It’s quite rare for someone to write a movie they then star in, only to find out when watching the final clip that their character – just to reiterate, the movie they wrote and acted in – was revealed to be committed adultery. And not just any love affair, but a “Christmas anal smack.”
But after that Nude Tuesday – sold at the Virtual European Film Market (EFM) by Cornerstone – is no ordinary movie. Nude Tuesday not even close to an ordinary movie.
Developed by screenwriter and main star Jackie van Beek (best known for New Zealand comedies, including The Breaker Upperers and What do we do in the dark) with director Armağan Ballantyne (The power of water). of the week – extreme nudity. And with Kiwi comic book hero Jemaine Clement playing a charismatic guru and camp supervisor, it will have all the hallmarks of another great and dry and awkward comedy that has become New Zealand calling card.
But this wasn’t enough for the filmmakers, who, after more than a year of working on the script, decided they needed to turn the crazy spin up a few notches.
It all started with van Beek’s grasp of the script after seeing several foreign-language films at the New Zealand Film Festival. She immediately called Ballantyne.
“It was awful early, and she was like, ‘Get in the car, I need to see you in person’. So I did and she said: ‘Let all the actors speak in fictional language, and then we invite the comedians to write the lines,’ says Ballantyne (fortunately, who is now living around van Beek for any early morning light bulb moments). “And I was like… awesome!”
And so, one of the coolest comedies ever dreamed of was born.
Set on a fictional island (an island that, humorously, bears an uncanny resemblance to various parts of New Zealand’s South Island) and was filmed entirely on the island created from scratch. In this sense, the edited film was then given to British comedian Julia Davis (van Beek’s hero and known for her certain dark and sexual comedy) to add English subtitles. Her own brother.
Only upon receiving the complete translation back from Davis did van Beek notice that, in one scene, her character Jackie tells her husband Bruno (played by Damon Herriman) that she had had an “anal throw Christmas” with his boss.
“I was like, my God, did my character have an affair? I had a love affair with my boss? “, she said. “Wow, that kind of changes the dynamics of the relationship between me and my husband!”
Much to van Beek and Ballantyne’s amusement, in Davis’ version (another version written by Australian comedians Celia Pacquia and Ronny Chieng), she decided to give Jackie an ongoing issue. out with thrush (something discussed a lot throughout the film). And in light of the rampant OTT sex language that’s raging, she’s also coming up with unlikely expressions like “happy” and “toothed pussy” (possibly the first on screen).
Of course, when they were filming, no one really knew what they were talking about. Although the cast was given an English script just to let them know the general gist of how the story was going (van Beek admits the initial attempt at a dialogue-free panel “ended up in chaos… “), but when it came to rehearsals and filming, they spoke in meaningless language, save for a few words, mostly improvisation. And, to the untrained, it sounds a bit Scandinavian, with lots of suffocating, throaty sounds.
“We had this amazing dialect coach who helped invent the language, and she kept suggesting words that were really confusing, and I said, no, it has to be simple, so for with ‘fuck you’, why don’t we reverse it, so van Beek said.
Talking nonsense comes with a number of distinct advantages. Being able to keep their brains from thinking about what they’re really saying, the cast can instead focus on the tone and emphasis of emotional exchanges between each other. “It makes it very introspective,” says Ballantyne.
And without the script, there’s no real fear of anyone tripping over their lines. “There’s no mistake!” exclaimed Van Beek, who said they were also able to speed up scenes they deemed too slow by literally cutting out dialogue, knowing it wouldn’t affect the story from afar.
“So if Armağan doesn’t like the rhythm, and so to speak, it takes too long for an actor to get to the door, I might think, cut this line… it doesn’t make any sense!”
A problem arose with the arrival of Clement (longtime van Beek’s collaborator and friend of about 25 years) who decided to give his dialogue a unique twist by giving into a few English words with a little stress. (including the phrase “maximum stimulation”). The next day, the filmmakers noticed that the rest of the cast – perhaps in honor of their famous co-star – did the same.
“So we had to tell them: guys, only Jemaine can do it, no one else can,” van Beek said.
Although described as a “nude game”, the actual nudity in Nude Tuesday does not begin until the final act (but makes up for lost time by very, very, very nude). Despite the project’s humor and antics, the filmmakers made sure to have an intimate moderator on set and tried to “normalize” nudity, introducing strict rules (“” no one is supposed to look down – everyone has to make eye contact,” said Ballantyne, who was still wearing completely transparent clothing). Van Beek said that after the nude scenes were shot, around midway through production, she heard that people were taking a dip in the lake near where they were filming. “There is a kind of release and camaraderie,” she said.
For Clement, it happens Nude Tuesday actually not the first movie he’s been in the nude camp scene (2019 dark comedy Patrick give him a rare pair of bare feet). But it’s probably the only movie he’ll ever make where the extreme demands of nudity – especially the shot by the frozen mountain lake (where he waded in) – make him enter. institute.
Van Beek admitted: “He was diagnosed with mild hypothermia. “So we had to make a little schedule change for the next day and tell everyone that Jemaine wouldn’t be able to work.”
