Australia's most intriguing director, who previously released "The Assistant," which mocked predatory media moguls, is back with a new picture that defies expectations.
A promotional photo for the upcoming movie The Royal Hotel has two young women, dressed in roomy travel backpacks, standing by the side of a dirt road in the Australian Outback. They seem disoriented, distressed, and defenseless. According to Kitty Green, a co-writer and director, "it feels like a horror movie." We are meeting in a large suite at the opulent Soho Hotel in London. She's seated in an elegant dining chair, while we've taken a low couch's seat across from her. Rewind to the movie. That particular shot seems to have been placed there, along with a slew of other seemingly menacing aspects, to make the audience think that the worst is going to happen. "[We] were constantly pushing to claim it as ours, not "that," and to resist
The sequel to her provocative 2019 thriller The Assistant, the Australian director's latest film follows the tale of two American friends named Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick), who accept employment in the bar of the same name located in a bleak mining town. When they get there, they find that the only things to do are sunbathe in a dried-up swimming pool and sip boxed wine. There's also no wifi and limited hot water. Then there are the punters, boisterous males who are hankering after work for a few pints and chatty locals who harass the girls with sexist small talk and sarcastic remarks. Anyone who has ever toiled away at a neighborhood cash-in-hand tavern gig will find great resonance in this movie.
Crucially, however, The Royal Hotel never achieves the climax for which we have been trained by decades of thriller cliches to brace ourselves: especially, the idea that women in potentially dangerous situations may be sexually assaulted or raped. According to Green, "it's about bad behavior." "I wanted to draw attention to the kind of behavior that many people frequently overlook."
"I want to draw attention to improper behavior that is overlooked."
The film's eerie atmosphere intensifies like a headache (Green resists the term "slowburn"), evoking a tension that is similarly ambiguous to that of Green's quietly effective office thriller The Assistant, which NME called "the first great #MeToo movie." The Assistant, which stars Jennifer Lawrence (well known for the Netflix crime drama Ozark) and marks the beginning of a strong working collaboration, centers on a junior assistant at a production firm who manages the affairs of an executive with a profile similar to Harvey Weinstein but whose face is never seen to the public.
Similar to The Royal Hotel, there are subtly discernible yet unmistakably clear indicators of exploitation and toxicity. The reason the movie so silent is "because the subject is so loud," as Garner stated in an interview. According to Green, women negotiating a difficult culture or new environment is the common theme of the two movies. As one of the most captivating young directors of recent years, Green's unwavering dedication to the truth signals a potent new standard for post-#MeToo filmmaking. She claims that "a lot of it is inherently about my fear as a woman in the world."
When Green was growing up in Melbourne, she recalls wanting a video camera "more than anything in the world" at the age of about eleven. She was able to get one and began creating short films with the assistance of a donation from her grandmother. "I still don't really know why, but it was just what I wanted to do," she explains. Her parents were both artists: her father was a media and art instructor and completed a doctorate on the ideas of German philosopher Hegel. Her mother was a photographer.In addition to "lots of Spice Girls stuff" she made with her pals, the latter showed her how to use editing software to help with the post-production of her stop-motion films, which featured Barbie dolls strung on strings moving up and down staircases.
She earned a position following Australian actor Rebel Wilson around on the 2008 TV series Bogan Pride for a behind-the-scenes documentary, in addition to working as an editor and producer, after studying film and television at the Victorian College of The Arts in Melbourne. It all became a little serious after that.
Around the age of 26, she spent a year in her mother's home country of Ukraine in 2012, following the feminist group Femen, who are frequently seen in the media topless with black text slogans scrawled across their chests. Green was detained eight times in the course of filming the documentary Ukraine Is Not a Brothel. She thinks the Belarusian KGB was behind one of those, a kidnapping that occurred in Belarus. She claims, "It was terrifying, but I didn't stop myself." Although Green's decision to return to Ukraine to complete the film caused some controversy, the Australian consulate assisted in arranging for a trip home."That year was really difficult," she remarks. However, I consider that year to have been the best of my life.
For Green, her experience producing documentaries served as a demanding "training ground" prior to her transition into fiction. She explains, "I just think that I ended up becoming interested in other things and other storytelling techniques." Her narrative films are very realistic, which is perhaps explained by their factual roots. The film Hotel Coolgardie, about two female Finns who work at a pub in, you guessed it, a remote Australian mining town and are subjected to unwelcome male attention, served as a loose inspiration for The Royal Hotel.Green found it fascinating to see how the woman was able to advocate for herself in little ways. "As Australians and, I believe, British too, we tend to just laugh it off or smile and move on from a lot of that behavior," adds Green.
In order to balance Hanna's timidity with her bite, Garner was essential. Green says, "I could throw her anything." She also attributes her ability to direct two episodes of M. Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller TV series Servant, which helped her nail those crucial moments, especially in the boisterous bar scenes. She claims that "watching him work was a really big learning experience." "I got to film a large-scale dinner party sequence featuring a large number of guests. And I had to come up with a highly technical technique to conceal it. Along with watching an early rough edit of The Royal Hotel, the maestro of movie twists contributed notes.
Green understands that some viewers may leave The Royal Hotel thinking it's a critique of toxic masculinity. However, she insisted that the main focus of the movie be the protagonists' quest to "carve out their own capabilities and figure out their limitations."
Green was careful while choosing the male characters to ensure that the stories of the girls remained the main focus. Hugo Weaving from The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings entered as the distressed landlord, Toby Wallace from Bathateeth played the local flirt, and Herbert Nordrum from The Worst Person In The World confronted another inebriated traveler. "I thought that set needed to feel warm, so we wanted the guys playing these men to be really lovely human beings," adds Green.
The movie, according to her, is already divisive. Green shows that audiences on the other side of the pond have not been reacting in the same manner when we observe the meticulous nuance and tenderness in the male roles. She claims that "Americans can't see any of the light and shade and think these guys are villains." "And we put a lot of effort into making them yearn for a connection."
The movie's shocking and audacious conclusion, which gives Liv and Hanna their agency back, has also caused controversy. "I didn't want them to walk away, accept that behavior, put up with it, and say, 'Oh well, the system's broken,'" says Green. especially considering how dismal The Assistant's conclusion was. The conclusion acknowledges that the system is flawed. And I believe that with this one, I said, "No, let's try something else." Let these girls express no and take a position for themselves.
"Male critics found it difficult to understand."
She claims to have already received comments from male critics who believe the females overstepped their bounds. "I'm happy with it," she declares. She had to maintain her position even prior to the start of the movie's production. She encountered criticism that The Royal Hotel didn't have enough violence when trying to raise money for it. "We deliberately set out to create a movie that refuted it. And they were unable to comprehend it," she remarked. For them, a movie wouldn't be the same without "that scene." which, incidentally, I take to be a scene of rape. What more are they trying to find?
Green has already expressed her desire to finish a trilogy of sorts with Garner, but the proper subject is required. She admits, "I really haven't been able to put anything down on paper." "But I think I can figure it out soon, hopefully in a month." It's guaranteed to start significant new discussions, if Green's previous two movies provide any indication.
‘The Royal Hotel’ is in UK and Irish cinemas from November 3
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