Total Film

MIND GAMES

Vivarium director Lorcan Finnegan is back noodling noggins…

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Iread Sleep Paralysis: Night-mares, Nocebos, And The Mind-Body Connection, by Shelley R. Adler, who’s a medical anthropolo­gist,” says Irish director Lorcan Finnegan, who weirded us all out with 2019’s surreal sci-fi scalp-scratcher Vivarium. “Her main focus was on Hmong refugees in America after the Vietnam War, who were dying from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.”

Finnegan blows out his cheeks.

“It was related to the lack of a shaman in their society. They believed they were having these nightmares where a pressing spirit pushes down on their chest, and is giving them an episode of sleep paralysis. In their culture, they believe that if it keeps on happening, they die. And because they’d been displaced in the US, and there was no shaman, they did start dying.”

So began Nocebo (a detrimenta­l effect on health produced by psychologi­cal or psychosoma­tic factors). Penned by Lorcan’s regular scriptwrit­er Garret Shanley, this supernatur­al thriller centres on Christine (Eva Green), whose successful career as a fashion designer and happy marriage to Felix (Mark Strong) comes under threat when she falls prey to a mysterious, debilitati­ng illness. Doctors are perplexed. But then

Christine’s new Filipino carer, Diana (Chai Fonacier), offers alternativ­e remedies, and the effect is immediate. Are Diana’s methods genuine, or do their powers reside in Christine’s mind? And is it xenophobia or good sense that makes Felix suspicious of this young woman who’s fast winning the trust of his wife and daughter?

Nocebo wraps up issues of class, race and capitalist consumer society in an entertaini­ng package. But such a tale, told in the modern age, might be accused of indulging in the fear of the Other – just another movie in a long line of movies that peddles racial stereotype­s. But Finnegan and Shanley did their due diligence, travelling to the Philippine­s to meet with shamans.

“You have to research it thoroughly,” says Finnegan. “And Nocebo was a collaborat­ion. This isn’t

‘We play on that trope, and into people’s racial prejudices’ LORCAN FINNEGAN

Back in the late ’90s, I knew a journalist who always wore his lucky pants for interviews. I never, you’ll be relieved to hear, saw the charmed item of clothing, but he explained to me that they were a pair of red-and-black striped boxer shorts that he’d owned since the mid ’80s, with Dennis the Menace on the hip and Gnasher sinking a bite into his left buttock.

He’d sat all of his school exams in them, he beamed. But knowing their long and distinguis­hed history only made me grimace, as I couldn’t help but ponder. Did the tattered cloth (he admitted to holes) even hold everything in place as he spoke to Mr. Scorsese? And what did he do when he had interviews several days running? Perhaps they got washed each night, or maybe he wore another pair of boxers for the rest of the day and then put on his Beano specials just for the chat? I suspect he simply pushed on through, for it reminded me of the guy in my school football team whose lucky pair of Y-fronts only saw a washing machine at the end of each season. His party trick was to shove them into the faces of horrified teammates in the dressing room.

SHORT(S) STORY

Of course, most film journalist­s have their little superstiti­ons before conducting big interviews, or at least a routine they stick to. Some of the examples are just common sense (taking along two devices to record the chat) or tried-and-trusted methods of breaking the ice (“So where are you in the world at the moment?” is my favourite way to start a phone or Zoom call). But it’s the peculiarit­ies, eccentrici­ties and plain nutty behaviour that’s of most interest.

Like how the Total Film News Editor, Jordan, will never wear shorts in an interview situation (despite boasting the finest calves I’ve ever seen), a tenet born out of feeling uncomforta­ble in such attire in a profession­al situation. OK, so it’s understand­able in a London hotel suite. But not when he’s interviewi­ng on the beach in Cannes and is the only person sweating it out in fulllength trousers.

It’s often about the environmen­t. Wearing my lucky slippers when I write is fine at home, it seems, but less so in the office where my colleagues never acclimatis­ed to my size-nines squeezed into the pink fluffy booties my wife passed on to me when she bought a new pair. Once I forgot I was wearing them and found myself praying that no one looked down as I queued for a sandwich in Pret.

HARD TO SWALLOW

My most bizarre ritual or superstiti­on or call-it-what-youwill is undoubtedl­y that I can’t eat my evening meal until I have any scheduled interview firmly in the bag. Given that LA is eight hours behind the UK, this often means I eat my tea at 10pm or later, and just last week I sat down to a spag bol at 11.45pm after getting off the blower to Anya Taylor-Joy. We were talking about The Menu, and therefore food, so she could probably hear my stomach growling 5,000 miles away.

My wife is used to my colourful (read: stark raving mad) behaviour, but she tried to step in the time I had to interview Colin Trevorrow at 2.20am because it was his only window as he scrambled to lock Jurassic World. “But you can eat tonight because the interview is tomorrow,” she argued, but I waited it out and answered the phone hungrier than a mosasaurus eating a pterosaur eating a screaming woman. To make matters worse, Trevorrow at one point put me on hold for 20 minutes to deal with something urgent.

Not as urgent as my hunger, I can assure you. I wolfed down a mac and cheese with garden peas at 3.30am and went straight to bed for a miserable night of chronic indigestio­n.

‘SHE COULD PROBABLY HEAR MY STOMACH GROWLING’

 ?? ?? Is she really ill, or are the spirits sitting on her chest? Either way, it doesn’t look all that fun.
Is she really ill, or are the spirits sitting on her chest? Either way, it doesn’t look all that fun.
 ?? ?? Mark Strong can’t bottle up his fears when events turn weird.
Mark Strong can’t bottle up his fears when events turn weird.
 ?? ?? After any evening interview, you can find Jamie in the fridge.
After any evening interview, you can find Jamie in the fridge.

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