Moviemaker - CA (2019 Summer)

MOVIEMAKER.COM SUMMER 2019 31

“

THE MOST PERSONAL

FILMS ARE THE ONES

THAT CHANNEL

EMPATHY AND ALLOW

US TO FEEL AND

EXPERIENCE WITH

THEIR CHARACTERS.

IN THAT SENSE, A FILM

CAN BE MADE PERSONAL

REGARDLESS IF IT’S

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL,

FICTION, OR EVEN

SCIENCE-FICTION.

”

— LULU WANG,

writer-director of The Farewell

experiences of love, loss, and joy to the character.

I took a similar approach in casting the ensem-

ble, not necessarily trying to find visual replica-

tions, but looking for a particular essence of each

character that was important for the story.

With my father, for example, it was captur-

ing his humor and diplomacy—someone who

moved fluidly between the two cultures and

just wanted to keep the peace. His dilemma

is the one closest to Billi’s—caught between

his American values and his loyalty to his

Chinese family.

My mother is the intellectual,

clinging to rationality as her lifeboat

in a dark sea of complex dynamics

and emotions.

With the grandmother, Nai Nai,

I looked for someone who’s as

strong as she is warm—an iconic

matriarch. It’s all about faces. So much of what

you look for in an actor—character, experience,

humor, emotion—can be found in a face.

PUTTING YOUR STORY INTO PERSPECTIVE

In taking The Farewell from the page

to the big screen, every decision helps shape

perspective—the lens through which an audi-

ence experiences the story. My cinematogra-

pher Anna Franquesa Solano and I chose

a wide aspect ratio (2:39:1) that’s often used

for nature landscapes as a way to portray the

“landscape” of a family. The wider perspec-

tive allowed us to capture the various faces

of the family in one frame, underscoring their

significance as a unit. When Billi is alone

in that same wide frame, we really feel the

absence of her family and her isolation.

This framing supports the film’s theme

of individualism versus collectivism. The most

difficult scenes to shoot were the ones filled

with up to 15 characters in small spaces and

we had a very limited shooting schedule. Doing

traditional coverage on 15 characters is not only

uninteresting, but also time-consuming. We used

blocking and composition to create long takes,

saving singles and close-ups for very specific

moments.

Creating the visual language of your film

involves a series of choices that marry creativity

with practicality, so it’s important

to see challenges as opportunities.

Think outside the box in terms of

coming up with references.

I used horror films as a visual ref-

erence to help root the audience in

Billi’s perspective. This might seem

unconventional for a comedic family drama,

but Billi’s point of view is filled with fear and

anxiety. Horror films are all about creating

atmosphere and dread for the things we don’t

see, but feel and anticipate. The monster

in The Farewell is the lie Billi and her family

tell, and it keeps everyone on edge.

Real life is not dictated externally by genre,

so the same situation can either be funny, sad,

or terrifying depending on perspective. The

most personal films are the ones that channel

empathy and allow us to feel and experience

along with the characters. In that sense, a film

can be made personal regardless if it’s autobio-

graphical, fiction or even science-fiction. MM

The Farewell opened July 12, 2019, courtesy

of A24.

STRONG LANGUAGE:

THE FAREWELL’ S

EMOTIONAL IMPACT

RELIED ON VISUAL

LANGUAGE AS MUCH AS

ITS COMPLEX BILINGUAL

DIALOGUE, SAYS WANG (L)

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CASI MOSS / COURTESY OF A24