 |
| Filipe Melo |
Filipe Melo’s The Lone Wolf (O Lobo Solitário) was recently shortlisted for this year’s Oscars. 23 minutes long and captured in a single shot, it stars seasoned Portuguese actor Adriano Luz as Vitor Lobo, a late night radio talk show host who gets a shock one night when old friend Raul (António Fonseca) calls in and begins to make some very disturbing allegations, live on air. It’s a tense piece of work, but perhaps equally tense was the day when Filipe received the news. He’s a filmmaker, musician and author whose life has suddenly begun to change in dramatic ways, and when we met, he told me how it felt to have the attention of the Academy.
“It was absolutely crazy,” he says, explaining that he had a dangerous accident earlier that day when he drilled into a wall to hang up a painting and inadvertently pierced a gas pipe. Fortunately the problem was resolved and he and his home were unscathed, but it left him feeling shaken. “And then suddenly, I got the best news ever.”
The film had three distinct points of origin, he says. “The first idea was to write something that I could actually film. You know, in Portugal, we have quite a few really good filmmakers, but they don't have a big team. So you always have to think ‘I want to shoot something, can I really make it possible?’ So I was thinking that I wanted to do something without production, with one, maybe two one actors on one location. And we don't do production of any kind. And ironically, the producer submitted it to the Film Institute, and for the first time, I actually had some money to make it. But basically this small idea amplified – because I wanted to film even with an iPhone, which I had.
“So I guess the first answer would be the challenge of telling that story with very little resource or people. And then the second one is because, you know, in my normal work, I get driven a lot through Portugal, and I always listen to those late night radio shows – because the Americans are always very stylish, but the Portuguese ones are just so sweet, because everybody calls it their family. They all know each other, they keep each other company. And so it's also a love letter to that specific type of radio, which is actually disappearing nowadays. I wouldn't say it's very Portuguese because it happens everywhere, but we have a very, very Portuguese feeling when we hear this radio. They only play Portuguese music
“Then the third part, of course, is the subject, and for that the only thing I did was very horrible. I have read a lot of stories and talked to some people, and that wasn't the fun part, for sure. So basically these three different aspects, which are very different, were things that I wanted to approach.”
He wrote the film so that it could be shot on a really small set, he says, and his producer found an old customs warehouse where they could build that, but when he went to see it, he made a discovery.
“I found that incredible corridor. The shot actually started inside the studio already, and I said ‘No, no, we’ve got to use this!’ So that the corridor that you see actually is not a set. So when he goes to the right and he goes in the radio set, that is the only set. Everything else is a real place.”
There’s some really good cinematography which helps to the mood in that space, I note.
 |
| The Lone Wolf |
“Wow, okay. Thank you. We have a very good director of photography [Vasco Viana] who is a very, very, very talented guy who's got the right eye, and of course he's a great camera operator. But we have a very small industry so this guy is always working. We're talking right now and I'm sure he's filming something. So in this case, at first he was always saying ‘Why do you want to make it a one shot? That's going to be a lot of trouble. We should cut it,’ and I said ‘No, this is not one of those ego-oriented one shots. I really think it's worth it, because we want to corner the guy. This is a justified one shot, we need to do it like this for the story.’ So he said ‘Okay, let's do it.’ But then the good side is that he gets to the set and of course because he’s really talented he sees a lot of possibilities.”
They designed the final approach together, he says, with help from editor Gabriela Soares.
“She's like, an insane person to have on the crew because she does everything. She’s doing the Facebook page, too. She helped me a lot when we choreographed that thing together.”
I tell him I like the fact that the film opens with a sense of urgency because Vitor is four minutes late to present his programme. It's a little thing, but it tells us a lot about his character, that he’s not very concerned about how his behaviour affects other people.
“That’s the first time somebody actually noticed,” he says, pleased. “I think it's actually very true. Yeah, he doesn’t seem to care a lot about people. We really wanted to make an undecipherable character. He's such a great actor. And I still to this day, don't know. And that's how we want it to be. This day, I still don't know – because actually, his character is the only person in the world that knows the truth – and I still don't know if the actor thought and felt he was guilty. I didn't want to know. So that's a very good thing that you notice the small details, because we did put a lot of effort into those small things.”
