by Shayley Blair
In 1964, a quirky French film composed of purely sung dialogue took the world by storm, winning the Palme d’Or and nominated for multiple Oscars. Now, Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg serves as inspiration for indie stalwart Bill Mousoulis’s fairy tale realist musical, My Darling in Stirling.
Set in the small town of Stirling in the Adelaide Hills, the locals were welcoming, with some even getting in on the action. “To my great surprise, Stirling has never featured in any film before, even though it’s known as a great tourist attraction, because of its autumnal trees,” Mousoulis tells us.
Like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, My Darling in Stirling twists its way through themes of love. “I’ve always been fascinated by love,” admits the romantic Mousoulis. “This primal need we have to interact with our fellow humans, either one-on-one or in a group setting. Maybe it’s just an emotional – hormonal even – need, but there’s something profound about travelling through life sharing it with other humans… In this film of mine, I focus on a 19-year-old girl, which is a juncture that I feel is crucial, for females, where they can establish themselves as individualised beings, or just buckle to constricted and male-determined roles.”
Mousoulis comments that he and his wife love visiting Stirling, “because of its natural beauty and its alternative vibe.”
Interestingly, such admiration of the town is vocalised within moments of the sung dialogue exchanged between characters in My Darling in Stirling, as they go about everyday conversations. “Stirling also reminds me of the alternative area within Athens – where my wife and I lived for some years before coming to the Adelaide Hills 5 years ago – where there is a communal spirit, an anti-capitalist and artistic spirit,” he added.
Shooting entirely hand-held helped the crew manoeuvre around town, although the results are particularly smooth. “Everything was hand-held,” Bill reveals. “There is mobility in the film, and I wanted the DOP [Werner Lech] to always be responsive to that movement, so he very expertly used a gimbal to create smooth flowing movement on the streets, as the characters walked around. And pretty much all the static shots were hand-held too, with just a subtle touch of floating movement to them, or the occasional subtle track-in to faces. This was also accomplished by using a small DSLR camera [a Sony], rather than a big bulky camera. And just one camera was used, though I have used two cameras filming at once in the past, with more improvised films.”
Through the continuity of sung dialogue set to curated background music, once the story kicks in, it is less noticeable that the characters are communicating in such an unusual way. We ask Mousoulis if it was necessary to experiment with music to find the right framing sounds. “In a way, yes, when I was selecting tracks,” he replies. “All the music is sourced online for free, through the Free Music Archive. I listened to hundreds of instrumental pieces before settling on the 40 or so that appear in my film. Of these, 25 were made into songs and 15 were left as instrumentals (akin to conventional music scoring) to be used in between the songs. And, as I was sourcing/selecting the music, I knew the storyline and what emotional tone I needed the music to have, for each scene. Yes, a balancing act, with all the tracks, but incorporating good variety – classical, jazz, electro, indie rock, etc.”
Although the overall effect is gently flowing, when realising the actors are all matching their mouth motion to song, a certain level of difficulty is imaginable. “Only 2 of the 8 actors were miming to their own voices,” Mousoulis states. “The soundtrack had to be created first, before casting for the film took place, and as it turned out in the end, a few of the actors actually could sing, but they didn’t see my call for singers. But, because they could sing, they understood music and vocal phrasing, so they could mime well. A couple of the actors however had no musical training, but to my eternal gratitude, learnt the songs very well. With low-budget guerilla-style filmmaking, the rehearsals need to happen pre-shooting, because shooting has to go quickly for various reasons. Also, don’t forget that editing can also cover up any miming mistakes.”
During filming, some of the cast “had the need to vocalise out loud,” while others “just mouthed the words,” Mousoulis elaborates. “Singing out loud is the better technique, but Amelie Dunda in the lead role was brilliant mouthing the words and not falling into the trap of under-mouthing. And yes, miming in a musical like this is a great addition to any actor’s skills.”
My Darling in Stirling screens at the Adelaide Film Festival on 22 October 2023. Get your tix here.
