"Palm Springs" Director Max Barbakow After writing this story, I started to understand what it means to fall in love with someone and open your heart to someone [Director's Interview Vol.114]

Another new talent has emerged from the Sundance Film Festival, a gateway for new directors. Director Max Barbakow submitted his first feature film, Palm Springs, to the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It was reported that distribution companies Neon and Hulu in the US had bought the distribution rights for $17.5 million.69, the highest amount in the festival's history at the time (the previous record was $17.5 million for Birth of Nation (2016)).

"Palm Springs" is the story of a man and woman who are caught in a loop of repeating the day of someone else's wedding. Utilizing the "time loop" format typified by " Groundhog Day " (1993), it is a human comedy that combines cynical humor with a happy love story.

At this year's Golden Globe Awards, the film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. Director Barbakow, who was virtually unknown at the time, also made a big breakthrough. We spoke to this talented man who is currently attracting the most attention about the behind-the-scenes story of the birth of this masterpiece and his experience studying under the genius director Werner Herzog!

Index

• He was shocked by the movie "Boogie Nights" when he was 8 years old.
• What I learned in Werner Herzog's workshop
• Why "Palm Springs"?
• Influenced by Mike Nichols
• Why did "XX" release it? Note! Contains spoilers.

He was shocked by the movie "Boogie Nights" when he was 8 years old.

Q: I heard that your father was the chairman of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Did your family environment inspire you to become a film director?

Barbakow: Yes, that's right. Everyone in my family loved movies. My father was a big fan of James Bond movies, and I grew up watching movies like Thunderball (1965) and Goldfinger (1964) starring Sean Connery. I also had an older brother (film and music creator Bennett Barbakow) who was seven and a half years older than me, and he showed me movies by highly auteur directors from the '90s, even though I was still a teenager. It was like a baptism for a child hearing rock and roll for the first time.

"Palm Springs" (c)2020 PS FILM PRODUCTION,LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

When I was about 8 years old, my brother persuaded my grandmother to buy me the DVD of Boogie Nights (1997). I think my grandmother imagined a different type of movie when she saw the cover (laughs), but it was a real shock. The subject matter and the way the movie was told were like nothing I'd ever seen before. It opened my eyes to film and made me explore contemporary filmmakers.

Discovering Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh and the Coen brothers were like my First Love loves, and then going back to the 70s directors who influenced them, and watching movies from all over the world. By the time I got to high school, I was obsessed with film and really wanted to make it.