International cast Ostlund was speaking to Screen in August 2016 during a lunch break while the film was shooting in the director’s hometown of Gothenburg. It was day 42 of a 78-day shoot, and the schedule would be devoted to a scene in which the museum curator, played by Denmark’s Claes Bang, hosts a crisis press conference. The film boasts Ostlund’s most international cast to date and includes Elisabeth Moss, playing a journalist who covers the Nordic countries for a UK magazine, and Dominic West, who is an artist. Stretching a budget of $5.5m (¤5m) — Ostlund’s largest so far — over 78 days is ambitious. “Everybody said it was impossible,” Hemmendorff says. “But if you plan the production, it’s really doable. We understand how to use the money we have in the right places.” The team is also well positioned before the first day of shooting, with six months of prep and location scouting in the bag. The script itself keeps evolving. “Ruben writes all the time, he writes even until the start of shooting and even a little during
44 Screen International at Cannes May 20, 2017
A performance artist (played by Terry Notary) interrupts an awards ceremony at a museum gala dinner
‘Ruben likes to push each scene for a long time’
Bang, Ostlund and Moss on set
Erik Hemmendorff
shooting, so we never lock the script beforehand,” Hemmendorff says. The “luxury” of a long shoot is nonnegotiable for Ostlund. He generally films one scene per day — up to 50 takes — and can take up to four days to shoot a big or complicated scene. “I like to investigate the scene in a real-time aspect,” he explains. It also gives him where you’ve done something so many extra time to work with his regular DoP times, the things that are organic stay, Fredrik Wenzel to make sure camera and the things that didn’t work go away.” angles are just as he wants. Each scene Ostlund likes to work scene by scene is “a visual expression, so I need time to in post-production with editor Jacob get it right”, Ostlund says. Secher Schulsinger, to ensure each “It’s very important to have as much scene is nearly perfect with sound time as possible,” Hemmendorff and image, rather than pictureadds. “It’s a lot about how he locking the whole film and then works with the photographer, doing more post. they put in something and they It has taken five months to take it away. They ask the edit The Square, which was so actors to start rehearsing, we close to the wire for might do takes before the light Cannes that festival is perfect. Ruben likes the director Thierry Fréidea that you push the maux only watched scene for a long time — it after the festival’s up, up, up — and then first press conferdown, and you lose ence. “This is the something, and then you fastest we’ve ever start again, push push edited something,” push. Then you have Elisabeth Moss is part says Hemmendorff. maybe three or four of Ostlund’s most international cast One of the most takes in the end
complex scenes in The Square features a performance artist who interrupts an awards ceremony at a museum gala dinner. It required special time and attention including one full day of rehearsal and three days of shooting. Ostlund discovered the actor who plays the performance artist, Terry Notary, on YouTube. Notary is usually a motioncapture artist and movement coach whose credits include Kong: Skull Island and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. The scene’s uncomfortable realism is enforced by the fact 90% of the people in the scene are gallerists or art investors who frequently attend these kinds of galas. The resulting seven-minute scene is uncomfortable viewing. It could well be one of the most unforgettable scenes that unfolds at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. As the director says proudly: “You know I love awkward s situations.” ■
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Tobias Henriksson
The project began three years ago as an actual art installation, a white marked box in a public space into which anyone could step if they needed help or sanctuary. Working with Swedish film producer Kalle Boman, Ostlund wanted a platform with which to tackle big ideas with public participation. “‘The Square’ is where we have this big trust in the State and take care of each other,” Ostlund says of the altruistic ambitions of the white marked box. “[It is] a sanctuary of trust and caring, within its boundaries we all share equal rights and obligations. It is about some of the most important questions of our time.” The installation, initially designed to be temporary, was instead created as a permanent piece of work in Varnamo in southern Sweden in early 2015. New versions of ‘The Square’ are planned for Grimstad, Norway, and then in Gothenburg and Stockholm in Sweden. The film explores how audiences and the media respond to the artwork. It has a satirical slant, especially in its portrayal of the media, which “goes straight into the trap” set by the museum and its PR agency: they suspect the press will not care about the exhibit unless they have something provocative to write about. “I really think that we’re [living] in a media circus,” says Ostlund of the way in which news is disseminated and consumed today. “If you’re a politician, people have to know you exist — for that to happen you need to have controversy.”
Fredrik Wenzel
PRODUCTION REPORT THE SQUARE