Interview with the director menu Released to coincide with the theatrical release of the film. It was reissued to coincide with the film’s release on HBO Max and digital platforms.
On the surface, it’s a Mark Myrod thriller menu It looks like a chilly high-end horror movie. The trailer is the story of a successful chef who sets a trap for wealthy and spoiled patrons, engaging them in an unpredictable game of life and death, where he and his devoted followers define all the rules. Formed… A bloody mayhem ensues. But Mylod sees the film differently. His interpretation ties directly to what drew him not only to this film, but to his other best-known work as a director of hit TV series regulars. Inheritance When Game of Thrones.
For Mylod, the connection between these three stories is literally how he deals with his family. Game of Thrones When Inheritancemore symbolically menuthe antagonist, the mysterious and aristocratic chef Slowwick (Ralph Fiennes), who is his fanatical apprentice Elsa (Elsa (Elsa)).watchmen Star Hong Chau) specifically describes it as family.
“If there is any through-line in my work, going back to the English works where I first started directing in the late 1500s, it is family,” joked Mylod in an interview. menuwill premiere at the 2022 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. “I’ve found that power and family go hand in hand, especially in the formative years. I’m really fascinated by that. Until then, you really can’t get away. So there are endless possibilities for dramatic confrontation.”
of Game of Throneslineage is virtually destiny — everyone involved in a nominal quest for power and control is boosted and limited by the family in which they were born. Inheritance, the entire story revolves around connections and competition within wealthy families.of menubut there’s a sense that Chef Slowik’s patrons, including characters played by Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, and Amy Calero, are trapped in a cult-like family.
“Part of the charm of menu The idea was to put all the characters in this one box with their quasi-family and lock them in this space. There are endless possibilities for dramatic conflicts and dramatic conflicts,” he says Mylod. “There’s a nice relationship between tension and comedy that the writers take advantage of.”
A literal family emerges menuChef Slowwick’s mother was one of his life-or-death dinner patrons, but their relationship and intentions for each other is one of the film’s greatest mysteries.
“I was hoping it would fill in some blanks,” says Mylod. “[The question is] everytime How far do you go at the fair? How deep does the chef’s backstory go? We walked a tightrope with it. The choice we made was to stimulate the intelligence of our audience. They can fill them themselves. Audiences are so sophisticated these days that I didn’t feel the need to dig too deep. They could feel an emotional connection. ”
further connections between Game of Thrones, InheritanceWhen menu All three stories deal heavily with wealthy people weaponizing power and being punished for arrogance, but all three also humanize their characters.
“That chess game has always been at the center of it,” says Mylod. “Together with Bon [Joon-ho] of Parasite, he never intended for the poor to be the good guys and the rich to be the bad guys. found themselves in the same place—I wanted to make an emotional connection with these characters. We didn’t want them to be just cardboard cutouts, two-dimensional stereotypes. ”
For Mylod, Inheritance When menu It’s stronger both thematically and in how he worked behind the scenes to encourage improvisation and the participation of a fully immersive cast.
“What I brought menu very specifically Inheritance It was a lifelong admiration for Robert Altman and the way he worked,” says Mylod. “Early in my career as a director, I was lucky enough to work with two of his actors, Charles His Dance and Michael Gambon. [Altman’s masterpiece] Gosford ParkHe was the first director in the West to have two sound mixers and bring everyone together. [on a set] raised the mic.
Altman was noted for naturalistic, overlapping dialogue captured on set from people who were always encouraged to stay in character.Myrod used that technique Inheritance When menu Giving his sets what he calls a “Darwinian feel” where everyone is acting all the time, rather than a short set-up with the camera pointed at them and specific dialogue in the script.
“Everyone was improvising, so they were all alive and present the whole time,” he says. “I used it Inheritanceand I used it menuIt takes a very specific, brave, intelligent, intuitive actor to embrace it. To achieve that, we were very specific in our hiring. [With The Menu], as a result, was the happiest seven weeks I could have spent on set. Because at the time we were stuck in a bubble with COVID. In the morning, when all the extras came to set and they all took the mic and were off camera, they continued to support, improvise, and maintain the atmosphere of the restaurant.
“That talented kitchen staff was there every day after going through this bootcamp, explaining exactly what to do at any given time. So we’ve come to a very loose and free working method, which contrasts with the accuracy of the writing and the rhythm of the Slowik world.”
up to the connected theme Inheritance When menuMylod says the idea of ”eating the rich” that powerful people are punished is “part of the fun”, but he sees how both narratives combine distorted creativity and the collapse of character ideals. I am more interested in dealing with
“The perversion of art through power, exclusivity, and money is certainly something that interests me personally. Inheritance’ he says. “Worked together [Succession creator] jessie [Armstrong] Moreover.When menu, I think, is the theme of pure beauty in making good food for another human being. The purely basic act of sharing, sustaining, and nourishing another human being—it is so beautiful. Nothing more basic than that, except maybe giving birth. And the fact that it’s been distorted by industry and money feels like there’s a tragic element to it. [for Chef Slowik]I think the perversion of that ideal is really interesting. ”
After all, the character’s sense of tragedy is part of what defines Mylod’s favorite characters in all three of these stories. While he’s hesitant to expose one character’s fandom to another in these three ensemble projects of his, “It’s like asking me who my favorite kid is,” he says. say.
for Game of Throneswhich meant being pulled towards Cersei Lannister.[Actor] Lena [Headey] It was the complete opposite of that character,” Myrod says. “She’s so loose and adorable and fun, yet she transforms into a completely different person in front of the camera. It’s just insane to see the change. She looks so effortless.
“When [Cersei is a favorite] Because I remember talking to Lena about her take on the character. One day she just commented, “She’s just trying to protect the kids here.” Like Cersei isn’t a bad person, she was just a woman trying to protect her children. I was romanticized by how extremely bad she was, but at the same time, she was just trying to protect her children, which was beautiful to me. ”
for Inheritance, Myrod is drawn to the Roy family’s Hanger-on-Tom Wamsguns (played by Matthew Macfadyen) because of the distance between the actors and the characters. “It’s really the same argument,” Myrod says. “is not number one As for the characters, the one who changes the most from himself to a character is Matthew. He is a very nice, soft-spoken, and kind character, and then transforms into this monster, Tom.
“And he brings an emotional side to the character that sometimes breaks my heart because he’s just a Midwestern kid trying to follow his dreams and find success. If you say he’s a bad guy, he just thinks he’s doing a good job.No one thinks he’s a bad guy.”
The same goes for your favorite Mylod characters. menu: Inevitably, that tormented villain, Chef Slowik, doesn’t see it as evil either, capturing and torturing his patrons. Instead, he assumes they captured him and tortured him, leading to everything that happens in the film: “That’s why I love him,” he says Mylod. “He’s the essential, quiet tragedy behind a hopefully really fun movie. Slowik is in pain. He’s just trying to stop the pain.”
menu is currently streaming on HBO Max and available for rent on digital platforms such as: Amazon When budu.