In Falling Into Place, Kira and Ian, both on the run from their demons, meet on a winter weekend on the Scottish Isle of Skye. They connect suddenly and deeply. Returning to London they try to pursue their separate lives, but both have to face their past before they are ready to meet again.
As Falling Into Place plays around Australia at the British Film Festival, and with writer, director, and star Aylin Tezel appearing at Q+A sessions for her film, Nick L’Barrow spoke with Aylin about using the camera to show intimacy, allowing actors to improvise, and the films that she referenced for her directorial debut.
Nick: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat, Aylin. I know you’re travelling the country with your film right now, so I really appreciate it! This is such a beautifully intimate story, and I love that for the first 15 minutes you let the audience really sit in that first encounter between Kira and Ian. I’m curious to know how important that was for you, from a narrative perspective, to spend that time with them initially?
Aylin Tezel: Thank you for pointing that out. What is so beautiful about the way that Kira and Ian meet is that it happens, you could nearly say, in an innocent way. It’s this special bond that sometimes strangers can have when they have nothing to lose, because they don’t really know each other. So, they can be completely open and vulnerable with each other because they might not see each other again. It’s this, kind of, interesting, safe space that the two of them meet.
Both of them are quite troubled and not in the best place inside of themselves. But, in that moment, they don’t really have to be anyone else but themselves. When they first meet, they straight away are kind of childlike, and just quite silly with each other. Very free and light. Then after a little while, Kira brings in this deeper level with her questions about the sense of life and the sense of love and relationships. So, they get to know each other in quite a free, gentle way.
And for me, the way I was writing this was actually quite interesting, because I didn’t initially have a proper idea of where the story was going. I had, like, vague story points that I though might work, but I was very open to letting myself be surprised by the characters, and that’s kind of how it went.
When they first meet, we don’t find out for a long time much about their backgrounds. We don’t know what they do for a living, we don’t know anything about their friends. We only get to know them better when we get to the London part of the story, which happens about 30 minutes into the film. But, until then, we just watch two souls meet each other.
I guess, that’s what makes this initial bond between the two so special. It’s not like nowadays with dating apps where you can choose someone by what job they have, what kind of films they like, what they do as a hobby, if they want children or not. It’s very different with the two of them. They just meet each other in quite a pure way. And I don’t know, to me that feels like the old times. There’s a magic in it for me.
Nick: I agree. I think for audiences, this story will create a yearning for that nostalgic relationship feeling. And that got me thinking about how we relate and find our identity in fiction. How much of yourself do you discover when it comes to writing such a personal story like this?
Aylin Tezel: I mean, the beautiful thing about making a movie is basically that, unless you’re working for a big studio where you have a lot of boundaries or people who will influence the story, with an indie film, you’re quite free to basically just make the movie you would watch.
I was just following my own taste of what kind of story I would like to see, and what kind of music I would like to hear. What do I want to explore myself about love and life in a story? And to me, a lot of the questions about love and loss and relationships were my own personal questions. I just followed these two characters on their journey to maybe find some answers that would be interesting for me as well.
Nick: I think that speaks to the power of art and fiction! Falling Into Place is your debut film as a director, but you have such a rich career as an actor, too. I’m curious to know whether any of your experience on set as an actor helped inform decisions you made as a director?
Aylin Tezel: I would say 100% that I was very informed by my experience as an actor, in a way that I would be able to allow a lot of space for what my actors bring to set. I know that when you take on a part, you take full responsibility for this person that you’re portraying. And it’s just a truth that an actor will always bring more to a character than a writer can, even when they’re writing them. You have to let go of a character that you’ve written and give the role to an actor with the trust that they will bring their own humour, their own pain, their own connections to the story. And that can only make it better.
For me, it was really important to really trust my actors. Give them as much space as possible. Whenever we had the time, I would always make space for improvisation as well. And, you know, those moments were quite interesting. Basically, when we came to the end of a scene, I wouldn’t say ‘cut’, I would just let the scene roll on longer. And very often, there were brilliant moments with what came from the actors. Those moments in the edit turned out to be quite special.
Nick: That authenticity really comes from the characters from a story perspective. But I also love how intimate you make things feel with the camera, especially the close-up shots you use of the characters. It really puts the audience as close to the characters as possible to feel that intimacy. How much thought went into the narrative choice to utilise the close-up shots in this film?
Aylin Tezel: So, my cinematographer, Julian Krubasik, and I, when we first met, we just talked a lot about the visual vision for the film. Every artist, every person who reads a script comes with their own vision, so you need to make sure very early in the process, especially with you set designer and cinematographer, that you are leaning into the same direction.
What I did with Julian was watch a lot of films together. We talked about the way films have used lighting, or the acting method. And it was clear to me from the beginning that I wanted him to do handheld camera, because of the fact that I knew I wanted to work with improvisation. You can’t be 100% sure what the actors are going to do. I wanted Julian to really follow the characters, and be free with a handheld camera, to get as close to them as needed.
And we had a few films we referenced. For example, Andrea Arnold’s version of Wuthering Heights was a really good reference for us when it came to the portrayal of nature, because there’s a sensuality and rawness in the way that she deals with nature that I thought was really interesting for us, especially in the Isle of Skye part of the story in the beginning of the film. I wanted the film to have a really poetic feel to it. Have it feel like these two strangers meet in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature.
Another film that we used as a reference was Blue Valentine because I love the mix of the cinematic, poetic tone, but then the rawness and realness in the dialogue and in the acting. I guess our aim was to make a film that wasn’t a documentary, so making sure we had lots of colour and costumes and design, but at the same time, be as honest as possible. And that came through our visual approach.
Thank you to Aylin for taking the time to chat, and to Palace Cinemas and ChatterBox PR for organising the interview. Falling Into Place is currently playing at the British Film Festival across Australia, from November 6 – December 8. Find out more details and session times at https://britishfilmfestival.com.au/
