Something You Said Last Night Interview with Director Luis De Filippis

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to interview the director of Something You Said Last Night, Luis De Filippis.

The film tells the story from the point of view of Ren, a trans woman, as she struggles to balance her desire for independence and the comfort of being taken care of over the course of a vacation with her Canadian-Italian family to celebrate her father's birthday.

Watch the interview using the video player above, listen to the audio version below, or scroll down to read the transcribed interview.

If you're interested in seeing it, you can purchase tickets on The Quad's website or The Quad's website as a solo experience or paired with a Q&A.

If you can't make it to Los Angeles or New York, it'll be available digitally on October 3rd.

This interview was conducted during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, Something You Said Last Night wouldn't exist.

Austin: Hello, everyone and welcome. Today I am interviewing the director of something you said last night. And let me know if I get this pronunciation wrong because I often do just with everyone. Luis De Fillippis. Or is that wrong? Yeah. Okay. .

So she directed Something You Said Last Night.

It's based off of her short film For Nona Anna, I believe. It opens this week in New York at the Quad and then it expands to L. A. at the Culver Theater next week.

Luis De Filippis: Yeah. The 29th.

Austin: Yeah. The 29th. And I believe, let's see. What else? You won the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest this year.

Congratulations on that.

Luis De Filippis: Thank you.

Austin: So yeah, let's just get right into it. The first thing I noticed when putting this film on is... The look of it, specifically the cinematography, and I wanted to ask...a lot of people shoot on digital nowadays where, you use a Canon camera or something like that.

So how did you make the decision to shoot on film if you did that?

Luis De Filippis: So for me, it's really what I love about film is the process of it. I really love just. going through the day and not really knowing exactly what you have. You have an idea because you have like your digital monitor, but it never really replicates exactly what you're gonna ultimately get on film on 35.

And it also keeps the day moving because ultimately it's not Like digital, you can shoot endlessly. It's infinite, the amount of takes you can have, but with film you really have to know what you're looking for. You have to know what your priorities are in the scene. It's quite finite, everything is counted for, and you go into the process with a very clear vision and I think everyone on set is also going into the process with a very clear vision so everyone down to production design and costume and makeup.

They all know that the goal is to get every take every scene in one take. And just having that as a baseline, I think just I don't know, creates a really beautiful environment of just like camaraderie and teamwork. Cause we're all just like in it together. And we're all just we need to get this as soon as possible with the least amount of takes.

And I don't know, I just, I love that process.

Austin: Yeah. And there's also that thing of. When you if you're shooting on film, you have all these monitors that get the look exactly right, but, like you said, there's an uncertainty to it that's just oh, I hope we got it right, but I really hope but yeah, that's fun, but but yeah, it looks great. And surprisingly enough, I thought when when I noticed that it was on film, I w I thought there would be a lot more Oh, what do you call it? Not artifacting because that's the digital thing. But more the more sparkle stuff. I forget the technical term for it, but noise.

I thought there was going to be a lot more noise. Yeah, grain. Yeah.

Luis De Filippis: Yeah. We took out a lot of the grain to be honest. I didn't. I think both Norm and I, Norm the DP and I, were like aligned in that we didn't really want to show off that it was film or anything. Like a lot of people end up like putting grain back in to the image.

But we were pretty, I think, on the same page about being like, we don't want to show off that it's film. It should just feel slightly nostalgic. You could. You should feel like you're watching or like flipping through like a family album of like pictures that we're taking on a film, taking on a film camera.

But when you do that, like the film grain isn't necessarily like very apparent. Yeah, I'll just leave it there,

Austin: and I think that's a great transition to what this movie is about. It's about Ren and her family, an Italian Canadian family, I believe. Who go on, I believe it's a vacation to celebrate her father's birthday.

Yeah, and it's just all about the dynamics of that. And I don't know that was a nice, the film was a nice way to tie it back into that, photo album feeling that you were talking about. But talking about Ren let's talk about how did you find Carmen?

Luis De Filippis: Yeah. So we had initially been running like drama workshops and we were inviting girls like trans girls from the community to come take like these drama classes with us. And I was going to a lot of parties and drop ins and just like reaching out to a lot of people on Instagram. And we had done a couple of those, but I hadn't found anyone that had really like stung to me in the part.

And then a friend of mine came home from work one day and she was like, Oh, I found, I saw this girl. She came into my store. And I think this could be her. And then about a week later, me and Carmen met up. I had given her a scene to read without really giving her any context about the scene or any context with the film.

