Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

NUNN ON ONE MOVIES Sebastian Lelio's 'Fantastic' project
by Jerry Nunn, Windy City Times
2018-02-07

This article shared 965 times since Wed Feb 7, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


The new movie A Fantastic Woman stars Chilean transgender actress Daniela Vega, who plays Marina, the survivor of the death of her lover, Orlando. His family wants her to just go away quietly while she wants to fight for the right to mourn Orlando in this unpredictable story about discrimination.

This movie is currently nominated for an Oscar after the recent Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film. Diversity has increased in the 90th Academy Awards with A Fantastic Woman along with Strong Island's Yance Ford being the first transgender director of a film to be nominated for an Oscar. Call Me By Your Name leads the LGBT pack of films with four nominations.

Windy City Times called the director of A Fantastic Woman, Sebastian Lelio, to discuss the creation of the film and his growing career.

Windy City Times: Hi, Sebastian. With you being the screenwriter, talk about the creation of A Fantastic Woman.

Sebastian Lelio: At the very beginning, it was a story about what would happen if the person you love dies in your arms. It would feel like the worst place in the world.

In the process of scriptwriting, the idea of this happening to a transgender woman popped up. That was an important moment in the process. I stopped writing because I don't live in Santiago. I live in Germany. I didn't know any transgender people in Santiago. I had the intuition that things had evolved, but I wanted to get rid of my ignorance and see who was out there.

When we were looking for a consultant we found Daniela Vega. I wanted to learn what a transgender woman in contemporary Santiago was like. I was immediately fascinated by Daniela. I really liked her. She generously accepted to become our consultant and friend who we could talk to during the writing process.

When I finished the first draft, I realized I wanted to make the film, but not without a transgender actress. My dear cultural advisor was going to be the star of the film!

So that is how it happened. It was very organic. I didn't do casting or anything. It was always her, even when I didn't know it at the beginning.

WCT: Was it difficult to obtain the rights for "( You Make Me Feel Like ) A Natural Woman" to be played in the movie?

SL: We had to pay. It wasn't particularly difficult, but not cheap either. It was important for me to have it. I love the song. It is straight forward in the way it is used. That is exactly what I like about it.

WCT: I saw Diabla is really the dog's name in the credits. How did the dog factor into the movie?

SL: We wanted to thank her especially. I really like animals in films. Every chance I have to incorporate animals I do it. They have a pure presence and it is like great acting.

In terms of the narrative, it is a necessary element because it was the only thing that she wanted to keep of his. It is not material, but more than that, more than his car or anything like that. The dog is the only thing that doesn't judge her in the film. It hit me at a film festival and it made me sad. Everyone was so unraveled by her presence except for the dog. It was devastating because we can't even be like dogs. I started to look at it with a different light and thought, "We can at least be like dogs can't we? Come on!"

WCT: When Marina is jumping on top of the car, was that her Jurassic Park moment?

SL: [Laughs] I had never thought of that. That might be triggered because there is a presence of dinosaurs in the story. In the restaurant where she works the walls have dinosaurs.

The question is who are the dinosaurs? Who is the more evolved force? Maybe the dinosaurs are the ones inside the car.

WCT: I love that. What was the idea behind the taping of her face?

SL: I was looking for an original solution for the kidnapping moment. I wanted them to be very aggressive but not leave any marks. I thought deforming her face with Scotch Tape was a way to do that.

The whole scene is a projections of projections. You are seeing the secondary characters judging Marina. By doing that they don't reveal anything about her, but instead reveal aspects about themselves. We are projecting our own fears, desires, and fantasies upon them. We are judging everyone as well.

Sometimes Marina looks directly in the lens, maybe asking the spectators what they see. What are they projecting?

In that sense the formation of the Scotch Tape sequence is playing with that idea. That is what they see when they look at her, a deformed monster.

WCT: What would you like to see audiences get out of A Fantastic Woman?

SL: I want a strong cinematic experience. I want people to see a film, not a moral lesson or a cause film that will teach them something. If that happens that is one of the layers of it.

