(Photo by Shanna Besson, © Netflix)
Modern master of horror Alexandre Aja – who counts among his nightmare-inducing credits films like The Hill Have Eyes, Crawl, and Piranha 3D – is getting cerebral in his latest film – and claustrophobic. Oxygen, a long-in-development sci-fi thriller from France, sees a young woman (Melanie Laurent) waking up in a strange, futuristic-seeming medical cryo unit, trapped and alone with no idea how she got there or who she is, and oxygen in short supply. Her only company and source of information is the pod’s computer, voiced by iconic French actor Mathieu Amalric; like most Artificial Intelligence in movies with a premise like this, he cannot be trusted.
Ahead of the movie’s release on Netflix, Aja shared his five favorite films with Rotten Tomatoes, and spoke about his passion for science-fiction, the challenges of shooting in a confined space – and making the material compelling – and his desire to get back to his brutal career beginnings.
Joel Meares for Rotten Tomatoes: When you were talking about where to place the camera, I thought, that’s a good segue into asking about Oxygen because you have a single location here, and it’s a tight location. In Crawl, at least you had the whole area under the house, right? Here you have just this tight pod that’s essentially as big as Melanie. What was the greatest challenge of shooting in what appears to be a tiny space – and keeping things interesting for the audience?
Alexandre Aja: So I think the biggest challenge was obvious, because it was a very small cryo unit, almost like the size of a coffin. We took that challenge and we turned it into, I think, an advantage. I realized early on in the script that I had an obvious continuity of locations in that pod and I had a continuity of character with her, with Melanie, who was in every single shot and was so fun to direct, and who is carrying the emotion. So I thought about this as, okay, I’m going to in fact do something that I never even think about doing in other movies. I’m going to list down on a piece of paper all the different styles of directing, styles of framing, styles of effects, of types of lenses, of types of gadgets…
In fact, that kind of continuity with her and the location gave me the opportunity of going completely in different places scene after scene. So I avoid repeating myself and, most important, ensure that the audience doesn’t get bored of the same location. Also, not only to avoid repeating myself, but also trying to underline in better ways every single emotion. I think in another movie, if you do that, it becomes like a very bad taste or bad style, because you will just get out of the experience and you stop watching because you will see the camera movement every time. But because we had that perfect storytelling inside the box, I don’t think that you feel it. Then the camera becomes more like something that comes to underline every feeling or every new obstacle or nightmare that she’s going through.
(Photo by Shanna Besson, © Netflix)
RT: It’s interesting too that you mention Spielberg and Kubrick in your film selections, because watching this, just design-wise and also in some of the framing, I couldn’t help thinking of the Precogs in Minority Report and the tentacle things in War of the Worlds. And then obviously there’s the voice of HAL 9000. Were they direct influences on you?
Aja: I love science-fiction, and grew up reading a lot. I still read a lot of science-fiction, I’m watching a lot of science-fiction. I unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity until this movie to work on a science-fiction movie. I did develop many of them that either didn’t get made or will get made at some point – I hope. But yes, all the references that you were talking about, they all were in my mind. Of course, when you read a script and you have an AI talking, and it’s going to be a really important one, you cannot help but think about HAL 9000. And the same with Minority Report. I would say Philip K. Dick in general. There is not a real link between Oxygen and Philip K. Dick. But it was really in mind as I was doing it for a strange reason. But yes, I definitely love sci-fi. I think sci-fi at its best has a mission to think about the world we’re living in and what our position is within it and what we’re supposed to be doing or not. There is a very big “cautionary tale” aspect of sci-fi. I think it’s one of the things that really got me in and interested in the script when I read it the first time.
RT: Just finally, you mentioned sci-fi as a genre you love, but I think I fell in love with your work, and many others did, with your sort of hardcore slasher material like High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes. I loved Piranha 3D as well. I’m wondering: will you return to that genre? I think a lot of fans would love to see a really terrorizing horror film from you at some point in the future.
Aja: I have them. I have a lot of them! With the traffic jam created by the pandemic, suddenly I have no idea which one is going to get done first. I still love the more extreme survival experience as well. I have a couple [of those films] that I’m developing that I really want to make. Going back to Alien – Alien is the perfect mix between very smart and sophisticated sci-fi, and is a very brutal film as well.
Oxygen is available on Netflix from May 12, 2021.
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Thumbnail image: Marc Piasecki/WireImage, © 20th Century Fox, © Warner Bros., © Universal
May 12, 2021 at 09:04PM
https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/alexandre-ajas-five-favorite-films/
Alexandre Aja's Five Favorite Films - Rotten Tomatoes
https://news.google.com/search?q=rotten&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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