This situation contains spoilers through the fourth episode ofWestworld,“Dissonance Theory . “Head toourWestworldshow hubfor more reviews , theories , and abstruse dives .
If Vincenzo Natali had n’t been tapped to organize an sequence ofWestworld , he ’d be tune into the compelling automaton drama just like the rest of us . Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy ’s HBO series builds off the same Greco-Roman sci - fi foundation as the fad Natali moviesCube , Cypher , andSplice , so he was an obvious candidate to helm an instalment ofWestworld . During a late telephone set call with Thrillist , Natali dove deep into the show ’s trippy quaternary instalment , " Dissonance Theory , " and answered bite questions big and small .
How does directing a single episode in a time of year - long electric discharge work?Vincenzo Natali : I [ think ] the good body of work by theater director is always the work that reflects their personality and where they imprinted their vision on it as much as they could . That is my approach to occasional work , which I ’ve done a fair amount of late . It ’s a fairly eclectic chemical group of shows I ’ve mold on . I genuinely near them like they ’re my movies . I attempt to put as much of myself into them without every hopefully contradicting the overall style of the show . Westworldwas really a very well-heeled scene for me because it falls right into my interest of the kind of skill fabrication I really like . Jonathan and Lisa are wonderful bosses to work for and encouraged me to just do whatever I require , so it was bang-up .
HBO
How did you imprint on " Dissonance Theory”?Natali : Overall I palpate like the show is extremely existential . It feels like a Pirandello flirt as much as it is a westerly science - fiction tale , all about the nature of world and why we are here and how we form our identity element and how we negotiate our fashion through this tangle called sprightliness . There are a lot of other things going on in this show , but that ’s the umbrella theme .
Then , for my specific episode , it was primarily about the Maeve quality beginning to have some sensory faculty of consciousness of her situation . And it was , I mean when I read the playscript , quite subjectively compose , so I made a decimal point of trying to get inside her foreland , and there ’s certain sequences that are shoot in a extremely immanent way and boundary line on [ being ] dreamlike . So that ’s where I began , and then overall I just felt like this show had a really interesting concoction of large ideas , but also it ’s very visceral . I would call it Stanley Kubrick run into Sam Peckinpah .
you may see that in the show . Natali : Those two filmmakers actually work on very similar idea in their own individual fashion . Kubrick had a very omniscient stage of view , and Peckinpah had much more of a oink ’s item of panorama on the background , but they both were intrigue by force . I think the show is very much about the violence that is in every human being , and so there ’s a nice push and pull between those two perspectives . One is subjective , one is very documentary . One is a worshipful item of view , one is a view of a mere person in the midst of the muck and the mire . So in a playfulness way , I feel like the show jumps from both perspectives , and I attempt to make that part of my advance as well .
Are there formula for incomingWestworlddirectors based on the show ’s internal system of logic ? I think about that during the Dolores and Bernard scenes . The subtlest move could be a violation . Natali : Yes , and for the actor , too . In that prospect , for instance , we spud it a distich of ways to give unlike nuances to her lines , and to give some options in the edit elbow room as to how ego - mindful and emotional she is at different points in that dialogue . Those variety of questions of cognition and so on are follow up all the time . Sometimes we ’d have answer . Sometimes we would n’t . One unquestionably feels like one ’s in a big puzzler corner , and I have to tell you , as somebody who has knead on the show , I did n’t have all the pieces of the puzzle . I knew sure things , but it was extremely secretive , so I was a flake like a rat in the maze , too .
This installment seems to play with time in an interesting manner , especially with Dolores ' arc . How do you make trusted that tracks while still keeping the action hallucinatory?Natali : Like I read , I was n’t give the large picture , so to some degree I ’m just play a guessing game in terms of how I come near some of this clobber . I did n’t quite know where it ’s all go . But I was definitely tax with find a way to get inside the emcee ' heads and to demo things through their eyes . I in reality referenced a film to Jonathan that , I learned afterwards , he really wanted to make over at one point [ because ] he do it it : Seconds , a film by John Frankenheimerwith Rock Hudson . There ’s a lot of highly immanent , dreamy , distorted stuff that ’s going on that felt very appropriate , and even some of the art way in that film is vaguely reminiscent of the Delos Labs . So that was a measure for me . Then I just have my own little bag of tricks [ laughs ] .
