Vanity Fair.
In honor of Demna's debut collection for Gucci, the Italian fashion house has released The Tiger, a short film written and directed by Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn, to bring the characters from his “La Famiglia” collection to life.
Starring Demi Moore, Edward Norton, Ed Harris, Elliot Page, Keke Palmer, Alia Shawkat, Julianne Nicholson, Heather Lawless, Ronny Chieng, Kendall Jenner and Alex Consani, The Tiger's premiere was a highly-anticipated event on the first day of the Milan Fashion Week calendar, presented in the label's Milan hub. The film celebrates the debut of Demna's creative direction, “La Famiglia”, which was surprisingly unveiled only a handful of hours earlier via social media. Now, those archetypal characters who statically inhabited the frames of the lookbook, from the Maecenas to the Snobs, from the Princess to the Heiress, take on life, body and voice in the tense short film.
In the film, Moore plays the heir to the Maison, with the title of Head of Gucci International. She's a powerful but vulnerable woman who would like to celebrate her own birthday surrounded by her family (we would like to say family affection, but we would be lying) and a guest of honor, the fearsome Vanity Fair editor, Harlon Whitman. But what was supposed to be an important and joyous evening turns into something very much like a nightmare: the surface of appearances shatters into a thousand pieces, crashing down on her and revealing the dark side of reality.
Below, a conversation with Jonze and Reijn about collaborating with Gucci on the film.
Vanity Fair: Did you already know Demna before working on The Tiger?
Spike Jonze: I didn't know him by name, but once I went looking for him I wanted to see everything he had done, and also everything that others had imitated of his work—I never realized that all these things came from him. I watched some great YouTube documentaries about him, and then his fashion: do you remember theBalenciaga Clones collection? And when he dressed the Simpsons? Fantastic. In a way, for this film, I got carried away with everything he had done.
Halina Reijn: I knew him as someone who inspired me a lot, even from a distance. I think he's a real artist, and that's what attracted us so much to the idea of working with him: he's an inspiring person, able to do things outside the box. He did it for Balenciaga, and he will certainly do it now for Gucci.
Blending fashion and film is not always so easy. What was the starting point for this film, what was the initial brief?
SJ: The starting point was a call from Demna: he said he would like the film to be about a matriarch and her family. Then he sent us all the photos of the lookbook, all his new clothes worn by models, with all the names of the individual characters—but maybe I would say they are rather archetypes—explaining what the Italian names he gave them meant, like Il Bastardo. He was very precise, but at the same time very open: an approach that made this work very challenging.
Was it easy to write the script?
HR: Well, we were certainly a little bit under time pressure, but that pressure made it very fun. We worked in a very different way than usual—it was unique how much artistic freedom we all had.
What was it like having two people direct a film?
SJ: First we did a kind of mind meld, a kind of six-week meditation, like 8 hours a day, to foster nonverbal communication. I recommend it for any kind of collaboration.
Good advice. If you were to write a short synopsis of this film, for example for Wikipedia, what words would you use?
SJ: I don't know, I'm not allowed to edit Wikipedia entries.
HR: I would just use one question, 'What would you do if you were in a room with a tiger?'
Here, what would you do in a room with a tiger?
HR: I can't answer that, you have to see the movie. What would you do?
I would negotiate.
HR: Makes sense: Negotiate to tame it.
The soundtrack is fantastic. How did you mix such different songs together?
SJ: When we were writing the film, I created a playlist that I shared with Halina and Demna: the beautiful Italian song, “Guarda che luna,” he found it. You know, a lot of these songs, like “Mood Swings” and “Nosebleeds,” are songs I'm obsessed with, they're songs I love by two artists I really like, Little Simz and Doechii. The playlist, which was later completed by Cristobal Tapia de Veer, also kind of shaped the story. The whole process was crazy, very fast, almost wild: it's a 30-minute film, which we edited in three weeks. Usually, it takes much longer. I could almost call it a stream of consciousness: the writing, the shooting, the editing... it was a continuous movement, which we let flow freely, without thinking too much about anything.
The costumes, of course, are a key part of the film. Did they influence the filming in any way?
SJ: From an actor's point of view, I think the wardrobe can define the character in a certain way. When we rehearsed, one of the most beautiful things was to see the outfits in their detail and construction before they were even worn: some of them are incredibly intricate, with all these embroidered beads... I think the costumes helped the actors understand right away and precisely what their characters looked like.
HR: For example, Demna's green dress covered with small stones that Demi wears is very theatrical, somewhat inspired by Mary Stuart and Schiller: in these references, I think, lies where our worlds merge. Costumes, like fashion, tell stories.
There is a dialogue between Demi Moore and Ed Harris. He asks, "Why fashion?" She replies, "I don't know." Do you like fashion?
SJ: Yes, can't you tell?
HR: From our looks? I love fashion. I grew up in a commune in which it was absolutely unimportant, and now I am totally obsessed with it. On the other hand, the whole movie is about trying to achieve perfection... But no matter how hard we may try to celebrate fashion, none of us is totally perfect, right?
SJ: I like it too, but... It's like sports. I don't watch a lot of sports, but if I'm sitting and watching a basketball game with someone who really knows about it and tells me the history of the players, their characteristics, it really fascinates me. So does listening to Demna when he talks about how he drew on Gucci's history to create this collection—it's very interesting to me to look at her clothes, and her work, through the lens of her storytelling.
Do you think fashion has the power to define identities and make people more free?
HR: Of course, it all depends on how you use it and how you apply it to your life, but I think it definitely can have that power. And it's also this aspect of fashion that fascinates us as filmmakers, the power that a costume has to define a character, an actor's feelings, his movements. Clothes can bring out the truth of someone, but they can also do the opposite, as with anything. Everything has a dark side and a bright side.
What did you learn from this film?
SJ: I don't know yet. I need, perhaps, some time to figure it out.
HR: I think I understand the speed it takes to make a fashion show. I am full of respect and admiration for the people who work in this field.
My last question is about the future of cinema. How do you think directors and screenwriters can, or cannot, work with AI to ensure a future for cinema?
HR: It's a fundamental question, and it's not just about cinema—we're not that important. It's about the very core of our lives. One day I think that AI will take over everything, another that within 10 years no one will have a job, and yet another that everything will be so slow ... I don't know, but surely it will all change eventually. I'm not scared of what may happen, but excited to find out. And you, how are you feeling?
SJ: I'm jet-lagged, so ... I don't think my brain is working well enough to give an intelligent answer.
Originally published in Vanity Fair Italia
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