LFF: Lili Horvát on My Notes on Mars & working with Mackenzie Davis
After establishing herself as a director to watch with her Hungarian films The Wednesday Child and Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, Hungarian filmmaker Lili Horvát makes her English-language debut with My Notes on Mars.
Starring Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend, the domestic drama follows a talented scientist who goes missing and mysteriously returns without her memories, except for her recent research on Mars.
During the BFI’s Filmmaker Afternoon Teas event at the London Film Festival, I had the pleasure of chatting to Horvát about her third feature, which she shot last summer.
Speaking of Mackenzie Davis, how did she get involved in your movie?
Well, we’ve known each other a couple of years. We already met once over Zoom, and we were… I always admired her as an actor, and I know that she loved my previous movie, and so we were discussing once that it would be great to do something together, but, you know, with these general meetings, most of them never lead anywhere. But in this case, when I offered her this role, and then she accepted, it was really a dream come true, and I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing this part.
When you wrote your script, did you have her in mind?
No, I usually… Yeah, sometimes I think about actors when I’m writing, but they keep changing in my mind while I’m developing it, and I think it’s good when a project becomes its own thing.
And how long ago did you start writing the script?
The first idea, I had in (20)21, so it’s been quite a long process. Also, it’s my English-language debut, and we were facing some challenges in financing, in Hungary especially, but now it’s all good for me.
How did you find directing in English rather than Hungarian? Was there any difference?
Of course, because you cannot use your mother tongue, and it creates, of course, a frustration that you cannot express yourself fully. But otherwise I came well prepared, and I’m quite comfortable with the English language. There’s an interesting thing that Mackenzie told me once while we were shooting: she feels that she pays even more attention… because she wants to understand exactly what I mean, which, yeah, it has its own advantages.
Yeah, I guess like giving the actors notes in English rather than Hungarian.
Yes, but otherwise we communicated so smoothly. The language barrier was not an issue.
How many days did you have?
29, which I know that in Hollywood that’s a lot, and people shoot very good movies in insanely little time, I know that, but in Hungary we usually shoot for an average feature film like 35, 40 days. That’s a third feature; I shot around 35-ish days in both (previous) cases, so that was quite a challenge for me. We shot this film on celluloid, so 35 millimetres, and we had very little material because of budget considerations, so we did like two, three takes max of each (scene), and that was it.
Mackenzie and Rupert, we had a wonderful rehearsal week ahead of the shoot, and I worked with my – because we shot the film largely in Hungary and Austria – and I worked with colleagues from my previous features, so we are a close-knit team that makes it work.
When you think back to 2021, what was the initial idea that became My Notes on Mars?
The first idea was that I had a woman who goes missing in an accident, suddenly miraculously reappears the day of her own memorial service, and there she mistakes another man for her husband; that was the sprout of an idea, from which I would start developing the story.
And where did the sci-fi angle come in?
It’s hard to tell, but Mars was in there, already in the initial treatment, and it’s not like I developed the marriage story and then I poured a bit of sci-fi sauce on it. The two layers developed very organically together.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
My Notes on Mars is showing at the London Film Festival. No release date yet