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Greg Laemmle on DON’T LET’S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT.

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This week we’re opening the new drama Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight at the Royal. We’ll expand the engagements to all but one of our our other venues around L.A. County the following week. Laemmle Theatres president Greg Laemmle saw the film and loved it so much he was able to secure an interview with the filmmaker/co-star, Embeth Davidtz on his and Raphael Sbarge’s podcast Inside the Arthouse. He wrote the following to introduce the episode:

“As part of producing Inside the Arthouse, we see a lot of movies. And while many are compelling and well-made, naturally some of them stand out. Of all the films we’ve seen so far this year, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight has definitely moved to the top of the list.

“Based on Alexandra Fuller’s memoir of the same name, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight captures the childhood of eight-year-old Bobo on her family farm in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) at the end of the Zimbabwean War for Independence in 1980. Growing up in the midst of this long-running war, Bobo internalizes both sides of the struggle. Conflicted by her love for people on opposing sides, she tries to make sense of her life in a magical way. Through her childish gaze we witness Rhodesia’s final days, the family’s unbreakable bond with Africa, and the deep scars that war leaves on survivors.

Greg Laemmle on DON'T LET'S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT.

“This powerful film has been brought to the screen by first-time director Embeth Davidtz. An actress who has worked with filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Robert Altman, and Sam Raimi, Ms. Davidtz draws from her own experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa to bring striking authenticity to the story of a family of white farmers in Zimbabwe.

“The film is told through the eyes of young Bobo — played with extraordinary depth by newcomer Lexi Venter — as she witnesses the political upheaval in a land on the brink of change.

“A hit at the prestigious Telluride and Toronto International film festivals, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is opening on July 11 in New York and Los Angeles before rolling out nationally.

“You won’t want to miss our conversation with Ms. Davidtz where we discuss her journey from actor to filmmaker and the challenges of adapting this beloved memoir — on Inside the Arthouse.”

Laemmle Sunset 5 general manager Roger Christensen on the latest Inside the Arthouse.

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The staff members at your local arthouse — they’re generally as unique as the films they show, and thank God for that. Because without their disregard for corporate uniformity, the experience of going to the cinema would not have that distinctive quality that makes each visit unique.

In the latest episode of Inside the Arthouse, hosts Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge get to talk with Roger Christensen, a longtime movie theater employee who spent the last part of his 40-plus year career as the locally famous, beloved, and hilarious general manager of the Sunset 5 in West Hollywood. At a time when that venue was the hottest arthouse west of the Angelika Film Center in New York, he was there when indie icons like Todd Haynes, Lisa Cholodenko, and Doug Liman debuted their first films. And just to prove that it wasn’t all Oscars and accolades, he also bears some responsibility for the launch of the phenomenon of Tommy Wisseau and his cult B movie hit The Room.

Downtown movie palaces fade away. New venues take over as the audience shifts geographically. Single screens give way to multiplexes. But through it all, the audience still craves that moment when the house lights dim and the screen comes to life. And for the people who work at the theater – the managers, projectionists, and box office and concessions personnel – they get to share in that journey of change and discovery that comes with seeing a great movie.

“A gorgeous drama with an open, aching heart,” FAMILIAR TOUCH opens Friday at the Royal, Town Center, and Glendale.

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As we approach 2025’s midway point, we are about to open one of the year’s finest films, the locally produced Familiar Touch. A sampling of critics’ encomiums is below. Writer-director Sarah Friedland and star Kathleen Chalfant will participate in Royal Q&A’s after the 7:30 P.M. shows on June 27 & 28; at the Town Center following the 12:50 P.M. show on June 29; and at the Glendale after the 4:30 P.M. show on June 29. Lydia Storie, Director of Culture Change at Caring Across Generations, will moderate the June 27 screening. You can also catch Friedland and Chalfant’s interview on the latest episode of Inside the Arthouse.
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“Familiar Touch is a film about forgetting, but it’s also a reminder — as moving, sincere and gracefully unadorned as any I’ve seen in some time — of the actor’s art.” ~ Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal

