New Zealand-born director Christine Jeffs makes her feature film debut with "Rain", a study of adolesence based on the novel by Kirsty Gunn. Jeffs is now at work on "Sylvia", the story of poet Sylvia Plath which stars Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role.
It took five years to get this film off the ground. That must have been trying...
It was a long time. It took me a while to work out how to present it since it was an adaptation. Early on it was important to work out how to articulate these kinds of themes for investors.
How did you sell it?
We pitched it as a mother daughter story. We were steering it away from the usual coming of age story, since it's more than that. Nobody really wanted to make a film where the key character is a 13-year-old girl. Which is surprising, because a lot of really good films are. It's always a hard sell. And on the page, the characters don't seem that sympathetic.
Novelist Kirsty Gunn says she wasn't interested in seeing your version of her story. Is that right?
When "Rain" came out in New Zealand, she was on national radio out there and said the same thing. That was the last I heard so I suspect she still hasn't seen it. She said that films and books are two very different things and she didn't need to see the film.
How did you feel about that?
Well, it's interesting. I think perhaps having written a book she felt the story was finished and perfect in a way.
It's set in the 1970s, but there's not much emphasis on that decade...
In terms of the period I wanted the film to have a sense of being timeless. So that it felt like it was of that time but it was also relevant to now. I didn't want it to be about the fashion of the period but something more normal. And the landscape featured so strongly in the visuals that it gave everything a sense of timelessness.
What was it like working with child actors?
They were so clever. They enjoyed the whole process, although they found it weird slipping in and out of character. Especially for the youngest one, Aaron Murphy [who plays Jim], who'd never been on a film set before. It sounds strange, but it was kind of like a job to both of them. They were very professional.
Your next film, "Sylvia", stars Gwyneth Paltrow. Was that a big jump from "Rain"?
Not really. Maybe I should be finding it like that! It's brilliant working with Gwyneth. I guess the stakes are higher, but then the stakes always seem high when you're the director. And Gwyneth loved "Rain", so that was good!
