“We are all looking for our place in the world”

At 45, the American independent filmmaker returns with the chronicle of a biker gang in Illinois in the 1960s. The Tom Hardy-Austin Butler-Jodie Comer trio, sexy and magnetic, has a lot to do with the success of the project. Meeting in Paris with the director.

In theaters since Wednesday June 19, The Bikeriders is Jeff Nichols’ first film since Loving in 2016. Film buffs have been following the career of the Texan director for a while, authors of beautiful films such as Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud And Midnight Special. This time he adapts a book by journalist and photographer Danny Lyon, who followed the Vandals gang in 1965 and then collected several testimonies on microphone to complete his work.

franceinfo: Your film covers a specific period of four years, and on a given group, did you want to explore a representation of masculinity in the United States?

Jeff Nichols: Yes, but not only with us. My films always explore this issue, and the idea that men, especially those from the working classes, are not necessarily the best at expressing their feelings, but this film goes beyond that. It speaks to our need for identity, probably one of the forces most driving culture at the moment. We all want to be unique, special, which is understandable. But as we are all looking for our place in the world, we are naturally attracted to groups, to crowds. Often our identity is shaped by these groups, but that can be dangerous.

You focus on a bunch of “guys”, but it feels like your main character, Kathy, played by Jodie Comer, is at the center of the film, is she the backbone?

Yes, if you imagine this film only from a male point of view, it’s not very interesting, and it even becomes heavy. Partly because, as I said earlier, men are terrible at expressing emotion. So who will tell us the story? And precisely, Kathy, while experiencing the facts in real time, is also searching for her place in the world. And if we put the story in his eyes, then we perhaps have an opportunity to know why the people around him act like that.

There are many things about America in this story: the desire to grow, to succeed, to be free, but also precariousness, small houses, poverty, the condition of women etc… What is -what specifically interested you in this story, beyond the beautiful motorcycles?

Exactly, let’s take the example of a motorcycle. You see one, it’s beautiful, seems powerful, so you want to try it, to go for a ride. There is freedom associated with the object, but it can also kill you. This duality is fascinating. So these people struck me this way, it’s linked to human nature, why do we do this? Why do we need to be attracted to danger? This question is really at the center of the film for me. And I really felt some human behavior in the book.

So yes the motorcycles are incredible, the clothes too, but if you combine Danny Lyon’s photos and the testimonies, it’s sociology: he really studied this subculture, and as a storyteller, that fascinates me.

Your film resembles classic biker films in some ways: Easy Rider, Rusty James, The Wild Team… But you go further by also showing the dark side (drugs, prostitution, complicated return from Vietnam). What did you want to tell us about America today?

A lot of what I’m talking about really happened: gangs, who don’t respect the laws and who deal, which is both in folklore and contrary to the mentality of the people. bikers. But how we got there is precisely what interests me. I cannot say that by showing this shift I am commenting on the situation of young people today, I mainly want to question this institutional criminality. And it intrigued me that it started with just two guys wanting to ride around on motorcycles and drink beer. Even if they had a propensity for violence, it was not organized or theorized. It is this turning point that interests me.

Sean Baker has just won the Palme d’Or with an independent American film, and upon receiving his prize he explained that it was increasingly difficult to make these films today in the United States, due to the cost of filming, complicated budgets. You have always made very personal films, without big budget or big studio but with stars. With Richard Linklater and a few others, are you the last of a category on the verge of extinction?

So I’m 45 so I hope I’m not dying (laughter). No, but more seriously, it has always been complicated to make these films. More precisely, it’s not making them that’s complicated, it’s that people are interested in them. It’s even harder than before to be heard in this constant noise, and everything that comes out everywhere, all the time, in every direction. Sadly, streamers have a misunderstanding of what we do, of the value of the things we create. They think the key is to release things as quickly as possible, all episodes of a series at once, which is what people want.

It may be what they want, but not necessarily what they need. The result is that it devalued our work. So I imagine he had difficulty making his films, but Florida Project was great. I’m in a privileged position, because I have a certain level of budget, thanks to actors who want to work with me, which is extraordinarily valuable. But hey, I made six films, devoting twenty years of my life to them.