“A gorgeous drama with an open, aching heart.” ~ Jourdain Searles, RogerEbert.com

“Because writer-director Sarah Friedland’s debut finds so much depth in its subjective approach to memory loss, it loses much of its stigma and discovers wonder in its place.” ~ Jacob Oller, AV Club

“Friedland’s film, as sharp as it is soft, conveys both the terror of losing the life you recognize, and the intermittent, fragmented joy of finding it again.” ~ Guy Lodge, Variety

“In the end,  Familiar Touch reveals itself to be less about the agonies of change than in the concessions we make to feel closer to our loved ones and ourselves.” ~ Beatrice Loayza, New York Times

“There is great emotional heft to a relatively simple film, and a dignity and empathy afforded to dementia patients that feels astonishingly rare on-screen, where sensationalism tends to bring the house down.” ~ Hannah Strong, Little White Lies

“Familiar Touch can be sad, without question, but it’s also salty and boundlessly tender.” ~ Alison Willmore, New York Magazine/Vulture

“What Friedland keenly understands is the power of what’s unsaid, how memories can tie themselves to sound, smell, and touch too, and how sometimes those are the last to go.” ~ Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“Like any good coming-of-age movie, Familiar Touch never condescends. It takes its protagonist’s experience with dislocation, unrequited love and the desire to be understood quite seriously.” ~ Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter

“Friedland, who also wrote the film‘s script, is not given over to histrionics or blaring displays of emotion, instead asking us to follow Ruth and experience the world through her eyes. The impact is profound.” ~ Kate Erbland, IndieWire

“There’s a profound tenderness in Sarah Friedland’s affecting first feature and a rare empathy.” ~ Wendy Ide, Screen International

A new comedy that draws inspiration from the great ones of the past, BAD SHABBOS opens Friday.

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A huge hit last weekend in New York, we’re excited to open the comedy Bad Shabbos this Friday at the Royal and Town Center with expansion runs planned around L.A. County in the subsequent weeks. The film follows David and his fiancée, Meg, who are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner. Things get far more complicated because of an accidental death (or murder?). With Meg’s Catholic parents due any moment, the family dinner soon spirals into a hilarious disaster.

Bad Shabbos director Daniel Robbins is interviewed on the latest episode of Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge’s video podcast Inside the Arthouse and also wrote the following about his film:

“My grandfather liked to joke that Christians will tell you they’re Christian, Muslims will tell you they’re Muslim, but Jews will tell you they’re Jew…ish.

“There’s a wide range to Judaism and the characters in this film fall in the middle of the spectrum. They’re people who take their faith seriously, but also interact with the secular world. People who, instead of planting their flag on one end of the spectrum, try to exist in between. People who try to manage the polarities of a secular life and a religious one.

“I chose to portray this segment of Judaism not just because it’s how I grew up, but because of the metaphor it presents for a family. Each family is constantly managing its own polarities. Between familial expectations and personal freedoms. Between unconditional love and constructive criticism.

“Between tradition of the old and tolerance for the new. This film is about a family trying to find its place, on a night when they’re meeting the in-laws for the first time, while there’s a dead body in their bathroom.

“It’s a fun, kinetic ride that pulls from the great comedies of the past. There are pieces stolen from Ernst Lubitsch’s blocking, Billy Wilder’s efficiency, Woody Allen’s aesthetic, Mike Nichols’s performances, and Nora Ephron and Neil Simon’s dialogue. But the greatest heist is probably from the early 2000’s comedies I grew up watching. The films Meet the Parents and My Big Fat Greek Wedding were constantly playing on my parents’ TV, broken up with whatever commercials TNT decided to include. These two films were comedies with tight scripts, big laughs, some heart, and authentic portrayals of their subcultures — Chicago Greeks and Long Island Christians. Additional influences were The Birdcage and Death at a Funeral.

