Colin Farrell And Margot Robbie They were both looking for some magic. Both had just ended the most important projects of their career. For Robbie it was Barbie, The 9.4 billion dollar school champion who obtained eight Oscars nominations. For Farrell, however, it was The Penguin, The HBO series in which it was transformed (with about three hours a day of prosthesis and makeup) in the notorious Gotham City bad.
They continued after those two iconic characters with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, An original love story out of two strangers who undertake an unexpected journey. «Switch to The Penguin This was simply going from darkness to light, “says Farrell a Vanity Fair. “As fantastic it was to work on The Penguin, That story revolved around the trauma and its different forms. This film, on the other hand, speaks of letting the trauma go, of overcoming it ».
Although in the meantime Robbie had produced other projects, she had no longer returned in front of the camera since she had shot Barbie In 2022. «I think it was the longest break I ever made between work and another. I thought it would be more frightening to enter the set of Big bold The first day, but it wasn’t, “he says. “Everything in this film was immediately comforting.”
That sense of comfort came from history and the director Kogonada That, in turn, with his new film he was looking for a great journey to make. After two projects acclaimed by critics –Columbus of 2017 and After Yang of 2021 – and a few years of work on TV, he was ready for something different. “I was looking for something a little bigger and lighter,” he says. “I really like comedy and romanticism, but I wanted them in an original context.”
Then the screenplay for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey written by Seth Reiss He arrived on Kogonada’s desk. It was a wide and exciting story that followed Sarah and David, who, after having met at a wedding, are mysteriously gathered by fate and guided through doors that lead to their memories. “This film really talks about dealing with your past to find the possibility of love in the present,” explains Kogonada. «What do we have to deal with to really connect with others with? And I believe that, with age, one realizes that the past is strongly connected with the way we understand love in the present ».
Sony will distribute A Big Bold Beautiful Journey In cinemas on September 19th. With a support cast that includes Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith And Phoebe Waller-BridgAnd, the film aims to involve the public in an emotional journey – exactly as it happened to the two protagonists. “If the public manages to perceive even a small part of the magic that we have lived by shooting this film, then it will live an incredible experience,” says Robbie. “Turn it was really one of the most magical experiences of my life.”
Reiss’s screenplay reminded Kogonada the romantic and dramatic comedies of authors such as Billy Wilder (Viale del sunset, The apartment) and Ernst Lubitsch (The sky can wait). “We are always looking for connection and understanding,” he says. “It is something that, like humans, we are constantly looking for.”
His previous films had already focused on this desire for connection, but in different ways. In his meditative debut to the direction of 2017, Columbustwo strangers (John Cho And Haley Lu Richardson) are around the architectural masterpieces of the city, sharing truth about their lives and relationships with parents. The next film, After Yang of 2021, sees Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith as parents whose android son stops working. Although set in a hypothetical future, the film deals with deep themes such as family, mourning and loss. It was another success of critics and won a prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Kogonada is a director with a deep soul, known for his visual style, capable of capturing a world that seems at the same time familiar and completely unique. And even if A Big Bold Beautiful Journey It is a work on a wider scale than its first films, it remains focused on the same universal and touching desire for connection.
The film incorporates a magical realism which, according to Kogonada, was partly inspired by his love for animated films of Hayao Miyazaki. “That type of magical lightness really manages to connect to everyday experiences and all the challenges of the human being, managing to do both at the same time,” he says. Another reference was The Truman Show. «I think of a film like that: it explores so many levels, but it is at the same time welcoming and enjoyable. The dream, when you make such a film, is to find the right balance, to make something that has its own artistic integrity but is also able to welcome everyone ».
Since David’s past is such a central part of history, Kogonada needed a protagonist who could bring with him that type of emotional weight. He immediately thought of Colin Farrell. «Colin always takes him to his gaze. It is perceived immediately that he endured pains, who lived victories and defeats, “says the director. And in addition, Farrell has the necessary soul and charm. “There is something intrinsically romantic in him. He is a poet by nature. There is something in him who, in my opinion, makes everyone fall in love ».
For Farrell, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey The continuation of a conversation started with Kogonada during the filming of After Yang. “Many of the themes related to solitude and confused feelings that derive from the absence of love and company in a person’s life are also addressed here, but in a completely different context”, says the actor.
Kogonada had never worked with Margot Robbie and did not know her personally. However, when they met to discuss the project, he was immediately struck by his competence and his passion. «It is really a generational talent. And I don’t say it just as an actress. What makes it very special is that, even if it were just a producer, I think it would be one of the best that Hollywood has ever had, “says Kogonada. “I think it’s very intelligent, very intuitive.”
Before the start of the filming, the trio faced two weeks of evidence, a process that was not part, up to that moment, of the usual method of Kogonada. “We talked about everything: of the script, of life, of the films we love, of the people we know, of the experiences we have experienced and how they changed us,” says Robbie. She and Farrell also squeezed a link during car trips with the latter’s car, reflecting what happens in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey: David’s GPS tells him to go and get Sarah, and together they undertake a journey that takes them to the places where they discover the doors that lead them to the past. “He really created an atmosphere that poured into the film as soon as we started shooting.”
Shot in the spring of 2024 in Los Angeles, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey It allows the public to enter an unexpected world after the other. Kogonada found Benjamin Loebdirector of the photography of After Yangto create the splendid images of the film, and involved the Japanese composer Joe Hisaishiknown for his work in Miyazaki’s films, for the soundtrack. “It seemed important to us to embrace the fantastic element, but also to root it in the landscapes,” he says. “Our desire was to create a world that was at the same time welcoming and surprising, not only visually suggestive for the taste of being it”. He quotes Miyazaki’s images once again as a source of inspiration: “You can look at any of those images – even just the clouds – and feel that there is magic underneath,” he says. “We have reflected for a long time on where to point the camera and how to do it, in order to always have elements that are both anchored to reality and capable of capturing what in our world is intrinsically magical”.
Several years had passed since the last time Kogonada had been on a cinematographic set of his own. He had deliberately dedicated time to the direction of TV series – Pachinko For Apple TV+ and the series Star Wars: The Acolyte – To explore direction techniques and equipment within productions with higher budgets. This path helped him prepare for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. But despite all that preparation, he admits that the learning curve was still steep. «I could really spend a whole day to tell her everything I learned. It has been humiliating, but in a positive sense: it makes you realize how much it is still to be understood and knowing this means, “he says. “And it is also stimulating, because it has expanded my sensitivity and my language for this type of cinema.”
Robbie and Farrell also say that experience has changed deeply. Farrell says: «We all arrived with the open heart. It was all very natural. We shared our lives and our experiences, hopes and fears, joys and pains. I don’t want to make her look like a therapy session, but it was a truly extraordinary experience that changed me for the better ».
Source: Vanity Fair
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