Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Lynne Ramsay is a bad ass.
In the process, shes gained a reputation as a bit of a fighter.
And of course, she approaches it in a startling, completely unexpected way.
(Side note: hey give Lynne Ramsay more than 28 days to shoot a feature.)
And I got this phone call, and they said, We want it.
It was likeboom, boom, boom five days, over and over again.
And I was like, Im still cutting the film.
But of course, after Cannes, [Amazon] was like, Well, everyone likes it!
You dont need any more time!
And I was like, No, I do.
So you saw a slightly different version, but it hasnt changed dramatically.
But the sound has.
This is your third adaptation.
And Jonathan Amess novella is a very lean, pulpy work.Its a pulpy, B-noir book.
A good one, a page-turner.
But it is that, and thats what he intended it to be.
So he must like it.
He said we made it quite operatic, which is a nice compliment.
Weve got this guy coming apart at the seams, and hes a ghost in his own life.
And he somehow has to come back to life.
And I was quite terrified of that, but also quite exhilarated.
So I just started writing the thing on spec.
We didnt have the rights, but a friend of mine whos in development knew Jon.
And four weeks later, I had a script.
And I just started writing this thing, and it started evolving and coming out.
And I started speaking to Jonathan about how I was going to do it.
Its really like you read it in one go.
But it had no ending yet, he was still writing it.
So it was kind of like running with the ball, finding our own end.
One of the remarkable things about your action sequences is how little of the violence we actually see.
And yet, you still feel them.
I mean, I like cool, balletic sequences as much as the next person.
But, to start with, we only had 29 days to shoot the film.
And we would have needed four days for some of those sequences, wed need that kind of time.
[The scenes we ended up shooting] were a half a day, maybe a day at most.
It has to do with where this guy is at that time in the story.
And that led to this surveillance sequence.
When directors talk about doing reshoots, Im always super jealous.
So it was risky to do that, but it also felt really appropriate.
People will go, Oh, [your] film is so violent!
but you see so many more films where 150 people are taken out in the first scene.
But thats more of a movie thing.
Related Stories
Well, it was partly due to the limitations of time.
And it wasnt really appropriate, either, you know?
The thing was evolving.
And so I did a test, using a stunt guy, during our prep.
And I started to think, you know, this feels right for that moment in the film.
It sets up sort of a startling tone.
Certainly, Joaquin Phoenix brought that to it.
We played some things for humor, other things were terrifying.
That bit with the drug dealer, where he pushes him into the door?
We wanted some humor in there as well.
We wanted a bit of psychosis in it.
He cracks up, in many ways, in the last reel.
So I was helped immensely by [Joaquin].
And what we were speaking about, in the very short prep I had, was ideas like that.
Or the hotel sequence, with the mirror, where we pan up … And that whole sequence is probably shot in half a day as well.
So, you know, I had to be really economical about my shots, and really know them.
And the mirror idea came quite early, I think in the script.
A lot of the stuff is in the script, but a lot of it evolved.
But to me, this is a spectacle movie in a different kind of way.
At the same time, I appreciate that a lot of people dont.
Its just hard for me, because I think my work is such a visual-aural experience.
But I still believe that the people who want that experience want to have it together.
Its really interesting, when youre in a screening, to feel an audience go a certain way.
And every screenings different.
Its definitely a collective experience.
Interested in becoming an Insider?Apply here.