The film was shot entirely on location on the Upper West Side. It was important to make it as authentic as possible and stay true to that setting – including shooting at the iconic Upper West Side staple Barney Greengrass and giving the owner Gary Greengrass a small role. The apartment was an actual apartment on 81st Street on the 16th floor, however the lobby was shot in a different building on Riverside drive, the same building they used for Tom Hanks’s lobby in You’ve Got Mail (also a favorite of ours).

Our team’s first goal with Bad Shabbos was to make a film that authentically portrays my subculture — New York Jews. My family gathered for Shabbos dinner every Friday night and, even on the more chaotic nights, there was an underlying warmth. Then our second and, perhaps, main goal was to take everything we love about the comedies of old and — like the characters in this film — try to adapt to modern times.”

From Bob Strauss’s review in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Jews and gentiles in love have been comically upsetting their respective families for at least 103 years, since the popular stage play “Abie’s Irish Rose” debuted. Dinner parties gone awry are also a theatrical — and by extension, movie and television — staple.

“Mix them together with an inconvenient corpse, and you’ve got the recipe for Bad Shabbos. More crucial ingredients in Daniel Robbins’ New York farce include verbal dexterity and spry visuals, which give the sense of a well-done theatrical production that’s a real movie as well.

“Primarily set in an Upper West Side apartment, the film also boasts a game ensemble, each member of which knows just how to take their moments in the spotlight. Characters aren’t deep but not stick figures either; their flaws and needs become more pronounced as the pressure mounts from a sudden death  — or was it murder?

“Sure, certain roles bear unmistakable traces of stereotype, but no one is solely defined by the fact that they’re a Jewish mother or Midwestern Catholic. Everyone’s core impulses take them to surprising and darkly funny but believable places. And growth is a nice, nourishing dish on this Sabbath comedy’s table.

“Jon Bass (“Miracle Workers”) and Meghan Leathers (“For All Mankind”) are David and Meg, facing their final hurdle to getting married: her Catholic parents coming in from Wisconsin to meet his Jewish family, the Gelfands, for Friday night dinner.

“Observant but not super orthodox, David’s mom Ellen (Kyra Sedgwick) has issues with her future daughter-in-law’s not quite kosher kitchen skills (for starters), while his dad Richard (David Paymer) seems more devoted to his self-help psychology books than to the Talmud.

“Also at the Shabbat is David’s scrawny kid brother, a wannabe Israel Defense Forces commando named Adam (Theo Taplitz, who has the looks and intensity of a very young Adrien Brody), their sister Abby (Milana Vayntrub) and her crummy boyfriend Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman). They all work up believable irritations and concerns before the deadly incident hijacks everyone’s attention.

“With varying success, they attempt to carry on like nothing’s wrong when Meg’s parents, Beth (Catherine Curtin) and John (John Bedford Lloyd), arrive. Prayers and rituals get made up to keep the visitors distracted and away from the body in the kitchen. There are high degrees of cleverness and silliness to all of this.

“But top comic delivery honors go to Vayntrub (of AT&T commercials and, more recently, the Menendez brothers “Monsters” fame) as an unhappy woman who becomes both increasingly drunk and the situation’s moral center. When Ellen disapprovingly learns she drove over on the Sabbath, Abby replies, “How is this worse than murder?”

“Likewise, Lloyd is a slow-burn marvel who builds John from a subtle to a loudly aggrieved fount of micro-anti-semitisms.

“Honorable mention goes to Clifford “Method Man” Smith, who as the building’s doorman Jordan makes it his business to help the only resident family he likes. Additionally, Jordan brings a suspensefully useful ticking clock element as his shift change approaches.

“As noted, Bad Shabbos is about growth as well as laughs, and no one exemplifies that better than Leathers. Lightly touching on Meg’s resentment at having to convert while her fiancé needn’t do anything, she nonetheless gleans practical insights from her rabbinical studies and has a gift for sharing what she knows. As does writer-director Robbins, who modeled the Gelfands on his own family.

