Director Andrea Arnold on not trying to please anyone and reconnecting with nature

“I’m not attempting to please anybody,” British filmmaker Andrea Arnold explains, talking about her work. “I’m attempting to only determine one thing out. And I at all times have this concept that when you try to determine one thing out that’s your personal factor and that it’s an trustworthy endeavor that individuals will at all times reply to that, reasonably than one thing that’s formulaic.”

Whereas Arnold is referencing her movies extra usually, the sentiment particularly applies to her most up-to-date mission, a quiet, introspective documentary known as “Cow.” Shot over the course of 4 years in between different work, together with directing the second season of HBO’s “Massive Little Lies,” “Cow” is an intimate portrait of a dairy cow named Luma. It follows Luma from the start of one among her calves to her dying at Park Farm in Kent, England, and the filmmaker tapped cinematographer Magda Kowalczyk to assist reveal Luma’s inside world. Whereas Arnold wasn’t at all times positive the place the footage would lead, she did have one purpose in thoughts because the mission unfolded.

“It was about displaying her aliveness,” explains Arnold, whose different movies embody “American Honey” and “Fish Tank.” “Like, ‘Are we going to have the ability to see that? Are we going to have the ability to see the soul?’ Some individuals would argue, ‘Do we have now a soul? What’s the soul?’ In all probability when you Google it there are 1,000,000 explanations and a few individuals will say there isn’t one. However there’s little doubt that all of us have one thing that isn’t simply our bodily self. We’ve want, we have now emotions, we have now ideas — and all of us have our personal. John O’Donohue, the Irish poet, says ‘the wild and visual magnificence.’ I used to be attempting to indicate her wild and visual magnificence.”

Right here Arnold discusses the making of “Cow,” its inevitable ending and the way the documentary pertains to her earlier movies.

Did the concept for this movie come to you from one thing particular or did it develop over time?

I feel the will to make it comes from fairly a great distance again. I’ve at all times had a extremely huge relationship with nature, since I used to be a child. I used to be born on a housing property [in Dartford, England] and my mother was 16 when she had me — she had 4 children by the point she was 22 and my dad was not round. So nobody actually stopped me from going out, and throughout me was this sort of wilderness. And so I roamed from actually early on. I feel all of us have, left to our personal units, an instinctive relationship with nature.

Residing in London — I labored in TV after I first began — I received increasingly more disconnected from issues as a result of, after all, I’m not that child working round anymore. I spotted that dwelling within the metropolis you simply get very disconnected, so this movie was at all times form of brewing. I wasn’t fairly positive which type it will take. However then I simply thought someday, “Nicely, I’ll simply attempt to see if I can put a actuality to that — the consciousness of 1 animal. What about if I did that?” That’s the place it began with me. I feel after I first talked about it to somebody, it was like 9 years in the past.

What number of hours of footage did you shoot?

We filmed for about 30 days a 12 months, over 4 years. Not daily or something, however about 30 days every year. So I truly can’t bear in mind how a lot footage we had. However I went by way of the whole lot. And we had extra as a result of we needed to movie one other cow as insurance coverage in case Luma died immediately. All that footage was of one other cow, God bless her, however we didn’t have to make use of it. I at all times had a factor for Luma. And the opposite cow was beautiful. However we did put most of our vitality into Luma.

How do you solid a cow?

Once we had been wanting, the farmers would inform me in regards to the cows and so they mentioned at the start Luma was very feisty. And I assumed, “Oh, I like that. She’s feisty, that in all probability reveals some spirit and character.” I appreciated that she was feisty in that setting as a result of it was nearly like a remark. Prefer it was her spirit coming by way of. And she or he had this very beautiful, lovely white head [and] I assumed which may make it simpler to shoot her and comply with her.

There’s a extremely distinct emotional response that occurs once you spend 90 minutes that near an animal’s face. Was that intentional?

