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Sven Hansen-Løve chats about writing Eden and reliving the nineties
House | Wednesday 22nd July 2015 | Christina
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve, Eden takes us on a trip through two decades of French Touch, chronicling the rise and fall of one of the DJs who pioneered the scene. The film was based on and co-written by her brother Sven, part of the real Cheers DJ duo. We sat down with him to chat about writing the film and reliving the nineties.
Hi, how’s it going?
Good, good, thank you.
So the film Eden has been very well received so far, the critics have loved it, I loved it as well, you must be really pleased with the reception.
Yes, especially in the UK. It’s probably related to the fact that there is a lot of interest for the music and the dance music scene here in the UK.
And how did the project originate? I know you co-wrote it with Mia but was it her idea first or your idea?
It was her idea, she wanted to go in a new direction with her career, her film career. She had made three films that you could see as a sort of trilogy, and she wanted to try something different, a film where the music would be almost like a character and she wanted to try to say something about our generation, the nineties, so she asked if I wanted to collaborate with her as I had been part of that music scene.
The character Paul was obviously based on you but how accurate is the film? Did everything that happened to him happen to you?
No it’s a mixture as always with fiction. As soon as we started to write and tried to create the character, and of course it’s loosely based on my experiences and my memories, but there are things that my sister invented, things that I invented and there are some things I’m not even sure they happened because memories can be very tricky sometimes.
I was going to ask actually what was it like reliving that period? Because I know you filmed at some parties that actually happened, like you went to PS1 and filmed.
Well in general I was just so involved in it I had no distance really. I was just working hard with her and all the team and staff and on the shooting, on every aspect of it. I was just doing it, I wasn’t really detached so it’s only when the film was released in France that I realised that it could be a bit awkward. I had great moments also during the shooting, we shoot, we try to recreate our own parties, like the Cheers parties, also in the real locations, sometimes it was pretty intense.
Was it difficult to get permission to film in the real places and with some of the real people from that time?
Most of them no it wasn’t really difficult. The only problem we had was the encounter with the Queen club, yeah we couldn’t do it there, we spent a lot of time in negotiations, and unfortunately the guy, he said yes at the end but we had already chosen another place because it was just too complicated. It’s strange because the Queen just closed this year after 20 years, and it’s funny that it closed the same year that the film was released.
The film offers a realistic portrayal of what it’s like to be a DJ – you have the amazing parties but the next day everyone’s a bit down and it’s a struggle. How important was it to you that you show it realistically and not look back on the time with nostalgia?
It was very important especially for my sister, she’s a naturalistic film director. That’s also what is probably a bit different and fresh with the film, just to have a naturalistic approach of the whole DJ thing and music scene, because usually you are more used to seeing an over-glamorised version of this movement and music. But my sister and myself also wanted to bring it more close to reality. It was very important to us that we stick to authenticity.
And one of the great bits in the film is when you see Daft Punk pop up throughout and they can never get in to the nightclubs and the parties. Is that based in reality?
Yeah that’s a story that they told us actually. It’s completely based in reality. They suggested it to us, they gave us some suggestions and comments on the script, they collaborated on it a bit with us, and they said it would be nice to put it in the film, and we thought “yeah, we completely agree on that”. And the funny part is at the end, the guy, the doorman is the real doorman, not even the real doorman but the club owner that goes to see the doorman, that says to him “it’s Daft Punk, you have to let them in”, is the real club owner, and it’s funny that they recreate that scene. It was a great moment.
How important was it to have their involvement? I know they allowed you to get a lot of the music for the film.
Hugely important, I mean we couldn’t have made the film without their help. So the first thing we did when we had the project, even in the early, early moments, was we went to see them and ask them if they agree. What helped was we were still friends, I was still friends with them, but also Thomas is really into the movie industry, I think he wants to be a director, and he really likes my sister’s films, he has seen all of them, so their help was necessary.
And speaking about the music, the soundtrack is obviously a key part, and I’m sure there are a thousand songs you could have picked, so how did you decide which ones went into the film?
We started by doing a long, long list, like 200 or even more, I don’t know, of songs, and we took some time. We had time because the film was difficult to finance, it was one year to find all the money to do it, but the good side of that we had a lot of time, so we worked by subtraction, on this very long list, and slowly we subtract the songs that were not as important, and we ended up 40 songs that seem to be almost the perfect ones for the film.
What do you think is so special about the Garage or the French Touch sound? Because those songs, especially the early ones like Frankie Knuckles, Kerri Chandler, MK, all of those songs still stand up today.
Garage is special because it’s niche music. It’s a branch of house music and house music is already a bit niche, but Garage is really special because it’s a contrast, music that plays with opposites. It’s coming from music that is played with computers and machines but on the other hands they use vocals that are really soulful and spiritual, because Garage is a mixture of gospel music and has a gospel background, and mixture of electronic dance music, and this makes it very special. And French Touch is different, it’s more pop, more mainstream pop. French Touch is the way the French young artists have been able to make it more commercial and mainstream.
