Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman - Stoker

Stoker

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode, Jackie Weaver
Director: Chan-wook Park
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Rated: MA
Running Time: 99 minutes

Synopsis:

When India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) loses her beloved father and best friend Richard (Dermot Mulroney) in a tragic auto accident on her 18th birthday, her quiet life on the family's secluded estate is suddenly shattered. Exquisitely sensitive, India's exhibits an impassive demeanor which masks the deep feelings and heightened senses that only her father understood. Thus acclaimed Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook's first English-language psychological thriller Stoker comes to life.

India finds herself drawn to her father's long-lost brother, Charlie (Matthew Goode), who unexpectedly arrives for the funeral and decides to stay on with her and her emotionally unstable mother, Evie (Nicole Kidman). While India initially mistrusts her charming but mysterious uncle, he fascinates her as well, and she begins to realise how much they have in common.

As Charlie reveals himself to her little by little, India becomes increasingly infatuated with her charismatic relative and comes to realise that his arrival is no coincidence. With her uncle to guide her, she is about to fulfill her unusual destiny.

Stoker
Release Date: April 4th, 2013

About the Production

Stoker's Path to the Screen

Filmmaker Park Chan-Wook has created a singular body of work during his more than 20 years as a writer, director and producer of some of Korean cinema's most innovative and original movies, crafting feverish scenarios that combine lyrical beauty with shattering acts of violence and operatic emotion. Stoker is a dark and disturbing thriller about a mysterious and isolated American family. Even the film's title makes metaphorical allusion to evil, invoking the name of Dracula author Bram Stoker, whose ground-breaking novel is as much about an opportunist who preys on the innocent as it is the supernatural world of the vampire.

Fittingly, Stoker's path to the big screen began with a mystery of its own. Scott Free producer Michael Costigan received a phone call from a top Hollywood agent offering him a new script. "But she wouldn't tell me anything about the writer," he remembers. "And she wouldn't email it to me. I had to pick it up at her office. I was of course very intrigued, so after dinner that night I had to have a look. And as I read, I found I couldn't put it down."

Starting with the script's opening image of a young girl playing a piano as a spider creeps up her leg, Michael Costigan was riveted, shocked and enthralled by the story as it unfolded to its inexorable conclusion. The producer found himself lost in the eerie, improbable and self-contained world of the Stoker family. "These people are completely pure," he explains. "If they have an emotion, they have to follow it through, but they don't fully understand the ramifications of what they're doing. They are brilliant in an overall sense. They're highly perceptive. They see things other people can't see. But they also are obsessed with their own self-preservation, and if someone gets in their way, they're going to do whatever it takes to protect themselves and their needs."

The story begins as India Stoker turns 18. India, played by Mia Wasikowska, is introspective and seemingly passive. "But she is about to come into her own," says Michael Costigan. "She shows nothing on the surface, but clearly has an excess of emotion and perception on the inside. She actually sees and hears minute details that most of us miss, and it overwhelms her."

Of course the producers wanted to know more about the screenwriter, but the agent who sent the script refused to give more information. "She wouldn't tell me anything," Michael Costigan says. "She said he was out of town. Finally I got a call from him and I thought the voice on the phone sounded very familiar. I was shocked when I realised that 'Ted' was Wentworth Miller, and that this was the first screenplay that he had ever written."

Wentworth Miller, an actor perhaps best known for his work on the groundbreaking television series "Prison Break," worked on the script over a period of about eight years. Because he believed that no one would take an actor's first screenplay seriously, Wentworth Miller convinced his agent to submit his work under a pseudonym. He decided to call himself Ted Foulke. (Ted Foulke is Miller's dog's name.) The script eventually landed up on the 2010 Black List, the prestigious unofficial list of the best unproduced films available.

As the script's reputation built, a number of top directors expressed interest in signing on. First choice, though, was a Hollywood outsider: Park Chan-Wook. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix in 2003 for Oldboy and the Jury Prize in 2009 for Thirst, "Director Park," as everyone involved with Stoker calls him, is celebrated around the world for his elegant depictions of cruelty, destruction and revenge, as well as for his radiant and jarring visuals. His recent short film, Night Fishing, was shot entirely with Apple's iPhone and won the Golden Bear Award for best Short Film at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival.

