Theres also a cute dog, for good measure.
However, the roots ofBeginnersgo deeper.
This is actually a very personal story, unapologetic in its tone, and marked by grief.
Mills own father came out in his old age, and died only a few years later.
We recently had the chance to talk with Mills, ahead of the release ofBeginnerson Friday.
Beginnersseems like such a personal project, and one that might be hard to get funding for.
Is it a film that was easier to make once you had the actors involved?
Ad content continues below
Yeah, because thats all financing is based on.
Like, what movie stars do you have.
So its all based on the movie stars.
Thats like 80% of it, and the other 20% is the script and the story.
Its very hooky, its very like a Hollywood film in some ways.
And you cant just blame this on Hollywood.
Ive tried to get financing here, or in Europe, and its the same.
So how did it come about that you got Christopher Plummer involved?
Was that a script thing?
Yeah, I didnt know him or anything.
Of course, hes great.
And hed be great to play a 75-year old art historian father.
Hes so cultured and worldly, he really fits.
And he was quite interested, and his people were interested.
So I was quite lucky.
So it was all these things of, like, if Ewan… then Christopher!
But if Ewan says no, then Id have to think of someone else.
It was like this three-dimensional puzzle.
My dad was born in 24, so they actually shared a lot, culturally.
And I think it did fit him quite well.
I didnt know how well it suited him until we were into the film.
Hes fantastic, and hes going through such a prolific period at the moment.
Well, he was always prolific.
But hes going through a successful period.
I think hes just hungry.
When I shot with him, I think he was 79.
So theres some weird humility.
Hes not taking it for granted at all.
The whole time, I was kinda like, Why are you like this?
Both Ewan and I were like, Wow, I hope Im like that at that age.
And what was it like working with Ewan?
Ewans just a blessing.
Hes one of my favourite people in the world.
He made it so fun for me.
And he is playing a character sort of based on me.
And, oh my God, I dont know what I would have done if it wasnt Ewan.
He made it so easy, and so enjoyable, and did such a great job.
Whenever youre asked something, my typical technique as a director is to ask a question back.
Because you want the actor to figure it out and author it.
And his instincts were always totally right on.
So it was a very lucky experience, those two, and Melanie in a totally different way.
So is working with actors something that you take easily to?
I think so, because its not indigenous to me.
Im not an actor, Im not hot-blooded like that.
So I love it, and I adore them.
And its so fun as a writer-director to have people doing your own lines.
Actors, I think, like seeing a montage of their work.
I think a writer-directors a pig in shit when theyre watching great actors do their lines.
Its like, Oh my God, I wrote that!
So I adore it.
I adore being the captain of the ship.
It was a different kind of simple.
For that film, I was really into Wong Kar-Wai andIn The Mood For Love.
This was different, I didnt do that.
But there are extremely few lights, theres a directness to the filmmaking, and an unfetteredness.
Theres no filtration, and the whole story with Oliver and Anna is handheld.
Because your memories are quite iconic, you dont look around in your memory.
So, a different technique fromThumbsucker, but I do like a very simple, easy filmmaking world.
Yeah, iconic, but also very easy.
Very easy bits to get, and very humble fragments.
How am I going to create a portrait of my dad?
And I just believed that these little pieces would add up.
That was the hook that people saw, and always liked, and still like.
It still is the thing that people see when people write it up.
But from my perspective, that wasnt how I knew how to write it.
And the arguments that we had, the beautiful, messy, new conversations that we started having.
And thats the film.
So it is this two-way street.
Thats such a heavy, personal investment in the film.
Of course they are going to misread it!
And theyre all going to make fun of me for casting Ewan.
Its going to be too personal, too narcissistic, all that.
Thats going to happen at some point.
I learned withThumbsucker, people attack filmmakers and film directors so much more than graphic designers and artists.
[laughs] Youre much more of a public figure.
Its like youre running for office or something, like youve invited it on some level.
I love it when Fellini does8 12.
I love it when Truffaut does400 Blows.These are the films I like.
Its all about memory, its very personal.
And thats what I love to watch.
So now, seven years later, I feel different.
Id be more nervous now, but then I was really in some sort of state.
Because you wear so many different hats as a creator as a designer, and so on.
Making features takes a long time, and its not like they eliminate the other things that you do.
In a weird way, they encourage them.
So Im going to do all of them, and I want to make films.
It was never a question of Am I going to make a second one?
Im not a big writer person, I dont come from writing.
And then this all happened.
When I was finishingThumbsucker, my dad passed away, and then I started writing it just after that.
But it wasnt that conscious.
Its not like… Im brave now!
or I am grief now!
I didnt know I was in a fuck it mentality, thats just where I was.
Do they complement each other?
As I was makingBeginners, I made videos, I did art shows, I did graphics.
And they all helped each other.
It takes like a few weeks to make a music video, a month.
And you’re free to do that when youre doing this it takes forever to make a film.
Especially that I went to art school, and I look at all these artists all the time.
Thats just fun for me.
I didnt go and see a movie, you know.
Shes at this bar, and theres a mirror behind her.
And the reflections the wrong perspective.
And the perspective in the mirror is wrong, its like the wrong camera angle.
So I was, like, how could you do that with a character in a film?
Show one perspective and another one, either visually, or just a perspective on a scene.
How can I show both those things?
So I had that little conversation in my head.
And thats how it works for me.
Theyre all one big blend.
Youre communicating with people.
Sometimes its with graphic things, sometimes its with film things.
Photography comes from painting, the language is shared.
And film comes from photography.
Those are the roots.
Do you find yourself influenced by music in the same way?
Thats the biggest thing for me, because its not what Im doing.
And it works on a more subliminal, emotional level.
WithBeginners, I felt like I rediscovered collage, and that way of putting things together.
MIA really has that big-time.
Im writing something now, and I really want to do that even more.
Mike Mills, thank you for your time!
Beginnerscomes out in UK cinemas on Friday.
it’s possible for you to follow Michael on Twitterhere, or read his bloghere.
