Somehow, Language Lessons makes two friends video-chatting feel fresh and new. The trick? Cut out the dead weight of the screenplay. It started with a text. “Do you speak Spanish?” wrote Mark Duplass. “Yes,” responded Natalie Morales. “OK, we’re gonna make a movie.” Duplass and Morales are the only two people in their SXSW premiere Language Lessons. The entire film exists entirely through video chat. Morales is the actor-director, and Duplass the actor-producer. It's a quarantine film that we should hate by now—except that it's impossible, because it's absolutely electric filmmaking. In a conversation at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, Duplass and Morales explained how they made a heartwarming, charming film over MarcoPolo by jumping in to the deep end of the artistic process. First, you actually have to feel creative during the pandemic to do this If you aren't feeling it, you can't make yourself do it. Duplass explained that his experience during the pandemic was feeling very creative—despite nearly everyone else he knew feeling the exact opposite. Read More...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Wednesday, 24 March, 2021