“Without making a big deal out of any of their traits, he gives us specific, authentic characters who live their traditional beliefs with modern attitudes. Neither too “oy vey” nor “Weekend at Bernie’s” but steeped in the best aspects of both Jewish and black comedy, Bad Shabbos is a treat any night of the week.”

NORTHERN LIGHTS restored.

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Winner of the Camera d’Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, the sui generis Northern Lights marks one of the most moving and committed works of political cinema from the late 1970s. Dramatizing the formation of the populist Nonpartisan League in North Dakota in the mid-1910s, Northern Lights captures the plight of immigrant Dakotan farmers as they toil and struggle against the combined forces of industry and finance. Amid this paroxysm of class tension, two young lovers find themselves swept up in the tide. Shot on location (on grain-rich black-and-white 16mm) in the dead of winter and featuring an astonishing cast of non-professional actors, this handmade masterpiece remains a stirring monument to collectivity. 

Laemmle Theatres will open the restored Northern Lights June 13 at the Royal. The latest episode of Inside the Arthouse will feature the film.

Restoration Credits 

IndieCollect produced the new 4K restoration for Kino Lorber. It was created by scanning the 35mm Fine Grain Master Positive in 6.5K. Color correction by Jason Crump of Metropolis was personally supervised by co-director John Hanson. Special thanks to Mike Pogorzelski & Josef Lindner of the Academy Film Archive for their cooperation. The 4K restoration was funded by Kino Lorber, IndieCollect donor John Ahlgren, and additional support from the Golden Globe Foundation and Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust.

About the Production 

Northern Lights was filmed from 1975 to 1977 in northwestern North Dakota near the Canadian border in an area settled by Norwegian immigrants, some of whom still spoke their homeland dialect at the time of production. 

Back in 1915, small farmers banded together to organize the Nonpartisan League, the grassroots movement that is the backdrop for the film’s love story. Their descendants threw their full support behind the production. Co-Directors John Hanson and Rob Nilsson cast many of them in speaking roles alongside lead actors Robert Behling, Joe Spano and Susan Lynch. Acting for the first time in scripted roles, these rural folk gave the film a gritty authenticity in the tradition of the Italian Neorealist film movement. Made for just over $300,000 with a small crew from San Francisco, Northern Lights was a production of Cine Manifest, the film collective that Hanson and Nilsson had co-founded. 

Filmed in stark black and white, Northern Lights captures the stunning imagery of the High Plains landscape, its farmers silhouetted against the immense northern sky. Widely acclaimed for its cinematography, it was shot in 16mm and was one of the first independent films to be blown up to 35mm at the DuArt Film Lab. After its 1978 world premiere at the Dakota Theater in Crosby, North Dakota, Hanson, Nilsson and Associate Producer Sandra Schulberg took the movie to the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Camera d’Or Award for Best First Feature. 

The Cannes Festival recognition led to other festivals. It won the Grand Prize at the Portugal International Film Festival and Special Jury Awards at the U.S. Film Festival (the forerunner to Sundance) and at Houston’s WorldFest. At the 1979 New York Film Festival, Northern Lights was shown opening night of the Festival’s “American Independents” sidebar. 

Initially, Hanson, Nilsson and Schulberg distributed Northern Lights themselves, going theater to theater throughout the Dakotas and Upper Midwest. In 1980, with filmmakers Maxi Cohen, Joel Gold, Deborah Shaffer, Stewart Bird, Glenn Silber & Barry Brown, they founded First Run Features, hiring veteran Fran Spielman from New Yorker Films to get their films book in theaters across the U.S. 

In 1982, for the second season of the PBS “American Playhouse” series, Lindsay Law acquired the broadcast rights to Northern Lights and it won the Neil Simon Award for Best Dramatic Screenplay. It has since been acclaimed worldwide as one of the best American Independent movies of all time.

