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| She Is Love Photo: Courtesy of London Film Festival |
Director Jamie Adams reflects on early relationships and the ghosts of unresolved separation in his latest film, She Is Love. The story revolves around an unexpected reunion, when Patricia (Haley Bennett) arrives at a country hotel in Cornwall that is run by her ex-husband, Idris (Sam Riley) and his girlfriend Louise (Marisa Abela). As if fate has thrust them together, Patricia and Sam struggle through the awkwardness of their shared history, in the hope of finding a resolution.
In conversation with Eye For Film, Adams discussed his interest in improvisation, its limits, and using cinema to explore ideas that are neither possible nor pragmatic.
Paul Risker: There’s the story we see onscreen, and there’s the story in the making of the film. Are there any stories within the story that come to mind?
Jamie Adams: The first thing is the pandemic affected us. I got Covid a couple of weeks before we were meant to shoot in the December, and I thought that was the end of the film. In independent filmmaking, you have to hit your dates. If you don't, can the actors do the new dates, can the crew and the locations? The Signature production team were heroic and supportive, and we worked it out. We were able to shoot it in the April, with thanks to Haley Bennett and Sam Riley for moving things around, to be able to make it all possible.
It gave us more time to develop the characters, to take things in new directions. If that hadn't happened, then the film we have now wouldn't have existed - it would have been a different film.
PR: Filmmaking is perceived to be a series of deliberate choices, but there’s a spontaneity that must be embraced. Often called those 'happy accidents', the film itself has a voice, and the collaborative interactions always have the potential to reshape the story.
JA: I agree, and this is what I encourage because I use improvisation to make these films. We have a story outline, which is what the actors originally receive. Then if they're interested, we have a few conversations. If they decide to be a part of the process, we take those conversations further. I then go away and write what we call a scene by scene 'scriptment', a screenplay without dialogue, so everybody has half a chance to know how to plan and schedule it.
What I say to the actors is that once we start shooting at the top of the day, don't be afraid to take things in different directions. We know where we're headed, we know what the arc of the story is, and as long as we're being truthful to the characters, then I'm always happy to improvise.
My directing is really guiding. It's about making sure we get from the day what I believe will be a good introduction to the characters, or a good introduction to the movement into act two. It's about structure to me at that point because the actors are giving you the most incredible material. They know their characters, they know where we are and where we're going. They believe in me and trust me to take them where we need to go. Thankfully, in She Is Love, it has worked out well, because I had an incredible cast in Sam and Haley, who were the most giving and courageous collaborators.
PR: Storytellers are always taught the importance of believability and authenticity. It can be hard to convey through scripted form in this type of story, because the interactions are impulsive and of the moment. We never know the words we're going to use, and so improvisation can be a useful approach. It leads us to question whether cinema has become too scripted?
JA: I believe in improvisation for certain kinds of stories, and I think you're right to preface that in the question, of the type of story you’re trying to make. Comedies and dramedies lend themselves to the search for authenticity – the spontaneous moments that we all experience within our everyday relationships, is why improvisation can work.
The more technical a genre is, like action, thriller, and horror, then scripting them makes a whole lot of sense, unlike films that are about exploring human nature, or realism. I hate this word, and I love Mike Leigh, but when I worked in his way in my early years, in my twenties, I realised with his method there comes a point in which the authenticity, the excitement and the energy you're getting from the rehearsal doesn't necessarily translate into the film, because he goes away and writes a full script.
I could see the moments I was enjoying as a young filmmaker were the actors rehearsing. I knew this was what I wanted to film, and so it has adapted over the years. The mumblecore generation in America did a great job of taking that process on in terms of there being no boundaries in making films.
PR: She Is Love is about the difficulty of finding closure, and specifically, how sharing our vulnerability hurts us when we separate.
JA: I was thinking specifically of a relationship in my twenties and about how we were too young to manage the heightened emotions that happen in a long term relationship – how it can feel safer and easier to separate when a complication happens, because you're not communicating. In your twenties, you’ll generally run and hide from issues rather than face one another and talk those issues through.
I've been married for 18 years, and as the years go by, you become more honest and open - things become easier. I thought, ‘Imagine if you had this intense situation in your twenties that then disappears, but it's always on your mind. You're carrying the weight of it because there was no closure. Then the universe conspires to bring you together, almost telling you that you have to deal with this, otherwise you're not going to move on.’
Idris especially has arrested development, because he's reliving the same mid-twenties relationships over and over again. He's trying to figure out a way of making it okay. It didn't go well then, but he thinks he can do it again and make it better now, but he’s stuck, unable to move on. This inhibits him as a whole person, and even as a creative person.
I didn't know if it was going to work. I didn't know if by bringing these characters together years later, they would talk and find a resolution. I was interested to explore how that would happen, and as soon as we started playing out the scenes, it was fascinating to see there was resistance from them both. It was like they picked up where they left off in their twenties, and they didn't have the capacity again to get into it and let it all out. Then we came up with a few scenes where they felt more comfortable to be able to talk about what happened to them in their twenties, and it was one the most revelatory moments I've had on set. The characters were speaking to us as a crew, saying this is what happened then, and now it's out in the open, it's much freer. You can see the weight lifting off them in the moment, and that’s something you can't write. You can write it, but it's what you said - it's the authenticity, the organic nature of doing it improvised. It’s coming from somewhere within the actors, not from someone sat at a typewriter.
PR: Cinema offers us a collection of theories about love, and the subjectivity of the filmmakers creates a convergence and divergence. As an audience, we find something beyond entertainment in these stories, that offers us a space to reflect on our own experiences.
JA: Absolutely, and I think they're necessary. Why we keep going back to it is because of how universal it is. The primary reason why we're here is to form heartfelt communications with another person. We all go through the trials and tribulations of our own story, and how we grow as people in these different relationships we're involved in.
A movie should be entertaining, and I thought it was an entertaining idea. Of course, it's very sincere and very heartfelt, but it's entertaining to do things in movies you can't do in life - if I could revisit that one person for a weekend, to talk through what happened there, it would be fascinating. It’s not possible nor pragmatic, but that's why movies are movies - thank God for them.
She is Love is available on digital platforms, courtesy of Signature Entertainment.
