new directors / new films 2017: ‘beach rats’ q&a w/ eliza hittman, harris dickinson, madeline weinstein, nicole flyus, frank hakaj, and dave ivanov
here are some hightlights:
writer/director eliza hittman said her biggest visual inspiration was danny fitzgerald’s photography, who would take cultural portraits of young men he would meet at various gyms. her appreciation of capturing the images of these everyday men echoed in her decision in casting unknowns and non-actors (“ordinary people”). she also explored hyper-masculine and homoerotic images men would share on facebook. the angles of these selfies influenced her decision of where to put the camera.
hittman used her own experience with aol chat rooms and other anonymous online interactions as inspiration for the online video chats depicted in the film. this type of communication, according to hittman, is inherently filled with “erotic strangeness”: you’re sitting alone in your bedroom, at night, speaking to the unknown...
the title “beach rats” is based on the slang term identifying the type of working class brooklyn families who live near coney island. drug addiction, particularly meth, is a struggle for many living in these neighborhoods, which is exemplified in the film.
all of the protagonist’s friends (including frank hakaj and dave ivanov) in the film were young people street casted in coney island on the beach or in basketball parks. both hakaj and ivanov admitted that they were just themsleves on film and pretty much only did what they would probably do in all the situations if they were to deal with them in reality. they wanted to “leave the acting with the actors.” nicole flyus was street casted on the boardwalk. they all did have to “audition” after being noticed on the streets, but they all already felt like they had the parts.
harris dickinson is from london, and sent a casting video to los angeles during the film’s first casting session.
most of the actresses auditioning for the lead actress role, according to hittman, were purposefully “upping their sexuality” and wearing excessive makeup in an attempt to relate more to the part, so madeline weinstein stood out instantly because she just came in as herself, which made her almost more alluring to hittman. weinstein’s grandmother was born in the neighborhood where the film was shot.
dickinson and weinstein bonded and learned the neighborhood together before filming mostly by taking the subway and exploring the influx of people coming in and out.
when talking about the film’s frank and sometimes beautiful intimacy, dickinson agreed with the interviewer as he was personifying the camera, alluding that the camera was participating in a “three-way” with the actors during sex scenes because of how close it was to the actors.
when filming those sex scenes, hittman had to remind herself on set that, as the director, she holds the power to clear the set and remove unnecessary crew members when that intimacy was even more essential to any given scene.
hittman chose hélène louvart as the cinematographer because she specializes in capturing “youth.”
the fireworks motif used throughout the film was originally designed to represent the “stagnancy” in this neighborhood, a repetitive and cyclical experience these young people all seem to do no matter what every friday night: go see the fireworks. it also comes to represent a longing, a searching, since, in a way, the fireworks act as a restart until next week’s festivities.
