What was involved in the production of making such a visually and sonically rich film?
At the Tour de France we had a full ten cameras, and we were able to put a camera inside the car, sometimes two, and then at every stop along the way we had three cameras in every car.
What was the process like between you two as you developed the screenplay?
Well the the screenplay developed in a really, to use an overused word, organic way. I knew he was a fine writer. I gave him a premise that I had been sitting on for about a decade. He did the writing, but we developed the story and the feel and the texture of it together.
Why did you decide to shoot this film in black and white?
Alexander Payne: You know, it wasn’t ever really a decision—it just felt right. It had to be in black and white.
Most of your films are connected to specific real-world locations. How did you approach this film where you created the place of Leisure Land?
Alexander Payne: Well it’s simply what the screenplay required.
Mr. Kauflin, what was your reaction when you were approached about being in this film?
Kauflin: When Al asked me that, we had already known each other for a few years; he was a good buddy of mine. I knew he was a great drummer, and apparently he’s a good surfer as well.
How did you arrive at the very specific tone of the film?
Adam McKay: It was always going to have comedic elements to it. But in the editing process, the tone was very tricky.
Your characters spends a lot of time in an underground room, and doesn’t interact with a wide variety of people. But you still manage to develop a building sense of urgency. Can you talk about that process?
Adam Driver: There is a kind of decorum that comes with being in that kind of space that I really related to. There is a withholding of emotion, because you are there to do a job and not to insert your opinion or to have a feeling that you can express to your higher ups.
A.V. Rockwell: I really wanted to tell a story, especially for my first film, that recognized my coming of age experience in New York City…
I heard you entered the Python Challenge a year before shooting. What did you learn from that experience?
Xander Robin: Thanks for watching the movie! I actually live in South Florida right now. I grew up there, lived in New York for a little bit, but I was trying to make a movie in South Florida.
What was the process of getting in sync with each other? Was there a lot of workshopping or did you wait until the outset to really work out the scenes?
Viggo Mortensen: I don’t think we workshopped anything. When Vicky was doing something that worked really well, I didn’t say much of anything. But when I had a different thought or wanted to try something different, I would say something. But mostly, I thought she always understood the character really well, which was great.
Period pieces are notoriously cumbersome and expensive to make. Did you find that to be the case?
Thaddeus O’Sullivan: The biggest challenge in this context was really the whole Lourdes issue.
Your relationship with Akira Kurosawa dates back to the beginning of your career. Can you share how you first encountered Kurosawa’s work and what drew you to reimagine it?
Spike Lee: People always assume that this film is a remake of Kurosawa’s High and Low, but it actually began with Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom.
I never thought about a Hungarian population in Canada. One of the themes running through this film for me was isolation. You shot Jeremy in isolation a lot, but he’s not the only one.
SR: I try to do as much as I can visually without having it be in the dialogue or without it being explicit and trusting that the audience will pick up on the nuances of the visual language. A big part of that was shooting on Vancouver Island.
Sophie, let’s start with the genesis: how did this project begin?
Sophie Brooks: It really does feel like a miracle when an indie gets made. We almost made this movie in 2020 and thought, “this is easy,” but it ended up taking another four and a half years.
I understand this film is based on a story that really resonated with you?
Sergey Loznitsa: The film is based on a story by Georgy Demidov, who was arrested in 1938 and spent nearly fourteen years in prison camps.