The Stronger

a short film by Panic, 10 min
© Panic Film Limited

Based on the one-act play by August Strindberg

The Stronger, written by Swedish playwright August Strindberg in 1889, is a short film exploring the complex emotions of Madame X, a married actress who encounters Mademoiselle Y, an unmarried actress and her husband’s former mistress, in a fashionable café.

Madame X attempts to provoke Mademoiselle Y into admitting to the affair. After several unsuccessful attempts, she convinces herself that the apparent triumph of her marriage proves that she is the stronger of the two.

But as Madame X’s monologue unfolds, the confidence of her victory begins to ring hollow. Her words seem increasingly directed not at Mademoiselle Y, but at herself.

Ever since my first unfinished short film disappeared in a fire, I had wanted to make another one. When it comes to inspiration, though, I don’t like to manufacture it. It has to arrive naturally. Preferably not in a dream, as I don’t keep a pen and paper on my bedside table.

I had read The Stronger by Strindberg around 1995. I really liked it, but I never thought of making a short film out of it. Whenever I analysed the play, I found myself comparing its characters with those in Ingmar Bergman’s films.

Then, one particularly cold afternoon in February 2007, I was driving through London. I had a few new CDs with me, one of them a reissue of Halber Mensch by Einstürzende Neubauten. When I heard the title track, I stopped the car and wrote on a piece of paper:

I MUST MAKE THE STRONGER AS A SHORT FILM.

For some reason, the song had triggered something. I was already halfway there — or so I thought. That same day I worked out that I should shoot the entire film on green screen, separating the foreground action from the background.

I called my producer, Collette Cooper, who suggested Sadie Frost for the role of Madame X. The very next day I met Sadie in her local pub and she agreed to take the lead without even checking my credentials. Everything was done on trust.

Sadie was perfect for the role. She has these beautiful eyes that can turn from sweet to nasty in a blink.

The following day, Antonia Campbell-Hughes signed up. A former model, she is incredibly chameleon-like and can be transformed into almost anything. Her fragile frame was perfect camouflage for her character’s inner strength.

So, within a few days of that car-and-CD incident, I had my cast, my crew — mostly people I was working with on other projects at the time — equipment, set and location. All I needed to do was edit the script and rehearse for three weeks.

The ten-minute film was shot in one day, over ten hours. Employment law observed. 😉

I wanted to make a film with two strong but very different characters. As Strindberg was a master of creating exceptional characters, I was in good company.

I was also attracted to the idea of having two characters, but only one speaking. One of my favourite films is Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, which was almost certainly inspired by The Stronger. Another definite decision was that the overall design and language should feel timeless.

At first, there seemed to be very few variations in how this one-act play could be filmed. But once I started thinking about it, I found several possibilities.

I opted for a conventional foreground and an unusual background. I wanted to separate the background from the action and use it as a way of expressing emotion. At the same time, I wanted the backgrounds to remain simple, so they would accentuate the drama unfolding in the foreground rather than compete with it.

My visual reference for the graphics was the work of Joan Miró, particularly his paintings from the period between 1950 and 1960.

After several unsuccessful attempts at creating satisfactory graphic backgrounds, I consulted French production designer Pierre Grigoriantz. We decided to film him painting an oil painting on canvas and use the resulting image as the background.

The painting process was filmed as stop-motion and then turned into a film, allowing us to avoid having Pierre’s body in front of the camera. He had to step in, make a brush stroke, step out again and wait for a still to be captured.

15,000 times.

Music was another story.

I kept pestering Stevo, the owner of Some Bizzare Records and publisher of Halber Mensch, trying to persuade him to let me use the song for free. One day he finally cracked and agreed. He probably had enough of me and simply wanted to get rid of the pest.

I composed the rest of the soundtrack by taking eleven songs I had been thinking about during post-production, pulling samples from them and mashing everything together into an unrecognisable, entirely new composition.

The last piece of the jigsaw was finally in place.

CREDITS

Written by
August Strindberg

Director / Producer / Screenplay / Soundtrack
Panic

Cast / Executive Producers
Sadie Frost — Madame X
Antonia Campbell-Hughes — Mademoiselle Y

Producer
Collette Cooper

Director of Photography
Nick Manley

Editors
Les Healey & Nick Price

Background painting
Pierre Grigoriantz

Sound Recordist
Mark Orphan

Sound Editor
Nikola Živojinović

First Assistant Director
Salvatore Assenza