Frank & Lola: A Long Labor of Love

It has been a long labor of love, but after some ten years, writer and director Matthew Ross is finally seeing his debut film Frank & Lola reach the big screen.

Touted as “dark and sexy”, Frank & Lola was rewarded with a four-star review by The Guardian following its screening at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Set in Las Vegas and Paris, it follows the passionate and obsessive love affair of its title characters (played by Michael Shannon and Imogen Poots).

Ross is grateful for the time he had to fine-tune the script between its inception and realization. The setting was changed, characters altered, and timelines toyed with. This, and the support of his producers, enabled him to think outside of the box, and make the best possible version of his film.

Creative Screenwriting spoke with Ross recently about crafting Frank & Lola – both the film and the characters.

Matthew Ross with producer Jay Van Hoy on set of Frank & Lola © FRANK + LOLA, LLC

The film is described as a “psychosexual noir love story”. Tell me about writing in this genre. What did you enjoy about it, and what were its challenges?

From the beginning, I really wanted to make a film that functioned as both a genre thriller as well as a very human film, with characters that were relatable and not archetypes. I’m very much inspired by a lot of the contemporary French filmmakers, specifically Jacques Audiard and Claire Denis, who seem to do that so well.

So I wanted to make a film that existed in both worlds and that wasn’t easily definable.

The first draft of the script – which I wrote ten years ago, or more – was the easiest first draft I’ve ever written. I didn’t have an outline. It was in my head and just needed to get out. So that was this incredibly great writing experience. Because, as we all know, it’s often not like that, and is sometimes much more labored.

But then of course, you get that first draft out and you need to keep working on it.

One of the real challenges that I spent the most amount of time on, was figuring out a way to get two people to fall in love in a convincing way – and do so within the first twenty minutes of the movie.

Often, with romantic comedies in particular, they get together at the end of the film, and you have a lot more time. In this one, we had to create this thing that was really wonderful and positive and then destroy it really quickly. And if you don’t believe that these two people actually are going into the wormhole of love and obsession, it’s a problem.

So that was something that I kept working throughout the script, and it’s a different thing to do. Of course so much of it also depends on the execution and the chemistry between the actors…but when you’re writing, that has no bearing on it.

Michael Shannon as Frank and Imogen Poots as Lola in Frank & Lola © FRANK + LOLA, LLC

The opening scene is so powerful in that way – while it’s very sexual in nature, it shows an emotional bond forming between the two characters as well.

That was actually not the original opening scene for the film. Originally, it was more linear, but we decided in the editing room – after trying out a variety of different things – that we might as well just drop you straight into their bedroom and their sex life.

It plays such a huge role in the movie so we thought we could just start there. And I think it’s a risk that paid off – or at least it’s one we’re proud of making.

Let’s talk about some of the themes you explore with these characters. Frank exhibits a sort of classic “male jealousy”, but you’re not always sure of Lola’s motives.

Without giving too much of the plot away, ultimately it’s really a film about two flawed people who genuinely love each other, and who are genuinely doing their best at that moment. Even though they both make some pretty big mistakes.

I also frame Lola as a potential “femme fatale”, which is certainly intentional, but that’s not who she is. But if you play with those expectations of the audience, who have seen so many femme fatales in films before, hopefully it makes things a little bit more unexpected and interesting.

With Frank’s character, he’s a guy who’s been around the block, and has some emotional romantic baggage from past situations, as many of us do. I think he knows that he has the werewolf in him, but he does not want him to come out. And then it does, and there’s a level of anger towards both himself and towards her about that, because he doesn’t want to be this person at all.

So Frank’s arc is really him putting himself back into a human again.

But with Lola, there are things we don’t know about her, and they’re revealed very close to the end of the film. And she’s in a very acute moment of trauma and pain from an event that recently happened to her.

Meeting Frank is a wonderful but also terrible piece of timing, in that she’s not ready for it, because she’s still in the maelstrom of the trauma of what has happened to her. As a result she ends up doing something quite self-destructive that she regrets very much.

Michael Shannon as Frank in Frank & Lola © FRANK + LOLA, LLC

Did you write extensive backstories for Frank and Lola?

Just in my head. I mean, I certainly had a very strong idea of both of their backstories already, and I communicated that to the actors. But this was a very personal sort of film, and I knew these characters very well going in. It wasn’t like I was writing about a head of state in a foreign country or something just a little bit more exotic and unfamiliar. In that case, yes, backstories and all of that research is essential.

Let’s talk about the setting – Las Vegas and Paris are very interesting cities for this type of film. Was it always those two, and what made you decide on them in particular?