I think when you're making a short film that details matter a lot more, I say.
“Well, you know, I never did a long film. But yeah, I think short films are usually labours of love, right?”
We talk about the smooth way that experienced radio DJs like Vitor can adjust the mood when something goes wrong in a conversation, and I say that I find it interesting to see how he tries to use that in this case, as if to persuade people that nothing is really wrong.
“He is used to dealing with people and people's emotions, like fear, right?” says Filipe. “So there's a slight chance that he might be innocent. In that case, right. But if you look at him as a monster, I think that's the type of personality trait to be hidden behind many, many layers of self excuses, so this is like a masterful disguise. And yeah, I do believe that the character is trying to make it seem like it’s all normal, with manipulation techniques.
“I would say that most insane, psychopathic people have a bunch of fanatics that will always be with them. It’s scary – but then again, he might be innocent. You were noticing the small details that are because I want to leave this open, but for me he is definitely guilty.” He laughs. “But for me it’s the only possible ending, that he would carry on as if nothing happened.”
I say that I like the fact that his little radio family, as they call themselves, assure him they’ll stand by him, because people don't like to think that somebody they know could have done something bad, and they think of him as somebody they know.
“That's a good point. That is the classic thing that you see on the crime newspaper, ‘Oh, he was such a lovely character.’ So, yes, definitely. You can see that on a more beautiful way, which is like a mother always accepts, you know, like, there's a beautiful movie about that called, We Need ToTalk About Kevin. I love that movie. And it was very, very rough for me emotionally because it dealt with so many issues about the human behaviour and the acceptance of a mother and the guilt of a mother. It had a very big impact on me. And I mean, they come to the point where a mother will defend her son regardless.
 |
| Filipe Melo |
“I think on a broader scale, there are some people who stand by the celebrity figures. They will stick with them or hate them. It's very scary. I some friends who are known, and they have to deal with a lot of situations with people who think they know the person. It’s very complicated, but it scares me a lot. Like minions. But I like minions.”
Minions are more like children, so it's a bit more forgivable in them, I suggest, and he agrees.
We talk about casting, and he explains the he met producer Sandra Faria through his work as a musician, and that she persuaded him to make the film happen.
“We became friends, and she's the one who told me, ‘You know, you love film so much, and do you have the script.’ It was on another short film that she said ‘I'll help you and we'll shoot this,’ and I said, ‘I can’t,’ and she said ‘Yes you can.’ So she she believed in me more than I do myself. I owe her a lot for that.
“Sandra helped me, because you know what? She assembled the cast. Because one thing which I wanted was to have the actors calling [into the radio programme] in real time, and it meant they had to be there during the whole shoot. And then, at some point people, people asked ‘Why don't you just do one take and then you overdub?’ I said ‘No, that's fake.’
“Now, I must say, there are some things that I would change, but not that one. It was fun because I was going from one room to the other. It was a good decision. I wanted to assemble all these people, you know, these actors and actresses who were in comedy on stage in the Sixties and Seventies, to be the perfect cast. And this is thanks to Sandra. She's such a good person. She helped me so much.”
He’s working on several other ideas, he says, and if he develops a screenplay and can’t get it into production, he turns it into a graphic novel. The latest of these, Ballad for Sophie, has just broken through in a big way.
“I was getting back to my normal life for all different things. For many, many years, I was just playing between 50 and 100 Euro gigs. I love the music, but you know, it’s very low profile. And then in the same year, we have four Eisner nominations, which is for graphic novels like, the biggest thing. And now, I'm drilling through a pipe in my house and gas is leaking, and suddenly, you know, I find out about this. So it's insane. But you know, I'm always thinking that it's a moment that will not repeat itself.
“I've been enjoying this moment so much that I'm not even thinking about this very much, which I thought was crazy. I'm guessing everybody says this. We love film, right? And there's a typical thing to say, ‘Oh, you know, the Oscars are bullshit,’ you know, like the real filmmakers are in Europe. And I always, since I was a small child, watched the Oscars every single night since The Last Emperor. I love it – it’s like my World Cup. Even if I don't like the movie that wins it. It’s an event. Just to feel somehow connected, I’m so pleased.”
