‘Marion’ EP Cate Blanchett, Filmmakers Joe Weiland & Finn Constantine Talk Female Bull-Jumper Short & Plans For Feature Expansion – Venice Film Festival
EXCLUSIVE: When Cate Blanchett received an “urgent, must watch” email with short film Marion by writer-directors Joe Weiland and Finn Constantine attached, she didn’t know quite what to expect. But Blanchett gave it a go and, she told Deadline here in Venice, ended up “literally flown back in my seat.”
Marion, which world premieres at the Venice Film Festival this evening as part of the Orizzonti Short Films International Competition, is a 13-minute story set against the backdrop of La Course Landaise – the French tradition of bull-jumping. It follows the journey of the titular character, a mother who is also one of the only women practicing the sport in France.
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Blanchett, who ultimately joined Sienna Miller as an executive producer on the film, told Deadline, “You don’t see something as fully realized as this, and as visceral and as enticing and powerful and memorable… To be in dialogue with this was just something I couldn’t turn down.”
The short packs in a lot, intensely covering Marion’s (Caroline Larbère) preparation, her battle against misogyny and prejudiced attitudes while juggling motherhood and the contentious pursuit of her passion.
Weiland and Constantine shot the movie in Bayonne, France after having tracked down real-life bull jumper Larbère. Constantine said that after reading the script, Larbère told them, “It’s like you’ve been living in my mind.”
Never having acted before, Larbère nonetheless agreed to star in the film which helped create a blend of fiction and reality — replete with some unexpected surprises. Explained Constantine, “We knew she had it in her to act and it was the greatest decision that we ever made.”
Said Blanchett to the filmmakers during our chat, “What I found amazing about it, knowing how rapidly you shot, and also working with someone who was a performer of one kind, not an actor, is that there’s a mythic quality to the film… You’ve used her skill set and her experience, but you’ve elevated it by smashing it up against elements of her life that are not from her direct experience… When I first watched it, I thought, is this a documentary? It had a veracity and a danger of a documentary, yet it had the heart and the pathos of a drama. Directorially, the way you have interwoven those two things is miraculous.”
Also somewhat miraculous is Marion/Larbère’s unscripted run-in with a bull on her first pass, which is captured in the film, and from which she emerged unscathed. While the filmmakers couldn’t have planned for it, they were covering with six cameras on all different lenses because it had to feel cinematic. Blanchett called it “Ridley Scott-level direction on $2.15 in three days.”
Weiland and Constantine are indeed looking to take Marion to another level, with eyes on a feature expansion which would incorporate the dynamic and attitude of the nearly all-male team — which in real life includes Larbère’s husband.
Noted Constantine, “Everyone we show the film to turns around and says I just want to see more, I need to be with this character for longer. And we felt that, when we were making it, it very much felt like a tiny microcosm of her life. There is so much that could be pulled out that’s true to her story, but also could be explored on a sort of fictional level.”
Blanchett, who told Deadline she would “totally” be involved in a feature version, turned to the filmmakers, saying, “Seriously, you’re off to the races. I feel it’s such a powerful film in and of itself, and there’s so many tentacles off it that could develop into a feature.”
Marion follows Weiland’s directorial debut Gorka, which was nominated for a Best British Short Film BAFTA, while it marks Constantine’s move into narrative filmmaking, alongside his work as a director and photographer in the fashion, art and music industry.
Marion is a co-production between OB42 in the UK and Solab Pictures in France. It was produced by Marija Djikic, Nicolas Tiry and Noémie Lisbonis Boyer. Exec producers are Sienna Miller, Cate Blanchett and Otis Bell.
After screening in Venice, Marion heads to TIFF.
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