Half low-budget DIY theatre, half “Frankenstein,” half Kenneth Anger, and but wholly its personal creation, writer-director-star Grace Glowicki’s sophomore movie, the expressionistic romantic horror comedy “Lifeless Lover,” is able to educate you tips on how to let go. The movie stars Glowicki as a lonely, ostracized gravedigger who lastly meets the love of her life, solely to have their affair finish abruptly after he drowns at sea. Heartbroken, the gravedigger makes an attempt to resurrect her, um lifeless lover, by a sequence of scientific experiments involving lizards and a corpse. The result’s a particularly foolish, but melancholic, examination of the lengths we go to carry on to our family members.
Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Glowicki moved to Toronto after graduating from McGill College. In Toronto, she started performing in indie movies like Rebecca Addelman’s “Paper 12 months,” Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley’s “Strawberry Mansion,” Mary Dauterman’s “Booger,” and Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli’s “Honey Bunch.” In 2016, she received a particular jury award at 2016 Sundance Movie Pageant for her efficiency in Ben Petrie’s “Her Good friend Adam.” That very same 12 months she was named a rising star by the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant. Her debut function as a director, “Tito,” which was shot in simply seven days, premiered on the 2019 SXSW Movie Pageant the place it received the Adam Yauch Hornblower Award for its distinctive imaginative and prescient. Glowicki’s singular efficiency within the movie was later dubbed by The New Yorker‘s Richard Brody as “an instantaneous traditional of performing.”
In 2020, Glowicki acquired a grant from Telefilm to develop her second movie, “Lifeless Lover.” A very collaborative effort, she conceived of the movie’s absurdist idea whereas brainstorming with a gaggle of mates, then re-teamed along with her artistic and life companion Ben Petrie to jot down the movie’s script. Petrie additionally seems within the movie, together with Leah Doz and Lowen Morrow, with all three enjoying a number of roles. Shot over the course of sixteen days by acclaimed Métis filmmaker Rhayne Vermette, who filmed on 16mm utilizing an Arri SR3 and Bolex, the comedy takes the premise “how far would you go to deliver again the love of your life?” to its most absurd extremes. The movie premiered on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant as a part of the Midnight choice. Writing out of its world premiere, Robert Daniels referred to as it “a loony, delirious darkish romantic movie with a hand-crafted high quality.” “Lifeless Lover” went on to display at a myriad of festivals across the globe, together with at SXSW, Rotterdam, and as a part of the Midnight Insanity program eventually 12 months’s Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant.
For this month’s Feminine Filmmakers in Focus column, RogerEbert.com spoke to Glowicki over Zoom about chasing the excessive of creating your pals snigger, the thrill of DIY filmmaking, embracing errors, the comedian genius of Lina Wertmüller, and the way arts funding in Canada has helped a brand new wave of idiosyncratic filmmakers discover their voice.
There was one thing fallacious with my preliminary screener and it didn’t have the dialogue audio, simply the music, so I assumed at first you had made a silent movie. It labored properly, till I noticed it wasn’t imagined to be a silent movie. (laughs)
The composer, Meg Remy (aka U.S. Women) truly did that as an train when she was writing the rating. She watched the entire movie silently, and he or she mentioned the identical factor to me. She was like, “It really works as a silent movie, bro.”
It completely does. I used to be following it. I used to be in it.
I like that.
You’re a part of that wave of filmmakers who’re all about getting a gaggle of mates collectively and DIY making a movie. I’d love to listen to your ethos of making from that place.
There’s one thing particular about working with mates. Making motion pictures is so laborious, so it’s nice if you are able to do it with folks you’re keen on. My complete factor is I’m chasing this excessive you get from while you’re making one thing with somebody and also you’re simply attempting to make one another giggle. That, for me, that’s like a drug and I’m hooked on it. Like while you see actors break on “SNL”. No matter that’s, I’m chasing it. So, I like to tug collectively individuals who I feel are actually humorous and actually good, after which simply construct a world collectively. That’s my favourite factor to do. I simply attempt to maintain doing that.
You’ve mentioned this movie got here out of you riffing with a gaggle of mates and touchdown on constructing a world round a gravedigger. What did you discover so fascinating a few gravedigger?
