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“Every element of the production design, the props and set dressing, etc, could only come from the farm we shot on, or my dad’s farm which is 10 minutes down the road, or from the local area.”
To do justice to this dedicated preparation, and his two breathtaking central performances, Lee wanted to make sure that all aspects of the filmmaking immersed an audience in the experiences and feelings of his characters.
We’re very happy and hopefully, we’ll win something at the BIFAs.
How was working with Francis Lee in his first feature film? When one such escapade delays his return, Johnny’s beloved cow has delivered a stillborn calf. A disapproving Martin hands him a rifle, and he shoots the calf in the head, the first of many shots depicting the brutality of life up here in “God’s Own Country.” When Johnny lives for himself, however briefly, things die.
READ MORE: ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Review: Luca Guadagnino Delivers A Queer Masterpiece — Sundance 2017
When Gheorghe arrives to help with lambing season, bearded and tender-faced, Johnny is initially standoffish as he shows him the weathered RV where he will be sleeping.
I don’t really have a bucket list, though: I’m more like an “in the moment” kind of person.
I Dreamed a Dream…Two years ago we started working on a project called “Fight Club”, an adaptation of Palahniuk’s book. Josh in particular would do 10 or 12 hours, and he would do everything. “We had rules about how we moved the camera,” explains Lee.
“We used the camera as a character.”
And so, rather than sweeping vistas of the green and pleasant lands normally associated with cinema from the region, cinematographer Joshua James keeps a tight focus – often claustrophobically so – on Johnny and, later, Gheorghe. “I knew I didn’t want a film with a heavy score in terms of music, so I wanted to build the soundtrack of the film from layers and layers of natural sound.
Especially Gheorghe. Embittered by his isolated existence, Johnny (Josh O’Connor) softens upon meeting Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), who has much to teach him, and not just how to delicately breathe life into a newborn lamb. “I think this year is incredibly rich in films that deal with same sex relationships,” says Lee, pointing to Moonlight, but also name-checking Luca Guadagnino’s forthcoming Call Me By Your Name and Sebastián Lelio’s trans story A Fantastic Woman.
It makes things happen.
Favorite Emoji: ?
Italian movie: La Grande Bellezza (The Great
Beauty), by far.
Favorite quote: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return”– Moulin Rouge.
The last Series you binge-watched: The Young Pope.
Lee supplements the more shocking images, like Johnny’s gloved arm plunging into a protesting cow’s backside, with the small beauties of butterflies and beetles. I took the first sip and the director said, “It’s ok, let’s do another one but drink more.” I was so nervous that I couldn’t swallow anymore and the water started to burst out of my mouth, my shirt got wet.
Because rain and wind all the time starts to change your posture as well: it helped, going through everything the characters went through.
Considering the time we leave in, which still is “full” of hatred and prejudice, what would you like for the people “to take home with them” after watching this film?
I kind of grew up in a really homophobic society, because Romania is kind of traditional.
That’s been covered quite a lot. “He’s just going to be a runt,” says Johnny, looking on coldly.
But Gheorghe has a way with runts, and his pretty brown eyes bore steadily into Johnny’s as they flicker hungrily over his body. At the same time, I tried to embrace this because [in the script] Gheorghe feels very good in this kind of environment.
To know what it feels like to do that work.”
When it came to shooting the film, Lee says that he “imposed lots of rules” to maintain that essential sense of authenticity. When we started filming, we moved in together. “Francis jokingly called me on the day of the result and was like, ‘Isn’t it weird that our film is now like a period film,” says Josh O’Connor, who stars as Johnny, the film’s protagonist.
We cooked together, watched movies together, went for drinks together.
Our relationship as friends began to develop at the same time of the one you can see on screen: we filmed it chronologically, so it helped a lot.
We had to do everything that we did in the movie: we had to learn how to give birth to a lamb, how to cure the animals, how to cut the wool and to give them injections.