we envy this level of self-confidence, and despite everything we remain eager to see Out of This World.
(Photo by Martin Kraft, Wikimedia Commons, Berlinale 2024)
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