“The more crow people live in the shooting, the less funny will be less funny”: Darren Thornton Tragicomedy in his four mothers

Winning BFI The London Film Festival Award Award is Four Mother, Irish director Darren Thornton’s long -awaited follow -up for Mad Mary for the famous old drama A history (2016). Written with the sister Colin Thornton, a loose adaptation of a mid-August lunch (2008), Gianni di Gregorio’s comedy about a man living in a small apartment with his mother, just to be with three older women-upsi stranger during an Italian holiday.

The re -processing of Thornttons has to supervise the elderly elderly mothers of three friends for an overseas pride, as well as the concerned Irish novelist Edward (James Mcard), as well as his own impish mother (Fionnula Flanagan). And while trying to balance the promotional commitments to make a career potentially WE Book Tour.

I talked about the personal conditions and a light David Fincher-Esque approach that informs Darren Thornton and his fascinating film.

Four mothers have a riff more than directly in the middle of August, but I hit me as an ideal version of the reconstruction of a film from another country: you expand the potential of the pioneer of extreme complexity and root the story significantly in the cultural environment of the new environment. Was these ideas about raising and causing in mind in Ireland before finding the template of the previous Italian film?

Probably before. And it is interesting to say that because Colin and I am the big fans of the rhythm that my heart jumps [2005] and fingers [1978]James TOBack Movie [it was a remake of]. When we talked to the producers, we would say that the four mothers were on the fingers of the rhythm that my heart jumped in the middle of August. Lunch in mid -August is a great movie that I don’t want to try to recreate. I want to use it as a way of what is interesting to us right now.

We were going through a very painful period in which it was not good with our mother and needed care. When we buy an e -mail from producer Jack Sidey DVD In the article, we were experiencing a version of what Gianni di Gregorio’s film with the film for lunch in mid -August. It was a conversation that we really wanted to enter and share our perspective that he was funny, ridiculous and heartbreaking about the situation.

When our mother passed away, the emotion around him was so much that we had to discover all this. We had to write to find a kind of healing or a kind of catharsis that we shared with him before he lost him. We had to follow this impulse.

Why did you make the main character novelist?

Some of what we experienced in the period we were at home with mam was that [A Date for Mad Mary] He went out and we had to introduce that movie. We were trying to have them [interview] At the same time, as in four mothers, speeches that are decreasing and dealing with someone who tries to help them – this scenario at the beginning of the film that MAM should interview a radio while bringing it to the toilet.

Very different, crazy things happen when you try to talk clearly about this thing you do. It has to be a seller for your own business, this is the hardest part of us. We are always full of doubts around these things. And as in the film, our mother lost her voice and relied on a sound application. The loss of a sound and for both of them in different ways, it was a compelling starting point for us.

Was there great lessons learned at a date you brought this production for Mad Mary?

Especially with the wider aspects of the comedy and the darker aspects of drama, you are trying to find a perfect stream in which comedy and tragedy can enter and exit fluently. In the arrangement, it finds the point where the rhythm of the story is correct and all these elements work in harmony. This can take some time and we really went to Mad Mary on a date, “Fuck, did we confuse this completely?”

And then we noticed that it was activated at a certain point. We felt a little more safe when we hit the same difficult period with four mothers. It sounds like shit right now, but the last one will come to the point where it starts to flow correctly.

We have a very special approach for the comedy we want the actors to play the truth. Usually with comedy, even the largest, finest actor will want to lean on the comedy. We always try to rely on them on comedy, because there is nothing worse than you are on the set, and the actors are doing a good joke and the crew are chuckling and you know that you will go into the editing room, and this will not be funny.

No matter how craic people make on shooting, they will be less funny and interesting when you arrive there. So I usually just want to hit it so that it can be bored. And then he comes to life when he reaches the slaughter.

Does David Fincher contain a purchase level?

The crew and the players will be disappointed enough to shoot more than you expect to be in the Indie movie. I’m trying to shoot at the point where the text will feel spontaneously. People ask us if many are improvised. And that’s great because it means it works properly. The answer is no, not improvisation, it is very heavy scenario, but we’re pulling it to the degree it really feels.

We always talk about the arms direction loaded with the actors to the ready and sharp arrangement, and they attack the stage a little too much and are done a little. Already for us, if it’s too sharp, it’s not that funny. All great actors and never make a certain adjustments. He’s just waiting for him to get out of the tires and then he’il start humming.

For some of the film industry, there is a belief that comedies are the most difficult films to secretly.

I agree to some extent. With comedy, I need to shoot much more to reach where I want, whereas a flat, dramatic scene tends to be much easier to achieve photographically. And then with actors, it tends to be much simpler to bring them to the boiling point as you want.

With comedy, there is a measure of confidence that you need to take from them when you get a certain rhythm, cadence and nuance from the actors, when they ask them not to be a broad comedy. However, it is easier for everyone to see the color you go with with drama.

Four mothers in cinema England and Ireland from 4 April 2025.