Weronika Figiel, Interia: What made you decide to take part in the Correlations Festival?
Matylda Damięcka: – Because this festival is a good idea! I don’t know how much you know what it is, but adding a new layer to a finished film – which you may also have emotions associated with, whether you remember certain films from your childhood and feel sentimental about them – and breaking it down into its first parts is a wonderful thing. Especially for storytellers, for people who deal with… I wanted to say lofty – art – but still. This gives a lot of space for imagination.
You took on the film “Cruise” – why did you choose it? Is this a sentimental piece for you?
– The film “Cruise” was a film that my brother Mateusz and I knew practically by heart and quoted as much as we could. Or rather, we exceeded these limits of possibilities and ate their own tail with quotes. It was even more difficult for me to break away from something I knew so well. On the other hand, returning after many years resulted in distancing oneself from this material, as well as age – but later, as part of experience, one looks at these things a little differently and begins to notice other things or contexts. Only now did I understand how abstract it was, a painting and a work that begged to be filled with additional space.
For you, is this a story about the times of the Polish People’s Republic or a universal commentary on reality that can be applied to modern times?
– It’s hard for us… You probably didn’t experience those times either, you only know them from stories. So, of course, I will absorb as much of the story as I can, as much as the characters I play in the theater or in the film, going back to those times and trying to empathize, I can feel as much, but it will never be organic. We will never have this organic memory, because this “net” will not be attached to my specific emotions, but rather will be associated with the emotions of the people who told me this, i.e. my parents. I can purely theoretically know where these contexts come from, and understand them anecdotally, read about them, but in fact take it as an image without context: “Why was this film made?” Then I can take it apart a little easier.
Every day you illustrate reality with your drawings. You approached the narrative of “Cruise” in a similar way – did you want to illustrate with words a film that had been made earlier?
– Absolutely not (laughter). To be honest, I made three versions, I wrote them straight away… And since I did a lot of dubbing and voice-over work, I more or less know how long something needs to be said, with some intention, a pause, a breath. It’s not about transmitting information on a bugle call and in one breath. People have to follow the story, and my job is to make it a little easier and convey my interpretation. I made three sketches of completely different ideas.
And of course I don’t want to reduce human life to its end, but there is an actor who plays a poet – I won’t say his name and surname on purpose, and if someone wants, they can check and explore his personal history – who unfortunately ended up in criminal chronicles. So I actually came out of it by creating a narrative like a crime film, which has absolutely nothing to do with the content or the image, but the viewer has to buy what he hears from the very beginning. If he buys it, I can only hope that he has fun and takes everything with a pinch of salt. In general, distance from everything will be useful for us…
Speaking of distance – do opinions stress you out? After all, for many it is a cult work, perhaps even untouchable…
– That’s why you have to touch inviolable things! Well, yes, why not? And I like to put my finger under the rib from time to time, where it hurts the most – the coolest things come out of it. My work ended when I knew I had told the story, I was satisfied, and there are always as many opinions as there are people. If someone gets really bored, they can leave. I really won’t be offended! Especially since I won’t watch this movie because I don’t watch my own stuff. I’ll wait until people see, then I’ll look them straight in the eye and quickly decide if I should run away or if I should stay and engage in some good conversation afterwards.
You are also a singer. Is there any musical work that you would like to comment on in a similar way – add something from yourself, as you did here to the film?
– Wow! When it comes to film music, it’s an endless topic. I would love to one day turn the “Harry Potter” soundtrack inside out and make something completely different out of it. It would be great if this soundtrack reflected our gray, sad Polish reality, because suddenly we would all feel as if we were in a magical place where magic happens and the secret is the recipe for gummi juice (laughter).
I will take it to heart and think about it, because it is a very good idea! We had a similar one once and we did it with Radek Łukasiewicz, with whom I have a band called Matylda/Łukasiewicz. No, we are not married. I will never find anyone again if this band is successful. We had an idea – I think it was eight years ago – to do a Google Translate for an American song, and “Last Christmas” turned out to be the perfect song – we’re on the topic! We translated the song very seriously, in a very frivolous, “Google translate” way.
When you sing something like this very seriously, the person on the other side feels like you have to think about it. People have this thing: when they go to a museum, they prefer to think about the meaning of the hanger, which is there simply with things, it is not part of the exhibition. They prefer to keep a low profile. It’s cool when you’re able to fool these people until the very end. And then they think: “Aah, okay, this is bizarre and idiotic. Okay, I understand, you can laugh.”
What are your future artistic plans?
– We are finishing the tour in the near future. After Warsaw, where we had sold out – everyone was great – now Lublin and Krakow. We are finishing the autumn tour and we are getting serious about writing the second album. From the New Year we will be touring – like in the good old days – before we release an album. We will probably play 25-50 concerts to test the material on a live organism, so come by and feel taken advantage of us practicing new things on you.
To sum up the Correlations Festival, I have a challenge for you. Who would you like to see in the film narrative in the next edition?
– Ouch! Maybe we should get into politics here. Or maybe you shouldn’t go there. But I would like to hear there… Maybe Palikot will be desperate, although I don’t know if I would like to see his head from the inside (laughter). We are waiting, we are waiting. But there would be a few people there and we need to support artists while they are still alive. So let’s reach for those who really inspire us. And for this to happen, some ministry should also subsidize this festival, because there are crowds here and the idea is cool. Well, just as usual… So let’s invite cool people and come by – the Korelacje Festival is really cool!