Lou

LOU

STARRING JOHN HURT, EMILY BARCLAY and INTRODUCING LILY BELL-TINDLEY

Kojo Pictures is proud to announce the national release, on June 17, of the new Australian feature film LOU, starring John Hurt and Emily Barclay and introducing, in a remarkable first performance, Lily Bell-Tindley.

The national release on 17 June follows the world premiere of LOU as opening night film of the 2010 Dungog Film Festival in last week.

LOU, written and directed by Belinda Chayko, was filmed on location in the stunning cane fields surrounding Murwillumbah in northern NSW. Producers are Helen Bowden, Michael McMahon, Tony Ayres and Belinda Chayko; Executive Producer is Liz Watts.

The film tells a tender story about the relationship between 11-year-old LOU (Lily Bell-Tindley) and her grandfather (John Hurt). Not long after Lou's father walks out of her life, her irascible and befuddled grandfather crashes in. But when Doyle comes to stay, Lou discovers, against all her expectations, the healing power of love.

Eleven-year-old Lou's life was instantly turned upside down when her father walked out on her mother and two sisters ten months earlier.

Feeling abandoned, she copes by building a tough shell around her heart . afraid to let anyone hurt her again. Lou blames her mother for her father's departure and refuses to let her get close. Life suddenly becomes more interesting when her estranged grandfather moves in to the family's ricketty, rented home. Doyle brings chaos with him, not least because he is ill and befuddled . living largely in the past.

In his confused state, Doyle mistakes his granddaughter for his long departed wife, showering her with attention in an attempt to win her affections. Lou, intrigued, plays along with the fantasy, using her bond with Doyle against her mother.

As the game progresses, Lou begins to experience genuine care from Doyle. Her tough shell begins to be chipped away and Lou ultimately understands what it is to be loved - in the most unexpected of circumstances.

LOU
Starring: John Hurt, Emily Barclay, Lily Bell Tindley
Director: Belinda Chayko
Rated: M
Running time: 82mins
www.louthemovie.com

About the Production

LOU is a powerful emotional drama about the tender relationship that develops between Lou, the 11-year-old daughter of a floundering single mother, and her grandfather who, suffering the confusions of Alzheimer's disease, unexpectedly lands in her life.

The film introduces, in an astonishing first performance, Lily Bell-Tindley in the eponymous role and stars charismatic British actor John Hurt as her grandfather.

Their story is set in the lush cane field country of northern NSW, with spectacular dormant volcano Mt Warning as a backdrop - one of the most beautiful places in Australia, although rarely seen on film.

Belinda began writing the script while still living in Sydney but moved its urban setting to the country after she resettled in Murwillumbah. Over time she came to appreciate the remarkable beauty of the area and began to consider the opportunities it presented as a film location.

"Films about struggling families tend to be set in grey tower blocks and other drab surroundings - so much so it's become a cliché. In this region, there's poverty yet people are living in physically very beautiful surroundings. I think that creates a tension that I was keen to work with in the film," Belinda says.

"The other benefit is that we have ended up with some truly beautiful images which suit what I believe is a very romantic story. I wanted to create an idealised world in which these characters could exist - could dream their dream - and the landscape helps do that."

For John Hurt, filming in Australia was an opportunity to return to a country with which he has had long ties. He had close family members living in Australia for many years and had enjoyed very much making the film The Proposition in the outback in 2005.

Securing Hurt for the role of Doyle was key to the successful financing of LOU says Tony Ayres, who produced the film with Matchbox Pictures partners Helen Bowden and Michael McMahon. "Because the film is a relationship drama, the casting is everything. John has such a fine international reputation and is a very sympathetic actor. We felt he would bring gravitas to the project which would give international buyers faith in the film, and we knew he would be absolutely right for what is a sensitive role," Tony Ayres says.

"John read the script and loved it. He found it very moving."

Belinda Chayko says it was a 'red letter day' when John Hurt said 'yes': "John was perfect for the role," she says. "I've always admired the way he embraces a character's vulnerability and that was important for the character of Doyle, who is struggling with significant losses."

"He was incredible to work with and has given a beautiful performance."

Belinda's inspiration to write LOU was two-fold: observing an uncle ill with Alzheimer's and meeting a young girl in foster care.

"I was struck by the pain and the loss my uncle felt through the process of the disease. It was painful for him because he was aware, at times, that he was losing a sense of his identity. It was like he was grieving that. But he was also able to give us something - through his parallel reality he was able to shine a light on our reality at times, to cut through the crap, which was liberating," Belinda says. "The young girl I met had built a hard shell around herself, to protect herself from the hurts she'd felt in the past. I started to think about what it would be like for a girl who never allows anyone to break through that shell, what kind of future would she have? Or, what might change for her if, at a key point in her life, she is able to experience being loved by someone unconditionally and profoundly.

