A24 plot Bo afraid It’s kind of straightforward. But unlike some of director Ari Aster’s other films, Bo afraid It leaves many of your questions unanswered, which makes it very confusing with the way the story ends. Even now, production designer Fiona Crombie doesn’t quite know what was going through Aster’s head when the ideas that inspired Bo afraid He came to him first. But from the moment she sat down to read the script for the movie, she knew that whatever the movie was going to end up being, she’d want to be a part of it.
As a movie that often feels something like a twisted and disturbing dream about a seriously ill man, there are a variety of different ways to interpret it. Bo afraid and his portrayal of a man struggling with twin anxiety monsters and an overbearing mother. At times, the film plays like an experimental thriller about a man traveling through a war-torn world, while other scenes unfold like moments of quiet drama, and you can never be quite sure what tone will strike next.
When we spoke with Crombie recently Bo afraidOn a grand scale, she said the unexpected quality was a big part of what drew her to the project. More than that, though, she also believes she doesn’t know exactly what will happen next Bo afraid It is an essential part of the movie experience the way it should be.
This post includes major spoilers for Bo afraidSo proceed with caution if you haven’t seen it yet.
Early reactions to the film have been very polarizing, and I’m very curious to hear what you think. As a moviegoer, how would you describe that Bo afraidThen how would you describe it from a production design perspective?
Fiona Crombie: I always thought it would be polarizing. always. I knew it on the page. The thing I love about the movie is it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever read, and it plays with form, you know? It’s an experience of something intimate that I’ve never had before, and that’s why I wanted to be a part of it. I want to work with people who are willing to go out there and try something risky, and that’s what Ari has done a lot. From a production design standpoint, it was a gift because it’s very special episodes. Chapters of occasional quality to them. So, I can present very complete worlds, and then you walk away, you leave it. I really enjoyed doing that, like really building those worlds and then moving on.
His description… I mean, I think it’s really funny. To be really honest, I only saw a rough cutout on my laptop, so I haven’t gotten the full experience yet, and I doubt I’ll ever get the full experience because once you get into it, there’s no reveal. So I will never be able to read or receive them in the way that someone does not know (can).
It’s interesting to hear you describe the movie’s scenes as “episodic” because that’s exactly it – it feels like we’re seeing chapters of Poe’s life, but it all fits together so seamlessly. What were some of the larger feelings that you wanted to define specific scenes?
FC: In general, I wanted to create a sense of place, for sure. Like, you have to know where you are — not necessarily in a natural way, or hopefully you don’t go, “Oh, I’ve been to a place just like that” when we look at the Po mass. But I wanted people to have a real sense of where he’s being placed at any given moment, and there’s clearly real anxiety throughout the movie. I think there was an uneasiness in the therapist’s office, even with all the clothes we wore. I think what we ended up doing is we kind of looked at pushing everything up a percentage so that we start to stray a little bit from the natural feel – it’s very high.
Was there a specific moment when you wanted the distant stuff to begin?
FC: I don’t know at any point in the movie that registers that something is off. I came to the script completely cold, not knowing what I was going to get. But I remember it was just when I went through a bit of a therapist and was going through some apartment stuff where I went, “Oh, okay. This isn’t your everyday movie.” That made me think maybe, with this movie, when you watch this unfold, it must be the same feeling. . You go through a therapist scene, and you say, ‘Well, that’s a little unusual,’ and then you go out into the street and you’re like, ‘Oooh. now Show.”
There’s this distinct liveliness and elegance in the film’s scenes set in Beau’s past that contrast sharply with the silence and chaos of the present, especially in his blocks before he kind of begins his adventure. What aspects of Beau’s mental states were you trying to convey through the production design? Obviously, we feel like the movie is presenting us with this fact that isn’t necessarily grounding for us. But for Bo, it’s all true, right? Nothing seems out of the ordinary to him. It’s all just the kind of thing he’s associated with a lot.
FC: So, this is me speaking to my interpretation, not necessarily Aryan thinking. This scene speaks to me of how Mona made everything about Beau as psychologically unbearable as possible so that he would feel like he had to go home. His group is the worst place. He is relentlessly aggressive, as with people on the street or, visually, with things he reads on the walls. He’s just relentlessly aggressive, and will get to a point where he’ll go, “I just can’t cope. I’m just going home.” That was what I was doing – how are you going to, as this very crazy mother, force your child to come back to you?
What about movie scenes in the past? Everything is dreamlike, and there’s this sparkly quality that makes it seem fantastical in a way that’s different from the present. Everything seems to be where it should be. But it’s also clear that Beau and Mona aren’t in the best of health mental space aboard this cruise ship decked out in all these bright oranges and yellows, with everyone around them seemingly living such a happy life. What kind of ideas were you trying to convey about the world around Beau and Mona in the past?
FC: The way we filmed that, in fact, was in a virtual production, so it immediately had that artificiality. It’s a little bit like a cartoon, and at one point, I was like, “How is this going to work for us?” But in the end, we realize that no, that’s actually too good for us because it’s a very distinct look that separates itself from the rest of the movie, and becomes this capsule memory space for Beau that really is alive. Somehow, those memories on that cruise ship are of the best times from his childhood. He found out about Eileen, he was independent, and for a very short period of time, he had a unique experience for himself, and then obviously all the shifts.
I was blown away by the imagination of the theatrical stage and the words Beau stumbled upon and became a part of. I wasn’t expecting to see experimental theater come to life. What made all this sequence come together the way it did?
FC: Of the things about Ari, I think he secretly loves theater. He really wanted it to be practical and real, and it was realistic — like we built the stage. They were all practical effects. Trees turning? I made them a mannequin, actually, before I went to Canada, and then I came up with the idea of how they would all turn to change of seasons and then little leaves or snowflakes would fall. It all happened, and we had a team of eight stage technicians that came and rehearsed in that woods, so everything was done alive in that setting. I have a video on my phone somewhere of us rehearsing everything. We could have cheated like a million different times and in different ways. There are so many ways you could have gone to make things easier, but we didn’t because it was like a little stage show, and we loved that.
I don’t know there’s a right way to say this, but we have to talk about the penis monster in the attic.
Again, there will be a lot of debate about what some of the things in the movie are and what they mean, so I’m curious to hear from you – in your mind, what is the thing in the attic in both a literal and figurative sense?
FC: Oh my God, I don’t even know. I think it’s his biggest fear. I mean, I don’t think he’s his father, or at least I don’t think he’s his father alone, if that makes sense. But it’s like the thing he’s been afraid of all his life….yeah, I guess that’s what it is. You probably know that Ari drew the Beast years ago, and he’s had that drawing the whole time. I went on this trip, and it was a long journey for me. I just went, “Okay, great. That’s what you want. Let’s go at it.”