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ABSOLUTESUBMISSION IN COMPETITION JULIA LEIGH’S SLEEPING BEAUTY
IN COMPETITION AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
AUSTRALIA AT CANNES
ustralian novelist Julia Leigh’s Aprovocative first foray into
feature filmmaking is even described by its young leading lady, Emily Browning (Sucker Punch), as “risky
and dangerous.”
Browning plays Lucy, a young
university student who takes a job as a Sleeping Beauty. In the Sleeping Beauty Chamber old men seek an erotic experience that requires Lucy’s absolute submission. This unsettling task starts to bleed into Lucy’s daily life and she develops an increasing need to know what happens to her when she is asleep.
Fired up by stories inspired by the famous fairytale, Leigh developed the script herself until “I got it to a point where I thought it was more- or-less finished. It’s short – about 67 pages. In 2008 it made the Hollywood ‘Black List’ [Franklin Leonard’s much anticipated annual list of unproduced screenplays]. That same year I was named by Filmmaker magazine (US) as one of the 25 New Faces of independent film.
“Even then, many producers turned me down. In the end I found a brave, tenacious producer in Jessica Brentnall, who recognised the script for what it was and we made a deal that this was the film that would be shot. During production we did make some small script changes along the way, all for the best.”
Leigh’s collaboration with cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson ACS was clearly key.
Simpson, a double ACS winner (Romulus My Father, Playing Beatie Bow) and triple AFI laureate (Shine, Oscar and Lucinda, The Navigator), explained: “Julia had never made any film before, but she had done an incredible amount of home work, seeing a great many films, several of which I had not seen, and reading all she could.
“She had, from the start, decided on a very minimal film making style everything from coverage and dialogue to sound track. She wanted simple lighting with little or no contrast, and she wanted to shoot each scene in one shot!
“We looked at several films that had used single shot coverage, the stand out for me being Vagabond by Agnes Varda (1985), which used single tracking shots or statics. The simple coverage of Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953) was another reference where scenes played out in a static shots framed by sliding doors and ceiling and so on.
“I ended up loving the ‘static shot’ aesthetic in some ways, particularly the opening shot that does slowly push in over four minutes. It sets
the tone for the
film, letting the
audience slow
right down and
really look.”
QUENTIN FALK
Sleeping Beauty was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA Vivid 500T 8547
THE DP VIEW GEOFFREY SIMPSON ACS
I was working on a film in China when I received an email from Jessica Brentnall, which
“included the script. I read it and was immediately intrigued.
I had used Frame Forge software in China and decided to use it to show Julia what to expect with lenses, set size and actors. I story- boarded all the Chamber scenes, dinner parties and a couple of others. We spent many hours in her Bondi flat looking at scenes and my location photographs to find angles.
When we started shooting, I decided on Fujifilm as I had been using it on some commercials recently and liked what I was getting. I went with ETERNA Vivid 500T, which actually has quite a strong contrast.
I really liked the camera tests and loved what the stock gave me, some of the nicest tests I have ever done; however, I knew it would be too contrasty for Julia’s brief. I felt if I kept the lighting soft, the stock would put a bit of ‘bite’ back into the image, which in the end works well.
I was available for some of the grading and was pleased to work
with Olivier Fonternay again. He and the digital Intermediate are a
wonderful combination for the
final tweaking of the image. His
work is exceptional. ”
Photo top: Emily Browning as Lucy in Sleeping Beauty; left: Director Julia Leigh below: Rachael Blake with Peter Carroll in the Sleeping Beauty Chamber
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