Riverrun: Interview with French Artist and Director Philippe Parreno

Among the films presented at the Rome Film Festival there was also a particularly unusual entry in the Freestyle section. Riverrun (drawn from the opening lines of Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce, understood as the flow of the river and of life) is the first feature-length fiction by the renowned French artist Philippe Parreno, known for installations and documentary portraits, including the celebrated Zidane: A Portrait of the 21st Century, made together with Douglas Gordon, filmed during a match between Real Madrid and Villareal, which follows the footballer for 90 minutes with 17 cameras synchronized only on him. His short films and video essays, such as Marylin or Anywhen, blend fiction, science fiction and meditation on memory. Parreno‘s works, shown in museums around the world—from the Palais de Tokyo to the Tate Modern—are conceived as a living organism. This Riverrun is no exception, and it will reach our cinemas in the spring with Minerva, centering on a musician, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, who, due to what appears to be a depression, cannot exist, and who decides to go to a resort where she undergoes a real transformation. Do not think of it as a conventional plot but as a film that creates hypnotic atmospheres to which one must surrender, just as the protagonist does. Of this Riverrun, a blend of experimental cinema and video art, we had the pleasure of speaking with Parreno, who told us how it came about, what interested him, and how he assembled a cast of exceptional actresses, who besides the lead include in supporting roles Vicky Krieps, Zoe Saldana and Angela Molina.