ALPS directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, written by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou with Aris Servetalis, Aggeliki Papoulia, Johnny Vekris and Ariane Labed. A filmswelike release. 93 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (June 22). For venues and times, see Movies.
In 2009, a movie called Dogtooth arrived at the Toronto Film Festival.
An arch satire about a middle-aged couple who’ve spent two decades raising their children in total ignorance of the outside world, it became a minor sensation, ultimately landing an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language feature.
Two years later, director Yorgos Lanthimos is back at TIFF with his new film, ALPS, about a rather different group of misfits. This time the focus is on an organization of people who impersonate the loved ones of the recently bereaved for the sake of closure – something that’s easier said than done.
“There’s kind of a hope that something good might come out of this,” Lanthimos says about his film’s premise, during a press day with stars Aggeliki Papoulia and Ariane Labed. “But if you think about it, it was obvious from the beginning that this thing could not work. You know, a 30-year-old nurse cannot substitute [for] a 16-year-old girl.
“But you have kind of a hope at the beginning that something could work out. That’s the similar thing with Dogtooth. What the parents are trying to do in Dogtooth obviously cannot work.”
Much like Dogtooth, ALPS tells its story in a flat, uninflected manner, leaving it up to the viewer to decide whether this is a comedy or a tragedy. Lanthimos says he wants to make either interpretation equally valid.
“I feel kind of offended when I watch films and everything is explained to me – you know, laying out how I should feel from one scene to the next,” he says. “I don’t enjoy the experience that much. It’s not just the manipulation it’s a conviction that this is what’s right, and this is how it should be, and this is how you should feel. We’re not assuming that everyone is an idiot we’re sure there are people who are interested in being more involved in the film than, you know, the other way.”
The ambiguity is maintained by offering very little information about the characters’ histories. We don’t really know who they are when the movie starts. As it turns out, neither did the actors. Aggeliki Papoulia, who co-starred in Dogtooth, says Lanthimos gave the cast very little in terms of backstory.
“It’s only about the now, basically,” Papoulia says. “Yorgos, he’s not at all into method acting. He doesn’t like that, so me neither. We didn’t talk about the background of the characters we don’t talk about what they want or how they feel.”
Ariane Labed, who acted opposite Lanthimos in Attenberg, found herself facing a different sort of preparation to get into the head of her ALPS character, an obsessive gymnast.
“The way I prepared my character was just doing gymnastics.” Labed says. “For three months.”
“She had to do it without trainers and nutritionists taking care of her,” Lanthimos says, looking proud and slightly awed.
“I think it was useful for the part,” Labed says, and then they all laugh.
Yes, it’s all a little weird. But then, so is their movie.
Interview Clips
Yorgos Lanthimos on leaving his movies open to interpretation:
Yorgos Lanthimos on the value of working with regular collaborators:
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