The Bay of Silence is based on Lisa St Aubin De Terán's haunting novel of the same name. The British-born, globe-trotting author has published 22 acclaimed books; prestigious awards include the Somerset Maugham and John Llewellyn Rhys prize.
Producer/writer Caroline Goodall: “When I read The Bay of Silence, I was haunted by its visual and emotional power. The book was written in the mid-80s but is timeless. The Bay of Silence (La Baia del Silenzio) is two hours from my family home in Italy, and I spent many hours sitting on the sandy beach imagining how to tell the tale. Lisa gave me her blessing to approach the story as a mystery thriller. The universal question it asks is ‘what happens when you bury the truth’? Can you ever climb out of that hole? Lose your sense of truth and you lose your grip on reality.” That is as relevant today as it was then.
The six-week, three-country shoot commenced in July 2018 in the World Heritage site of the Bay of Silence, located in the famous Cinque Terre region of Liguria, Italy. Production moved to the coastal region of the Scottish borders, doubling for the remote French village where Will finds his missing family.
Director Paula van der Oest: “Three separate countries — Italy, Scotland, England — and a challenging schedule, with remote locations including beaches and cliffs, racing time and weather to get beautiful images. We shot on winding roads, in tunnels and on cliff tops, in searing heat; a freak storm flooded our production base, drenching costumes and sending catering tents flying into the sea. But the city of Sestri Levante welcomed us with open arms. When our stars stand in the water of The Bay of Silence they seem alone, but the bay was teeming with tourists, heroically huddled for us in a corner of the beach.”
In Scotland, the wild coastal terrain created the gothic atmosphere the story needs, as the team raced to get the shots through long night shoots punctuated by rain. Safety on slippery rocky beaches was key, with eight-year-old twins Litiana and Lilibet Biutanesava. “They were magnificent. They cried on cue or fought like little savages, then pealed into laughter after I called cut.”
Harry Ammerlaan, production designer, and his team wanted ‘Bel Rêve,’ high on a cliff in St Abbs, to look abandoned and spooky. “Given the traumatic experience tied to this location, we looked for a house that exudes history. This location was never a summer retreat, but an isolated, grim and hostile house — a place where secrets can be kept.” The villagers opened their homes to the production, now a firm supporter of the private St Abb's Lifeboat fund.
Paula has made five films with cinematographer Guido van Gennep, who says: “We felt the film should be atmospheric and stylized, referencing the classic cinema of Nic Roeg's Don't Look Now, Bad Timing, Hitchcock and Polanski. I looked at the early work of Vittorio Storaro, like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and The Conformist. He has a great way of using widescreen, leaving large areas of the screen dark, which creates a menacing atmosphere. We wanted to give the film a very old-school, European look, and decided on anamorphic lenses in combination with the Alexa XT, so it would be stylized but in a subtle way. We also used slow zoom-ins to add to the '70s flavor.”
It was important to the filmmakers to use as much of London as logistically and fiscally possible: central London and St James for Milton's world; leafy west London suburbia for the family; nightclubs and narrow, edgy streets as the action becomes more frenetic and claustrophobic; even the River Thames, including the Thames Walk in Battersea Park near the Buddhist Pagoda of Peace, for a far-from-peaceful scene between Milton and Will.
Says Ammerlaan: “By using a classic house in an upscale area, their life seems set for success. The colour palette of the interior suggests Rosalind has decorated, but also introduces a subliminal sense of misplacement with a hint of underlying friction. Additionally, the colours allowed us to use lighting to support Rosalind's changing moods.” For Milton's home, Ammerlaan wanted it “full of art and beauty, but so filled with eclectic taste that the setting masks his thoughts and behaviour.”
Top US composer John Swihart provided the score: “We wanted to make an electronic score with organic instruments woven into it. On top of the electronic foundation, a number of pre-recorded acoustic instruments were fed into granular synthesis modules to create some of the ambient sounds. Plucked piano rhythms, natural piano, and a string section help combine the romantic and thriller elements musically, in order to support the narrative.”
The English-language film includes French and Italian, integral to the plot. “Rosalind's family inhabit a multi-lingual, cross-border world of shifting alliances and secrets, which contrasts with Will's monolingual, more straightforward outlook,” says Caroline. Paula also suggested changing the character of Lena to Russian, which worked well with Olga's Ukrainian heritage: “Olga has that big-screen siren allure, yet she is so present as an actor, and as at ease in French, Italian and Russian as she is in English.”
Costume designer Celia Yau: “We wanted to define the characters through their clothing. It was important for the actors to be real and believable, so we chose outfits that reflected their personalities. Throughout the film, Rosalind goes through several different mental states — in the beginning she is happy, bright and well; after her tragic accident she becomes troubled and deteriorates mentally, haunted by her past. Rosalind's wardrobe was a mix of vintage and modern, giving her a creative and arty look.”
To write and produce a $4m film as a first feature was, Goodall knew, a challenge: “I have been privileged to learn from the best through a long global career in front of the camera. Every project has its own unpredictable DNA regardless of budget size. I was blessed early on with a generous and committed team, and having variously called the US, UK and Italy home, I was able to source people who might not normally work together. Post-production was in Amsterdam — a wonderful city to work in. We worked with Holland's top sound and picture post, who truly took the film to their hearts.”