LOVE IS MAD!
The Making of Nusrat Durrani’s Omnibus of Unusual Love Stories.
“Madly” achieves something rare for a film about such an abused subject- jagged, juxtaposed and wildly divergent views of love from around the world, artfully strung together like a bouquet. It provides audiences the kaleidoscopic breadth and contradictions of this universal emotion in the twenty first century. Its creator, Nusrat Durrani, intended to expand the lexicon and mythology of modern love and include a panoramic range of relationships, themes, protagonists and cultures within the film’s cinematic sweep. “Madly” also intended to put carefully selected actors (and a musician) behind the camera to see what kind of celluloid magic they would conjure. There was a conscious decision to include women directors and choose stories with strong and iconic female protagonists for the project.
The gorgeously untethered results are an example of what happens when directors are given the freedom to experiment regardless of the size of budget. When Nusrat conceived the project, he was clear that the shorts that comprise “Madly” were going to be director’s films, and the only parameters he set in place were that the films needed to be about love, of high quality, intended for younger global audiences and delivered on time and within budget. He encouraged the directors to explore unchartered territory. Under producer Eric Mahoney’s steady supervision, the results were true to the brief, on budget and on schedule. Like love itself “Madly” is an emotional rollercoaster- it startles, confounds and delights. For most audiences, it is as exasperating as it is satisfying in its disobedience of traditional cinema and preconceived notions of love.
Radhika Apte’s soulful performance in Bollywood enfant terrible Anurag Kashyap’s incendiary contribution “Clean Shaven” won the coveted best actress award in its category at the Tribeca Film Festival, a first for an Indian actress. It was also passionately received at its Indian premiere at the Mumbai International Film Festival where the film got a standing ovation despite its “taboo” subject matter and progressive stance on female sexuality, male chauvinism and misogyny- a sign that bold filmmaking is seeing a resurgence in India.
Nusrat is a fan of Gael Garcia Bernal in “Y Tu Mamá También” and the edgy masterpiece “Amores Perros”. Gael’s directorial effort “Love of My Life” is a slow-burning meditation on a lost love between young and old. The executive producer was impressed by Australian actress Mia Wasikowska’s directorial debut “Long, Clear View” at Berlinale and had the team propose a film to her. It’s not surprising that the star of “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Only Lovers Left Alive” and “Maps to the Stars” created the off-kilter, often-unsettling segment “Afterbirth”, a dark but liberating view of the loneliness and quiet terror of new motherhood. Japanese impresario Sion Sono’s “Love Exposure”, a sprawling, psychotic pop culture mess of a film, is one of Nusrat’s ten favorite films of the decade and he knew the elusive filmmaker would add an eccentric, Eastern edge to the project. Eric relentlessly pursued Sion Sono until the team agreed on a script that would work for “Madly”. His “Love of Love” ended up being the unhinged, erotic centerpiece that lends cult status to the anthology.
Both Nusrat and Eric wanted to include “Crystal Fairy” director and indie darling Sebastian Silva in the project. Sebastian’s “The Maid” had been a critical success and Sundance award winner and the director had the dark, restrained edge they felt “Madly” needed. However, Sebastian’s initial ideas, one with a cannibalistic theme and the other a Brooklyn-based lesbian love story that devolves into horror were too edgy even for their broad mandate. Sebastian eventually directed the gritty and bittersweet gay coming-of-age segment “Dance, Dance, Dance” which has been widely praised. “Madly”s sweetest surprise is British band Bat For Lashes’ singer Natasha Khan’s “I Do” – a gently surreal, stream-of-consciousness paean to letting-go set in the English countryside. Tamsin Topolski’s understated, poetic study of a bride haunted by ghosts of her past on the eve of her wedding is a high point of the anthology and provides its redemptive ending.
There are a few other things worth mentioning that speak to the thought and deliberation given to bringing “Madly” to life. The first is the choice of Galen Johnson to design the film’s titles and graphics. Amongst the short-listed directors for the film was Canadian auteur Guy Madden, whose “The Saddest Music in The World” is a favorite of Nusrat’s. The two had met at Sundance but Guy was unable to direct a film for “Madly”. However, during conversations, Guy recommended his graphics designer Galen for the project and Eric brought him on giving the film its unforgettable neon-lit, retro-futuristic, global opening sequence. The second is the choice of “Is it Love?”, the propulsive, urgent PJ Harvey song that drives the Galen’s credits and sets up its conflicts, as well as Eric’s choice of Yat-Kha, a band of throat singers from Tuva who created the otherworldly soundtrack that beautifully strings together the film.
VIEW MADLY
