Hearts Of Stone

1. What was one of the most challenging moments you faced while making Hearts of Stone? Did this ‘setback’ change the direction of the final story?

The biggest of those moments was when we had to restart the majority of the VFX shots of the film because the approach we had taken before wasn’t working on those particular shots. They were all connected to one of the major elements in the film (which I won’t spoil at the moment to have the audience discover it) and these re-takes took a very long time to get right (about 4 years I would say). It took the effort and help of a lot of VFX artists, mainly through 3 people, Bernd Macht, Galina Yakovleva and Nadica Slatinec which became BGNT Postproduction in the end (Bernd_Galina_Nadica_Tom). With the help of a friend, Ricardo Bonisoli, I became a VFX producer on the film (something I’d never done) and learned a lot, but that process definitely came with a price-tag (not just monetary but mostly in terms of what we like to call sweat equity, the time and effort put in). The setback didn’t change the direction though, it was more a battle of perseverance on what I felt was the right vision for the film, which I feel in the end our whole team was able to achieve. It definitely came with a cost, but that’s filmmaking.

2. What was the biggest inspiration behind Hearts of Stone?

I think first of definitely the living statue performers I saw in real life. I’ve always had a great fascination for these artists and was constantly questioning what their story would be, so I figured to come up with one of my own. In terms of style, there’s definitely directors I admire a lot, like Stanley Kubrick’s approach to make every frame feel like a painting in Barry Lyndon and Joe Wright’s beautiful visual storytelling in Atonement, which myself and the director of photography, Hans Bruch Jr. took to heart. I’m also very inspired just by art in general, paintings, and sculptures. Specifically for this film, the main sculpture was actually inspired by a statue I saw in a graveyard in Paris near Montmartre. It always surprised me how cemeteries contain these amazing, lifelike sculptures, but also that they tend to get mostly forgotten and unseen, which fed a lot into the film. I also looked at the locations in the city of Antwerp to inspire me. And lastly, perhaps fairy tales in general, like the work of Hans Christian Andersen, which has always held a big influence on me in general. Specifically in this case, also Chris Riddell’s beautiful illustration of a kiss for ‘The Sleeper and The Spindle’ by Neil Gaiman, which places two women central in a classical fairy tale kiss, which I found really inspiring.

3. What message do you want the audience to take away from Hearts of Stone?

The film talks about forgotten people and forgotten pieces of art and places them central in the storytelling. I think everyone has people that are overlooked in their lives, who, when only given a little attention, could prove to be a treasure trove of beauty. The same goes for artworks and sculptures, which we pass by every day but don’t pay any attention to. I hope that both for the pieces of art and the people, when the audience sees the film, they perhaps gain a new perspective on those things. The film is all about a search for connection and the search to be seen, so I hope that message comes across.