I wanted to make a genre film about a transgender character. It is really like a complex animal that operates in different directions. It flirts with different genres. It's a romantic movie that becomes a thriller, that becomes a character study. It has elements of fantasy, then becomes a ghost film. The film's own identity is in flux. It is deeply connected to it's subject of style, to Marina.

I hope the journey is intense enough for the spectator to go, "What was that?" in a good way when the film finishes. It offers enough space for viewers to step into everyone's shoes and to analyze the challenge from every possible angle. They can decide where they stand.

Besides that it offers the opportunity to connect with Marina. Despite your beliefs or political positions or what you think about sexual minorities, the film offers you a chance to empathize with Marina. Maybe after seeing the movie they will have empathy in places they didn't know they had.

WCT: What films do you have coming out next?

SL: I made a movie with with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams called Disobedience. It is coming out in April.

WCT: I interviewed Rachel Weisz last year for a different film. How was it working with her?

SL: She was amazing. She's a magnificent actress. I really admire her. She is a producer of the film as well and had the rights to the book. She was always attached to the project and was the main reason for me to say yes.

I just finished shooting a new version of my film Gloria with Julianne Moore. It was a joyful experience and will come out towards the end of the year. I am remaking my own film. It is like a cover of my own song!

A Fantastic Woman opens in Chicago on Friday, Feb. 9.


This article shared 965 times since Wed Feb 7, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97 2024-03-22
- series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds 2024-03-21
- It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman 2024-03-21
- Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition' 2024-03-15
- Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer 2024-03-08
- Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor 2024-03-01
- Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctor—a film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...


Gay News

Dorian Film Awards: 'All of Us Strangers' takes top prizes 2024-02-27
- February 26, 2024 - Los Angeles, Ca. - For its 15th Dorian Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics fully embraced All of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh's fantastical and tear-inducing tale of two ...


Gay News

SAG Awards honor Streisand, few LGBTQ+ actors 2024-02-25
- Queer entertainers made their mark—although not a major one—at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, held Feb. 24 in Los Angeles. The event was live-streamed on Netflix for the first time. Indigenous and Two-Spirit actor ...


Gay News

WORLD Caribbean ruling, Pussy Riot, Russian raid, Canadian warning, anti-trans bar 2024-02-23
- The top court in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines dismissed a challenge to colonial-era anti-gay laws, Reuters reported. Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish—two gay men who had pushed to decriminalize ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Kristen Stewart, Rock Hudson, Talia Keys, 'True Detective,' Marvel comic 2024-02-23
- At the Berlin Film Festival, Kristen Stewart defended her photo shoot for a Rolling Stone magazine cover that went viral and divided audiences on social-media platforms, per The Hollywood Reporter. "The existence of a female body ...


Gay News

Second Glance Productions hosts LGBTQupid Soiree 2024-02-16
- In celebration of Valentine's Day, Chicago based film and media production company Second Glance hosted The LBGTQupid Soiree. The event, which was focused on spinning attitudes on this particular day, was presented at The iO ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Elton John, Hannah Gadsby, video game, Jennifer Lopez, queer thriller 2024-02-16
Video below - Sir Elton John has sold his Atlanta home and is now auctioning off more than 900 of his personal items that were kept in the 13,500-square-foot condo, The Daily Mail noted. The massive collection includes rare ...


Gay News

GALECA announces nominees for the Dorian Film Awards 2024-02-07
--From a press release - Feb. 5, 2024 - GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, consisting of over 500 entertainment critics, journalists and media icons, today announced the group's democratically chosen nominees for its 15th Dorian Film Awards. All of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ JoJo Siwa, Tom Holland, Bowen Yang, Pet Shop Boys, Mariah Carey 2024-02-02
- In the wake of Nigel Lythgoe exiting So You Think You Can Dance, queer personality JoJo Siwa is returning to the series, per Deadline. Siwa, who was a judge on season 17 of the Fox show, will replace Lythgoe, who left ...


Gay News

Leather Archives & Museum announces 2024 Fetish Film Forum 2024-01-27
--From a press release - CHICAGO, Illinois—After a wildly successful inaugural year, including a 10-film series at the Leather Archives & Museum and a 5-film series at FACETS, the Leather Archives & Museum is thrilled to announce the continuation of Fetish ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.