In the film, because you span such a long period of time, you see how DJing has changed. In the early part you have DJs carrying around these huge boxes of vinyl and then at the end in the electro club there’s a girl with one laptop. So do you think technology has changed what it means to be a DJ?
Completely. That’s also one of the sub-topics of the film, because especially in that era technology has been radical, strong and changed everything. You have to realise when I started to be a DJ, I had like you say vinyl, it was very heavy, all DJs they have problems with their backs. And then it went to CDs, and then it went to laptops, and then it went to USB keys, so now if you DJ, you can just plug your USB key, which is crazy if you think about it. And also all the programmes that help you to mix, basically now a computer can do the mix instead of you. It really changed everything, but the artistic part will be always human, you have to bring your own sensitivity.
And a lot of people think that what makes a good DJ is how you select the records not necessarily how you mix.
I agree completely, it’s the selection that’s essential and the way you deal with time. Being a DJ, doing a set is really about the way you play with the feeling of time and direct the event during the night, and the way you build your set and a story. There is a link by the way between great fiction and being a DJ, because a DJ tries to create a story, and create a mood and vibe, which is the same thing you do when you write, you try to create a mood also. But the difference is that a DJ uses songs that already are, you play with tools that already exist, when you write you basically start with nothing.
Do you still DJ?
No I still do it. Obviously the film helped me to make some reconnections with people that I lost touch with, so I have some gigs but I’m more relaxed and detached. I’m trying to be more professional, I don’t drink when I work, and I try to find the right balance in the energy that I put into DJing that I put into other stuff, so the DJing is not all my life.
Are you doing shows only in France or are you going to start travelling the world again?
Well I travel already for the film promotion because we went to a lot of festivals, I had gigs almost everywhere. If I have a proposition I will do it of course but right now I’m doing a lot more in Paris.
And we kind of touched on it a bit before, about how house music hasn’t shown in film in a real way, I mean there have been house films but they're a bit glamorous or they're a bit cheesy. Why do you think that is and do you think that now with this film coming out that it’s going to change?
I have no idea but it’s true, I think after some years people want to have a different version, they want to know more, and some people are probably interested to know what’s behind all this, and to try to understand the time period also. Maybe you need some distance, speaking of years distance, it’s the right time right now. But there were things like that already because 24 Hour Party People, which is not exactly about the same scene but it’s also a way of trying to get some distance of the same period, there is also another film about the disco period, also a naturalistic approach.
Can you remember what the first song was of house music that you heard and that inspired you to become a DJ?
There are many but I often mention Jaydee – ‘Plastic Dreams’. It’s funny, it’s the first song you hear in the film, you just hear the bassline and the very early seconds, in the first seconds of the film where the guys get out of the club that’s in the submarine, and you can hear the bassline, so it’s a kind of trick way to do it. But I loved that song the first time I heard it, and it was a song you could hear at a really hardcore rave party, techno party, and you could hear it also later in the clubs, then everywhere, it went mainstream, so it’s very interesting, and I still love it.
And the party scenes in the film, were they difficult to capture? Because trying to film in a club and making it seem realistic isn’t easy. A lot of times when you see a club on film it’s really glamorous, everyone’s really beautiful, everyone dances really well but anyone that’s been to a party knows that’s not what it is really like.
Exactly. The thing is, to do that there are two sides that were very important. The first one was the work with the extras, so we did a long, long casting and we cast everyone, which you don’t normally do, it costs a lot to do that, it’s really expensive. We sent people to give flyers for the casting in real clubs because we wanted real people to be the extras, not regular extras. We worked with them, we sent them the song before the day of the shooting, so they know the song a bit, they could sing a bit, things like that. The other side that was very important was the work on the sound editing because we realised it was the most important artistic aspect of that, to be really precise and technical about how it may sound. But we had to find the right balance between something that is authentic and realistic, but not too realistic because if we are too realistic, it would be messy and we would lose the feeling. We want to share a feeling also, so that was a lot of work.
How much time did you spend with Félix who played essentially you in the film?
Quite a long time but the thing is we didn’t speak all the time about the character, we just spent some time together. Once again we had a lot of time because the film was hard to finance, so Félix was cast almost one year before the shooting, so during that time my sister spent hours with him and I did also but just talking, talking about culture, books, music, films, and going to parties together, so he had an overall feeling of the vibe. And also I teach him a bit, teach is a big word, I tried to show him all the gestures, so that when he does the DJing in the film it doesn’t feel too artificial.
What’s next for you after this promotion and the film’s come out?
So I’m still doing the DJing, it’s a way for me also to earn money, and I went back to my studies, I’m doing a master’s in creative writing in Paris, it’s a brand new course in France, so it’s cool, and just trying to write.
Do you think you’ll write more screenplays?
It’s not the direction I’m taking but if I have something that shows up I will probably do it. I’m more into literature, classic literature, short stories, novels.
And is there anything that happened to you as a DJ that didn’t put into the film?
Yeah of course, especially moments where we went completely crazy with friends, things like it. We couldn’t put everything in because otherwise the film would have been X-rated [laughs].
Eden hits cinemas on July 24th. Enter our competition and you could win a poster signed by Sven!
