Michel Franco’s “Dreams,” shot in July 2023, might not be ready for the fall fests.
Franco told Variety’s Leo Barraclough at Karlovy Vary that he’s taking his time with the film and would rather be satisfied by the final cut than rush it out to festival audiences:
He says that he is still editing the film, so it may not be ready for Venice. “I don’t think it would be ready. I wouldn’t want to rush it. And I’m here [in Karlovy Vary]. I’m not obsessed with rushing [to finish films].”
The film stars Jessica Chastain, who also took part in Franco’s “Memory,” one of the underrated gems of last year — Chastain’s co-star in that film, Peter Sarsgaard, won the Best Actor award at Venice for his searing performance as man slowly losing his mind with Dementia.
Prior to “Memory” hitting the fall fests, Chastain and Franco had completed “Dreams” last summer in San Francisco and Mexico. The film, also starring Isaac Hernandez and Rupert Friend, involves a forbidden romance between a woman and a male ballet dancer.
“Dreams” has a budget of around $3 million. It also had a SAG-AFTRA waiver allowing it to shoot during the actors strike. If it doesn’t go to Venice, then I would imagine Franco would opt for either Berlin or Cannes 2025 as a premiere.
Franco went on to tell the Karlovy Vary crowd that he was already working with Chastain on a third and fourth film. She’s quickly turning into his cinematic muse.
If you haven’t seen some of Franco’s recent films, then please do. They don’t get talked about enough. Franco’s Haneke-style nihilism and gloomy outlook on humanity isn’t for everyone’s tastes, and he does have his fair share of detractors, but I find he’s been improving these last few years.
After some of the qualms I had with his earlier films, Franco is clearly getting better as a filmmaker, refining his style, restraining more on shock value, as his last three films (“New Order,” “Sundown,” and “Memory”) were the best of his career.
