Director Kim Albright talks to Fest Track about direction, representation of trauma and the use of metaphor in regards to her film "With Love And A Major Organ" playing the Axis section of the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec [Canada].
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - 'Cause she, and it comes off the screen.
00:28 She, Anna as an actress, not as Annabelle,
00:32 feels so deeply and you can feel that coming through.
00:35 And that doesn't always happen.
00:38 Could you talk about that and how much space
00:40 she needed to be given versus like specific direction
00:43 to say, okay, we need to hit these specific notes
00:46 like within the office of healing or therapy.
00:50 - Yeah, well, thankfully I had worked with Anna before
00:52 on a short film.
00:54 This was like maybe five years ago or so.
00:56 So we had the, despite it being a short,
00:58 we had the benefit of spending time together,
01:01 figuring out that character
01:03 and we just got to know one another.
01:04 And so I got to understand her process,
01:06 I think as a creator and as an actor
01:10 and how she really kind of needs to understand very clearly
01:15 what's happening for her character and why.
01:17 And so I think once I had that initial experience,
01:20 'cause I feel like I'd never,
01:22 I don't work with a lot of actors
01:23 that really wanted to know that much information.
01:25 So I thought, oh, okay, okay, fine.
01:28 We're doing this, let's do it.
01:29 And so, and it was beneficial for me as well.
01:31 And so going into the feature and Anna was hugely involved
01:35 kind of in the development of the script as well,
01:37 which I thought really helped
01:38 'cause then it was kind of tailored a little bit
01:40 to her as well.
01:41 And sort of those years of development kind of,
01:45 it gave her that information she needed
01:48 to kind of build this character.
01:49 And so by the time we got to shooting,
01:53 we kind of, I knew sort of, okay, well, I think she,
01:57 roughly how, you know, she takes her time
02:00 and every actor is different to kind of get into the scene
02:04 and sort of, and play around a little bit.
02:06 And I understood that she needed how much time
02:09 she might need to kind of really feel comfortable
02:12 with her performance and like allowing her that time
02:15 and space to get there.
02:17 And every actor is different, but it was great
02:19 'cause then early on, I remembered, okay,
02:21 this is sort of her process, this is how she works
02:24 and to respect that.
02:25 But on the same, on the flip side, when she's ready,
02:30 she is ready.
02:31 So then I'm like, okay, I said to our DP, Leo,
02:35 we are ready now, I know you're not ready,
02:37 but we just have to go.
02:38 And so, so Neil's like, okay, okay, okay, fine.
02:41 And so there were certain scenes
02:44 that were a little bit like that
02:45 and we just had to pivot and be ready.
02:48 And, you know, even though Leo wasn't like 100% ready,
02:51 we could still use bits from those takes.
02:53 So anyhow, so I learned how to respond to her as an actor,
02:58 as a creator, and just try and kind of just offer her,
03:04 just be able to provide her the space
03:07 that she needed to do her work,
03:09 even if it meant others, we all needed to pivot,
03:11 but, you know, she's there up on screen,
03:13 she's being vulnerable and doing everything we need
03:16 for this film, so we just have to be ready for her
03:19 and like make it work.
03:21 We try it at least.
03:22 - Okay.
03:23 You feeling all right?
03:38 You will?
03:43 - No, I'm just not that hungry.
03:47 (ominous music)
03:49 I got distracted by a pizza on the way here.
03:55 - What?
03:58 - It just smelled so good
04:00 and I wanted to eat it so bad, so I did.
04:02 Why don't we ever order pizza?
04:06 - You want me to invite someone, a stranger,
04:12 to my door and eat greasy food that they bring
04:15 with no idea where they've been?
04:17 You're getting enough sleep.
04:24 - For what?
04:25 - Rational thinking.
04:26 Eat your fish, you need your omega-3s.
04:31 - I'm a vegetarian.
04:35 - No, you're not.
04:36 - It's too sad to eat animals when you think about it.
04:39 - So then don't think about it.
04:41 - I have to.
04:42 I got a fish.
04:45 (crying)
04:48 - Why would you do that?
04:49 - I don't know.
04:51 What's wrong with me?
05:01 - Nothing.
05:02 You're fine.
05:03 You're lucky.
05:06 - That's not how I feel.
05:11 - You know what was interesting?
05:14 You were talking about choice at the beginning
05:16 and it's interesting to look at trauma.
05:18 Trauma's not a choice, trauma happens.
05:21 - Yes.
05:22 - And it affects you whether you're young, you're old,
05:26 you're in the middle of your life,
05:28 but it's a consequence of action within that
05:31 and that's what happens here.
05:32 Can you talk about representing trauma
05:35 but in a sort of genre element,
05:38 which is sort of interesting.
05:40 I mean, there's a scene with George at the table
05:44 with his mom that's wonderfully respective of that,
05:47 but then you also have Anna in so many different things,
05:51 obviously the one with talking with his mom at the end
05:54 about what these things mean and how they reflect.
05:57 Can you talk about reflecting trauma
05:59 and showing that choice visually, emotionally on screen,
06:04 even intellectually, because we think about these things
06:07 and yet it's hard sometimes to verbalize them.
06:10 They have to be, you know.
06:12 - Yeah, it was really interesting
06:14 'cause I felt like the film generally,
06:17 when we think about trauma in this film,
06:20 a lot of it stemmed from upbringing and mothers
06:24 and I'm a mom now myself,
06:25 and so it kind of hit home for me too
06:28 in terms of like how parents in this particular film,
06:32 mothers are just trying to do their best for their kids
06:35 and often it backfires and you end up
06:40 sometimes causing more damage than good.
06:42 And so I feel, you know,
06:43 we look at this a little bit with George,
06:46 like the dinner scene is a perfect example.