And she just like from the moment that she like opened her mouth, she like really understood that. The nuances of the scene. She understood, what was being left unsaid. She understood like the power of silence. And these are all things that she just gets as like a person, like she's not classically trained in any way.

This is her first movie. She just. She just got it. And I think it's this quality of hers, this quality that Carmen has where she doesn't really give her power away to anyone. She doesn't, she's not a people pleaser. She knows who she is. And I think that quality is like, it can't be taught. It can't be trained.

It's just something that you have. And it's something that Ren has and it's something that she has. And I think that's what makes her so magnetic in the part. Yeah. And

Austin: I think it really helps with, I made a note of. Every conversation feels like it's this boiling anger that no one wants to talk about until obviously it is talked about.

And I don't know. It's really unique that there's almost, my, I tell this story a lot, but my English teacher would tell us that books, their stories are like p. Walking outside like on a street and looking into somebody's window, a window of their lives.

So it was really entertaining in that way to just be like, here, you don't know anything about Ren or her family before going into it and you learn as the movie goes along. Yeah.

Luis De Filippis: It's. Yeah, you travel with them. You learn things as they learn things. Even down to like how we filmed it, like there were rules that Norm, the cinematographer, and I came up with.

You never, the camera never enters a room before Ren. The camera never moves unless she's moving. The camera, We were very specific about like when we would stay on her face and like experience things just through her reaction and through the sound design which Gina Keller was the sound designer and she just did an amazing job and building this like soundscape, but it was a lot of very specific and intentional.

Decisions as to like when we would see action and when we rather than when we were just here action and I think that just allows you to feel closer to run and feel like more invested in her world and more invested her perspective. Yeah.

Austin: And then, lastly, before we go. How do you hope the film will resonate with trans and queer audiences, as well as a general audiences like me.

Yeah, I

Luis De Filippis: mean, for trans people I hope. They watch it, and I hope maybe they see a piece of themselves in it. I hope they see a piece of their families in it. I also hope it inspires trans people to go out there and continue telling their own stories. I people always ask me what...

Do you hope for trans cinema or what do you hope for like trans stories and I always just say I just hope there's more of it like I hope there's more stories being told I hope there's more of us telling stories like I would love for someone to see this film, like a trans person to see this film and be like, I hated this film and this does not speak to me or my experience so I'm going to go out and make the antithesis of this film because that speaks to me and my experience and I'm like that's great like I want to see that film I want to see like trans people challenging this film.

And then in general, I hope people just walk away from, watching this film and they feel a little bit sun kissed and they feel a little bit, like they just went on a one week vacation with their family and they feel like both warm inside and maybe a little annoyed and ultimately feel like they have to go and call their mom.

Austin: Yeah Andrew, call your mom especially on birthdays. And then that made me think of two things recommendations from Tribeca. So whenever they come out you should check them out. There was a documentary I might have to message this because I don't know if it's out yet. But there is Break the Game, which is talking about I don't know if you saw it, but it's a trans Twitch streamer who would do game speedruns.

And then there was the film with Billy Porter that was at Tribeca. I forget what it was. But yeah I'll send you that. Go check that out. I'll, I'm sure I'll think of it as soon as we get off this interview.

Luis De Filippis: Okay. I wrote them both down. So…

Austin: Our Son, that's the name of it.

Yeah. So whenever those come out I don't know when they're coming out. I don't think they got distribution yet, but Definitely go check them out. But with that said Louise thank you so much for taking the time out of your Wednesday to come and talk with me. And I hope that people, if you're in New York or L.

Austin: go and see it either this week at the Quad in New York or next week on the 29th at the Culver Theater.

Luis De Filippis: And then we'll also, the film will be available on Apple, like iTunes and Amazon starting October 3rd. Oh, nice!

Austin: That's actually a really good time frame, because that's yeah that's about when I start week yearly wrap up, oh, cool! Yeah, so I hope people check it out I'll have a review up sometime this week. But yeah, thank you again, Luis.

Luis De Filippis: Thank you, Austin. It was nice to talk to you.

Yeah, same.

Thanks to Ambula Bula, Brian Skuttle, Joseph Davis of ⁠SiftPop⁠, Matthew Simpson of ⁠Awesome Friday⁠, and Thom Blackburn⁠⁠⁠ for supporting Austin B Media on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠!

Until next time!