I feel it was as a result of after I considered gravediggers, I nearly couldn’t consider a lady gravedigger. I assumed that was so attention-grabbing that my creativeness couldn’t even image what that will appear like. And that was an indication to myself that that was an attention-grabbing concept, to have a feminine gravedigger. Then, after all, the extra you consider the thematics of a gravedigger, it’s like girls may give beginning, they’ve their intervals, there’s all this blood, there’s all this dying that’s taking place inside them cyclically each month, and so, we’re nearer to dying than males in a roundabout way. So it was attention-grabbing to consider a lady occupying this area.
Your movie opens with a Mary Shelley quote, and the movie is a little bit of a riff on Frankenstein, but it surely’s not a pure adaptation. In the previous couple of weeks, there’s been a whole lot of dialogue about what’s a pure adaptation, and whether or not you’re allowed to assert the work as an inspiration if it’s too far eliminated. I’d love to listen to your ideas on the affect Frankenstein had on this movie, and the way it got here in, what you took, and what you left, and so on.
For some time, I used to be embarrassed to confess that I’ve truly by no means learn Frankenstein. However I used to be okay with that, as a result of I used to be inquisitive about the truth that everybody is aware of Frankenstein as a narrative and an idea; it’s baked into popular culture, and I’ve been inundated since I used to be little with all these totally different interpretations of Frankenstein and receiving all this totally different messaging of what this story was. I assumed that that was a cool vantage level from which to make a Frankenstein story; a Frankenstein riff from all these totally different tidbits that I’d soaked up simply from being alive on this second of time. In order that was my method.
The film truly revealed itself to be a Frankenstein film later within the course of. I undoubtedly didn’t got down to make a Frankenstein film, but it surely got here from this core character trait of anyone who, even within the face of dying, can’t let one thing go, can’t let somebody go. So it nearly got here from extra of a “Re-Animator” place at first, however then it clicked into Frankenstein, which I feel simply goes to indicate you that that story has some fairly timeless themes in it which are nonetheless related right now, and are related even when you haven’t learn the supply materials.
I like what you mentioned about being obsessive about one thing and simply not having the ability to let it go. And that is probably the most excessive model of that. Your movie could be very comedic, but it surely has an undercurrent of melancholy to it that I discovered very transferring, regardless of the silliness. Are you able to discuss a bit about that melancholic throughline?
The film comes from working by my very own anxious attachment fashion, primarily. So the film truly comes from an actual place in my coronary heart. I wish to take little issues I’m engaged on and enlarge them and exaggerate them, to essentially have a look at them. So after all, I’m not just like the character of Gravedigger. I wouldn’t reanimate a lifeless cherished one. However, I relate to her in that I’ve felt that feeling while you really feel somebody pulling away from you, and also you need to grasp them, and also you need to maintain them, and also you need to management them and maintain them near you, and also you don’t need them to go away. That’s the emotional core of this film. The ethical of the film is, when you find it irresistible, let it go. After all, Gravedigger doesn’t know the way to try this, in order that’s why she has a tragic finish.
To your level about it being related to what’s happening right now. I truly simply learn an article about dying bots.
What are these?
They’re chat bots the place you add audio that you’ve of a cherished one, or earlier than you die you’ll be able to add it your self on your family members, after which folks can “discuss” to their family members without end. I discovered that deeply disturbing.
That’s like a Cronenberg film. It’s like “The Shrouds.”
I learn that piece proper after I watched your movie, and I used to be like, I don’t suppose this ends properly.
No, I don’t suppose so both.
Your movie is known as a four-person present with so many alternative folks enjoying totally different characters. How did you develop the characters for every particular person? What was that course of like?
It was so cool to observe folks play a number of characters. It comes from my love of seeing comedy troops do this on SNL and Monty Python. There’s such pleasure in a single actor enjoying a number of totally different roles, or a small group performing a world of characters. It was very enjoyable.