“Laura Piani’s splendid debut balances reality with the effervescent charm of vintage swooners.” JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE opens May 23.

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If you are in need of some escapism that piques rather than insults your intelligence, we strongly recommend the new French rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. We open it May 23 at the Royal and May 30 at all but one of our other theaters. (Its writer-director, Laura Piani, is interviewed on the latest episode of Inside the Arthouse.)

Variety’s Chief Film Critic Peter Debruge perfectly captures the film’s charms in his review, whose subhead reads “Laura Piani’s splendid debut balances reality with the effervescent charm of vintage swooners.”

Debruge’s review is worth quoting at length:

“A diet of romantic literature is a recipe for disappointment in real life, argues French director Laura Piani with Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, about an aspiring writer who’s convinced she was born in the wrong century, if only because she still believes in things like soulmates and courtship. Part homage, part referendum on all those love stories that make it look easy, Piani’s just-jaded-enough alternative fills the regrettable gap left by such feel-good classics as Four Weddings and a Funeral and the Austen-inspired Bridget Jones’s Diary. Sony Pictures Classics plans a limited release for May 23, going wide a week later.

“At a time when practically the entire rom-com genre has gravitated to streaming, this bilingual theatrical offering from Sony Pictures Classics feels like the best kind of throwback. Presented as a lighthearted farce, complete with characters stepping (naked) through the wrong doors and a tense cross-country ride, in which Agathe complains in French (not realizing her companion speaks the language), the film is at once old-fashioned and refreshingly, realistically up to date in its take on modern courtship.

“Blocked in both love and literature, Agathe (Camille Rutherford) is an exasperated Frenchwoman working at Shakespeare and Company, the adorably cluttered English-language bookstore situated just a few meters from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. According to Austen’s standards, Agathe — who identifies most closely with Anne Elliot in Persuasion — might seem at genuine risk of spinsterhood, having made it to her mid-30s without a prospect. It’s been years since she’s had so much as a kiss, and the hopeless singleton finds herself pouring all of her idealism and frustration into futile creative writing exercises until … inspiration strikes during a solitary dinner as she stares deep into a novelty sake cup.

“Behind Agathe’s back, her encouraging (if frequently inappropriate) best friend Félix (Pablo Pauly) sends off the first few chapters of this new project to a writer’s residency at Austen’s onetime abode, hoping to give Agathe the “kick in the arse” she needs. Friendship, as Austen herself wrote, is “the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.” The next thing she knows, Agathe is crossing the Channel to visit the author’s estate. There, she spars with (but also falls for) one of the author’s distant relatives: Austen’s priggish great-great-great-grandnephew Oliver (Charlie Anson).

“Piani shot the entire film in France, but it truly feels as if it has a foot in both cultures. Anson could be a young Rupert Everett’s bookish brother, and has clearly studied every wince and eye flutter in Hugh Grant’s arsenal, combining such tools into a 21st-century version of the Mr. Darcy archetype. From the frosty first encounter between Agathe and Oliver, in which she steps off the ferry and promptly retches on his loafers, audiences should find themselves rooting for these two to recognize how compatible they are.

“But Agathe is wrestling with more than just her insecurities, as kissing Félix just before she took the ferry has stirred up newfound feelings for her old friend. Félix is a serial womanizer and a classic cad with whom she’s always felt a certain unexplored sexual tension, despite their many years of platonic companionship, and even in his absence, this development stands to complicate whatever she feels for Oliver. (Lest one doubt where viewers’ allegiances should lie, composer Peter von Poehl’s score practically quotes “Yumeji’s Theme” from In the Mood for Love, a romantic melody that’s all but impossible to resist.)

“A few decades ago, a film like this might have had little chance of success competing with Hollywood-made rom-coms, but that steady stream has moved to, well, streaming, leaving a space wide open for audiences still looking to laugh and swoon at their local art house. As its almost defeatist title implies, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life has an intriguing relation to such escapism, recognizing that fiction in all its forms (whether literary or cinematic) has spoiled so many people’s expectations of what love can be.