When you consider animals, we use them for his or her meat or their skins or their bones, or all of the issues that they bodily are. And I wished to make a film in regards to the bits you possibly can’t see, you possibly can’t contact — the emotions, the ideas, the need, the will. All this stuff which might be within the eyes which might be occurring, which might be a part of the aliveness of a being. What I attempted to do is to indicate you one thing we don’t bodily contact or see.

Was that difficult?

The factor is, I feel that we will’t know what she’s truly feeling or considering. However you will get an thought by wanting on the eyes. And you too can get an thought by her habits and the way in which she responds to issues. So I feel that’s the way you learn it: You learn it in the way in which she responds, the way in which she appears to be like and the way in which she behaves to her setting and the issues that occur.

We are able to’t know, in any respect, what she’s considering. We don’t even know what one another is considering. We are able to’t get inside one other particular person’s head. We are able to’t get inside a beetle’s head. We are able to’t get inside a cow’s head. So after I talked to Magda, the cinematographer, I mentioned, “Look, we’re simply going to indicate her in her setting, staying along with her head, specializing in her, and the way in which she responds to what occurs.” As a result of I don’t clarify something, and even attempt to, it leaves issues as much as [the viewer’s] creativeness about what she is likely to be feeling or considering or wanting. And I feel individuals’s life experiences will probably be completely different and they’ll in all probability interpret some issues otherwise.

Luma, the topic of the documentary “Cow.”

(Cow Movies Ltd./IFC Movies)

Did Luma know you once you would arrive to movie her?

I didn’t wish to fake that we weren’t there. They’re used to having people round as a result of their lives are very managed. However we’re clearly proper in her face. And I at all times mentioned to Magda, “Look, if she does something, keep there. If one thing occurs and he or she’s reacting to the digital camera, preserve it working. Let that be a part of the movie as a result of that’s trustworthy about us being there.” And I feel at the start she did have quite a lot of responses to the digital camera. Generally she stared proper at us. I felt like her look modified over the time. In the beginning it felt a bit suspicious, a bit extra quizzical.

After which in direction of the tip, I felt like she felt seen by us. She felt accepted. Like she was used to it and he or she felt seen. And I don’t know whether or not I’m proper in that. However I do really feel prefer it’s fairly a profound factor, on some degree. As a result of to be seen, what does that truly imply? I don’t assume all people really feel seen. Clearly she didn’t know she was being filmed. However we had been standing there her and responding to her, having a connection and relationship the place when she does one thing we reply. There’s a connection and an change, a form of consciousness of one another’s existence. I ponder if her being seen and feeling seen meant that she felt her existence extra.

While you took this on, had been you conscious of Luma’s life trajectory and the way this story would finish?

Nicely, all dairy cows, as soon as they don’t give milk, are slaughtered. So I didn’t know however that was extremely doubtless the place it will finish as a result of that’s livestock’ existences after they’re not helpful anymore.

How do you are feeling “Cow” matches in with the remainder of your work?

I made a brief [film] known as “Milk,” which is a couple of mother who loses a child. And I really feel prefer it’s linked to this. Like, all of it feels linked. It actually does really feel a part of the whole lot I do. It’s clearly a really completely different manner of constructing one thing, however it feels completely linked by way of what it’s and the way it’s and what it’s about. Any individual at the moment mentioned to me they felt it was weirdly life-affirming but in addition powerful. And I really feel like [that] about all my movies. Hopefully, they’re a little bit of each of these. They cowl each — the truth that life will be wonderful and joyous, and it can be fairly powerful.

What’s tougher: directing a cow or directing a Hollywood actor?

Cows are simply what they’re, aren’t they? I feel that’s why persons are moved by Luma, as a result of she is what she is. And actors, they’re typically bringing quite a lot of private issues to what they do however they’re there representing one thing. They’re bringing their expertise to indicate you some emotion. And generally they go there with the emotion. However Luma is simply what she is. When you’re truly making movies you’re simply across the digital camera with individuals attempting to inform a narrative. Whether or not or not it’s with a cow or with Hollywood actors, it’s sort of the identical factor.