| Film Buff |
GUITAR HEROES
FLORA AND SON John Carney scores another low-key hit as a single mum learns the guitar…
Normally, the criteria for writing songs for a musical is: “Write me the best song in the world”,’ says director John Carney, who knows what he’s on about having gifted the world Once (2007) and Sing Street (2016). ‘Flora and Son was different because Flora’s not a player. I didn’t want it to be, “Flora from the flat ends up winning the Grammy.” That’s corny. I wanted to tell a story about how music is an inner struggle, and it connects family, or disconnects family, or it helps you to think about things. Music’s not all about being a pop star.’
Carney’s sweet, salty, sincere musical might not be about fame and riches but it sparked a bidding war at Sundance. Set in Dublin, it focuses on the eponymous single mum (Eve Hewson) and her stormy relationship with her teenage son, Max (Orén Kinlan). She rescues a guitar from a skip, gifts it to him as a peace offering, but ends up playing herself, taking online lessons from LA dude Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
‘I had to write plausible music written around a person who’s just learned the guitar, but has something to say,’ smiles Carney as he shows Teasers his office, and the laptop, guitar and piano he used to write Flora and Son. ‘I’ll often pause the scene that I’m writing and just noodle at the guitar while thinking about the character.’
Flora is frank, sweary and dissolute. Jeff’s mellow and ragged. Hewson and Gordon-Levitt are both terrific. ‘Eve just got it,’ says Carney. ‘She was like, “If I was to play this, it would be funny and salty and filthy.” I wasn’t sure about Joe, because I saw him as a button-downed-collar guy, [whereas] this character is a little bit like Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born, but real. I saw him as a messy guy with a bunch of guitars on his wall. A reformed alcoholic, always worried about drinking. He didn’t make it; he’s a bit bitter. But Joe read the script and told me what it’s about. Once an actor is telling you, “Here’s what your movie is. You don’t see it this way, you’re missing things in it…” that’s golden.’
‘Music’s not all about being a pop star’
JOHN CARNEY
With Flora and Son hitting all the right notes, Carney is already eyeing his next movie. And he’s feeling the Saturday night fever... ‘I’d love to make a film set in the disco era, but in the north of England, or in a small town in Ireland,’ he says. ‘One person in the village has got one line of cocaine. A DJ’s got a Bee Gees record and is playing it in the church hall. I think it’d be funny to tell a disco story, but if Shane Meadows was making a disco movie...’
FLORA AND SON STREAMS ON APPLE TV+ FROM 29 SEPTEMBER.