The script was sent to Park Chan-Wook, but Michael Costigan doubted that the auteur filmmaker of some of his favourite movies would read an unsolicited screenplay. "I imagined that he wrote all his own material with a collaborator in Korea and that's just how it was. Then we got a phone call saying that Director Park Chan-Wook wanted to speak with us."

During that first phone call, Park Chan-Wook offered up unique ideas about the characters and some of the indelible visual metaphors that would come to define the film. "He started talking about the saddle shoes," says Michael Costigan. "He had this idea that Uncle Charlie had been sending India a present every year for her birthday. The box would be left in some remote part of the house or in the garden or in the trees. On her 18th birthday, he arrives, and this time it's a pair of crocodile stilettoes. In his mind, she's ready to be who he believes she really is."

"At that point, I knew that we had to have him," says the producer. "Not only did he understand the script, he already had incredible ideas about the characters. It was his movie to direct from that first phone call."

Park Chan-Wook, who has said his interest in directing began with Alfred Hitchcock's claustrophobic masterpiece, Vertigo, was drawn to the film's unconventional and tautly woven love story, as well as its severely restricted physical world. "The locations are limited," he notes. "There are a small number of characters and it takes place over a short period of time. The constant tension almost suffocates. Something is about to explode, like a kettle of boiling water with the lid on tight. A story that takes place in a confined space becomes a small universe unto itself.

"I also liked the fact that it was not a story that revolves around dialogue," the director continues. "That was an advantage for my first English-language film. My Korean language films have not been dialogue-oriented either, so I was already comfortable with telling the story in a more visual way."

The script fits well into the director's existing oeuvre, according to co-producer Wonjo Jeong. "Director Park Chan-Wook's films are very reflective," he says. "They deal with right and wrong, and where the line lies between them. His characters are torn between their choices. And every choice has consequences. He subverts the conventions of narrative, and in doing so, draws us into the questions about social class, ethics, morality and religion."

Park Chan-Wook also cites the influences of filmmakers such as David Lynch, David Cronenberg and the sleek, sexy stylised world of Brian De Palma as well as writers Edgar Allen Poe, M. R. James, and Wilkie Collins.

"In Stoker, which is a microscopic observation of these people and their universe, he tells a bigger story about the world at large," continues Wonjo Jeong. "The characters are flawed, much as we are all flawed. By putting them in such extreme circumstances, he's reflecting experiences that everyone goes through in life, but in such a vivid and dark mirror that we want to look more closely."

An Unusual Family: Casting Stoker

Over the past two decades, Park Chan-Wook has established a rotating troupe of actors with whom he works regularly in Korea. He has developed an intensely collaborative method of working hand-in-hand with his favourite performers to flesh out and fully define the unusual and original characters that people his films. For his first American movie, he had to put together a new creative family of actors with the same kind of sensitivity, intelligence and talent.

"I am especially excited for audiences to see this film for the performances by these wonderful actors," says the director. "They are each at different stages of their lives and careers, and are rather different kinds of actors from each other. Seeing how they come together so successfully is worth experiencing."

For Park Chan-Wook, Stoker is primarily a coming-of-age story for India. "She is an introverted girl confined in a suffocating house, unable to mix with anyone outside," he says. "She is very rebellious as she bears the pains of adolescence. Her father's death, her uncle's arrival, as well as the conflict with her mother and her peers, bring her to a realisation about her true identity."

Finding an actress who could embody the contradictions of the character while making India's transition to womanhood graceful and natural was critical to the film's success. Park Chan-Wook selected Australian actress Mia Wasikowska, whose delicate beauty and solemn serenity had already won the 22-year-old leading roles in films including Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland and Cary Fukanaga's Jane Eyre. "Mia Wasikowska has the natural liveliness of a young woman," he notes. "But she is also composed and has internal maturity. To portray a girl who is neither a woman nor a child, but at an awkward in-between stage, Mia Wasikowska was the most suitable actor. She has a level of restraint surprising for someone her age. She is almost completely still when she is acting. But when you watch her on film, you realise that all the necessary emotion is there. She is very subtle and skillful in a way that I expect only from older actors."