"I didn't realise I'd written a film about the healing power of love until I was quite a long way into the script. But that's what it is - both Doyle and Lou give each other the gift of love. For Doyle it heals the hurts of the past, for Lou it opens up her heart for the future."

Producer Michael McMahon was struck by the tenderness and beauty of Belinda's script, as well as its honesty: "It maintained those qualities throughout the various drafts. It was always beautifully written. What was so wonderful was the journey of the girl - how, through the arrival of her grandfather, she learns there is love and warmth and that people can care for each other. It's a very uplifting story."

With John Hurt in place, the role of the young mother was offered to New Zealand actress Emily Barclay, acclaimed for her performances in films such as Suburban Mayhem and In My Father's Den and the television drama The Silence.

"Emily Barclay was a revelation. She's a fantastic actor and I've always loved her performances, but I couldn't imagine how much she would be able to bring another dimension to the character of Rhia that is so unexpected and yet just so completely right," producer Helen Bowden says. "There was always a level of worry, leading up to filming, that audiences would judge Rhia harshly. Belinda was always concerned to ameliorate that kind of judgement of the character which is exactly what Emily's performance achieves."

Last to be cast was the role of Lou.

"The character was written at a very fluid moment of life, when she is just on the cusp of puberty. So we had to cast very close to the beginning of filming because six - 12 months in the life of an 11 or 12-year-old can make a phenomenal difference," Belinda Chayko says. "That put an enormous amount of pressure on us to cast in a very short period of time. Our wonderful casting director, Nikki Barrett, always assured me that we would find Lou; though there were moments when I was terrified that filming would start without our lead actress. Nikki's confidence was a great help. "Amazingly, we discovered Lily just down the road. I first saw her at an audition at Byron Bay. She performed well but it wasn't the audition that really grabbed me - it was something more about her attitude as she walked back out the door. I saw something of Lou in that walk and we recalled her on that basis. It was in subsequent try-outs that we discovered the depth of Lily's ability as a performer."

Producer Tony Ayres says: "Lily Bell-Tindley is a find. She is magnificent in this role and we're all very excited about her as an actor and this film as a vehicle to launch what we hope will be a great film career, if that is what Lily chooses to do."

John Hurt says Lily's maturity and poise at only 12 was remarkable. "Working with child actors is always a gamble, but the gamble paid off! She's a very bright 12-year-old and most receptive and eager to learn."

A sense of yearning and nostalgia runs through LOU. For John Hurt, it's felt through the character Doyle's memories of his life at sea and the solace that Lou brings him. "In his diminished mind and diminishing mind, she becomes the image of the love of his life and that is a solace to him." That sense also informed the choices of production designer Pete Baxter. Belinda Chayko initially discussed with him a palette of greens, golds and pinks, evocative of sunset over the cane fields. "I went off and did some research and came back to Belinda and DOP Hugh Miller with a whole lot of photographs that had been processed in a way that gave a very nostalgic feeling and a real softness. They were like old photographs and that really appealed to Belinda because so much of the film is about memory."

The film is set primarily in a Queenslander house (weatherboard house on stilts) where Rhia and her children live, and the surrounding cane fields. Miraculously, the locations survived catastrophic and unseasonal floods, which hit the region just before filming began. The region is renowned for its rainfall - and hence its lush green rainforest.

Producer Helen Bowden recalls the mayhem: "Our runner arrived at John Hurt's house with script amendments, just as his street was being evacuated and he was about to be taken away with other residents to sleep on a mattress at the local technical college!

"Our timing for filming was driven by the financing but also when the sugar cane is burnt, as we wanted to capture some of that for the film - and we had been told it was the dry time of the year. We had four perfect weeks of pre-production and I think I had a false sense of security that perhaps it was just going to be fine. But a week out, before shooting, the rain started. At one point, as well as saving John Hurt from evacuation, we couldn't get to our main location house because of the floods, we couldn't get our lead actress out of her house to come to rehearsals, the door had blown off the rehearsal room and we had two days without power in the production office. It was chaos, it was real chaos. Then, just before we started shooting, the floods went down. Although we did have two weeks of rain that followed which was pretty stressful, a flood during the shoot would have been disastrous so ...we were lucky."

Miraculously, the rain also stopped for the summery beach scenes and a spectacular late afternoon sun dropped behind Mt Warning, casting incredible golden light over the cane fields, on the day Belinda filmed a pivotal moment in the story when Lou dances unselfconsciously against the setting sun.