“Piani casts a gangly, wide-eyed actor to play Agathe. Rutherford is far from the dime-a-dozen ingénues so often seen in French movies, with their voluptuous figures and vacant expressions — and so much the better, as it sets an unrealistic standard for young women to aspire to (while no such standard exists for their gargoyle-like male co-stars). Instead, she excels at being awkward, incorporating pratfalls and physical comedy into a role that doesn’t turn the head of every man she meets. Although Agathe is quite lovely in a less conventional way, Piani allows her intellect and personality to be the character’s most attractive traits.”

Click here to read the rest of the review.

 

Argentine film MOST PEOPLE DIE ON SUNDAYS “squeezes magic out of melancholy.”

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Starring and written and directed by Iair Said, Most People Die on Sundays is about grief, but it’s also funny, outrageous, surprising, and utterly unique, with a deadpan tone that recalls Jim Jarmusch movies. We follow the protagonist David as he returns home to Argentina for his uncle’s funeral. Said has a sui generis quality of classic screen comics like Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati, and the rest of the cast plays off him perfectly. A sensation when it premiered in the Acid Section at Cannes, Most People Die on Sundays is a comic gem that we’re thrilled to open this Friday at the Royal and Town Center. (Check out Said’s interview on the latest Inside the Arthouse.)

“Said’s finely calibrated writing produces situations that organically and succinctly flesh out the interpersonal dynamics in his family.” – RogerEbert.com

“Said squeezes magic out of melancholy…brings this somewhat mournful portrait to a quietly moving grace note suggesting the silver lining of loss is a motivational reminder to the living.” – Ioncinema

“[A] treatise on the right to fail…a tender tribute to the misfits, to those who, from their peripheral and marginal position, see the world better than the winners.” – Troiscouleurs

“A tragicomedy that lives up to the term, as it finds eruptions of welcome absurdist humor (with something of Martín Rejtman’s cinema) even in the most tragic moments…Said’s cinema in all its dimensions, constantly deepens and evolves.” – Otros Cines

“A marvel, chaotic, sweet and sour, emotional and purely detailed…The filmmaker manages to immerse the viewer in his cathartic state of shock; he manages to connect with the audience in a pain so unique.” – Spanglish Cinema

“A burlesque and touching story about the difficulty of being an adult when you are immature on a relational, emotional and sentimental level…with intelligent writing and without anything superfluous, [Said] describes universal relationships with complex roots, a family life without warmth but not without affection. The lovely ending scene between David and his mother is the perfect example.” – Le Bleu du Miroir

“Most People Die on Sundays is a testament to Said’s ever-expanding list of talents…[a] clever approach to a delicate subject.” – International Cinephile Society

“I wanted to bring to light the inner lives of these women, their mutual attraction, their powers, the ways in which they conceal in order to reveal at their own pace.” BONJOUR TRISTESSE opens Friday.

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Based on Françoise Sagan’s controversial 1954 novel, published when she was only 18 years old, the new adaptation of Bonjour Tristesse follows teenage Cécile (Lily McInerny). Her relaxing summer with her father (Claes Bang) in the south of France is upended by the arrival of the enigmatic Anne (Chloë Sevigny), her late mother’s friend.

First-time filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose is a writer, editor, and filmmaker living in Montreal. Prior to making Bonjour Tristesse, her film writing and interviews have focused on a range of international directors, from Abbas Kiarostami to Mia Hansen-Løve, Mike Leigh, Olivier Assayas, and many more. She is a devoted cinephile and has spoken on the works of masters of the craft from Michelangelo Antonioni to Hsiao-Hsien Hou at numerous screening retrospectives around the world. Her study continued with the gorgeous collaboration she achieved on this film with her crew, especially her cinematographer and costume designer. As she says in her just-posted interview on Inside the Arthouse, “From the beginning, I had a strong sense of who I wanted to build this world with and, honestly, learn from, because I was going to be the least experienced person on the set. You’re very aware of every individual who is there making it with you because you only get this finite amount of time to do it.”

