Director Neil Jordan has always had one foot in the real world and one in the realm of things imagined. Films such as “The Crying Game,” “The Brave One,” and “Michael Collins” have kept him grounded, while the more fantastical elements of “The Company of Wolves,” “Interview with the Vampire,” and “In Dreams” have kept audiences guessing. We had a chance to conduct an interview with the filmmaker and his lead actor Colin Farrell to discuss his latest project, the myth-infused romance “Ondine.” We’ve found the film alternately enchanting and a little flawed, but it’s hard not to be taken in by its sweet, simple story and gorgeous (though raw-looking) cinematography from Wong Kar Wai favorite Christopher Doyle.
The film casts Jordan’s fellow Irishman Farrell as Syracuse, a fisherman who rescues a young woman named Ondine (Alicja Bachleda) when he pulls her from the sea in his nets. Fantasy arrives in the story via Syracuse’s young daughter, Annie (wonderful newcomer Alison Barry), who believes Ondine is a Selkie — a mythological creature who changes from seal to human and back again — ensnaring the hearts of those she encounters. Jordan’s own career plays well into the film, keeping the audience guessing as to which side of his tastes this film will hew.
“I like stories that don’t fully understand themselves,” Jordan says of his fairy-tale-laden filmography. “I’ve never made an entirely realistic movie ever in my life. I suppose that I was told too many myths and legends and fairy tales when I was a kid. My father was a national school teacher and he used to terrify the life out of me. Everybody in Ireland comes from some weird rural background, but he told me a lot of ghost stories that I’ve probably never recovered from.”
Farrell’s approach to the story and the character of Syracuse was completely different, choosing to remain ignorant of the screenplay’s roots in legends and mythology. “It was very clear from day one that all I needed was in the script, from page one and I didn’t really have to go outside the script. I just thought about a lot from the first time I read it to the time that I agreed to do it. You become consumed by imagining what it’ll be like to walk in this man’s shoes and to immerse yourself in this world.”
Though Farrell has been known for his aggressive portrayals in films such as “In Bruges,” “Pride and Glory,” and “Daredevil,” “Ondine” allowed him to dwell in a quieter, but no less complex, character’s emotional landscape. He jokes at first, “It was so boring. I didn’t get to scalp anyone.” However, he soon relents. “I found this nice, lovely melancholy tune that he wasn’t aware of….It was the first time in twelve years to play a character that I wasn’t looking forward to leaving. The first time in twelve years that I felt, like, ‘I’m going to miss Syracuse a bit,’ even his name.”
Filming in their native Ireland was a joy for both director and star. For Jordan, it was a nice contrast to the other films he’s done in the country. “What brought me to it is that I’ve made a lot of harsh movies in Ireland. I’ve made a lot of movies with violence. I thought, could I make a film that was terribly simple and terribly forgiving where nobody dies in the end and nobody transforms into some ghoulish, some monstrous thing. That’s all. “
“I love Ireland very much,” Farrell says. “It makes sense to me. It uplifts me and it frustrates me and my relationship to it is the same. It’s beautiful. One of the most beautiful parts of the world that I’ve ever been to is the Beara Peninsula and I did my first job there twelve years ago. I did a four part mini-series for the BBC called ‘Falling For a Dancer’. It was great to go back to that part of the world and working with a director/writer that I’d wanted to work with for seven or eight years on a story that was so inherently beautiful and was so predominantly about the necessary need for hope and the need to believe that that transcends the real world as you perceive it was just a perfect storm for me.” We imagine that meeting real-life love Bachleda probably didn’t hurt his experience either.
“Ondine” isn’t a romance with quips and meet-cutes where the leads hate each other, then miraculously come around in the end. Instead, it’s a fairy tale set in the real world, where the most miraculous thing might not be the presence of a Selkie, but instead it’s the idea that these two people have found each other. The sincere, genuine love on show is making us uncharacteristically un-snarky, but we imagine a viewing of “Killers” will put us right back in fighting form.