by James Mottram
“It’s always a really big, big question,” ponders writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour, after FilmInk asks exactly what inspired her new film Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon.
A funky New Orleans-set fantasy, about a catatonic asylum patient who escapes in the city’s French Quarter and causes havoc, it follows Amirpour’s earlier acclaimed films, the Persian-language horror-western A Girl Walks Hone Alone at Night (2014) and post-apocalyptic yarn The Bad Batch (2016). It was the latter, a Mad Max-esque tale showing humanity at its worst, that led her to this latest film.
“In The Bad Batch, I was looking at [the system] in America, and how it pushes people to tear each other to pieces in a way. That’s a very dark thing to have to think about. And I wanted to find the other end of the spectrum: how amidst the madness, and the complicated, crushing aspects of reality, we find connection and joy – that you can find people that see and you see them. And that that’s the most profound and beautiful part of humanity. I wanted to see that joy and feel optimistic myself.”
In Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, Korean star Jeon Jong-seo (Burning) plays the titular escapee, who discovers that she has hypnotic abilities to take control over others and bend them to her will. Once on the streets, she meets both single mother/stripper Bonnie (Kate Hudson) and streetwise dealer Fuzz (Ed Skrein), who show kindness, while trying to evade a dogged cop (Craig Robinson). With the evocative neon-drenched backdrop of New Orleans illuminating these crazy characters, it recalls films of the 1980s, especially with Bonnie’s young son Charlie (Evan Whitten, below), who gets mixed up with Mona Lisa too.
“Movies like The Neverending Story, Back to the Future, Terminator 2… I guess with all these you have that little boy… John Connor [in T2], Bastian in The Neverending Story and Marty [McFly from Back to the Future],” says Amirpour. “There’s something of Charlie in that – this kid that wants to take control of his future, take control somehow and have power. And he feels powerless. And that’s something I loved as a kid. But I think it’s really deep and true for every person. We want to feel like we can shape our own future and destiny. In a way, Charlie’s the lamb in the movie. He’s that childlike [character with] limitless potential.”
Although it’s not based on a comic book, Amirpour sees it as a film that also draws from the “lost art form” of fantasy. “Sadly now [with] superhero movies – to me it’s sad – the agenda is always the same, to save the world from some bad guy,” she opines. “Not only do I find it boring, I find it pompous because I don’t think it’s the job of the superheroes to save the world. It’s a very entitled thing and it’s not personal.” She much prefers a story where personal growth is put over world-saving – something that Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon has fun with.
One of the killer aspects of the film is an almost unrecognisable Kate Hudson as the sassy Bonnie – a 180-degree turnaround from her usual sweet-natured rom-com persona. “Obviously, Lily is very specific about the world that she’s creating,” says Hudson, who had just given birth six months earlier to her daughter Rani Rose when she took on the role. Naturally, her director was concerned about the pregnancy. “I went to her house to meet her and I’m like, ‘Oh, what are we gonna do about this baby?’ And she’s like, ‘I will push out this baby. And I’ll be ready!’”
Ready she was – and Amirpour [left] was delighted. “With Kate Hudson, I have loved her… I’ve seen every single movie. She’s one of those actors where I crave her like I crave French fries or something. I just want to be with her. It’s really true. There’s something about her honesty, the grounded realness of her… she’s always so ever-present. And you just want to watch how she does everything she does and be with her. To me, she’s a genius, because of that honesty. That’s in her performance. There’s no one like her – you’re gonna be safe with her in a certain way. I didn’t want Bonnie to become… the tone of doing an exotic dancer, this scrappy, hustling character, it could easily shift.”
Research wasn’t too difficult for Hudson when it came to pole dancers. “This wasn’t my first time,” she laughs. “I mean, I’ve definitely in my life been to many strip clubs!” Before you jump to any conclusions, Hudson has shot five movies in New Orleans, and as she points out, meeting friends for a drink at one of Bourbon Street’s many strip bars is fairly commonplace. “It’s kind of what you do,” she says. “It’s not the same sensationalised experience with a lot of the strip clubs down there.” Her director agrees. “You’ll see everyone in there – bachelorettes, boys, girls, young, old, everybody. It’s an interesting and more populist way to experience it.”
Certainly New Orleans was a fantastic place to shoot, the city reeking of jazz and liquor, as tourists of all nationalities mix. “I’ve been there decades ago as one of the hedonistic drunk people falling down the street,” says Amirpour. “It’s very, very affordable. It’s not like this posh kind of holiday place. And then the locals are really mixed and there’s this big music jazz culture. People are always gathering. There’s Haitian and Creole culture. Then there’s the swamps. And they’re very ancient and almost prehistoric. The trees are so overwhelming!”
Thrown into this cauldron is Jeon Jong-seo, who offers a magnetic turn as Mona Lisa. Hudson recalls one scene in a diner where her co-star is eating a burger. “All I needed to do was watch her. She was so hypnotic, and she’s a very thought-out, very talented actress. Watching her work was very, very interesting. And there was a real language barrier… because she doesn’t really speak English. But it helped with our connection, our friendship, because it was more primal and instinctual than it was actually being able to connect through language or words.”
While Amirpour can next be seen directing an episode of Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming horror anthology Cabinet of Curiosities, she admits she’d love to make a follow-up to Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon. “I have a plan for it and would very much love to absolutely do the sequel. It would begin right where the movie ends.” She could even continue her adventures in a graphic novel, as she did in A Girl Walks Hone Alone at Night. But whatever form it takes, as long as she gets to spend more time with Mona Lisa, she’ll be happy. “I want to see her go do more stuff. It’s so fun to watch her.”
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is in cinemas October 13, 2022
