After The Babadook, everyone wanted to know what Jennifer Kent would do next. Her second film, The Nightingale (read our review), brought Kent back to Sundance, after premiering at the Venice Film Festival. A tale of violence in historic Tazmania (then called Van Diemen’s Land), The Nightingale is a revenge film that offers little satisfaction, and that’s the point.
Clare (Aisling Franciosi) is abused by British soldiers, yet when she finally pursues them, it’s not about avenging herself. Kent explores the factors that make Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin) such a terror and how women can survive a world of Hawkinses long term. So yeah, it’s a bit more complicated than simple revenge.
“I think in modern cinema, especially in more mainstream fare, the idea of revenge and violence is very much a stress release for the person watching,” Kent explained to us.
“It’s just a way to get rid of stress and feel actually better, but this film has the opposite effect.”
“To me, violence does not have any release in it ultimately. It maybe has some momentary release but I made this film because that’s what I feel violence does.”
While The Babadook explored horrors connected to motherhood, The Nightingale explores very real-world horrors of misogynistic oppression. Yet it’s more than a message movie.
“Going beyond that and going through that to something else, it’s not just about this horrific world,” Kent said.
The Nightingale was actually one of two follow-up films Kent developed. It just happened to get made first.
“I’d written another film before that which I’m now making this year,” Kent said. “I was working on two scripts in tandem.”
Alice + Frema Forever will go before cameras next, but Kent says she’s happy to have The Nightingale be her follow-up to The Babadook.
“I wanted to make another film in Australia and I wanted it to be this one,” she said.
When you see The Nightingale it will look different from modern movies. Kent filmed in the Academy Ratio of 1.33:1, while most modern films are wider screen, either 1.85:1 or cinemascope 2.35:1. This old school screen size allowed Kent to capture the vast nature of Tazmania while staying intimate with Clare and Hawkins.
“It’s a very human ratio,” Kent told us.
“I was going to be in nature and I wanted to not lose sight of the humans in nature. This, to me, was the most perfect frame to do that because if you pull out, say for example in Cinemascope, to see those huge trees I have in Tazmania, you have to pull right back because it’s so long and thin. Then the people become like ants. So with Academy, you can still get the sense of height and depth of nature, but you don’t lose your actors. You don’t lose your characters. I’m really happy with the result.”
IFC will release The Nightingale this summer.