The rehearsal course of actually bonded us as a comedy troupe. All of us performed every of the totally different characters, so throughout the rehearsal course of we weren’t hooked up to a particular character. So Ben (Petrie) would play Gravedigger, I’d play Gravedigger, Leah (Doz) would play Lover, Ben would play Lover, and we might cycle by all of the characters in effort to develop them as a group as a substitute of as people. I feel it broke what in a traditional film is a territorialism and an ego identification between an actor and a personality; it allowed the world to be ours as a group. That was fantastic for getting principally 4 brains to inhabit a personality and see what they noticed by the eyes of that character. It was fantastic for growth. Then, after we bought nearer to the shoot, I simply requested the actors which characters they had been gravitating in the direction of probably the most. And certain sufficient, all of them picked totally different characters. Nobody was competing for a similar character. It simply naturally fell into place.
The manufacturing design and make-up and costumes are so essential to the creation of who these characters are and the world they inhabit. Are you able to discuss a bit about collaborating along with your artisans on that?
The manufacturing designer was Becca Morrin, who additionally did “Strawberry Mansion” as properly. I had labored along with her on that and noticed her make these incredible worlds typically simply utilizing painted cardboard or recycled milk jugs. Watching her take no matter materials she had entry to and switch them into these expressive DIY landscapes was wonderful. So I knew working on this approach, on “Lifeless Lover,” she could be excellent to create the world with so little. I actually didn’t need to have any background on set. I wished every thing to fall into blackness, like it could in a black field theater. She completely ran with it and nailed the DIY theater aesthetic.
The cinematographer, Rhayne Vermette, is an awfully proficient girl. I had seen her movie “St. Anne.” A few of her pictures in that film, and her use of shade to mild characters, and the best way she used darkness. . . I simply thought, “Oh, my God, this girl is simply portray with mild and darkness.” So when she agreed to do the film, I knew the mix of her and Becca would completely elevate this concept I had for making a stripped again theater film. They nailed it.
I feel everybody who labored on the film was fairly excited, as a result of we might go so massive and so expressive. Most of us in movie are used to working in a sensible area, however I’m massive on imperfections, too. So we stored saying continuity is for losers. You couldn’t make a mistake, in a approach, as a result of the errors had been welcomed and the cracks and the veneers had been welcomed.
Have been there any lo-fi movies you seemed to as a reference, or had been you simply purely translating your expertise in theatre to movie?
It’s largely my expertise in theatre, however then retroactively, I’d watch Kenneth Anger movies and spot some similarities there, and, after all, Rhayne’s movies. I feel a part of it’s, as an actor, I wrestle with continuity, and I wrestle with being constant. So it’s in some methods, a revolt towards the strain I really feel in different folks’s movies to keep up some sort of consistency, after which I can promote it as a acutely aware celebration of imperfections and cracks, but additionally efficiency itself.
I’m not terribly inquisitive about attempting to create an ideal phantasm of realism. I don’t discover that tremendous attention-grabbing as an actor or a filmmaker. It’s why I like Nicolas Cage. I like when individuals are massive and inconsistent. We’ve been studying Sam Shepard performs, and people characters usually swap into one another and out of one another. There’s one thing so cool in regards to the spontaneity of that that I favor, I assume.
It looks like there’s this complete era of thirty-something Canadians making very expressive, idiosyncratic cinema. I ponder when you really feel as when you’re a gaggle working in a category, or when you’re all impartial, however someway it’s coming collectively from an outsider perspective, like a category of filmmakers?
I don’t know why precisely it’s taking place. I like Matthew (Rankin)’s work. He’s been actually supportive of my work. I feel Man Maddin coming from Winnipeg, and each Rhayne and Matthew coming from Winnipeg, and me hiring these Winnipeg folks to come back make this film. There’s one thing in regards to the custom round Winnipeg and movie and Man Maddin that I’m certain is a part of it. However I additionally suppose it’s as a result of the Canadian authorities is wonderful at funding filmmakers to make these initiatives. I feel there’s area for us to be a bit of extra expressive, as a result of we’re getting help from these arts councils and Telefilm to make these cultural artwork initiatives. I feel that’s a part of why these voices are in a position to emerge with a lot creative freedom. It’s an enormous testomony to the federal government.
I’d love to listen to your ideas on how the restrictions of low funds filmmaking impacts your artistic course of.
