Photography: Marco Rivas www.marcorivas.tumblr.com
Annabell Bolton for D1 Models London
Styling: Karina Arab
Make-up: Mika Shimoda
Hair Stylist: Kazuto Shimomura

“I’m not sure that ‘to be in love’ is easy to translate into work”, says French film director Jean-Julien Chervier in our interview about what inspires and influences him.

What do you do?

I’m a director and a screenwriter.

Why did you choose this path?

Because of my cinema addiction since I was 12 years old! I wasted my time watching movies, writing film reviews and little scripts.

Who has influenced your work as an artist?

I’ve been in love with François Truffaut, Jean Eustache, Bertrand Blier and Ernst Lubitsch’s movies forever. Also with Marguerite Duras’ books and Serge Gainsbourg’s songs! But I’m not sure that ”to be in love” is easy to translate into work. I think their movies, books and songs taught me how to live. And life is my main source when I’m writing. So, when I was younger, I was much more influenced by art works than I am now, at 40!

 From the film “Le Fonte des Neiges”, 2009. With Géraldine Martineau & Marc Beffa. Photo by Pierre Stoeber.

Can you mention some specific art works that you think are somehow related to your body of work? What are the similarities? Differences?

One movie, ”Mes petites amoureuses” by Jean Eustache I discovered on TV when I was a child and I watched it a lot of times since. It is one of the movies that has influenced me the most: because of the themes – childhood, family, sexuality, learning about love – and because of the direction (image editing, actor directing…).
In very different ways, Eustache and Bertrand Blier taught me a sense of comedy, triviality and transgression in dialogues and situations.

From the film “Schoolboy’s prayer”. With Julien Le Mouël. Photo by Mathieu Vadepied.

Do you think about these influences from other artists in your daily work? Do you try to incorporate them in your work?

I don’t really try to incorporate influences from other artists in my work… It’s just impossible and the best way to be infertile! The most important and difficult thing is to find my own way and quality as an author. Watching movies, listening to music, people’s stories, going to museums, reading newspaper articles and travelling as much as I can is really stimulating. All of that, mixed with my own obsessions, influence me daily and give me raw material for writing my stories.

What does it mean to you to be ”under the influence”?

Perhaps to have ”the taste of others”, to be open to what we don’t understand at once!

From the film “Le temps des cerises”, 2005. With Thérèse Roussel. Photo by JJ. Bouhon.

About Jean-Julien Chervier

After studying Art at the Sorbonne, Jean-Julien Chervier hosted and programmed a radio show devoted to cinema on the Aligre FM. In the programme, he received many directors, producers and distributers of French independent cinema, and from these meetings arouse the opportunity to collaborate on the feature film “Julie est amoureuse” directed by Vincent Dietschy, with Anne Ny and François Chattot.
This experience led Jean-Julien to shoot his first independent short film, “Schoolboy’s prayer”, about the desires of an eleven-year-old boy. The film received the Beaumarchais Prize and was distributed in theatres along with Sebastien Lifshitz’s “Corps ouverts”. Since then, Jean-Julien has directed several short films and co-written and co-directed both short and feature films. His films often deal with themes of sexuality and the hunt of something essentially human and fragile, disguised as desire.
At the moment, Jean-Julien is developing a feature film; a comedy about French politics and identity questions.

Talking about the London Fashion Week without mentioning Vivienne Westwood is impossible. She is the queen of British fashion and having worked at her Battersea studio for a couple of years myself, I am always really curious to see with what she is coming up next. Her clothes have always been very unique, with elaborate style, a cool mix of colours and fabrics and always with a touch of eccentrically Britishness.

So what about her latest Red Label Autumn – Winter 2012/13 collection that she has just showed at the London Fashion week? Vivienne herself claims that they ended up again with a collection that is British. Working and living in London you are always influenced by this place full of history, new trends, variety, and different cultures. A combination of tradition and multicultural mix that is hard to find in any other place. And so are her clothes – combining her ever so cool style with traditional tailoring. In this collection you can see lots of brown, red, purple, yellow, blue – they used Ikat and jacquard from African body painting, duchess, and taffeta and like in her last Red label collection there is lots of wool. And the models had very pretty painted tattoos on their neck and legs.

Another important thing to mention is that the show is in support of the Environmental Justice Foundation’s (EJF) ‘No Place Like Home’ campaign for climate refugees.  “The t-shirts I designed, seen in the show, support the campaign to raise awareness of the plight of people who have been forced from their homes and land due to the increasing and intensifying impact of climate change.” From the 4^th of May you can buy those shirts for £20 at Selfridges and online at www.viviennewestwood.co.uk and www.ejfoundation.org/shop. Being very eager about environmental issues myself I really like it when people being in the position where many people are looking up to them, are using this for a good cause.

So to sum it up – to me this is a very beautiful and cool collection with the distinctive style of Westwood but yet more wearable than some of her other ones. And combined with a good cause makes this truly special.

Picture credit Vivienne Westwood Ltd.

Remixers watch out! Recently we have done an article about the Casablanca Reworks EP and Peaches. Now you have the option to remix the track “Walk the Night”, – originally recorded by the Skatt Brothers – have a fling with it and appear exclusively on Gomma Records. Only if you win, of course. For the exact details of the contest (deadline: 05. March) and to join in please go here.

Remixer aufgepasst! Vor kurzem haben wir ja über die Casablanca Reworks EP und Peaches berichtet. Jetzt hast du die Möglichkeit dich selbst begnadet an dem Track “Walk the Night” – im Original von Skatt Brothers – auszutoben und damit exklusiv auf Gomma Records zu erscheinen. Wenn du gewinnst selbstverständlich. Zu den genauen Infos des Contest (Einsendeschluss ist der 05.März) und zum mitmachen bitte hier entlang.