Director Eva Vik on Cinema, Female Intuition and her new film, Serpentine

Eva Vik is a Czech born, Los Angeles based director. Vik’s work is sensual, opulent and psychosexual and her short films craft worlds that range from high fashion fashion body -horror to mid-century modern glimpses into Hollywood to end of the world, Bergman-esque dystopian nightmares. She’s a master of creating an atmosphere and anticipation, with settings in eras that feel hard to place but her work is tense, timeless and sensual.

Vik has also dabbled in directing many short films starring Dylan Sprouse, Jack Kilmer, and Sean Penn and music videos such for for Suki Waterhouse. Eva has won multiple international critically acclaimed film awards , premiered her films at Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW, on Mubi, Dazed and Amazon and is currently working on her first feature film.

She sat down with Polyester editor Eden Young to discuss female intuition, the art of directing and her latest short film starring Barbara Palvin, Serpentine, that won Best Genre Short Film at Mammoth Film Festival and Premiered at Tribeca.

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How are you! 

I’m great - very happy to be in London.

Ooh, what are you up to in London?

I’m currently working on a very exciting project with an amazing cast and team that I can't yet reveal. We filmed in Europe and now I’m in post production in London.

Then back to LA where you’re based? I was going to ask you about Los Angeles actually. Because I watched Carte Blanche on Amazon, your short film starring Dylan Sprouse about the vapid and sinister nature of Hollywood, and read that when you were making it someone said to you that “‘Hollywood stole their soul.” But you don't believe it has to be that way necessarily. Do you still feel that way about LA?

Carte Blanche was a while ago now. I always thought that it was kind of interesting what the person said so I decided to make a film on that dark thought. When you first come to LA it’s all so fresh and alluring and Carte Blanche is about that, a certain regard on Hollywood. You can get caught up in webs but that can happen anywhere in the world. 

I loved your ‘five films every woman should see’ interview, where you state the five aspects of womanhood as being “strength, lunacy, intuition, transformation and the female voice.” Which of those aspects speak to you the most? I think intuition is especially a female trait.

My intuition and instinct becomes even more heightened as I get older and more connected if you know what I mean. The complete clearness allows the right connection. One can also predict things, it’s quite fascinating. That's why I love the film Arrival because of that female intuition.

For sure. The male scientists in Arrival just didn’t get it! In the video you also speak about A Woman Under the Influence which focuses on female lunacy and rage and you commented “You don’t have to be crazy in order to be crazy sometimes” - I think we’re having a real resurgence of seeing female rage depicted in cinema. Why do you think this resonates with us so much?

It's kind of fun to go a little “crazy” sometimes, or just letting go, really. There's something liberating and cleansing about it. 

In terms of cinema… I mean, we've been through the list for men. There've been a lot of stories for male characters on that note, but I think right now we're exploring so many more female stories from every angle overall in the cinema which is fantastic.

The aesthetic in Serpentine is very elegant and opulent. Very Baroque! Do you think it was because you're working with Bvlgari? Or are you drawn to that anyway? It seems set in the past… but in the future at the same time.

I'm definitely drawn to timelessness, to a time you can’t wrap your head around. I am quite a perfectionist in terms of visuals and working with my cinematographer on Serpentine, Andrey Nikolaev, felt quite comfortable, especially when you find someone who's into similar visuals that you are. 

Every world has its own design, right.. The world in Serpentine is a dystopian concept, a near future sci-fi world. In my other film, Raven , that’s a black and white one in Prague, it also has sci-fi vibes but it’s about the end of the world and beginning of a new one so that has to reflect in the mood, era and design to name a few aspects. 

Timelessness was the word I was looking for when describing your work. It’s hard to place but references Old Hollywood, mid-century modern and futuristic elements at the same time. I think the look of a film is so important now with the overuse of CGI and the great Marvel-fication of cinema. Do you think we’ve lost the art of cinema?

It can be quite mesmerising and transfixing what can come out of CGI driven films if they are well done. 

I definitely would like to do Hollywood epics. My feature film is a period piece, art meets commerce, with a contemporary story approach and visuals. I make films because I want to escape reality just as much as the viewer and filmmakers escape it even more so because one’s in it for three years or such. Filmmaking is escaping reality, you get to wake up and be in this world you've created. There's something very exciting about that. Not that I don't love reality, I am one of the most life-loving types of people, but I do love my dream film world.

So that's your first feature film. Can you say anything more about that? Or is that all under wraps?

All I’m going to say is it’s called The Devil’s Race.

Very interesting! I love a period piece. So are you looking to achieve pure escapism with your work, or do you like having a moral tale hidden in there?

So far I haven't really been hiding morality in my works. If it comes somehow naturally then great, but it's not something that I intentionally think of. I like to create films that will speak to the audience on another level, a new state of mind feeling that is more emotional rather than moral. 

It must be hard having all these ideas but having to wait years to execute them. It must be frustrating sometimes?

I mean if any film or TV shows happen, it's a miracle. The amount of people, work and time that goes into it, it’s like a little wonder when it happens. Even Scorsese was getting Silence off the ground for a long time, and that’s Scorsese!

Especially the first film, you have to wait it out, but it will come at a time when it's supposed to, and when you realise that it's a great feeling. It's there, it just takes some time, but that’s good.

Words: Eden Young