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Louder Than Bombs Release From Memories

“Louder Than Bombs” has honorable nomination of 68^th Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or, is directed by Joachim Trier “Oslo”, Gabriel Byrne of “The Usual Suspects”, and the Best Actress of Cannes, Isabelle Heppert, “The Piano Teacher” ,”Now You See Me” and “The End of the Tour”, Jesse Eisenberg who did nominated in Oscar Award, and the new talent actor, Devin Druid starring, father and sons, three people uncover the secret of family that the hidden emotion and pain is going to concurrency.

Tell us the Story Behind The Title

I think we were looking for a title that mirrored the balance between the small and tender pains of family life set up against the great ambitions and experiences of a mother who is working abroad as a war photographer. The incomparability of pain is something which I find intriguing. Of course, it is the title of the band The Smiths’ first American album, a compilation of their songs as they were approaching America for the first time. But the film is about neither war nor The Smiths. I also discovered that The Smiths borrowed the title from the American poet Elizabeth Smart, and her book By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. And I loved that those words had a specifically American provenance as I worked on this film set in the U.S.

A Bigger Perspective on the Film

Gene is a portrait of a modern father character. By modern, I mean that he has, at least compared to the classical patriarch, taken on more emotional responsibility at home. He’s become a teacher and given up his career as an actor to be closer to his kids. Gene is trying to keep his family together, but he is struggling to connect with his 15 year old son Conrad, who is engulfed in computer games and an online life, which is difficult to understand for his father. In many ways, this creates some comedic elements as well, like in one scene when Gene tries to create an avatar and venture into an online game to meet his son, with unforeseen consequences. There is something warm and tender about Gene. His strength lies in his ability to see others, but he is grappling to figure out he wants for himself, to figure out what he wants to do with his own life. Gabriel Byrne’s blend of intelligence and warmth was very important to achieve Gene as a character.

Enigma Mother Great Talent Conrad

Jonah is a bit of an over-achiever, who feels that he was closer to his mom than anyone else. In many ways, his story is about delayed grief, and how the facade of a young ambitious academic who has just become a father himself crumbles when re-evaluating the image of his mother. Jesse Eisenberg is a precise and incredibly funny actor, and I am grateful that he is exploring a new type of character, perhaps showing a more vulnerable side of himself in the role of Jonah. Jesse in real life is a very smart and creative guy, who is also a great theatre writer, which many people are not aware of. It was inspiring to discuss dramaturgy with him as well as his character.

Conrad is a shy 15 year old kid, who at the outset of the story seems to have been struck the hardest by the loss of his mother, but as the story progresses, he is in many ways the most surprising of all the characters. I wanted to talk about how a person’s social behaviour often does not represent their inner life, and I tried to find cinematic ways to explore that through this character: showing his emotional life and his romantic side, both in approaching girls and in his strong need to express himself in unexpected ways. Finding someone to play Conrad was perhaps the biggest challenge I foresaw when preparing “Louder Than Bombs”. Finding Devin Druid was one of the film’s biggest victories. He is just a really great actor, there is not much more to say about it. I am very proud to have had a chance to work with him before everyone soon will discover this great talent.

The Individual and Collective Memories

The Director finds our memories and our idea of self and identity based on these memories fascinating and puzzling. In the film, I try to show the specific process of remembering. I wanted to avoid the type of grief drama where we are there when the mother dies and everyone is sitting around the room crying. Our story happens three years after the mother has passed away, and tracks the domino effect of her tragic death and the implication it has on the three men as they try to move forward in their individual lives. It is interesting how family life forces you to look at yourself and re-evaluate yourself constantly. Why do siblings experience parents so differently? How can you find a shared language, while sometimes needing to break away? There is both despair and hope in memories. During grief, people often describe a feeling of a static, unchanging sense of memory. As I try to show in the film, the constant re-evaluation of who we are gives us the ability to liberate ourselves from these locked ideas. There is a scene where Conrad, the younger brother, remembers a childhood memory of hide-and-seek with his mother. While he thinks about this for the first time in years, he realises the mother’s perspective of the same scene, and how she must have also wanted to play this game, since she obviously would have known where he was hiding all along. Within our personal sense of our own history, there is always a liberating possibility for other perspectives. Therefore I see the sometimes melancholic “Louder Than Bombs” as ultimately optimistic.

Synopsis

An upcoming exhibition celebrating photographer Isabelle Reed three years after her untimely death, brings her eldest son Jonah back to the family house - forcing him to spend more time with his father Gene and withdrawn younger brother Conrad than he has in years. With the three of them under the same roof, Gene tries desperately to connect with his two sons, but they struggle to reconcile their feelings about the woman they remember so differently.