Writer, director and actor Lucas Belvaux, along with Joanne Parsont, director of education at the San Francisco Film Society, came to De Anza College to speak after Belvaux’s film “Rapt” was screened in film instructor Susan Tavernetti’s class on Oct. 29.

The San Francisco Film Society invited Belvaux to the United States this fall. The festival ran Oct. 28 to Nov. 3 at the Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. 

Belvaux spent the hour with the class sharing some of the highlight moments of making the film. 

Belgian-born Belvaux began his career by running away to Paris to become an actor. Belvaux shared the most difficult part of making the film, sometimes having things outside his control. 

“The hardest part in the movie was waiting for the actor. He had to lose almost 40 pounds to fit the role,” Belvaux said. “It was difficult because if you could imagine the mental state of someone under such conditions as an actor with so much determination to play the role, that the physical stress was transformed into passion.” 

The film was about a true story of a kidnapping during the 1970s of an industry captain. 

Tavernetti gave her thoughts on the film, saying how it differed from typical American thrillers.

“The film bought a new twist to the genre, and it showed various perspectives and never made any moral judgments. It allowed us to do that on our own,” Tavernetti said. “I also thought the acting and cinematography was incredible, and there is definitely a difference from American crime thrillers. They’re more action-orientated where as this one is more of a character driven.” 

“Typically in American thrillers, you have a very defined protagonist and antagonist, and the antagonist always seem to be bad, where as in this film we see nuances on terms of everybody and not everybody is entirely good or entirely bad,” Tavernetti said.