How Lukas Dhont Found ‘Close’ After His Cannes Winning ‘Girl’
deadline.comAfter taking home the Un Certain Regard Fipresci prize in 2018 for the trans-female ballet dancer feature Girl, filmmaker Lukas Dhont returned to home to find himself staring at the blank page for his next project.That would ultimately be this year’s in competition movie, Close, which grapples with teen suicide and has a lot of buzz on the ground that it could take the Palme d’Or.
A24 announced the stateside pick-up of Close last night on the pic’s premiere here on the Croisette.“I didn’t know what I was going to do, I had all sorts of proposals,” the Belgian director said during Close‘s Cannes Film Festival conference this morning. “I had a lot of doubts, I was racked by my doubts.”“I was much more aware of myself, and I knew a lot of people looked at me,” Dhont explained, “I wanted to do something with the same intensity and passion as Girl.”Dhont returned to the primary school close to where his mother lived. “I wanted to remember the child I was for the sake of that child,” he said.“She said to me with great confidence and trust, ‘I’m sure you exactly know what you want to do,'” he continued, “and that was the beginning.”Close from Lukas Dhont, follows the friendship of two 13-year old boys, Leo and Remi, the latter of which commits suicide.
Leo is convinced he’s to blame. Struggling to understand what has happened, he approaches Sophie, Rémi’s mother.Dhont explained how crucial it was to find the boys, Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele, who play Leo and Remi.
That boils down to spending a lot of time with them in the casting.In regards to directing kids who haven’t acted before, Dhont said it’s “not something you can force, it needs to be there.”“With young people for me it’s important for me not to put too much
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