Holy horror is big time once again and one of the best of recent times is showing at FrightFest today so we just had to chat to Saint Clare director Mitzi Peirone.
NYX: Did you know from a young age that you wanted to work in the film industry?
MP: I used to shoot little short films with my brothers and cousins in elementary school, vastly enabled by the artistic force of nature that was my grandmother Mitzi whom I’m named after: she would load these old trunks with vintage clothes and our imagination would run wild. Then I’d watch my graphic designer aunt closely, as she helped us storyboard our shorts, all taking place in this old Italian mansion that belonged to my grandparents, which became the main inspiration for my debut feature, Braid (Nobody Leaves). As a teen I definitely gravitated towards art but I never thought too seriously about working with it. My grandpa would say “prendi l’arte e mettila da parte” so take art and put it aside. What tipped the scale for me was studying greek tragedies and the classics, understanding the hero’s journey changed dramatically my relationship to cinema: I began to comprehend it as a vital need, a balm to the soul, an instrument for societal and political change. Then I became a very committed student of art history, philosophy, opera and mangas: what I was naturally attracted to the most became my foundation.
NYX: When did you first come across ‘Clare at 16’ by Don Roff and was it a tough book to adapt?
MP: I became aware of it in 2020 when the producer Arielle Elwes passed me an early version of the script: at the time I didn’t have a green card and was forced by travel bans to remain in Italy for a year, unable to take work. It was a really difficult time for a lot of people, not just in entertainment of course. At the end of 2021 there was a new draft penned by Guinevere Turner which I was asked to give a personal touch, keeping Bella in mind for the lead: Bella loved my first feature so the producers felt emboldened to give me carte blanche. Don’s novel is clever and atmospheric, filled with fascinating imagery that as a Catholic school girl myself I was able to build on quite easily. I became intrigued by the moral and ethical conundrum and dichotomy this woman - similarly to Joan of Arc - finds herself in: to rid the world from evil she has to become that evil herself, and so to fulfill her destiny she is in a way doomed for self-immolation, like a martyr, and eventually a saint.
NYX: Did you write the script with a cast in mind?
MP: Yes Bella was our Clare from the start: one of the main tasks I set myself on when adapting the book was to graduate her from a sixteen year old girl to an early 20s young woman.
NYX: Talking of which you’ve gathered a superb line-up, did they have time to rehearse much?
MP: Thank you so much, I loved working with everyone in the cast - we have been so fortunate, just like Braid I was privileged to work with a talented, trusting and most importantly kind cast. I like to think that I run a logistically tight but emotionally cozy ship on set: if I write a scene and my actors tell me something’s not feeling right I am eager to hear how to improve it, I welcome feedback because I am keenly aware that cinema is a collaborative effort, if anyone can make the film better they are an asset not a threat. It’s no secret the film was shot in 15 days, plus a pick up day in LA after a few months that production wrapped in Louisville, KY. Because of the tight schedule we had virtually no time to rehearse, we’d block at lightning speed when we had a chance to, if we didn’t my DP and I had a military prepped shot list that we knew like the back of our hands, and contrary to Braid that has many design heavy shots, Clare was more of a fight or fly dance with the actors, the camera being vastly and expertly hand held by Luka Bazeli and we all just had to be quick on our feet. The stunts naturally were rehearsed and a handful of the most emotionally intense scenes we were able to carve out a few minutes while other departments were getting set up… I went to a theater conservatory in NYC called the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and that was an intensive incubator for acting, scene breakdown, blocking, movement, speech, projection and the list goes on - it was crucial for me to have that background or I wouldn’t have survived the 15 day shoot haha. I wouldn’t watch playbacks either, there just was no time, this kind of schedule put me in a kind of meditation, of titanic soft focus where nothing existed outside of the monitor and I felt instantly if we had the shot or not. I did it, I’m glad it’s come out well, I wouldn’t recommend it though ha.
NYX: This is your second feature, what lessons from your first did you remember for this one?
MP: This may sound cheesy, but I learned to trust myself, my creative instincts, my abilities to lead and overcome adversities on set and outside, which were all things I suspected I had in my 20s but didn’t put to real test until my first feature “Braid”. Braid was such a delightful and empowering experience that it gave me the strength and belief I needed to tackle Saint, which had a production schedule of only 15 days. We had to go at a relentless, military like pace, doing about 9 pages a day and more than 50 set ups a day: we had to stay lean, both crew and gear wise, and whilst Braid was a triumph of design heavy shots, Saint had to assume a style that was closer to the lead’s mind, unpredictable, visionary, violent and lyrical, mostly achieved handheld.
NYX: It perfectly balances humour, tension and horror, how difficult was that to do?
