Filmmaker Fleur Fortune says it was a must-take Alicia Vikander And Elizabeth OlsonThe cast of her thrilling debut feature assessmentIn “A Danger Zone” for them to fully understand the implications involved in setting the movie in a dystopian future where couples have to scramble for permission to have a baby.
The film is an emotional minefield where people are rigorously evaluated by evaluators to decide whether they would make suitable parents or not.
Fortune says she knew it was important for her and the two actors to get together before the shoot. “I wanted them to rest,” she says.
The Paris-based director has already spoken to Vikander. “When I met Alicia, she was like, ‘This scares me so much, but I really want to do it.’ That’s good, because I thought if she was telling me that, it meant she wanted to go to areas she’d never been before. And that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want anyone safe I wanted her to go into the danger zone,” she tells us.
Look at the timeline
The three women met at Fortune’s apartment and discussed “very emotional topics” and “I remember, the first time all three of us cried.”
Here’s the rub: It’s impossible to reveal too much about this movie.
At the core of the film is a moving moment that will shake you because it cannot be unseen or unimaginable.
Here’s what I can say about the movie, which is having its world premiere today at TIFF.
Vikander plays Virginia, a sort of Calvinistic Mary Poppins; Looks great in stiff, straight, starched white and stark black uniforms. “Yes, but at the same time the look has a kind of Japanese cut. I thought it would make her look really tough, the way she needs to look and be,” says Fortune.
We first meet Virginia when she enters the home of Mia (played by Olsen), an agricultural biochemist scientist who has designed a massive greenhouse that houses the last specimens of thousands of plants and vegetables that were preserved before devastating natural forces destroyed the planet.
Mia shares a house with Aryan (played by Himesh Patel). Aryan specializes in AI and virtual software and can conjure up visions of anything you choose, but it’s not real.
It is Virginia’s task to decide, over a seven-day period where she is with them 24/7, whether the couple is of the right caliber to bear a child.
The mean test is extremely cruel.
Virginia throws up all kinds of obstacles for them to overcome, physically, practically and morally.
Over the years, Fortune has shot videos with the likes of Pharrell Williams and his Chanel collection and with Cate Blanchett for her campaigns with Giorgio Armani. And he has shot music videos with Drake and Travis Scott.
Her visual imagination is amazing.
Several years ago, Stephen Woolley, who runs Number 9 films with Elizabeth Carlson, was looking for a director to write John Donnelly’s script and writing duo Nell Garfath Cox and Dave Thomas (aka Mrs and Mr Thomas).
A friend of Fortune’s heard of Woolley’s inquiry and suggested it to her.
“I have done IVF for many, many years. I was trying to have a baby and was actually writing my own feature about it. So I was completely on top of the subject of the film. And I was already doing some kind of sci-fi in my videos. I was completely in this universe,” she says.
She met with Woolley and they talked for hours about family and children. “And there were all these questions, well, why do you want to have a baby and so on. It was interesting because when you’ve been trying to have a baby for many years, sometimes, you wait: Why do you want it? Are you the right person? We’re already having those conversations,” she explains.
Fortune says that for five years he worked on the story with Mrs. and Mr. Thomas. “We already had the structure of the story, but we had to bring the characters to life and also set the tone of the film.”
The project took so long because Fortune says it was “complicated” for her to explain the vocals she did to the writers. “It’s a mix of genres because it’s a dark comedy, but at the same time it’s a drama and there’s a bit of sci-fi.”
But she wanted to make sure that the sci-fi element didn’t overwhelm the delicate story at the heart of the movie. “It’s about story, and character, and visual content. I wanted the sci-fi to be in the background, because sometimes when you watch a sci-fi movie, like Minority ReportFor instance, the sci-fi element becomes so present, so technical, so good that you don’t care about the story.”
She says she asked her designers and writers to “get rid” of “all kinds.” Minority Report The elements were me, no, no!”
Fortune also charged production designer Jan Houlevig with giving Mia and Aryan their own separate space to reflect their different scientific interests.
“For Aryan, imagine if the AI is so advanced that it’s all in its mind, so the space it needs is minimal — it’s virtual. While Mia’s character is the opposite. She is so natural and grounded that she lives with the outside world. She’s selfish, she likes old technology and she likes to repair her own stuff,” says Fortune.
Seeing the movie in a theater on a big screen is essential to understanding why Fortune was so adamant in his design choices.
What goes on in their places and in their homes is mind-boggling and mind-numbing. For a while, I began to understand what Pauline Kael meant when she wrote that some movies can “confuse you with excitement.” Like a child I would add.
assessment There are times when reproductive rights are a hot button issue. At least I find it incomprehensible that politicians, churches and courts see fit to interfere with the most personal, intimate and private matters concerning a woman and her body.
Mini Driver finds himself a guest at Mia and Aryan’s house. Her character Evie delivers a two-minute monologue that explains how the world of the film has come to be the way it is.
Fortune says that Evie’s monologue was a difficult scene to get right.
“I think we rewrote that scene several times because it’s very difficult in a film when you need to give that information, but you don’t want people to notice that you’re giving them information. She was brilliant in delivering that,” Fortune says with a smile.
At the beginning of the movie, Vikander’s Virginia helps the household.
Both Fortune and Woolley have requested that I not disclose Virginia’s actions.
It is difficult for a journalist. At the same time, it is a reasonable request. I was refreshed, as it were, not one iota about this film. But as you immerse yourself in it, and human nature being what it is, you slowly begin to doubt what might happen and pray that it doesn’t.
Fortune says she personally spent time with each of the three to “hold their hands.”
They put a lot into preparation, she says. “Mia’s character, she’s so real and grounded that she’s not like other people on this planet because she wants to be free. And I told Elizabeth that she needed to be so free to do this. I remember her saying once, ‘I walk around my house naked.’ She was preparing a lot to be released,” says Fortune happily.
Fortune says there was a “great creative energy” between Vikander, Olson and Patel. “They loved working together because they are so different. They stimulated each other’s ideas.”
When Fortune was a child, his parents always told him, “’Oh, he’s in his own world,’ because sometimes they would call me and I wouldn’t answer right away. And years later, when I went through all those IVF tests, at some point my husband said, ‘I think you have some hearing problems.’
Fortune ran some tests with the doctor, which she described as “all right out The sound of metal“
She says she was told by a therapist that she had “moderate” hearing problems. “And so I discovered that I have a disease that also increases with pregnancy hormones, which is weird. But then I discovered that it also came with a creative side because I was more in my own world because of it. And my parents never tested me because I am their last child. But the disease, I think, has helped me more in my world; It helps me create my world and my own sensibility,” she reasons.
“I tried for many years to have a baby through IVF. I also tried to adopt, and finally, I got pregnant during the preparation of this film. And then I had my baby, May, in preparation, and then she was on set when she was 18 months old. She was on set with me, and I had to assess myself to make sure she was going to be okay,” she explains.
That’s why assessment Dedicated to Fortune’s daughter May.
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