In another interview, Chew-Bose was asked, “What made you want to tell this story?”

A: I was drawn to the women. There was still more to tell. My understanding of what an adaptation could be, for a book as beloved as Bonjour Tristesse, that had also been previously adapted, was entirely based on…potential. I wanted to bring to light the inner lives of these women, their mutual attraction, their powers, the ways in which they conceal in order to reveal at their own pace, of course. Françoise Sagan was a singular force and I was inspired to use my voice to continue the story of Bonjour Tristesse, instead of simply retelling it. In some ways, it’s a very simple story. But is jealousy ever simple? Is growing up as a girl and feeling misunderstood by those you trust most, simple? Is finding love in the same places you might find pain, ever simple? I found myself under the influence of Cécile, even if on paper, we had little in common. I admired her ability to contradict herself, to experience the full-blown capacity of her feelings. There’s real freedom in that. I admired Anne, but wanted to write a version that felt truer to my understanding of womanhood, free of expectations, bright, funny, soft. I was excited to tell this story, scene by scene, allowing these women to compose a rhythm for the movie. Their choices are its momentum.

Q: The cinematography in the film is gorgeous, what was the process like of striking the right tone for the visual language of the film?

A: Max and I spent a long time simply watching movies. We’d watch a movie and then talk about it, even if it wasn’t an obvious inspiration for Bonjour Tristesse. In fact, we seemed drawn to films that weren’t sun dappled or set on beaches. We loved movies with dramatic blocking, where conversations were made tense, simply by how the characters were or were not facing each other. I wanted stillness, and Max encouraged me to seek moments where we could favor movement. We found a sweet spot in Ozu’s use of “pillow shots,” these sort of ‘place setting’ moments where cutaways of everyday life at the Villa provided an opportunity for composition and color, gentle rhythm, and summer’s natural appeal to time passing in a more poetic way.

I wanted certain scenes to feel like theater, on a stage, but in order to achieve that for our movie, Max and I found ways to bring the outdoors inside and vice versa, so our stage, so to speak, still involved shadows, a breeze.

We also focused our attention on photographers like Luigi Ghirri or painters like Félix Vallotton. The former was a huge source of inspiration for the movie’s faded blues and browns. The latter inspired us to favour dark interiors, stylized with a single lamp. One painting in particular, titled “Le Diner, effect de lamp” was the blueprint for a dinner scene in the movie where I insisted our characters should look like they are floating in space at the table, surrounded by blackness. We planned a lot and then forgot everything, finding our rhythm each day on set. We played. We listened to our surroundings.

Also, while it isn’t totally related to the movie’s cinematography, it is related to its visual style. We worked closely with the designer and artist, Cynthia Merhej, whose work inspired the world of Anne’s designs. Cynthia’s eye for color, fabric, detail, was a collaborative no-brainer for Miyako. Together, they imagined a sophisticated, romantic, dancerly, and sometimes handsome design language for Anne. Cynthia’s dresses provide real moments of beauty in the movie, and personally, reminded me of so many classic films where costume encouraged an otherworldly quality to a scene. We can marvel, be awed. She makes clothes for twirling and twirling is so cinematic.

Q: The music in the film is singular and incredibly thoughtful—can you talk through your decisions and inspiration for it?

A: I’ve always loved movie soundtracks. If I was going to make my first film, I was going to make one with a singular soundtrack. Aliocha Schneider was a huge source of inspiration for our music, given his talent and voice. I rewrote scenes for his character, Cyril, after he and I went for a walk a couple years ago in Montreal. He was learning how to sing in Italian, the rest is history.

