With his unique brand of elusive, analog filmmaking, Cornish writer-director Mark Jenkin has cultivated a devoted band of followers, none more loyal than those who work with him.
“He’s an artist,” actor Callum Turner (The Boys in the Boat) exclaims with a defiant tone. “This film is like a painting meets a poem. Reading the script, I could feel every wave, every knock, and every sound; it was so resonant. I was just desperate to do it.”
The project Turner refers to here is, of course, Rose Of Nevada, the latest feature from Jenkin, which debuts this afternoon in the Orizzonti competition at Venice. Turner leads the beguiling pic with George MacKay (1917).
Once again set in Jenkin’s native Cornwall, the film focuses on a forgotten fishing village where The Rose of Nevada, a boat that was lost at sea with all hands 30 years ago, mysteriously appears in the old harbour.
Nick (MacKay) takes a job aboard the boat in an attempt to provide for his young family. Alongside him, newly arrived Liam (Turner) joins the crew, desperate to escape his past. They head to sea and, after a successful trip, return to the harbour. But something is amiss. They’ve slipped back in time, and the villagers greet them as if they are the boat’s original crew.
The film is terrifyingly clever, with strong horror notes that reminded me of the first time I encountered Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Rose of Nevada is also Jenkin’s most ambitious production to date, with elaborate sequences performed in harsh conditions.
MacKay, who spoke to us alongside Turner while on a break from his current Sense & Sensibility shoot, says he was introduced to the project by casting director Shaheen Baig, who asked him to have a general meeting with Jenkin to explore a potential collaboration.
“I read the script, which is very much like the film. It is austere, but also very poetic and liminal,” MacKay explains.
“So I went in with all my theories about the characters and what it all means. And then I sat down with Mark, and we didn’t speak about the film for the whole meeting. We just talked about other films and his process, which is obviously so specific with the Bolex camera and how that dictates how the film is made.”
Rose of Nevada, like many of Jenkin’s previous works, was shot on 16mm film using a Bolex camera. The rich, textured finish, only possible when celluloid has been fed through a Bolex, adds to the film’s haunting and complex structure. However, the analog process also makes for a unique experience on set for the cast.
“Every take was 27 seconds, and then he’d wind it up,” Turner recalls of Jenkin working the hand-processed camera.
The Bolex also doesn’t capture sound, so every piece of sound in the film has to be created in post.
“There was a rigorous ADR process,” Turner explains. “You go in and perform every line, sound, and grunt in the film. And then Mark does it too. He did every sound that you hear in the movie. He did that in a studio. So he’s really an artist. He presents himself as not, but he is.”
MacKay describes the mechanical restrictions of the Bolex as “positive boundaries” that encourage performers to “aim for the mark more.”
“It was a lesson in being accurate, because you’d know you were getting one, maybe two takes. We’d always ask for a third take, but it was two takes max,” MacKay says.
Jenkin’s dedication to the Bolex is all the more impressive considering how much of this film is shot in and around open water, on boats, with low light. For prolonged scenes, the audience follows MacKay and Turner’s characters performing the laborious rituals of open water fishing. With my tongue firmly in my cheek, I asked the pair whether it was truly them hauling the fish out of the water, or did they use stand-ins?
“Oh yeah, it was as real as possible, especially when all the fish water goes down your back,” Turner says firmly.
MacKay says Mark sent him episodes of a TV documentary about fishermen around the UK to prepare and instructed him to observe Lee Carter, the real-life fisherman whose boat they use in the film.
“Our boat was Lee’s real boat,” Mackay says. “Those men are so tough. Lee showed us a picture of his hand that got caught in a winch, and it looked like he could have lost it. It was a serious wound. I said, How did you sort it? He said, Well, I had a paracetamol and a Vimto and got back in the boat.”
Mackay and Turker tell me that Robert Bresson’s last film, the 1983 drama L’Argent, and the 2000 thriller The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney, were influences for Jenkin during the production. However, he wasn’t prescriptive with his inspirations.
“It was more about referencing the way that he’s made films in the past rather than referencing others,” Mackay says.
And like Jenkin’s previous films, Rose of Nevada‘s ending is strong but ambiguous. I will refrain from discussing it here to avoid spoilers. But I put the killer question to Turner and Mackay: What do you think it all means? They, like Jenkin, were reluctant to share a definitive answer.
“That’s the genius of Mark. He always says he doesn’t like endings. He doesn’t want to ruin it for the audience,” Turner says. “He wants them to have their own spiritual journey when watching the film. It is put out there for you to make your own decision.”
Rose of Nevada also stars Francis Magee, Edward Rowe, Rosalind Eleazar, Mary Woodvine, and Adrian Rawlins. The film was produced by Denzil Monk. Exec Producers are Ama Ampadu, Farhana Bhula, Phil Hunt, Johnny Fewings, Ben Bond, Kingsley Marshall, and Neil Fox. Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales.
After Venice, the film will play the New York and London Film Festivals.
Venice runs until September 6.
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