For her part, the actress says she found much to like about the project. "It is such a strong piece of writing. Director Park Chan-Wook and the creative team are brilliant. The story is something I have never seen before. The dynamic between the characters is quite mysterious. India is a really complex young woman. Without her father, she is completely disconnected from the world. She's an outsider by nature, closed off from the rest of the world. She is still a young girl, but she's becoming a woman with dreams and fantasies, although they're of a different nature than other girls' dreams."

When India's Uncle Charlie, her father's brother, arrives, it's the first time she even realises he exists. "It's completely confusing and really intriguing," Mia Wasikowska says. "She's trying to figure out what role he has in her life and it's far bigger than she ever imagined. She's not sure what he wants from her at first, and as she slowly finds out how much alike they are, it's both terrifying and appealing. There's a definite sexual tension between Charlie and Evie, as well as Charlie and India, so it's up in the air as to who and what he's really there for. You are never really sure-until you are."

Working with Park Chan-Wook was a constantly evolving, and always stimulating experience for the actress. "Even on weekends, we would meet for lunch and continue discussing the character and the story," Mia Wasikowska says. "Ideas would snowball, becoming more and more complex and interesting. During shooting, he let us sit for long moments in silence where seemingly not much was happening, but there was always strong underlying tension. The longer we were there, the more it built. He is way ahead of the audience. Time and time again, the rug is suddenly pulled out from underneath our feet in a way that changes our perspective on what's going on. That approach was perfect for this material."

The enigmatic man at the centre of the family conflict is played by Matthew Goode, a British import previously seen in Tom Ford's critically acclaimed A Single Man, opposite Oscar® winner Colin Firth, and as the Greek god-like super hero Ozymandias in Watchman. "Matthew Goode is just so much fun," says Mia Wasikowska. "Our relationship off-screen was the polar opposite of what it was on screen. He can be really goofy, so it was a challenge to keep a straight face working with him."

Uncle Charlie is shrouded in mystery throughout the film. His motives remain hidden until nearly the end. "The audience never knows for sure what goes on in his mind," says Park Chan-Wook. "He loved his brother so much, and his love for his brother is transferred to India. Allegorically, I saw Uncle Charlie as John the Baptist. He is a mentor figure who turns up to complete India. Matthew Goode matched the image I had in my head-the innocence, humour, elfishness. He has the mischievous sparkle and elegant delicacy of someone who can't hurt a fly. These are all the perfect qualities for Uncle Charlie."

Matthew Goode was equally certain that he wanted to be part of Park Chan-Wook's English language debut. "This is an example of Hollywood drawing on the best talent from all around the world, which I think is a brilliant thing," Matthew Goode says. "Director Park Chan-Wook is a master of psychology, which is one of the reasons his films are so intelligent and believable."

"This kind of script doesn't come around every day," Matthew Goode continues. "It has all the right ingredients to move an audience, as well as to scare and provoke them. It's a beautiful love story, in a twisted way. Charlie has been waiting for years, keeping in touch with Mrs. McGarrick, the housekeeper, to learn all about India. At first you think you know who Charlie is, but as the story evolves, you realise he's extremely complicated and dangerous," he says. "Nothing is what it appears. He wants to be around his family, so he uses Evie. He can't really stay there unless she is attracted to him. But Charlie is extremely unbalanced and he has feelings for India that are not at all uncle-like. The challenge for me was that rather than being simply evil, he has to have a center to him that we like, which is disorienting and quite scary."

Academy Award® winner Nicole Kidman plays Evie, India's fragile, affection-starved mother. "I never expected that I would have the good fortune to be working with an actor of Nicole Kidman's caliber on my first English language film," says Park Chan-Wook. "But this dream-like situation became a reality. Her presence had a synergising effect and I was able to expand the role of Evie and shape a character that comes across as almost a fairytale stepmother. But in fact, she is the character in the film with the most humanity."

