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The cast of the surreal family drama might boast Oscars, Golden Globes and Emmys, but it’s the Swedish director’s interruptive storytelling that’s turning the most heads.
Words ANDREW WRIGHT
Assembling a cast encompassing Ellen Burstyn, Ewan McGregor, Taylor Russell, Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle for one’s debut feature film might seem like absurdity in its highest octave. Let’s face it, bagging just one, is in the unreachable bracket for most filmmakers. But, with Mother, Couch, 33-year-old Niclas Larsson does the former, recruiting the decorated cohort of industry heavyweights for his existential tale of a family in disarray.
The unorthodox resides well in Mother, Couch, however. Larsson’s extension of 2020 Swedish novel Mamma i soffa is built on a simple premise – Ellen Burstyn’s elderly matriarch character has sat herself on a dilapidated furniture store’s display couch and is refusing to leave – but deals in bewilderment and the surreal thereafter. Led by her frazzled son David (McGregor) and his siblings Gruffudd (Ifans) and Linda (Boyle), the fractured trio’s efforts to entice their mother home make for an immersive, labyrinthine 96 minutes of storytelling that swallows you whole and spits you back out. Its disorientating effect on viewers has divided critics, but is exactly what Larsson intended – ”What [the critics] fail to register is that it is a creative choice to feel as confused as our lead [David],” Larsson tells us below. "Good cinema takes longer to digest and longer to like.”
Below, he dissects the build-up to his debut feature, nourishing his star-studded cast with a home-cooked weekly dinner, his parent’s thoughts on his account of familial disharmony and the unvarnished flair of McGregor…
Hi Niclas! What’s your favourite piece of furniture that you own?
Starting off hot! I like it! Truth is, there’s currently a war within my family regarding a Bamse Stol I inherited from my grandmother a few years ago. I don’t particularly like the chair, but what I like is that it disrupted my family and shines a light on familial greed. It’s just a bloody chair! That’s what things do to us though.
Congratulations on Mother, Couch. We loved it! We’re a few days past release, it’s your debut feature film – can you sum up what you’re feeling right now?
Thank you! It’s certainly not for everybody… I’m feeling really good about it all! I mean, it’s too bad the critics aren’t on my side, but I’ve been travelling with the film for a year now and I know this movie has meant a lot, for a lot of people. Just the other day this 12-year-old boy - whoever let him into the theatre is questionable – told me he wanted to become a director after watching the film. I mean, that’s that… that’s all. 0% on RT couldn’t take that away from me or him.
The project draws on the Jerker Virdborg novel Mamma i soffa. What was the starting point of your relationship with that story? Why did this plot feel like the right one to commit to your debut feature?
I was as bored during the pandemic as we all were. And scared about my future, the future in general and naturally wasthinking about death a lot. Then Jerker’s book comes along. I read the first 10 pages and knew it would make a great movie. I stopped right there and wrote the screenplay. It wasn’t until I was finished writing the screenplay I finished reading the book. I kind of wanted my own take on the metaphor.
Plot aside, why did now feel like the right time to make a feature? Did you find it was a wholly different beast to tackle than previous projects or was there familiarity?
I was certain I was going to make some Swedish films before Mother, Couch. I’ve written a bunch of Swedish scripts but no one seemed to find them as good as I thought they were and taking a script to Hollywood was truthfully not the plan, that sort of just happened, and frankly, nothing can really prepare you enough on how you tackle a beast like Hollywood. It’s work, a lot of work – an emotional heavyweight fight. My friend Spike told me “Try to stay on the track, your track, because people will successfully pull you in all kinds of directions.” So I listened to that and did that as much as I could. Also, thank god I had producer Sara Murphy on my side. Without her, I would never have been able to survive it all.
For the many new fans this film will win you – can you unpack how your journey in film began and took you to this moment?
I suppose I’m suffering from some sort of delusional hubris where I think I can do this, because the truth is, I’ve always thought I could do this and I’ve always wanted to do this, and I’ve kinda always done this. I started directing and writing shorts, mostly horror films when I was about 10. I was acting in everything you could act in, I was helping friends edit and write and direct their own shorts and eventually I sort of figured I was kind of good at it. I suppose it comes down tohow much you want to do it because it’s certainly not for everybody. I guess praise from people I looked up to helped keep me going. I’ll never forget the first time I worked with Jeff Cronenweth and he wrote me a text after our shoot comparing me to [David] Fincher. That was a big deal. I was 24, I think. Stuff like that eventually pushed me to throw myself out there. Working with people I admire has been vastly important and beneficial to my career so far.