06:48 Everything looks fine and measured and precise,
06:51 but then he comes out of that.
06:52 And I think I knew in terms of the cinematography,
06:56 'cause we have that scene where they're eating
06:58 and everything's fine and a hunky dory,
07:00 but then when he then has Annabelle's heart,
07:03 I wanted to do something a little bit visual
07:05 'cause this is where he's like coming out of his shell
07:07 and, you know, he's releasing his emotions
07:10 and kind of for the first time in his life,
07:12 you know, really speaking up back to Mona, his mom.
07:15 And so it's subtle, but if you look closely,
07:20 we did something different with the camera.
07:21 You know, it's not locked off anymore.
07:23 It's sort of at an angle
07:25 and we sort of push in on that shot
07:28 and we sort of cut it up a little bit more
07:30 and the music is different
07:32 and you don't have that kind of,
07:34 it's almost like music in terms of how they're eating,
07:37 you know, like the broccoli
07:39 and then the potatoes and then the chicken.
07:42 So that sequence is all brought,
07:43 like they're eating fish, but he's not eating.
07:45 He's picking his fingers just like Annabelle does.
07:48 And so we wanted the cinematography
07:51 to sort of reflect the differences there
07:53 and then the actors just roll with it
07:55 and George just sort of goes for it.
07:58 And anyway, that I think is the example
08:03 that probably stands out the most to me.
08:05 - Do something nice for yourself tonight.
08:07 Take a bath.
08:08 - I can't, there's another show on at the Gallerium.
08:11 I'm gonna go show my face.
08:13 Be an active member of the community and all that.
08:16 (whistling)
08:23 (camera shutter clicking)
08:27 (footsteps)
08:29,
08:30 (footsteps)
08:32,
08:33 (footsteps)
08:36 (footsteps)
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08:40 (footsteps)
08:42 (soft music)
09:01 (paper rustling)
09:04 (soft music)
09:23 (soft music)
09:25 (soft music)
09:28 (soft music)
09:30 (soft music)
09:33 (soft music)
09:35 (soft music)
09:37 (soft music)
09:40 (soft music)
09:42 - I can't.
10:08 (soft music)
10:11 - Can't you what?
10:12 (soft music)
10:15 - Well, it's interesting 'cause when we talk about that
10:21 and then we talk about the eating,
10:23 but we talk about the house,
10:24 we talk about the details of the yarn.
10:26 What's interesting, and I mean,
10:28 this is just my perspective, you know,
10:30 and I look into a lot of literature and mythology
10:33 and you know, sometimes that comes after the fact,
10:35 but you know,
10:36 I also saw a little bit of Dante's Inferno with the food,
10:39 with the aspect of limbo,
10:41 the aspect that these people are in between worlds
10:43 when she's within her art,
10:46 it takes on that different light and it's a representation.
10:50 Could you talk about art as reflective of life,
10:53 but it's all in the details, those little details,
10:56 like the eating, like the yarn, you know, like the paper,
11:01 you know, those kinds of things.
11:02 Can you talk about those details
11:04 being representative of larger ideas,
11:07 but also very simple, very primal ideas?
11:11 - Yeah, yeah.
11:12 Well, when Annabelle creates her art,
11:14 I feel like this is an opportunity.
11:16 Yeah, like you're saying,
11:17 she's sort of straddling these two worlds.
11:20 Part of it is like her fantasy and her imagination,
11:24 which I really have tried to depict in those scenes,
11:26 and, but we're still kind of in the present day,
11:29 but then I kind of like this question,
11:31 like, but hold on, are we still,
11:33 like, how much of this is real?
11:34 How much of it isn't?
11:35 So I sort of thought it was fun to play with that
11:37 a little bit with the audience,
11:38 so they don't really fully know,
11:40 but you kind of have breadcrumbs of it,
11:42 like, oh, maybe it was actually real
11:44 'cause there's a tape recorder
11:45 and she records this message and leaves it to him.
11:47 But those were, and the art gallery when they're dancing
11:50 in the Waltz scene, and like, oh, how much of that was real?
11:53 But then, hold on, was that really him?
11:55 But then there's this guy who kind of looks like him,
11:57 but it's not George.
11:58 So I thought it was-
12:00 - A memory.
12:00 See, that's an interesting thing
12:01 'cause that speaks to the idea of what memory is
12:03 'cause memory is misleading
12:05 and it can be completely fabricated
12:08 in one person's mind versus another.
12:10 - Totally, totally, yeah, and exactly,
12:12 was that all in her mind or was it real?
12:15 Because it looks so real and George is right there
12:16 and there's the newspaper and everything.
12:17 So that was super fun.
12:22 I think now that I think about it,
12:23 the dance sequence, it could probably kind of pull off more
12:26 as being her memory
12:27 and something that she's entirely fabricated,
12:29 whereas I quite like the fact
12:31 that she did create this art,
12:33 maybe not quite in the same way as it's depicted on screen,
12:36 but she brings that canvas to Casey's party
12:39 and she actually did create that and there was proof of it.
12:42 But those sequences were super fun
12:44 to kind of play around with
12:46 and really push the audience to think, oh, wow, look,
12:50 she's almost like a magician or something like this,
12:53 to kind of make it feel otherworldly in a way,
12:57 but still kind of real,
12:58 but just to sort of show what her mind is capable of
13:01 and just how special a human being she is,
13:04 at least in contrast to the bleak surroundings
13:07 that she's around, the Vancouver kind of grayness
13:10 and miserable weather
13:12 and everyone that's sort of on autopilot,
13:14 she's sort of this beacon that sort of stands out
13:17 and sort of shines a light on what's wonderful in life.
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