After seeing “A Ghost Story” you will feel something different. That’s a fact.
Maybe you will dream about the movie, or you will think about it for two days or, maybe, you’ll simply have some thoughts about humanity you never had before. Well, it’s a movie that sticks to whoever watches it.
After seeing it I thought: “This is genius. I’m Happy. I’m sad. Oh my God, this is beautiful”. That’s what a movie should do: make you think. Make you reflect about life, the depth of time, decisions, death and…ghosts. As the director said: “This is not a horror movie” but it’s not even only a ghost movie. It’s like the story of humanity and the detriment of it from present to future, in 87 minutes. And that’s a movie that will make you feel all of it with extreme elegance.
When I stopped watching it, I also had a second thought: “I want to ‘know’ the person who made it’ ” who is, of course, David Lowery. The movie is also nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards 2018 as best film produced with less than $500,000.
The director and writer of “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints“, which was presented at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013 and at the 66° Cannes Film Festival and which sees Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara together (they are also the almost-only-two-protagonists of “A Ghost Story”). He is also the director of the Disney movie “Pete’s Dragon” and will be the man behind the new Disney live-action: “Peter Pan“.
If you want to know the beautiful mind behind “A Ghost Story”, read on our interview with him.
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What were your main influences while developing “A Ghost Story”? From your personal and “academic” background?
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There are so many little strands that all lead to this movie. One of them was this New Yorker articled called The Big One, about an earthquake that is due to hit the Pacific Northwest of the United States any day now. That got me thinking about my place in the wold in a big way. The photography of Gregory Crewdson was a big influence – I’d been wanting to make a film for a while that consisted entirely of Crewdson-esque tableaus. I tried not to watch too many films leading up to this one, just in an attempt to maintain some iota of originality, but my DP and I did watch the first ten minutes of “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” right before we shot. We also went to see The Conjuring Part 2. The ghost himself came from all over pop culture – everything from Charlie Brown to the paintings of Marcel Dzama.
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Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck: For you, why were they the perfect choice for the movie?
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They feel like they have history when you look at the two of them together. And you really believe they love each other. I knew they’d do all the heavy lifting for me.
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In a few words, what is nostalgia to you? And how do you “let it go” through your movies?
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This is a tough one. There’s a fine line between fondly remembering something and desperately hanging on, and nostalgia exists somewhere alongside it. I haven’t figured out how to let it go yet, but as far as my movies are concerned, usually what happens is I make a movie and a lot of people – and me! – accuse me of being too nostalgic and sentimental and then I tell myself I need to stop. And then the whole thing just happens all over again.
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Your movie is also about how time can affect relationships. What is your personal take on this?
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Time changes everything, not just relationships. It’s something we can’t beat, nor should we underestimate it. It’s a real perplexing thing but until some quantum physicist figures out how to step outside of it, we’re just gonna have to deal with it and find a way to romanticize its passage.
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In the movie, I see also a reference to the way we are all mistreating the world and that we basically will do the same mistakes all over again. Do you feel pessimistic about humanity?
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Yes, pretty much. There are so many wonderful people in the world, but overall, as a species, we are pretty awful. We’re ruining everything. I feel terrible saying this because there are so many good people who I admire. But it’s true! At the same time, I’m an optimistic pessimist, so I have to look at human fallibility with some degree of bemused affection. I love people in spite of everything.
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Referring to the format, you said that you would like this movie to be an object, something to hold, and we definitely feel the sensation! What were you “holding” with you while filming the movie?
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I was living in a friend’s house while we made the film, so I feel like I had very little of my own to hold onto. Maybe that’s why I felt so uneasy while we were shooting.
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I personally found really moving the part when M explains why she hides little notes for her future self and the other people who will find them. You succeeded in this movie to make the people relate very profoundly to the little details, it feels all so realistic (even if there is so much work of imagination). How much being “realistic” about emotions and details has been important for you in this movie?
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The details were very important to me. I hesitate to say this, but the emotions were secondary. I wasn’t thinking abut them that much while we were shooting. I was always focused on the details of the images, and every now and then those images would be very moving to me and I’d get a hint of how emotional they might be when they were all strung together. But I didn’t think about them that much while I was writing or shooting.
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In September you wrote that you watched 102 films, how many movies have you seen in 2017? And what are the ones on your Top List?
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As of December 20th, I’m at 242. My favorites are “Personal Shopper”, “Phantom Thread”, “The Florida Project”, “The Beguiled”, “A Quiet Passion”…I’m sure there are a few others I’m forgetting.
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You have a blog, where you share your thoughts and facts. Can you share with us your thought of the moment?
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I feel, for the first time in a long time, like I need to close the door and take some time to myself. I need to re-teach myself how to write and how to make films.
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You said that for you making movie is a lifestyle, a way of living. What is your future dream project?
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I don’t know! I worry that if I put that much pressure on any given project, I’d inevitably fail it.
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What’s for you the main purpose of being a director and making a movie?
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To express something, and through that expression to establish a connection. Those connections are where it’s at for me. Little bolts of electricity radiating through the universe, connecting me to people I may never even meet. That’s pretty magical.
Credit Images: A24
