Gabe Klinger is celebrating two very different homecomings with the Berlinale world premiere of his sophomore fiction feature, “Isabel.” The film marks his first work in his home country of Brazil, a decade after breaking out with the Anton Yelchin-starring drama “Porto,” while also reuniting the director with Berlin, a festival he first attended as part of Berlinale Talents in 2004 and that he credits as being “highly influential” in his career.
“Isabel” is produced by Rodrigo Teixeira via RT Features, the powerhouse banner behind Walter Salles’s Oscar-winning “I’m Still Here.” The film stars Marina Person as the titular character, a 50-something-year-old sommelière with a deep love of natural wines, who dreams of leaving her job at a Michelin-starred restaurant in São Paulo to open her own bar. “Isabel” was shot in 16mm film and developed in a lab in London, to echo the artisanal nature of natural wines.
Speaking with Variety ahead of the film’s premiere, Klinger cites Éric Rohmer’s “The Green Ray” as a major influence for his intimate character study. “It was a very important foundation when it came to setting a tone for the film, veering into something more naturalistic, realistic and that deals directly with the day to day.” Another major influence was Luis Sérgio Person’s seminal 1965 drama “São Paulo, Incorporated,” one of the most influential films about the sprawling Brazilian capital city.
It was a joy for the director, then, when Luis Sérgio’s daughter, Marina Person, agreed to star in the film. “I enjoy having these cinematic connections in my film. Working with Marina was a way of connecting with the history of the cinema of São Paulo, too,” he said.
Person, who first rose to national prominence as a leading MTV VJ between 1995 and 2011, worked extensively as a presenter in Brazilian television before dedicating herself to directing. In 2015, she released her directorial debut, “California,” and has since directed projects for major streamers such as Netflix and Globoplay. though she has extensively appeared on camera, Person is not necessarily known as an actor, which Klinger says caused a certain “estrangement” to those who heard of her casting in his film.
“Marina was a daring proposition,” he says. “A lot of people asked me why I cast her, given that Marina isn’t a conventional actress. It is almost like working with a non-actor. Acting isn’t a regular practice for her. It’s not her routine. Still, I feel Marina incorporates the essence of the city of São Paulo.”
To Person, there was an almost instant creative chemistry. In a full circle moment, she recalls first meeting Klinger at a screening of “São Paulo, Incorporated,” going on to praise the director for his “generosity” during the development of “Isabel.” Not only does Person star in the film, she is also credited as a writer, having worked alongside Klinger on shaping her character and the script.
“Gabe gave me complete freedom when we worked together on the story,” she says. “Then, when I got a copy of the final script, my name was on the front page. It wasn’t something I asked for but Gabe was very generous because it is unusual to have directors giving actors writing credit.”
The actor says she had a “strong synergy” with Isabel’s story. “Gabe didn’t know it beforehand, but I am very connected to the world of natural wines. Before the pandemic, I even thought about opening a wine bar with my partner. It was a dream that only lasted a few months, and I am glad we didn’t follow through. But the coincidence was interesting; life is crazy this way.”
Credit: Urban Factory
Asked about the 10-year gap between his two fiction projects, Klinger says he needed to “understand [his] place within cinema.” “I come from the world of criticism, curation and teaching, but my dream was always to make cinema. I wanted to understand the industry, because understanding how to make cinema is very different than thinking and writing about cinema.”
Returning to live in São Paulo after years spent in Chicago, the director recalls a deep desire to return to his roots, but he felt things were “unstable” in his home country at the time. “I came back right before the 2022 presidential elections and decided to stay,” he recalls. “I already had friends in the film industry, and I felt like it was working. There was some dread and anguish when things didn’t quite work out the way I wanted, but this film represents a new chapter in my career, so I’m very happy.”
As for working with leading Brazilian producer Rodrigo Teixeira, Klinger has nothing but praise. He recalls first meeting the veteran on the New York indie scene well over a decade ago, when the producer was financing Noah Baumbach’s “Frances Ha.” “I belonged to this small group of creatives in New York with Baumbach, Greta Gerwig and the Safdies. I slept on their couches when I had a low-paying job at the Museum of Modern Art. I lived in the apartment you see on ‘Frances Ha.’”
“Every time Rodrigo and I meet, we talk about films, and not just our films,” he adds. “One day, we got talking about ‘Isabel.’ We realized we weren’t getting any public funding for the film. We tried everything. So he said: We have a little money left from another project. It all happened very quickly and working with him was a luxury in the sense that he completely trusted us. He only visited the set once. He did not interfere in our creative process at all. We also realized during the campaign for ‘I’m Still Here’ that it would benefit us in a way.”
In that sense, Teixeira reminded Klinger of his previous producer in “Porto,” recent Golden Lion winner Jim Jarmusch. “He is a director who demands final cut, who believes the director to be the absolute authority when it comes to filmmaking. I also see myself as an auteur, and Rodrigo understands that. He wants what’s best for the film.”
As for premiering “Isabel” in Berlin, Klinger brings up another cherished memory: meeting Richard Linklater and James Benning at the after-party for “Before Midnight” at the festival. That night, the Brazilian director approached the two Americans with the seed for what was to become his feature debut, “Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater,” winner of a Golden Lion at Venice for the Best Documentary on Cinema in 2013.
“My first film was born at the Berlinale, so it’s very symbolic for me to return to Berlin over a decade later, with my first Brazilian film, and a film I’m very proud of.”
“Isabel” is produced by Rodrigo Teixeira via RT Features and Frédéric Corvez via Urban Factory, in association with VideoFilmes. Urban Sales handles international sales.
Source: variety.com