Paris was always there, but Vegas was not. It was originally Brooklyn and Paris. But an opportunity came up from producers and financiers who said that if I moved the film to downtown Las Vegas, they would finance it.

Initially I was hesitant. I’d been living with the script for eight years at that point, and my experience with Las Vegas was probably pretty typical of most people who don’t live there – hotels on The Strip and staying up all night in casinos. It just didn’t feel real to me, and I wanted these characters to feel real.

So in order to make that transition and to translate the movie, I spent more time in Vegas, specifically downtown, to try to get a sense of what it was like.

Frank was a pretty easy switch, because he’s a chef and there are more chefs in Las Vegas than there are probably anywhere else in the world. Also, there’s a great kind of visual marker of success as a chef in Vegas, which is The Strip, which is so visible. If you’ve got a restaurant at a hotel on The Strip, you have one hundred percent made it as a major chef, which was great.

Lola was a little bit more complicated. In the Brooklyn version, she’s involved in literary journalism and gets a job at Harper’s magazine. There’s no real literary journalism scene in Las Vegas to speak of, so I wanted to discover a way I could have her there and not have her be in the service industry. Because basically everybody you meet in Las Vegas is either a tourist or in the service industry.

So I spent some time with our producers, and one of whom – who ended up being my assistant on the film – was Charles Cantrell, who was around Lola’s age. He was from Las Vegas, went to college at UNLV, and had a lot of friends there. And I discovered that there’s a really cool and exciting, vibrant arts and culture scene there that’s just been developing downtown.

So by spending time with Charles’ friends I was able to get a sense of how to re-form Lola as somebody who lives in Vegas and is believable, but not in the type of industry I wanted to avoid.

Michael Shannon as Frank and Imogen Poots as Lola in Frank & Lola © FRANK + LOLA, LLC

As you mentioned, you’ve lived with this script for a very long time. I know you have worked as a story consultant yourself – did you seek out help with this script over the years?

Sure. It took eight years for the film to get made – and by eight years, I mean that amount of time with real producers and almost getting it made as early as 2007 or around there.

When you’re dealing with potential financiers, or if you’re going down the road with an actor, you have to gauge opinions at some point, especially from somebody who’s going to write a check. But that allowed the script to very much evolve over time. It just got better. Certain elements that were more arch or hysterical in the original draft became more nuanced as we went along.

And as with the change to Vegas, this ended up being a very happy accident. Yes, it took eight years to get the film made, but I also got to really refine the script. And if I’d made it earlier, it wouldn’t have been as tight as it was when we shot it.

Now I couldn’t imagine it being anywhere else but Vegas – it’s kind of the perfect backdrop for these two lonely, damaged characters in the movie.

So it all really worked out perfectly.

It must have been a rewarding experience to see it acknowledged the way it was at Sundance.

It was more relief, to be honest with you! I’ve been a journalist covering the business for years and I’ve seen some great Sundance successes up close and personal at the festival. But I’ve also seen just total trainwrecks. I’ve seen people’s hearts and dreams just crushed by terrible reviews.

So when we finally had our screening at The Eccles, which is the biggest theatre there, and we got a standing ovation at the end of the film and a four-star review in The Guardian, I couldn’t quite believe it. I didn’t even feel happy, I really just felt like “thank god we didn’t get destroyed!”

It’s a very big stage to fail on. And if you get your film into Sundance, you become a target because everybody’s always questioning the festival and the programming.

Those guys do an incredible job, but you’ve got to be tough. And well-prepared. I was prepared and knew what I was getting into, which I’m not sure was a good thing! But I was definitely quite anxious.

Rosanna Arquette as Patricia, Michael Shannon as Frank and Imogen Poots as Lola in Frank & Lola © FRANK + LOLA, LLC

You’ve worked as a journalist and story consultant, and have been a jury member for festivals. What did you learn from those experiences?

I’ve had the opportunity to speak with so many of my heroes, which has been a real privilege. Steven Soderbergh, Robert Altman, Claire Denis, Richard Linklater…There are dozens of great filmmakers that I was able to spend an hour with, talking to them about their films. George Clooney, Clint Eastwood…

So along the way, of course I’m secretly taking notes about how to be a director and picking up little tips! From very practical things, to bigger picture issues, to stuff like anticipating how to deal with actors. I was very, very fortunate in that respect for sure.

So what advice would you offer our readers?

Don’t panic. Relax, take a deep breath and keep going when things get difficult.

When it’s working, writing is as exhilarating a process as anything in the world. But when it’s not, it’s as maddening as anything can be. That’s been my experience, so I try to not panic when I’m stuck.

[addtoany]