Julie Pacino’s ‘I Live Here Now’ Blends Bright Colors, Horror and Campy Humor to Examine ‘What it Means to Live in Your Body as a Woman in Today’s World’ — Fantasia
Julie Pacino‘s debut feature “I Live Here Now” has a heady, intense script. The writer-director knew a collaborator would be on the same page if they had a visceral reaction to the work, as happened with the film’s eventual lead, Lucy Fry.
“I got on a call with Lucy, and the first thing she said was, ‘I don’t usually do this, but I have a lot of strong feelings about your script and I need to tell them to you.'” Pacino says. “I loved that, because her thoughts and feelings were some of the things I had intended or thought of, and then other things were not. I really loved the collaborative energy she was bringing from the very beginning, and so ten minutes into the meeting, it was finally like, ‘OK, I’ve found someone that can help me take this character to another level.'”
Pacino (yes, the daughter of Al Pacino and Jan Tarrant) was thrilled to land a creative partner so engaged with the material. In the film, Fry stars as Rose, a woman who finds herself in a hotel trying to keep her sanity while being subjected to surreal reminders of her past. Any more info would spoil a twisty, richly visual tale, yet Pacino is upfront that the film’s claustrophobic feelings were a result of feeling creatively restless during COVID.
“It started as a short film that I wrote in 2020,” she says. “At that time, it was more of an allegory about being stuck in a place. It was a very internal time for everyone, so I started exploring these ideas of being stuck and deep-rooted feelings being unearthed. It grew from this tiny 10-page short into the concept for a feature that deals with what it means to live in your body as a woman in today’s world.”
Pacino knew the best way to express herself in the film was a strong visual style, so she was able to enhance the horror and moments of campy humor with bright colors that popped as a result of shooting in 35mm.
“I’m a photographer and I shoot a lot of film, so it’s a medium I’m comfortable with,” Pacino says. “My DP, Aron Meinhardt, lights a lot of my photos. From the very beginning, it was something we wanted to do, just because of how 35mm film handles color. Color is such an important part of this movie, especially the Technicolor light that’s guiding Rose deep within herself. The colors play such an important character.”
Although the filmmaking pops visually and there are impressionistic parts that live in surreal territory, Pacino was deliberate in ensuring that the film’s “dream logic” is sound.
“My intention was never, ‘Let’s be weird and confusing here,'” she says. “It was always serving the truth that Rose was living in that moment, and the discoveries she was making about herself. Every decision I’m making, every line of dialogue I’m writing in this movie has a very specific intention, and in certain scenes and lines there can be these layers of psychological meaning.”
Ultimately, Pacino is excited for people to simply experience the movie — and if it sparks further discussion, all the better.
“I hope that afterwards people had a good time and are excited to unpack some of the symbolism,” she says. “There’s a lot of conversation we were having about uniting the aspects of our inner selves and conquering some of that shame and claiming autonomy over our bodies. But also, enjoy the ride.”
“I Live Here Now” has its world premiere at Fantasia on Thursday.
“I got on a call with Lucy, and the first thing she said was, ‘I don’t usually do this, but I have a lot of strong feelings about your script and I need to tell them to you.'” Pacino says. “I loved that, because her thoughts and feelings were some of the things I had intended or thought of, and then other things were not. I really loved the collaborative energy she was bringing from the very beginning, and so ten minutes into the meeting, it was finally like, ‘OK, I’ve found someone that can help me take this character to another level.'”
Pacino (yes, the daughter of Al Pacino and Jan Tarrant) was thrilled to land a creative partner so engaged with the material. In the film, Fry stars as Rose, a woman who finds herself in a hotel trying to keep her sanity while being subjected to surreal reminders of her past. Any more info would spoil a twisty, richly visual tale, yet Pacino is upfront that the film’s claustrophobic feelings were a result of feeling creatively restless during COVID.
“It started as a short film that I wrote in 2020,” she says. “At that time, it was more of an allegory about being stuck in a place. It was a very internal time for everyone, so I started exploring these ideas of being stuck and deep-rooted feelings being unearthed. It grew from this tiny 10-page short into the concept for a feature that deals with what it means to live in your body as a woman in today’s world.”
Pacino knew the best way to express herself in the film was a strong visual style, so she was able to enhance the horror and moments of campy humor with bright colors that popped as a result of shooting in 35mm.
“I’m a photographer and I shoot a lot of film, so it’s a medium I’m comfortable with,” Pacino says. “My DP, Aron Meinhardt, lights a lot of my photos. From the very beginning, it was something we wanted to do, just because of how 35mm film handles color. Color is such an important part of this movie, especially the Technicolor light that’s guiding Rose deep within herself. The colors play such an important character.”
Although the filmmaking pops visually and there are impressionistic parts that live in surreal territory, Pacino was deliberate in ensuring that the film’s “dream logic” is sound.
“My intention was never, ‘Let’s be weird and confusing here,'” she says. “It was always serving the truth that Rose was living in that moment, and the discoveries she was making about herself. Every decision I’m making, every line of dialogue I’m writing in this movie has a very specific intention, and in certain scenes and lines there can be these layers of psychological meaning.”
Ultimately, Pacino is excited for people to simply experience the movie — and if it sparks further discussion, all the better.
“I hope that afterwards people had a good time and are excited to unpack some of the symbolism,” she says. “There’s a lot of conversation we were having about uniting the aspects of our inner selves and conquering some of that shame and claiming autonomy over our bodies. But also, enjoy the ride.”
“I Live Here Now” has its world premiere at Fantasia on Thursday.