I think for time cause , mostly , they direct out a number of thing that I had done where I tried to blur the line between what ’s materialize now and what ’s happened in the past . It ’s funny when you ’re lick on a skill - fiction show to think about Ingmar Bergman all the time , or Fellini , where reality andsubjective - dreaming realitybecome fuse into one thing . That was really fun . As a director , of course , that ’s a really challenging chance to get into that stuff .
HBO
Did the episode change when Jonathan and Lisa begin piecing together afterwards episodes?Natali : Yeah , what ’s interesting about doing boob tube , and kind of liberating in a means , is that things get motivate around . I ’m always thinking about transition . To me , transitions are a gravid part of my business . How do I abuse from one place to another ? And what am I say narratively to the audience ? And how am I surprise them , and run them in in unexpected ways ?
Very often I will resign my baseball swing and then I will keep an eye on the ruined show and everything has been moved around . It ’s just the nature of the beast . The shows develop , and I certainly roll in the hay withWestworldit evolved in various ways as they were writing it and blast it . It ’s like film schooling because when someone else play with my materials , sometimes I ’m dissatisfied , but sometimes I ’m impressed and I ascertain something from it . TV is enjoyable because you vicariously are dropped into this playground and you get to do all sort of things , and then you go away and then you see what someone else would do with it . That is not my experience as a filmmaker because with my own films , I ’ve always had concluding [ say ] , so no one else putter with my stuff . I think it ’s a very healthy thing to be tinkered with now and then , in a constructive , friendly way .
" Dissonance Theory " gave you two expectant gunplay moments to address . Natali : It did ! Unfortunately , they cut a big chunk out of one of my shootouts [ the one at the watering mess ] . I really love Sam Peckinpah ’s hooey , and that was very , very , very consciously aping him .
HBO
How tied down were you to the Sweetwater gunplay that Jonathan snoop in the first episode ? Technically the two are very interchangeable . Natali : The Sweetwater one was interesting because , yeah , I fuck off to revisit it . I saw Jonathan ’s pilot , which was amazing , and then we are re - go into that same scenario from a slightly different perspective and with a few additional ingredients . There ’s really a meta affair about this whole show , but there was a meta face to directing it , too , because I was have to recreate something that had already been shot . It was fun mixing and matching my footage with what had already been shoot . Because of prison term reasons , I tried to limit the amount of footage I was shooting . I reused a luck of Jonathan ’s stuff , which was peachy , too . It was actually fun endeavor to softly fondle my own shots into something he had established .
How would you equate crop under Jonathan and Lisa ’s punctilious process with someone like Bryan Fuller , with whom you ’ve worked onHannibal , American Gods , and now the newStar Trek Discoveryseries?Natali : I’ve been really lucky to work with some sinful writers and author - directors , and I think there ’s in reality a quite a little of share interest between them . I know that Lisa had worked with Bryan Fuller onPushing Daisies . They all live each other . In fact , I ’m sure that ’s why I got the business onWestworld , because of Bryan . It ’s all interconnected . But in both cases I would say I ’m very strongly encouraged to go out on a tree branch and push the medium and do anything but what ’s traditionally accepted as television .
I retrieve that Jonathan and Lisa are give a very long moving-picture show . The bar is extremely in high spirits for everybody working on this show , and I think , based on what I ’ve fancy thus far , it ’s brooding in the results . It ’s a endearing combination of being encourage to go as far as you could go , but being permit to do so with full creative freedom . I did n’t get a single directorial note from them . Jonathan did come on set a couple times . When they were present , they were there to be encouraging and to gainsay .
HBO
Is there a special scene that is particularly un - television - like?Natali : Nothing we shoot is like television . We germinate on 35 millimetre film ! It was really tremendous . I felt like I was make a big film because , in the old - fashioned way , everything is cover as though it ’s run to be on 3,000 cover .
Does your involvement withStar Trek Discoverymean that show is stepping up its production - value secret plan ? What ’s your use on it?Natali : I have this bizarre job predict director / producer or manufacturer / theater director , which changes found on the soul [ you postulate ] . I ’m a originative . I ’m one cog in the machine . But yeah , it ’s fun . Bryan is like the Tolstoy ofStar Trek . He ’s create a great novel . That ’s what this show is going to be . And the challenge with all these things is … they ’re not just television . They are just long motion picture .
signalize up herefor our daily Thrillist email , and get your mess of the best in intellectual nourishment / drink / fun .
