Synopsis
12-year-old Ben has just hit puberty and suddenly his weight’s a problem – for him and for everyone else. The other kids bully him, his divorced parents don’t know what to do. Even the school nurse is worried about him. So, despite his love of food and his emerging talent as a chef, Ben decides to take drastic action. He goes on a diet.

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Interview with Kristina Dufková

Hideki Nagaishi (HN): How did this film project start?

Kristina Dufková: After making the film Fimfárum do třetice všeho dobrého (2011), I was looking for a theme for my next film, and I came across a book by Mikaël Ollivier which I read with my daughter. I thought it would be great to adapt it into a film for older children.

HN: What aspects of La vie, en gros by Mikaël Ollivier, the original story for the film, attracted you the most?

Kristina Dufková: It’s the very personal view of the main character. What I liked about the book was its atmosphere, fragility and strong personal experience. That’s what I tried to transform into a film.

HN: Why did you decide to develop a film based on that novel?

Kristina Dufková: When I started the project, there weren’t many films for older children. I wanted to make a film for my daughter. It just took longer to make the film. In school, professor Břetislav Pojar taught us to make films about things we are experiencing in our own lives, about things that we are living. And I was going through my daughter’s puberty at home.

HN: What do you want to deliver to the audience through this film the most?

Kristina Dufková: To not be afraid to make fun of yourself and to learn to accept yourself. Making mistakes is normal and everything can be fixed.

HN: I would like to ask you about the creation of the film’s story. How did Petr Jarchovský, the scriptwriter, join the film project?

Kristina Dufková: At the very beginning, I was working on the script with Barbora Dřevikovská, but we got to a point where we didn’t know how to proceed. We approached scriptwriter Petr Jarchovský. At first, he was hesitant because he had never done an animated film. However, after reading the book, the subject matter appealed to him, and he agreed to join. He brought new energy and a boyish look to the project. The script went through many revisions; I think we ended up with the 14th version.

HN: What did you take care in the most on the film’s story? What kinds of discussions did you have with Petr while he was writing the film, and why did you have those discussions?

Kristina Dufková: The hardest part was the end. It was actually created during the filming. We still couldn’t figure out how to portray depressive states. The cinematographer helped me with that and found a visual way to do it. Peter wrote beautiful and funny dialogue. But sometimes it was too much for an animated film. They had to be cut short. Anna Vášová was also a great support for the script, she thoroughly dissected the storyboard with me, panel by panel.

HN: I would like to ask you about the visuals of the film. What do you think were the advantages of depicting this film’s story in stop-motion, compared to portraying it in live action?

Kristina Dufková: Animation gives me a freer hand in creating a world with its own rules. In it, I can then work differently with humour and exaggeration. I find it easier to make fun of myself in it. It’s not as physical as the real world.

HN: When I started watching the film, at first, the visual design of the faces of the puppets seemed unique for me, but after a while I got more and more familiar with their faces and the personalities and presence of all the characters increased in a positive way in my mind, and I became more and more immersed in the story.

Regarding the visual design of the puppets’ faces, what did you focus on the most, and what was your goal?

Kristina Dufková: The puppets are very expressive. I wanted them to be distinctive at first sight, with easily readable characters. Their look, body proportions, and movement. Ben was the hardest to design. He needed to be likeable at first glance. He also needed to be very obese, which is challenging since a lot of weight in puppets complicates the animation. Combined with his voice, I think it works; you end up liking him.

HN: I would like to hear about the colours in the film. I felt that the colourfulness and brightness throughout the film made it a coming-of-age film where the film’s themes kept the audience from feeling too dark and sad, and made everyone feel refreshed at the end.

Did you have any intention or goals regarding the impact of the film’s colour palette on the story? And what did you take in the most on the use of colours in the film?

Kristina Dufková: I love working with colours. I’m working with them even more consciously and consistently in my upcoming film. In Living Large, the whole film is dominated by blue: the city, Ben’s room, the pool… Blue is a colour of calm, which surrounded Ben at the beginning. It’s also said that blue enhances our desire to eat. But the transition from blue to black is not that big. And any other bold colour can easily disrupt it. That helped me tell the story.

HN: Could you please let us know the story behind music for the film? What was your goal with the music, or what you took care in the most? And how was the collaboration with Michal Novinski?

I found that the scenes with a sense of humour always have the best-matching music throughout the film, and many songs in the film reminded me of the American romantic-comedy films of the 90s.

Kristina Dufková: Besides the songs of Ben’s band, there are many other songs in the film. Michal Novinski came up with the idea. Since it’s a film about teenagers, it was natural, because teenagers wear headphones all the time. And Michal found those songs that enhanced the feelings, mood and thoughts of the characters and situations even more. The songs of Ben’s band had to be written before filming in order to animate them. It was a bit of a challenge, no one could guess how the songs would work in the film once it was finished. Some of them I had found references to what they might look like, and some of them came about spontaneously, like Nessun dorma.