WithThe Lighthouse,Robert Eggers delivers a tale of toil, terror, and desire.
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With 2015sThe Witch, Robert Eggers showed that there was nothing quite so frightening as the Puritan mind.
Fresnel was a Frenchman who designed a lens that could magnify light greatly.
The Fresnel lens looks like a crazy Art Deco sculpture.
That was important to having the mystery of the light as a plot machine.
Before the Civil War, American lighthouses were often shitholes, like the lighthouse station in my film.
We could have just stared at this thing all night.
How do you approach research with these films?Head on.
Maybe Ill get tired of it but I dont really have any interest in making contemporary film.
Part of what is fun to me is doing the research.
Otherwise, it would be so fussy-looking that it would be shameful.
When doing something in the past, I have to create or re-create the material world.
That is very satisfying.
Also, I strive for period accuracy, which is not important to good design.
That would be sort of overwhelming for me to have that responsibility.
I dont need to see options of ten; I just need to find that one.
I find thats a very satisfying way to work.
But its about more than period accuracy, isnt it?
WithThe Witch, theres the hare.
Its just something that she grew up thinking.
So withThe Witch, some people are like, Whats the deal with the bunny?
So much of this film turns on the chemistry between Pattinson and Dafoe.
Were you worried at all that they might not have any?Of course, that was scary.
But when youre working with names of a certain notoriety, theyre not going to read.
So you just have to trust your gut.
They have cheekbones and noses.
Somehow, the way they looked together was part of it.
Especially because this movie plays around with identity in an interesting way.
This is weird enough.
As I understand it, Pattinson and Dafoe have very different acting styles and different processes.
Does that prompt you to direct them differently?You have to direct them differently.
Every actor demands different things.
It is a weird balance, because how do I direct with them within what my own approach is?
I wouldnt say that my overall experience ofThe Lighthousewas fun.
It was quite miserable and difficult, but I did have fun everyday working with them.
And with Rob its usually take one or take 57 all of that scene is one thing.
How do you keep that in balance?
Its difficult for everybody.
Theres this weird romantic element between the two characters.
Its almost homoerotic.It is homoerotic, but that doesnt mean that they actually want to sleep with each other.
But the way that we shoot Robs muscles is homoerotic.
And itisa giant phallus.
Rob is not a lighthouse.
This is the movie.
That is a peninsula off the fishing village of Yarmouth.
Its just like a spin of volcanic rock, and it was a really, really punishing location.
There were several noreasters when we were building the lighthouse.
The seawater was freezing on the scaffolding.
The wind is not exaggerated in the film.
Would the film have been different if the location had been more hospitable?Oh, its intentional.
I wanted it to be miserable and challenging.
How do you not lose your audience?Obviously, youre afraid its not going to work.
I was really struck by the sound design ofThe Lighthouse.
A lot of friction mallets on various objects mostly cymbals, but all kinds of musical instruments.
The Witchis often grouped together with films likeThe BabadookandHereditaryand others in that contentious category of elevated horror.
Whats your relationship to genre?
A few people have said it is, but I dont think it is.
