Actions speak louder than words. That’s Steven Soderbergh’s motto on his approach to “Che” a film that has polarized critics expecting to see a more traditional, spoonfeeding info biopic.
Soderbergh refuses to spell it out or have his character, Che Guevarra as played by Benicio del Toro, give you long monologues about what he’s thinking. Some critics have complained you don’t receive access to Che’s inner thoughts; but that’s kind of the point.
“I’m a big believer into paying attention to what people do as opposed to what they say,” Soderbergh recently told MTV in an interview (written by yours truly) about the absence of all expository dialogue in the film.
The process and approach to creating the “Che” movies is a fascinating one. Having only so much money, the director shot extremely quickly, covering both four-hour-plus films on five different countries in exactly 81 days (less than 3 months of a shoot; by comparison, “Apocalypse Now,” filmed for over 16 months).
The production went by lighting fast. del Toro who also co-produced the film said he just had to dive in, not overthink it and not worry too much about what couldn’t be included.
“So there’s only so much an actor can play, there’s only so much I can play,” he told MTV. “You just play the moment, that’s all you can do. I think that whatever the polarizing things are about it, they’re hinted in the movie, but you could do never cover it all.”
Fully aware in advance how fast he would be shooting, Soderbergh told every actor that there would be no hand-holding and each person would just have to know their part by hand – he wouldn’t be available for questions. He wasn’t fucking kidding either, some of the actors barely saw him! Check out what actress Franke Potente [who appears in Part Two: “Guerilla’ told Vulture about the director on set.
“When we were working, he was almost invisible, in a sense. He always stayed in the forest. He was like a chameleon. He was hidden behind leaves and stuff. He almost made himself dissolve to get the result that he had. Sometimes I would ask, like, “Where’s the camera?!”
For those still interested in “Che” and curious about the seven-year incubation of the film, David Poland has a terrific 30-minute interview with del Toro on his site (unfortunately you can’t embed it). We’ve seen a bunch of interviews with the actor recently and he’s a bit more lucid and articulate in this one (much less rambling).
PS, here’s some music from the “Che” films and some heated exchange footage of Soderbergh and audience at the opening night of the IFC Roadshow Release in case you missed it (we highly recommend).
Lastly, if you have to see this film in two parts. Do not worry or fret. We know it’s antithetical to the doctrine, but we’d recommend that you (if you can), see them one day apart after another. We saw the full, five-hour version and fatigue did set in. Not because they’re dull at all, but that’s because it’s just a long time to sit in a theater, even for obsessives like us. We talked to others on their first spin of the film (we already saw them individually at the Toronto Film Fest), and they too felt fatigued afterwards, simply because of the length, not the content.