(First warning: This film is about suicide.)
Emma Foley’s “Sound and Color” depicts the first uncomfortable and terrifying minutes of a woman, Hannah (Alison Oliver), who arrives home to her family after spending days in the hospital following a failed suicide attempt. No one, including him, knows exactly what to say, but everyone (including his parents and two brothers) tries their best to put on a brave and gentle face. Her mother, Gill (Charlotte Bradley), keeps asking questions and commenting on how pale Hana looks since she doesn’t eat vegetables.
What’s going on? Was it her breakup with her boyfriend, Johnny (Aidan Moriarty)? Was it his new health plan that made him unable to balance the chemicals, and then he wanted to kill himself? His mother wants a clean answer without talking about it. Hannah sees everyone, while being cautious, not letting them see the how or why of everything. There is a time and place, of course, for such serious discussions, but ultimately it is up to Hannah to decide when and where that will be.
Foley’s film takes place entirely in this foreclosed house, lit so warmly that you immediately feel the family has lived there for decades. Concerts, likewise, are familial in nature, making the tragedy all the more powerful and the final moments all the more poignant. We don’t know this family very well, but we feel that we are listening to a night that will change these people’s lives forever, in ways they can’t imagine yet.
As Hannah, Oliver masterfully conveys inner turmoil as he approaches each character he approaches. He hides as he reveals. The family just wants to welcome her in, eat burgers, and pretend everything is back to normal, but Hannah is nowhere near them. He doesn’t completely avoid them either. Oliver makes Hannah a character we want to know more about while also conveying the depth of her soul, yet keeping enough inside. From there we don’t understand him completely (just for a while), but we can feel separated from him. Bradley is strong as his mother, conveying all the heartache of any parent who can’t imagine their children being so worried or unhappy.
“Sound and Color” is a piece of deep emotion with moments of relief. Foley builds up to a solid fifteen minutes that culminates in the movie’s tear-jerking climax. We leave it wanting to hug our loved ones more, while asking them, “Is everything okay?”
Q&A with author director Emma Foley
How did this project come about?
During the shutdown, Tamryn (the producer) and I decided to encourage each other to stay awake to write new ideas and share with each other each week. Finally I wrote the idea “Sound and Color” and he saw something in it. It is highly culturally and culturally inspired by the combination of repression and Irish comedy. I grew up around such joy and laughter, but I also have a lot of depression, so I tried to combine my experiences
I’ve never watched “Conversations With Friends,” but I feel like I should after watching Alison Oliver in this one. How did you get into this job?
I would watch everything he did; he is beautiful. I don’t think there’s anything he can’t do, and he’ll never be put in a box. He has a very strong emotional range and an infinite depth of understanding of human behavior. I had done a small project with Ali, and I just fell in love with him. When I broadcast this, “Interviews” had come out, and he had shot “Saltburn,” so, I guess there was no chance, I wasn’t going to ask him. Then I ran into him at a festival, his hair dyed blonde, roots growing out after “Saltburn,” and he was just such a character. I sent him the next day, and he said yes, so I’m very lucky.
Similarly, Charlotte Bradley is a person who will never be forgotten in everything she has been through. How did you find him in this film?
I loved Charlotte’s work, but I didn’t know her or have any connections, so we went the old-fashioned way with an email to her agent and a script, and, miraculously, she said yes. I was very nervous on the first day of filming with him because we all adored him so much, but he was a complete team player and invested in the character. It was a pleasure to have someone of his caliber involved with the materials as he did.
The film deals with such a serious topic, but ultimately feels satisfied with its ending. What were the challenges of writing it?
Trimming it down to the right length! It was too long, too long, but I fell in love with the world and the characters so much that I was always sad to cut them short. But, as always, it makes the film stronger. The voice was something that I was very aware of and I wanted to fix it because it is a sensitive topic, but I have had enough experience in life to know that when bad or difficult things happen, the world does not stop or become completely angry. It is often loud and ridiculous. One of the things that makes me laugh the most is when I’m at a funeral or in a hospital. It’s how we survive. I wanted to capture that.
The interior and exterior scenes each have a similar feeling of warmth, which feels at odds with what Hannah is going through. It almost feels like an additional, subconscious barrier to that character. How did you and your cinematographer, Colm Hogan, go about designing the look for this film?
It is very difficult to be in a dark place, feeling completely isolated and alone, but surrounded by life and people. In the end, just as his family drives him crazy and cannot face the truth of what happened, they are the ones who save him. They are the ones that force him to come back to reality and not focus completely on his thoughts.
I loved developing the look of the film. I’ve been a huge fan of Colm’s work with director Brendan Canty. Colm shoots very naturally and organically, which I think comes from his background in documentaries. I wanted to build on her language and make the audience feel like they were inside Hannah’s experience.
I knew I wanted to shoot it as loosely as possible, so that it felt unpredictable and unpredicted. Always follow the action and don’t predict it. All the camera work in the house was cut after we blocked the actors. Colm then prepared to close the scene once he was able to move and motivate the players. I knew I wanted a zoom exposure and booked the film with a zoom, but other than that, nothing was planned.
We talked more about rhythm and tone than exact mapping. The main goal was to make the film feel as natural and fluid as possible. I did a day of improv rehearsals with the actors to help them get comfortable talking to each other, interrupting, and being like a family, which informed the way we moved the camera.
What’s next for you?
“Sound & Color” really made me love writing, so that’s what I spend most of my time doing or learning to do. I have a film in development at the moment, which lives in the same world and tone as this one. We hope to do it soon.
