Anders Bramsen: Sometimes Less Can Be More

Filmmaker Anders Bramsen's short film "Slough Poem 1" will premiere June 5, 2006 at the Brooklyn International Film Festival. Slough Poem 1 is an anti-drug picture. An electric look at  the silence before the storm. A Cocaine poem. The horrifying experience of mind-altering substances.  The video documents the last hours of the twentieth century, capturing downtown and suburban Copenhagen, Denmark. Footage shot on New Years Eve 1999/2000. 

How did you become interested in filmmaking?
Going to the movies was always something we did in my family and, growing up in suburban Copenhagen with only one TV channels, I really paid attention when films got broadcast on Saturday nights. I remember films like ‘Dog Day Afternoon’, ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘The Godfather’, ‘Fanny and Alexander’, etc. Dad translated and explained.  Watching movies in the theater, on television, and so many others on  video during childhood planted a seed in me.   When I saw ‘Goodfellas’ I was completely mesmerized. It was so penetrating beyond what is superficial or obvious.   And I think that was the first time I thought of trying to make film.

Is there a contemporary filmmaker whose work you admire?
Oh, There are so many … only few truly great ones. Bergman I guess, if you can call him contemporary. The Swedish director Lukas Moodysson is very interesting, I think.   But there are so many good ones and yet so many of my heroes are dead.  Like Stanley Kubrick and especially many of the wonderful European filmmakers, such as:  Luis Malle, François Truffaut, Andrei Tarkovsky, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Rainer Fassbinder and Sergio Leone, off course.   Don’t know if you can call them contemporary either, but they’re part of contemporary film history and I certainly remember their films from growing up.

Slough Poem 1 is portrayed as an anti-drug film, what was your inspiration for creating this film?  I had gone through a period in the nineties when I was surrounded by people who did a lot of drugs. I saw the damage it created, the waste of time and life. I had it rubbed in my face long enough that affected me to write and make a film about it. Drugs can open up minds and be fantastic for some
who can leave them behind after some experimentation, but they ultimately take many people to terrible places.

What do you find most appealing about the short film format?
I think that not always, but sometimes less can be much more.

When did you move into the Chelsea Hotel?
January of 2006

What inspired you to move into the Chelsea?
Well I had been coming around for about a year. I meet this guy in 2005 that lived there, and he introduced me to the whole Chelsea Hotel scene. I immediately felt the strange and wonderful vibe just by walking into its lobby. Seeing all the art on the walls, and then realizing where I was … I had never
been there physically, and the only visual I really had was from the movie: ‘Léon’, (1994) by Luc Besson. I fell in love right then and there. What a funky place, I thought… the people who had lived there over the years, the hotel’s history … it was good. I felt good being there, and wanted more right away. So, when my friend went away on an extended business trip to Los Angeles and asked
me if I could keep an eye on his studio, it wasn’t hard to say yes.

Has your film work been influenced by any former or current Chelsea Hotel residents?
Yes…the poetry in my little SLOUGH films, and much more so in LE MIS POPOTE, (The Erroneous Earth Kitchen), is very much inspired by Rene Ricard’s book ‘God With Revolver’ (1989). I love the poems in that book … there are no lies in them.

Do you think that the Chelsea Hotel has a creative spirit?
Definitely! There is a truly unique energy in that old building … but not always the best one, which suits me just fine when I’m in the right mood.

What’s the best/worst thing that has happened to you at the hotel?
I once had five nightmares in a row over five following nights.

What's your favorite Hotel Chelsea story?
I don’t know … the whole thing ... That you never know with whom you’ll end up having a conversation with in five minutes.