A glance at Nicole Kidman's extensive resume reveals that she has a long history of signing on to ambitious projects helmed by auteur directors, from Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) and Gus Van Sant (To Die For) to John Cameron Mitchell (Rabbit Hole). "I thought the combination of Director Park Chan-Wook with this material was really exciting," she says. "He is a filmmaker who is particularly revered amongst other filmmakers. I love supporting artists who have a unique way of expressing themselves and are willing to take chances. I certainly have done many mainstream movies, but to be able support filmmakers who embrace a different way of looking at the world is my greatest joy as an actor."

Although Park Chan-Wook used a translator to communicate with the actors on set, he felt that Nicole Kidman instinctively understood what he needed from her. "Nicole Kidman can modulate the tone and quality of her performance at will," the director says. "I would say only a few key words and she would readily adjust her performance. She is an actor who truly showed me what being a pro is all about."

Stoker's eerie elegance and complex relationships made the film an irresistible proposition for the actress. "There's nothing generic about it," Nicole Kidman says. "It's got an unusual cadence to the dialogue. The pacing is not typical. When I read the script, I was unsure of what was going to happen next, which I liked."

The desperate, needy Evie was a character Nicole Kidman felt she hadn't played before. "We start the film with her husband's funeral," she says. "It's obvious the mother-daughter relationship is already fraught with resentment and anger. She's in a very raw state when we meet her, and Charlie fills the void.

"Matthew Goode is compellingly attractive as Charlie," she adds. "That's really such a good thing for Uncle Charlie to be. You believe that Evie would desire him and want his attention. He's the first person for a long time to give her attention. And then Matthew Goode, of course, has such talent. I expect to see him become a huge star."

Another Aussie import, Jacki Weaver, plays the pivotal role of Auntie Gin, India's father's aunt-as well as Charlie's. Disturbed to learn that Charlie is living in the family mansion with India and Evie, she arrives to assess the situation herself and is shaken by what she finds.

"Only Charlie knows for sure what he wants from India," Jacki Weaver says. "But Auntie Gin is a wise old bird and she knows that there's something sinister in the air."

Jacki Weaver shot to international prominence with a 2010 Oscar nomination for her performance as Smurf, an unlikely criminal mastermind, in the searing independent drama, Animal Kingdom. "We learned that Jacki Weaver was working in Los Angeles while we were casting," says Costigan. "We had all had seen and admired Animal Kingdom, so we met with her and realised immediately how right she was for this role."

The actress also compares the script's ever-twisting plot to a classic Alfred Hitchcock film. "It's a quality thriller, a psychological study of very unusual, disturbed people," says Jaki Weaver. "That's what makes this compelling. There are a million things going on simultaneously. And the characters are fascinating and sharply delineated: the high-strung Evie, the silently watchful India, the anxious aunt who knows that something wicked this way comes. And, of course, the very bad Uncle Charlie."

A single highly charged scene in the movie featuring all four powerhouse performers in an almost silent confrontation is a highlight of the film for Michael Costigan. "That was one of the most fun scenes to shoot," the producer says. "We had a virtuoso cast of actors assembled and watching them interact was such a pleasure especially during the family dinner scene. Just the slightest movement or glance from Evie could cut across Auntie Gin in the film. Watching Uncle Charlie subtly observing the action, you start to realise he's playing a giant ruse on the family. India observes the others and just one glance speaks volumes. Watching these incredible actors work together was thrilling."

A World Without Time or Place: Design and Crafts

Radiant imagery, an omniscient camera and carefully conceived visual metaphors are the hallmarks of a Park Chan-Wook movie. Director of photography Chung-hoon Chung has now worked with the filmmaker on five films, including Oldboy, Lady Vengence, I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay and Thirst. Together, they created Stoker's dreamlike, erotically charged atmosphere, moving characters in and out of the frame in a game of hide-and-seek with viewers, using long camera set-ups, unique camera angles and intricate sound design to delineate hunter from hunted among the characters.

