Whilst attending London Film Festival, director Lorcan Finnegan spoke with STARBURST to discuss his uncomfortably close to home mystery/sci-fi, Vivarium. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Imogen Poots the film poses a claustrophobic and surreal look at suburbia living. (Warning: potential spoilers ahead.)
STARBURST: how did the interesting story idea for Vivarium come together?
Lorcan Finnegan: It’s difficult to pin-point, but [co-writer] Garret Shanley and I made a short film in 2011 called Foxes and that was set in this ghost estate, this abandoned housing development in Ireland that became a product of the recession. So there were ideas and themes left over from that short film that we still wanted to explore. We were thinking ‘what if this housing development went on infinitely?’ in a much more quantum way, like a parallel universe. At the same time, I was watching this David Attenborough documentary about the life cycle of the European cuckoo, and we were discussing our next project. The cuckoo idea was related to coming up with a monster that was relevant to society today, a bit like the way that Godzilla is a product of the Japanese fear of atomic energy. We were trying to think of what young people in their 30s were really afraid of these days. The atomisation of society. Getting stuck on these commuter belts that are miles away from anywhere. Having to work in a city all day, commute, and come back and sleep in this little box again and again until they can pay off the mortgage and expire. There’s an existential horror to that. So it was all of those thoughts combined at the same time, which melded into the movie.
Can you tell us how you originally met Garret, and why you think that this pairing just works so well?
We met at this seminar for making low budget films in Dublin, called the Catalyst Project. You had to apply, there’s about 500 to 800 people who go into it, and you have to do a course. We just met there, he posted on their forum, he said that he was a writer, and I said that I was a director. By coincidence we ended up sitting beside each other at a talk, and we ended up just getting on. We wrote an application for this crazy comedy/sci-fi that we didn’t get chosen to make. After the process of collaborating on that, we then wrote Foxes. Garret had written it as a blog post on his own blog called Fug the World. I found that, it’s a really funny blog, and we developed it into a script and made that. We are working on a bunch of new things as well. It’s a good collaborative and artistic relationship.
The introduction with the birds, the wildlife scene, foreshadows the whole movie. So, how did this idea come about, and what was it like to film?
It was one of the main set ups for the story. I really like introductions that tell you about the film before the film begins. Something that encapsulates all of these ideas. We had it originally in the script as a longer scene that was in the tree outside of the school where Imogen Poots’ character Gemma is a teacher. The camera was supposed to be there for a while, and you see a bird feeding another bird, then the camera comes slowly down into the school. That ended up being impossible to do with the time restrictions, and the budget. We actually cut it out of the film entirely. Then when we were in post-production it felt like it needed that scene to set up the tone of the film. Also, I wanted to do a title sequence that set up what it was all about. To give you a feeling that it was more of a throwback to a ‘70s approach to sci-fi. So we went and we shot some elements of it. We got some wildlife stock, and we had to manipulate it to have the same kind of feel as the rest of the film.
There’s obviously a fantastic cast here. Can you tell us about what Imogen and Jesse were like to work with throughout the film as their characters descended into madness?
It was great. They are both brilliant actors. They are very open and collaborative. We met and talked a lot before shooting, but we didn’t really have much time to rehearse or anything. It was more about having conversations about what the film is about. The tone of it, the acting style is very naturalistic but in an unnaturalistic environment. So we were just talking about how that contrast would work. We shot the film completely out of sequence, because we did all of the exteriors in Belgium, and then all of the interiors in Ireland. So it was tricky to keep the same emotional intensity. Especially when Jesse is dragging Imogen back into the house, the scenes around it were weeks apart. They are brilliant actors, and very funny. Even though the film gets very dark, we had a great laugh.
They’ve worked together before, most recently on The Art of Self Defence, so did that further help you as a director, as they already had chemistry?
Yeah, I’m friends with Riley Stearns, who directed The Art of Self-Defence, it was just a coincidence that we ended up with the same cast. It was weird, because when he wrapped, he went on a European holiday and stopped off at Dublin, we hung out. I only got to see his film a little while ago, but I’m glad that it’s very different. It’s mostly Jesse, whereas this is mostly Imogen. To me anyway, it’s more her story.
They both provide a feeling of awkward frustration very well, especially from the moment they meet the estate agent. How fun was that scene in particular to work on with Jonathan Aris, and how important was it for you to get an instant sense of tension across to the viewer?
