After the successful Patrik Age 1.5, the versatile Swedish director Ella Lemhagen has embarked on her biggest project ever: The Crown Jewels. Nordisk Film is launching the fantasy thriller on 100 screens in Sweden on June 29. The film was produced by Filmlance International, with support, among others, from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The director spoke to us.
How would you describe your film? Is it a fairy-tale, a fantasy romantic film...a Swedish Tim Burton film?
For me The Crown Jewels is a melodrama, in a positive sense. It contains big emotions, big twists, a lot of drama. At the same time, there is a subjective story, told through the character of Fragancia (Alicia Vikander) who claims to have experienced all the things that we discover. The story is filtered through her, therefore we‘re not really sure what's real or not. In that sense, it can be compared for example to Tim Burton's Big Fish.
What is the film based on and what attracted you to the story of The Crown Jewels?
The film is based on a script for television that Carina Dahl wrote in the nineties. The first time I read the script was when I was asked if I wanted to direct a Christmas calendar that Carina had written for SVT. I think it was in 2002.
It was a very comprehensive material worth several hours of filming, something naturally much too long for the film I wanted to do. I loved the sprawling, crazy and unpredictable storyline, but I was also unsure whether it would be possible to create ONE story out of this thick material. I was aware it was important not to make it too distant, so that characters would be believable despite the challenging nature of the material. Yet it was hard to let go of the script, because it was unlike anything else I had read before. So when I finished Patrik Age 1.5 in 2008, I still decided to go ahead with the film.
How did you and Carina work together to squeeze the material into a script for film and TV?
The first years Carina wrote the screenplay on her own, and I met her occasionally to bounce ideas back with her. After Patrik Age 1.5 Carina went on to write the book ‘Familje lyckan' based on the same characters, and I took over the script writing. Therefore, our collaboration was more of a relay race than a side-by-side work. Carina concentrated on the writing and I squeezed and restructured most of it.
Was Alicia Vikander your first choice and how was your collaboration with her and Bill Skarsgård?
I can't really say that Alicia was my first choice. At the time I did not know her and her first feature film Pure was not finished yet. However my casting agent Sara tipped me off about her, so she came to do a screen test, along with several other young actresses. Very quickly she was among my favourites, and eventually I was convinced that she was the right one for the role.
Regarding Bill, I had met him earlier when he did a test for both Tsatsiki and Patrik Age 1.5. I am very fond of him and happy that finally there is a role that suits him.
I had a great collaboration with Alicia, Bill, and even Björn Gustafsson and I brought them together early with their "younger self", i.e. the children and teenagers who play the young Fragancia, Richard and Pettersson-Jonsson. We had a few days' workshops all together before we went to Lithuania for the shooting.
What were the biggest challenges during the filming? Creating the atmosphere of a timeless fairy tale? Coping with a large crew?
Everything was a challenge: first of all transforming the script into something understandable and filmable, then on a financial standpoint, trying to make a big movie with a relatively limited budget. The filming in Lithuania went well, but it was of course complicated with the different locations, set constructions, children and special effects. The scenes on the ice were particularly tough. However, the crew was great and professional so it all worked fine. The post-production was a challenge as well. Editing a feature film and a television series in parallel, and above all creating the special effects -such as "triple flips" on the ice and the animated fish was difficult to achieve under enormous time pressure.
Had we had a bigger budget, we might not have had to compromise as much, but it is difficult to make big budget films in our part of the world.
What will be the focus of the TV series and when will it air on SVT?
The TV-version is an expanded version of the same story. It contains more scenes and goes more deeply into the characters and the storylines that are only hinted at in the feature film. It goes on air this winter.
What's your next challenge?
I work with two or three different projects, but I have not signed any new contract yet. So I can't really go into details right now.