The primary movie I made, “Tito,” I made in seven days. I stored desirous to make it in 4 days, however everybody mentioned no, you want no less than seven days. I nonetheless need to make a 4 day function, as a result of there’s simply one thing so thrilling about placing your self inside limitations. You’re trapped and you must discover your approach out. What are the ideas and the concepts and creativity that may come from these restrictions? It tantalizes me. When you are able to do completely something, you simply find yourself doing nothing in any respect.
Liking restrictions has been so useful for me within the context of indie movie. That first function that I shot, I couldn’t get any cash from anyplace. I needed to cobble collectively, I feel it was $12,000 from my filmmaker mates to shoot that film. We shot it with simply two folks in a home. Being inquisitive about working inside restrictions has allowed me to proceed as an indie filmmaker and to slowly climb my approach up. As a result of, you do begin with nothing, so that’s the final restriction. I at all times say I’d identical to to have rails. If I do know what my rails are, then I’m good. If I really feel like I don’t have rails as an actor or filmmaker, I are likely to panic.
So my intention for “Lifeless Lover,” was you can’t make a mistake, and if it’s enjoyable, that’s what we have now to comply with. My restriction for this movie was that I wished to be collaborative and to have enjoyable and to show to myself that we might have a extremely good time making a film, and that will be value one thing. Additionally, after all having no background on the set and taking pictures on 16mm with little or no cash was additionally a restriction for me and the actors. Restriction was actually baked into the ethos of this movie.
Filming on 16mm means you’ll be able to’t simply shoot protection and name it good. It’s a must to be actually intentional along with your pictures. Taking pictures on 16mm can typically seem to be simply an aesthetic selection, however I feel right here it was actually a world constructing selection and an inventive selection that enables for precision, not essentially perfection, however precision in your filmmaking.
We determined to work with out a monitor too. So we had been taking pictures the film blind. We needed to belief one another. That was one other restriction. We needed to simply belief one another, belief our eyes on the day. I needed to belief when Rhayne mentioned she had one thing good framed and I didn’t have time to take a look at it. That restriction was so fantastic for throwing us again to a approach of filmmaking that used to exist earlier than displays had been invented, the place folks did simply must tacitly and bodily really feel issues out, and it bonds the crew in an attention-grabbing approach, and focuses everybody in an attention-grabbing approach. I like stuff like that.
Have been there another girls who make movies who’ve both influenced you up to now, the current, no matter, or if there’s just a few movie directed by girls that you simply actually love and also you want to shout it out so folks watch it?
The poster that hangs above my desk is the poster for Věra Chytilová’s “Daisies.”
The best.
I’m additionally obsessive about Lina Wertmüller. “Swept Away” is considered one of my favourite motion pictures ever. She’s so, so, so wonderful. So these two are coming to thoughts.
I like Lina Wertmüller. “Love and Anarchy” is my favourite of hers.
These two Italian actors she at all times labored with, Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato, had been so good. I actually love these motion pictures.
I can really feel Lina Wertmüller in your comedy, truly, as a result of every thing she does is a bit of heightened, a bit of ridiculous.
Yeah, her characters are full fledged, like clowns.
That’s why I like asking that query, as a result of, I wouldn’t instantly see it, however you then say it now I can see it. I’ve to rewatch “Lifeless Lover” and take into consideration Lina Wertmüller.
I like that you simply see it. That’s an enormous praise.
Lina Wertmüller, I really feel like, as a filmmaker was so influential for therefore lengthy and has been a bit of bit forgotten now. I feel as a result of her movies are tougher to entry. It heartens me to listen to when folks point out her movies, as a result of she’s one of many biggest.
Yeah, she’s wonderful. She was the primary girl to direct a movie nominated for Greatest Image, which is fairly wonderful.
Her movie “Seven Beauties” actually deserved it too. That movie is intense.
It’s a wild film. I simply watched that film.
Positively a type of motion pictures that the road that she walks between comedy and melancholy and horror is simply intercourse. It’s lots.
It truly is. She’s wonderful.
Do you’ve gotten any parting ideas you hope viewers will take out of your movie?
Truthfully, when you find it irresistible, let it go.
“Lifeless Lover” might be launched on March twentieth, 2026.