Yeah that was always part of the plan. Jonathan is brilliant, that was probably the hardest character to cast. We got audition tapes from a lot of people, but eventually we got one from Jonathan. I’ve seen his work before, but I’ve never seen him acting like that. With the tape I had written an explanation of exactly what I was looking for. So, when I got it, I was like ‘this guy is amazing!’ But Imogen and Jesse had never seen him. So a lot of their response on camera to him in that scene was quite real. It’s all shot in a way to create a sense of unease, but also a funny but weird feel, which I wanted to ease the audience in a little bit, because it does get quite surreal. To disarm it a little bit with the comedy.
At times the film does feel like an exaggerated version of the way some people live their lives, so could you elaborate on that, and how you went about putting that idea at various points throughout the movie?
All of the stuff that happens in the film are reflections of what does happen in real life, but just twisted in order to show just how bizarre a certain type of life can be. The reason we were doing that is to just highlight the strangeness of it. We are sold an idea of a way of living, it’s heavily advertised and pushed on people, this social contract that you sign up for. That’s what is insidious. It’s sold to you by people who purely want to make profit. It’s the same with these housing developments, these massive sprawling places with these identical houses. The only reason they are all identical is because you can fit a lot more of them into the space, it’s cheaper, and you can maximise the profits. It’s very calculated, and there’s this feel of capitalism at work. Even with the boxes arriving, it’s relating to people ordering content online and just not communicating to anyone. So all of the scenes in the film are really just trying to highlight that, but in a kind of nightmarish way. It’s not like a critique saying that that way of life is wrong, it’s more questioning what the alternatives are. It’s like the kid at the start who says that she doesn’t like the way things are, it’s representative of a future generation, where people might do things a little bit differently.
When the boy character arrives in the film, you do get this sense of divide between Imogen and Jesse. What did you enjoy the most about working on this mysterious character, and how crucial is he to the balance of the film?
Senan Jennings was great. He again was one of the big surprises, as we were trying to find this person who could mimic. His character sort of represents a child, but at the same time he’s not a child. He’s there to divide the couple, that’s essentially it. To create that drama between them. So his arrival is the beginning of the bad part. He just manipulates them to get what he wants. He’s not going to come up to you in the middle of the night and suck your blood. He just needs them for a certain amount of time until he doesn’t need them anymore, which for me is a lot more horrific.
There are also various freaky effects being used on his voice when he is younger. How did that idea come about?
It was always the plan that he was able to mimic them exactly but a little bit off. He only really needs to pretend to get away with being a person just enough to convince you to come into Yonder, the housing estate. Senan did kind of imitate them, but his own voice was too nice and enduring. So we actually got Jonathan Aris, who plays the estate agent at the beginning, to voice the child’s voice for the whole movie. The boy’s voice is a mix of his own voice and Jonathan’s throughout. So there would be this acoustic consistency between the species.
With the sets, sky, and overall quietness you really get that feeling of claustrophobic suburbia across. Could you tell us how you achieved that atmosphere and how essential it was to Vivarium?
In the script it was described as looking like the René Magritte painting Empire of Light. There being no wind, no sound, no birds, and no insects. It was the trickiest part. Yonder is a character in the film as well, the environment. We looked at tons of locations, and we also thought about mixing sets in with real locations, like that were half formed. Ultimately, we needed more control in order to make this headache but tangible world for the character to live in. So we built a set of tree exteriors, garden, wall, footpath, road, in a warehouse in Belgium. We used digital mapping, CGI, and sky replacement to extend it. Scans and 3D models made using the textures and dimensions of the set. So the CG is an extension of the same look. It feels like a giant set, but it’s not as big as what we built. Just for the tone of the film, it’s quite dreamy and nightmarish in a horrible, surreal way. If you were stuck there you’d get sick from no real sunlight. Roy Andersson films were an influence, with the way he’d build sets and have this sickly artificial light. It was really important to give this feeling that it wasn’t a real world, and that you’ve entered into another dimension. It’s like they’re trapped within a catalogue or brochure for Yonder that’s been photo shopped.
Without giving too much away, why should STARBURST readers watch Vivarium? Why does it stand out?
It’s certainly different! It’s a strange and unique little film. I think not everybody is going to love it. However, from showing it at festivals so far it seems like a lot of people really love it. If you’re looking for something different and interesting, and you like unusual genre films with amazing performances and existential dread then you’ll love it.
Vivarium will be released in 2020.
