Director Nathan De Paz Habib, previously featured on DN with co-director Debby Friday with their hybrid music video Good Luck, introduces us to another example of his experimental and surreal filmmaking in his narrative short film debut La Bicicletta (The Bicycle). With the central plot derived from una barzelletta (an old Italian joke), De Paz Habib consciously sought to create a project on which he could experiment and further develop his directorial style. La Bicicletta doesn’t follow any strict linear timeline, nor does it adhere to a single style which helps to place us in the emotive memories of a young woman as she dissects the problematic aspects of her friendship with her best friend. Premiering on Directors Notes today, we spoke to De Paz Habib about visually creating scenes which dove into the depth of the characters’ bond, the considered preparation that went into the film’s all important monologue and building the distinct elements to reflect his protagonist’s spiralling stream of consciousness anger at her friend’s perceived past misdeeds.
[The following interview is also available to watch at the end of this article.]
We first spoke to you about your film Good Luck made with Debby Friday and today we want to talk about La Bicicletta, tell us a bit about the film.
I consider La Bicicletta to be my first fictional short film. I had previously made other shorts which were more exercises in camera work and my process with actors but this was the first time that I challenged myself to put together a proper film with the crew as they would within the industry. The idea was born through collaboration with Andrea Pietro Munafò, the DOP, who I re-connected with after COVID and I remembered an old joke my father used to tell me about a man called Pepino. His wife is pregnant and he has to rush to town on his bike to get the doctor, he falls on his way there and damages the bike yet remembers his friend Tonino lives close by and whose bike he could borrow. As he’s walking to his friend’s house he remembers all of the moments Tonino wasn’t a good friend to him and didn’t help him and so he arrives at his friend’s house and says “Hey, Tonino, fuck you and your bicycle!” I decided to keep the bones of that joke and push it to the limits, to exaggerate everything and to go deep inside the mind of the character. I also wanted to flip the characters from male to female and make them the same age I was at the time.
Why did you want to redraw the narrative to the female point of view?
By turning it into a female universe I was able to add certain scenes which explained their friendship visually. They never talked about some of the moments depicted on screen but we were able to show these. For example, in the scene with the drag queen, these two friends have never talked about this moment where they essentially participated in a murder but we put it into the film. I wanted to exaggerate this premise and also create scenes which I wanted to make and experiment with my own practice and put them in the film. Now, thinking back, I sometimes feel this was a mistake and maybe I should have had more control on the film.
I wanted these to seem like they took place over one day, which might not make sense but it doesn’t matter as we are now in Irene’s brain.
I really enjoyed the different styles you use in those scenes, throwing back to various points in their friendship.
I wanted to twist the film, I started within a very peaceful atmosphere, calm countryside with trees and blue skies and Irene, our protagonist, on her bicycle. But then she falls as does that atmosphere. She’s late for work, her bicycle is destroyed and she doesn’t know what to do until she realises she’s close to Bianca’s house. But during that walk, I wanted her to express all of her thoughts as a continuous battling stream of consciousness. She mentions stuff about their childhood, so we know they have been friends for years, and she goes back and forth in her mind about why they are actually friends. Then suddenly she explodes “No, she’s not going to help you.” and the atmosphere changes. Then the flashbacks start, the murder scene in black and white, then they are in this club smoking and dancing, the hospital. I wanted these to seem like they took place over one day, which might not make sense but it doesn’t matter as we are now in Irene’s brain and we finally reach the point where she wants her revenge.
When you have two or three days of shooting, why not try to create something new?
The film is peppered with surreal imagery, can you talk us through some of these elements?
Firstly, the black and white scene was all made with photos that Jacopo Ramella Pajrin and I edited to three frames per shot. I wanted to return to the origins of cinema where they only used photos and to experiment with this method. The memory isn’t clear, like a repressed trauma which you’ve never dealt with and brings you to a point of loss of control. This is what happens to Irene, the flashback ends and she loses control, she gives herself to Bianca, who brings out her bad side, then they go to the club.
I really like creating other worlds in my films. When you have two or three days of shooting, why not try to create something new? I don’t mean a new film, because 99% of what you make has already been done by someone, but being able to expand the imagery and to collaborate on set and share visions is such an amazing opportunity.
Which out of all of the scenes did you find sort of the most challenging to create?
The most challenging scene was in the club as we had to totally create the location from scratch. We had an old work shed, in the middle of the countryside which had to be decorated with carpets, curtains and everything you see. This also massively increased the budget and we ended up shooting for 14 hours on this scene.
What are the main things that you learned during the making of La Bicicletta that you’re now applying to your filmmaking?
Working with the actors. We worked with both Alessia Peruzzi and Francesca Thomas rehearsing for over a week and then with Francesca for a further five days on her monologue. They were both studying acting at the time and I had been to a few classes but I was really able to learn from them. We rehearsed a lot physically, dancing with their bodies which I put music to in rehearsals. Particularly their fight scene, so when it came to the shoot they nailed it in two or three takes.
There were moments when her anger was visible but I wanted her to keep it all inside.
And finally, I want to focus in on how you crafted the monologue which is pivotal for this film.
We started by focusing on the script and pulling it apart, Francesca was free to improvise and I really wanted her to exaggerate in this scene. I wanted her to start at her maximum level of anger, to scream and be free and then come down from there. There were moments when her anger was visible but I wanted her to keep it all inside. The script isn’t logical or rational, it’s like a stream of consciousness and it was so important to me that it was brought together by her performance.
The rest of the film follows from this scene, you have to open yourself up to weird situations and see where your mind goes, this monologue makes the short film. It was important to me that Irene found herself in a situation where she was reliant on someone else. Yet she is afraid Bianca won’t help her and will abandon her. She wants to be the only one responsible for her own destruction by creating a situation of her own making rather than allowing anyone else to be responsible.