Cinematographer Hugh Miller says he treated the landscape like another character in the film. "For the children in the film, the environment is such a huge part of their lives so we scheduled certain scenes at certain times of the day so, for example, the sun would be in exactly the right place. The soft colour palette meant we decided to shoot a relatively low contrast look, which is done partly through grading but also with filters, which gives the piece real gentleness," Hugh says.

LOU was shot digitally, enabling long takes not interrupted by changing film magazines, important when working with children. In the story Rhia has three children. Lou has two younger sisters, Leanne and Lani, played by sisters Charlie-Rose and Eloise MacLennan.

Much of the film was shot hand-held, another creative and technical decision influenced by the children, Hugh explains. "Belinda and I liked the idea of a hand-held look and it also had the technical advantage that it wasn't so important if the kids didn't hit their marks. It was great too in confined spaces, such as the main house location."

Hugh shot LOU on a Sony digital F35 using film lenses: "We used old lenses because we liked the quality and the softness they gave. The way we shot the film was great for faces so worked very well, particularly for scenes with Lou and Doyle together.

"I loved the script when I read it and thought, photographically, it should be a real exploration of the characters. It had a simplicity and an honesty in its story telling and that really appealed to me as a cinematographer."

While the Lou/Doyle relationship is central, producer Helen Bowden also believes audiences will respond to the changing dynamic of the relationship between Lou and her young mother Rhia. "At the beginning of the film they are locked into a tension that can't quite resolve. Lou's heading into puberty and she's angry with her mother, while her mother never really had an adolescence and so at times is a great mother and at other times really just wants to have the teenage-hood that she never had. The relationship between Lou and Doyle is a catalyst for Lou and Rhia to realise that they are a family, that they do love each other and that there is a way forward.

"I think that is an experience that's common to many families and is therefore very moving. Belinda, Tony, Michael and I set out to make a film that made people laugh and made people cry, and, with this amazing cast, we've got performances which do that."

LOU is a MATCHBOX PICTURES production, produced with the financial assistance of Screen NSW through its production investment program and the Regional Filming Fund, Film Victoria, the South Australian Film Corporation and Screen Australia. Bankside Films is the international sales agent and Kojo Pictures is Australian/New Zealand distributor.

THE CAST

JOHN HURT as DOYLE

John Hurt, born in 1940 in Derbyshire, is one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation. John studied acting at RADA and for nearly half a century, he has acted in numerous international film, television and theatre productions.

Hurt has won Golden Globe (Midnight Express) and BAFTA Awards (The Elephant Man, Midnight Express, The Naked Civil Servant) and was honoured with two Academy Award nominations for his performances in The Elephant Man and Midnight Express.

In addition to winning three BAFTA Awards, he has also been nominated for The Field, Alien and 10 Rillington Place. Hurt has also won a Special Teddy at the Berlin International Film Festival (An Englishman in New York) and was nominated for an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Proposition, his first Australian film.

Hurt initially came to prominence for his role as Richard Rich in the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons. Other major film performances include Alien, Nineteen Eighty�]Four, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hellboy, Hellboy II, Scandal, Shooting Dogs, the Harry Potter series , The Hit, V for Vendetta, Love and Death on Long Island and 44�h Chest.


LILY BELL�]TINDLEY as LOU

The leading role in LOU is the first on�]screen performance for Lily Bell�]Tindley, who lives with her family on the north coast of New South Wales, close to where the film was shot. Lily is from a musical family and has been performing in school plays and studying drama for several years. Lily was discovered by LOU casting director Nikki Barrett just weeks before production began.


EMILY BARCLAY as RHIA

Emily Barclay burst to international prominence in the acclaimed New Zealand feature In My Father�fs Den, for which she was named the Most Promising Newcomer at the 2005 British Independent Film Awards. Emily followed that performance with the Australian feature Suburban Mayhem, winning Best Actress Awards at the 2006 Australian Film Institute Awards and the Inside Film (IF) Awards. Emily starred with Richard Roxburgh in the television drama special The Silence and with Suburban Mayhem co�]star Michael Dorman in David Caesar�fs most recent feature film Prime Mover. In 2009, Emily made her stage debut with Company B for Gethsemane, alongside Dan Wyllie and Rhys Muldoon. Most recently, Emily lent her voice to the animated feature Legends of The Guardians and returned to the stage in the highly acclaimed season of That Face for Company B with Susie Porter and Marcus Graham. Emily was born in the UK but grew up in New Zealand.