MP: Thank you so much, that’s lovely to hear. When I began approaching the adaptation I set myself to be as reverent as possible towards the novel, I wanted to make sure that Don Roff the author felt not only respected, but also elevated where the tools of the cinematic craft made it possible: Clare is undeniably a dark character but I wanted to make sure that her only living family member, Gigi (DeMornay) was an inspiring life force, bursting with joie de vivre and sensuality, passion and energy, so I almost wrote her lines as though she was the younger character, the more rambunctious and youthful out of the two, which by contrast makes Clare even more introverted, mysterious and cynical. Rebecca made Gigi come to life with such ease and grounded her in a living being, she is excellent. The same happened with the theater director character played by Joel Michaely, who bears the responsibility of being the main comedic relief: I felt like I had honored what Don wrote but infused it with some high octane New York City artist types I had encountered in my life, and when Don read the first draft he told me I had made that character even closer to his real life inspiration, which was his theater teacher in high school. It’s fascinating how the artistic process can create synchronicities beyond time and space, even between people who have never met; universality is such a powerful part of the process, it’s humbling. The theater plot or B plot of the film is crucial not only because it brings some much needed lightness, but also because the play the characters are putting on is a reflection of the themes of the A plot, so of the film itself (so meta haha) to the point where when we’re five minutes away from the end of the film, the stage hand screams backstage “Five!! We open in five minutes!”; and without spoiling anything, the main plot twist nestled itself within the layers of the unsuspecting, light hearted, comedic B plot, which I think worked great for the ending, right where you think the dust had settled.
NYX: Was it a long shoot and what was the atmosphere like on set?
MP: It was 15, beautiful, intense, wild days. We prepped for about three weeks and during those weeks I storyboarded 90% of the picture to chilling precision: my hotel room walls were plastered in religious iconography, renaissance paintings, Japanese graphic novel references and my army of story boards all done by hand. It was the only thing I knew I absolutely needed to do, along with shot listing to death with my DP. We were shooting 8-9 pages a day (11-12 on the hardest days) and there was just no chance to get around it and no point in panicking, so we went with it, aiming to prepare a hundred times harder than we would have on any other shoot (Braid was 25 days). If I got stressed by DP Luka with this dry humor would just say “Don’t worry, we’ll shoot something” which after all was undeniably true, something was gonna go in the can no matter what. The night before our first day on set we turn in the shot list to the producers and our AD: it had written about 50 set ups. They all thought we were insane and told us this is simply not possible, cut this thing in half. We get on set and at the end of the day we had done 63 set ups. We managed because the Louisville crew was fabulous and they all knew each other so well it felt like a family already, then my DP was supernaturally agile, and I remembered what my Braid DP Todd Banhazl told me: shoot with your gut. No playbacks, no safeties, no second guessing, either you have the shot or you don’t. And so the energy on set was intense yet heroic, because objectively all films encounter obstacles and surprises along the way, but when the pressure cooker is on because of a short schedule, with at least one company move a day, under blistering summer heat and packed with action sequences, well… It was fun.
NYX: There’s subtle social commentary too, did you fear it would get lost with everything else going on?
MP: Frankly no. Themes are the foundation of anything I write or direct so the social issues element of the film was the groundwork for everything that is on the screen: plot, characters, dialogue are all inextricably imbued in thematic choices. I try to make films that have soul, it’s the only barometer I at least have to understand whether something is good or not. I prefer a work that is “imperfect” or “flawed” (words I feel critics like haha) even irrational and maddening but that is honest and original, with a clear point of view, with a soul. I am not in control of budget, resources, time, weather conditions, etc but I can always write the most honest line I know (Hemingway paraphrased, I believe) and as long as I am writing with honesty than the rest takes care of itself.
NYX: Bella Thorne really delivers a powerhouse of a performance; would you like to direct her again?
MP: I cannot say enough wonderful things about Bella. She is an unparalleled artist, from acting to producing she is a force of nature and has become one of my closest friends and I would absolutely direct her again or work on a script with her ( we are talking about it ) She will make a great director too, she’s so self disciplined and hard working while also having a heart of gold.
NYX: Will you be nervous when the movie has its European premiere at FrightFest 2024?
MP: Whenever I watch any of my films the first few times with an audience I feel like the Guernica horse. I am in a literal grimace of shock because up until that moment everything has felt like make believe, like I’ve been playing this strange dream in my head over and over but it isn’t real, and yet suddenly the presence of an audience represents my Truman Show realization moment, it’s like exiting Plato’s cave, so no, I’m not nervous, I am mind bent. What brings me back down to earth is talking to the audience afterwards and hearing what they perceived from the film because it frankly is astounding to understand that what you wrote in utter loneliness, what you dreamed up in a state of delusion, and what a group of often strangers with a vision did altogether months, sometimes years before, has somehow carried on and become something that people understand and relate to, is to quote Fellini “the most direct way to compete with God”. Filmmaking is a mindfuck, it is spirituality, it is meditation, it is faith and it is madness at all at once, and I feel all of it.
NYX: So, what are you working on at the moment?
MP: I have a political sci-fi that aspires to be between Children of Men and Vanilla Sky, a tv series in development with Bria Vinaite (Florida Project) about the therapeutic boarding schools phenomenon in America, a northern Italian folkloristic horror inspired by true events, and a neo-noir murder mystery set in Hollywood, that has a bit of cheeky comedy in it. I’m really thankful that I love writing because it keeps me working even when no one is asking me to, so the work ends up transcending mundane transactions, but becomes the very essence of my being.
NYX: Mitzi Peirone, thank you very much
MP: Thank you for asking such great questions, this was fun.
Saint Clare had its UK Premiere at FrightFest 2024
It will be on digital later this year from 101 Films with date TBA