Assembling this cast for a debut feature film would be beyond the wildest dreams of any director – can you paint the picture of how it came together? Who signed on first? Did it exceed your expectations?
It’s funny because naturally as a director you are obsessed with actors, but as a first-timer you don’t really dare to think you’re going to work with the best of the best, but really, this is what I wanted when I wrote Mother, Couch. I was lucky to have people around me who these great actors trusted because that’s really all of it, someone vouching for you, telling these great people that they should take the time and read this script, which they did, fast too. I think Ewan was attached within two weeks after we sent it to him. Then along came Ellen. Ellen needed more persuasion though. She’s a method actor, so for her, it’s important to ask herself why she wants to do it, and if she can carry this horrendous character for such a long period of time. I couldn’t be more grateful. They’ve all taught me so much! Literally stuff no film school could ever teach you.
The intricacies and dysfunction intrinsic to many familial dynamics are centre stage in the project. Has your own family seen the film? What did they think?
[Laughs] Not many journalists dare to ask this question, but yes, they have seen it and I think they have a hard timeunderstanding it. And that’s okay. My parents are very simple and blissfully ordinary, my dad likes clean-cut thrillers, and my mother likes Bridget Jones. My family as a whole are more complex, with loads of trauma like most families, I suppose. I suppose the only family member that truly got it was my younger sister. She got it all. Of course.
Have other cultural representations of the complex nature of family resonated with you? If so, what were they?
I’m Swedish, and the film is truly Swedish at its core, culturally. Swedes don’t talk until it’s too late. We hide stuff, rather than share stuff. That’s what Mother’s been doing her entire life. Her kids are the result of her not telling people (men) what she actually wanted.
What was downtime like in between shooting? I have visions of some monumental cast dinners!
I’m a pretty good chef! Truth is, I cooked for the cast and crew every Sunday during the shoot. It was an open house, everybody was invited and this sort of became a really nice gentle preparation for the coming week.
The film feels like Ewan McGregor at his best. What did you learn from having him lead your film? Was there a moment on set that epitomised, for you, why he was the man for the job?
Thank you! That means a lot! You should tell him. The thing is I loved him in Beginners. He does ordinary extraordinarily well. I wanted David to be this middleman, pale, suit-wearing type and the family around him all be eccentrics to paint his character as someone missing out on life, or someone always going down the safe route in life. Ewan does that best in the world. Suppose you’d have to ask him, but we had a blast on set. I think it comes down to trust. I told him early on that I’m the first [to tell the truth] and I promise not to move on until I think you’re at your best. That’s exhausting for an actor to hear but also reassuring. I mean, you probably wouldn’t believe it, but Ewan’s big break-down scene on the parking lot I only did twice, however some rather mundane and simple stuff I had him do 33 times.
There’s been a range of reactions to the film – from reading other interviews with you, you don’t seem phased by criticism. Have you always found it easy to trust your own vision and instincts?
Well, truth is, I am a little frazzled by all these boys, all of them men actually, not giving the film the thought I think a critic’s job essentially is. They shrug it off as “confusing” or “underwritten” but what they fail to register is that it is a creative choice to feel as confused as our lead character. I understand that can be annoying, but real cinema shouldn’t be instantly liked or understood. Good cinema takes longer to digest and longer to like. I’m aware I took a big swing but at least I took a swing in this utterly saturated market we’re currently in. Everything is so freaking safe. I think it’s an artist's job not to be safe.
Mother, Couch’s ending could prove head-scratching amongst some audience members. What did you want people to feel by the time they reached the final scene?
Mother, Couch has two endings. The big dramatic ending is obviously when David finally manages to let go of his narcissistic mother, however, the real ending of the movie is the reunion with his siblings. His lost siblings. When I write main characters I always ask myself what they know and what they don’t know they want. David finally realises that he wants to let his mother go, but he ultimately discovers that he actually wants to be in touch with his siblings. The dirty couch at the very end represents the work they need to do together. Trauma is not over until you do the work. That end sequence is the start of that work.
Looking ahead – when you envision your life down the line, as a veteran film-maker with many more features under your belt – what do you see? What would be a marker of achieving what you hoped to as an artist?
I hope I’m someone who can represent thought. These are what all my heroes represent as well. Grounded stories, often elevated into a metaphorical space, but absolutely real. One of my heroes, Sidney Pollack, did that for me. The Swimmer and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? are two of the most profound and important stories ever told about humanity. I hope I manage to do that for future cinephiles or humanity as a whole. We are essentially creatures of thought.
Mother, Couch is out in US theatres now
PhotographyJac Martinez
