"I like films to be complete in their written form"
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A small sentence with a big provocation: Leconte is quietly arguing against the cult of “we’ll find it in the edit.” “Complete in their written form” isn’t just a workflow preference; it’s a philosophy of authorship. He’s staking a claim that cinema, for all its happy accidents and on-set alchemy, should begin as a fully articulated object - not a mood board, not a set of beats, not a loose excuse for improvisation.
The subtext is a defense of discipline in an industry that often romanticizes spontaneity. A complete script protects the film from the gravitational pull of production chaos: budget compromises, actor availability, location realities, executive notes. If you don’t know the whole story on paper, those forces don’t merely shape the film; they author it. Leconte’s line also flatters the screenwriter in a director-driven medium, suggesting respect for structure, cause-and-effect, and the reader’s experience before any camera is even lifted.
Context matters: Leconte’s work often leans on tonal precision - comedy that turns on timing, drama that hinges on restraint. That kind of control doesn’t thrive on vagueness. His statement implies that style isn’t a substitute for design; it’s the reward for it. In an era when franchises and “content” pipelines encourage perpetual rewriting and post-production patchwork, “complete” sounds almost radical: a film that knows what it is before it asks anyone else to believe in it.
The subtext is a defense of discipline in an industry that often romanticizes spontaneity. A complete script protects the film from the gravitational pull of production chaos: budget compromises, actor availability, location realities, executive notes. If you don’t know the whole story on paper, those forces don’t merely shape the film; they author it. Leconte’s line also flatters the screenwriter in a director-driven medium, suggesting respect for structure, cause-and-effect, and the reader’s experience before any camera is even lifted.
Context matters: Leconte’s work often leans on tonal precision - comedy that turns on timing, drama that hinges on restraint. That kind of control doesn’t thrive on vagueness. His statement implies that style isn’t a substitute for design; it’s the reward for it. In an era when franchises and “content” pipelines encourage perpetual rewriting and post-production patchwork, “complete” sounds almost radical: a film that knows what it is before it asks anyone else to believe in it.
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| Topic | Movie |
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