Our composer, Lesley Barber, designed a score that feels timeless but also spooky, and in moments, very romantic. I loved working with her in Toronto, watching as she played the piano, feeling out a scene’s many movements. We referenced everything from Disney movies to John
Adams to Laraaji to Ravel to Harold Budd, but ultimately, we found our own sound. My friend Hailey Gates recorded an original song for the movie with Z berg—something like a narration of Cécile’s summer. It’s haunting and totally out there but also, like everything with Bonjour, it feels familiar (and again, a little bit Disney). Early in the movie, a song by Dorothy Ashby plays. Something about her harp always sets forth a dreamier side of my imagination, and I wanted that same stirring quality to awaken our audience.

Q: How did your own research of Francoise Sagan inform your approach to Bonjour Tristesse?

A: I researched for my own curiosity. I’ve always found it strange that book covers of Bonjour Tristesse are designed with photos of Françoise. She became fiction, in some ways, and I wanted to preserve her original story, and in turn preserve her, separate from the book. She was so much more. I was under the influence of her love of cars, though, and made sure we had plenty of road, so to speak, and moments of speed (in image and score), to pay tribute to her love of racing. She loved an accelerated life. Personally, I’m much…slower. I tried to strike a balance. I loved reading about her life and learning about her life, through her son, Denis and her longtime publisher Editions Julliard.

Q: Where did the shoot take place and how long did you film for?

A: Beautiful Cassis. There wasn’t a day that passed where I wasn’t acutely aware of our breathtaking location—white rocks, blue water, wild, 300 year old pine trees that our Villa was actually built around. I loved our Villa. It was the first one we saw and I couldn’t unsee it. A real
coup de cœur. It was designed by the architect Fernand Pouillon and what drew me to it was how it was all at once unassuming but rich with character, like sneaky colors here and there, heavy doors and shallow stairs. It had an inside-outside build with windows that provided something voyeuristic to the design. There were multiple terraces which is ideal for a movie with a lot of sitting and talking—I was able to adapt the script to the Villa’s character easily, as if it was all preordained. Max choreographed the camera movements to bring out the Villa’s
particularities, and in some ways, I think the Villa encouraged our imagination, challenged our imagination. We listened to the Villa; we spent time there at various moments in the day, to understand what it looked like at sunset or midday, how the stone walls shifted their varieties of warmth. Even our costume designer, ever-thoughtful in her thinking, Miyako Bellizzi, joined us at different times of day, to understand how her costumes might look against the Villa’s walls, among the trees. We shot for 30 days.

Q: Talk about the casting process and how you came to cast such an extraordinary group of actors here?

A: I always knew I wanted a very international cast, built entirely on instinct. I wanted to make a contemporary version of Bonjour Tristesse and that included updating the characters’ pursuits, sensibilities, sensitivities. I had known Lily for years and personally, just had a feeling she would become Cécile beyond what was on the page. The moment we cast her, Cécile was no longer mine. She was Lily’s. And Lily took the role and ran, with intensity, with subtlety, with an Audrey Hepburn-type grace.

Many years ago, when I was only outlining Bonjour, my producers joined me in Montreal to go over my vision for the film. We talked a lot about Anne and I expressed my deep love for this woman who wants to protect her powers but also, who moves with elegance, who is tender with those that she loves, who is visionary and a romantic. Chloe was an immediate choice. Her immense talent, the roles she takes and the directors she takes chances on, her wit, her style, her deep love for her family and friends, it was so obvious. It took us years to make this movie and years to reach the moment we would cast her, but like everything with this process, there’s been some magic, some destiny. The day we wrapped Chloe, there were tears on set. Nobody wanted her to leave.

It took us a long time to find our Elsa but the moment I saw Naïlia, I knew she was the one. Her smile, her impossible coolness, her kindness. Elsa, in our adaptation, is probably the biggest departure from the book, and Naïlia was very excited and passionate about giving Elsa a story
beyond her relationship to Raymond. There’s a softness, too, to Elsa that isn’t obvious, but Naïlia has a natural tenderness to her. She’s an observer. She pays attention to everyone’s feelings in the room. I learned so much from Naïlia about the power of subtlety.