Tim Burton presents his “Labyrinth” in Paris

Tim Burton is considered one of the greatest directors in world cinema. Alternately director, screenwriter and producer of American cinema, he is first and foremost a craftsman with an immeasurable imagination. The majority of his films have become cult: beetle juice (1988), Batman (1989), Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attack! (1996), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Alice in Wonderland (2010) or even Charlie and the chocolate factory (2005).

From May 19 to August 20, 2023, it presents The labyrintha new creation with Let’s Go, more than 150 of his original works visible at the Chapiteaux de la Villette space in Paris.

>> Tim Burton: “For me, monsters have always been very moving”, says the filmmaker before the “Labyrinth” exhibition in Paris

franceinfo: There are more than 300 possible routes to dive into your inner world. Does this maze define what goes on in your head?

Tim Bruton: Yes, when someone introduces him to me, that’s the impression I get. It represents the creative process for me, in the sense that it starts with a drawing and then you turn it into something else: a sculpture, maybe an animated character, a film or maybe nothing at all. It represents that. Even when I do the drawings, they have to come to life by turning into animations.

“In ‘Labyrinth’, I feel like I’m going to a haunted house, or something like that. We don’t really know where we’re going… We go into small rooms… All that ended exhausted, it represents what I feel in my mind.”

Your eye has always been on abnormality, on difference. Is that what defines you? To be different, to cultivate this difference?

I don’t even know what the word “normal” means. I feel normal. I feel like a normal person. From time to time, I don’t feel very normal. But most of the time, I see things in a different way. I never found monsters to be bad characters. For me, they have always been very emotional and you can identify with the abnormal things in the movies. That’s how I feel.

You always knew how to go your own way, no matter what people thought. Which represents Edward Scissorhands in your career? It is an important door that is opening. Is this work an integral part of your journey, of what you have created?

“I felt like Edward Scissorhands at a certain age.”

I was someone who had a lot of emotions, who couldn’t connect, have friends, have connections with the people around him. When people wanted to hug me, I withdrew in fear. I have always been interested in fables, fairy tales. For me it was a symbol, a fairy tale symbol. A symbol of fables, of personal feelings, of strong feelings that I felt elsewhere. It combines a cathartic feeling of making a fairy tale film about the environment I grew up in and all of that was a very powerful emotional mix for me.

There has always been such a macabre dimension. You said : “Cemeteries are part of my soul“. What relationship do you have with death?

I hope it won’t be before long, my connection with death! I don’t think I really have one. I don’t know if it’s personal because I grew up in LA with The Army of the Living Dead, ceremonies that celebrated life with images of skulls and all that, which doesn’t really represent life. It’s an interesting way to think about it, I think. It’s not a matter of death, it’s a matter of life. That’s why vampire movies ask questions. It’s not a matter of life or death, I think it’s just something spiritual, ultimately.

To conclude, what is your view today on this course, on what you have already succeeded in creating and on this labyrinth?

I don’t look back much. I keep moving forward. Me, I’m like a shark in the water moving forward, I don’t look back too much. As for this maze, it was a new experience for me. I took my work and showed it in a different way and made it grow. And you fit right in. I felt something different and exciting and that’s what I’m trying to make you feel. That’s what I’m looking for.