On Sunday, the stellar delegation comprising actor Casey Affleck, director and screenwriter David Lowery and producers Toby Halbrooks and James M. Johnston introduced enthusiastically their joint new film A Ghost Story. At the press conference, reporters also asked this year’s Best Actor Oscar winner about his relationship with his famous brother Ben and about the film Manchester by the Sea, at the end Casey took the reins himself and begin asking David Lowery interesting questions about his creative process.
A short while later, the quartet was joined by costume designer Annell Brodeur at the Grand Hall to greet the audience attending the European premier of A Ghost Story. Several audience members then came to the afternoon KVIFF Talk to ask about the meaning of certain scenes. David Lowery revealed that the chamber piece about a woman whose husband still continues to live with her after his death was inspired by the classic image of a ghost under a sheet and by his move from Texas to L.A. He says that the aspect ratio of the film reinforces the claustrophobic atmosphere of the film and that he considers the film experimental, also due to the fact that Casey Affleck appears in the film for the most part covered in a sheet. “The role seemed all the most interesting to me. But it did not mean that I would have to approach the character differently,” said Affleck.
The actor had already worked with Lowery three times before: first on Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, which Lowery brought to Karlovy Vary four years ago and most recently on the crime film Old Man and the Gun, where he plays alongside Robert Redford. “I like the worlds that David creates. I feel at home in them. In films, I don’t think about how successful they will be with the audience, but what I can learn from them and how they interest me,” said the actor who cannot be found in any blockbusters.
Reporters learned in detail how much work was in involved on what seems to the simple ghost costume in A Ghost Story. “Of course, we first just tried throwing a sheet over a person, but it looked silly. I wanted to create a classic 3D representation of a ghost in a sheet, but that required special fabric and lots of petticoats,” the director revealed.