The pair used the same time-tested approach for Stoker as they did on their previous collaborations. "We always start working together in preproduction, so we share the same vision," Chung-hoon Chung says. "As we amend the script, we talk about reference pictures, photos or screen captures from other films. But deciding how to shoot each scene is minor compared to understanding the characters' emotions in the script. Right from the start, we thoroughly analyse the script the same way the actors do."

Chung-hoon Chung, who is considered one of the master cinematographers of contemporary Korean cinema, worked hand-in-hand with Director Park Chan-Wook to conceive meticulously detailed storyboards for the film. "Creating the look for a film like this is similar to building a house," he observes. "It is not until a certain amount of time passes that the film takes shape. The more detailed the storyboard is, the easier it is to predict how the film will come out.

"Stoker has a very different feel from the other projects we have worked on together," continues Chung-hoon Chung. "It's not just the subject matter. There is a progression to the story that is reflected in the cinematography. It starts out very normal, but as the story advances, the characters reveal themselves and the relationships become quite complex. The most exciting and challenging part of my job was to show that progression visually. Whatever Evie or Charlie is feeling, the camera is observing. That helped me determine how close the shot should be or if the lights needed to be hotter or cooler."

The constrained location of the story was a departure for the pair, but Chung-hoon Chung quickly discovered he could exploit the house's nooks and crannies to good advantage. "The majority of the story takes place in the Stoker mansion," he notes. "Normally, we would build a set for the house to accommodate camera and lighting. Because the Stoker house is a real location, I was concerned the angles and lighting might be repetitive. But I discovered that because the space was so limited, I was able to understand its characteristics better. Just as some actors photograph differently from certain angles, I learned that the house could look gloomy or hopeful, depending on the perspective."

Creating the intricate dance between lens, actors and environment was only possible because of the tremendous thought that goes into a Park Chan-Wook production before the director ever sets foot on set, says Michael Costigan. "He is so detail-oriented and Chung-hoon Chung is an essential part of it. They are able to create character and story through visual language and camerawork. Director Park Chan-Wook does so much preparation. He prepares meticulous storyboards."

Park Chan-Wook's extensive preparation makes it easier for him to shoot quickly and precisely. "My style of filmmaking involves very specific camera movements," he explains. "I edit the film in my head well in advance, so working in the conventional manner, with long masters and lots of coverage, does not work for me."

The film's shooting schedule was abbreviated compared to the customary pace in Korea, which also affected the way the camera was used. "Having to capture the scenes so quickly made it difficult to use the long elaborate camera movements I am known for," Park Chan-Wook says. "But this may have a better effect on the film. When such shots are used only in the most memorable way, it increases the tension."

Production designer Thérèse DePrez, who was responsible for the surreal visual style of the Oscar®-nominated psychological thriller Black Swan, says, "There's a great ebb and flow between the unsettling and the beautiful in this film. There is nothing in the design that doesn't have a reason. It's meticulously done. Director Park Chan-Wook's previous movies have all included cinematic elements that I'd never seen before and that stayed with me. One of my initial questions for him was 'how stylised are we going?' And he really wanted me to push it. It is a true Park Chan-Wook film in that sense."

Knowing that there would be a language barrier between designer and director, Therese DePrez prepared an extensive book of visuals that represented her ideas on the tone and mood of the film. "He was enamored with it and those initial images became an important part of the look of the movie," she says. "We talked about it being a fairytale with an ethereal quality. We spoke about the idea of the hunter and the hunted. These characters are very much circling each other, and the hunting motif became a major theme in the movie."

Park Chan-Wook also emphasised that he wanted a feeling that India and her mother exist outside of time and place, even though the film is set in present-day America. They seem mysterious, staying close to the confines of their home, establishing a sense of timelessness in the house and within "the family" in an almost otherworldly way. "We could do that because it's really a small character piece," Therese DePrez says. "There are only a few actors and most of the action takes place in the house. I saw the environment as timeless, austere and very stylised, with the focus always on the characters. It has only very subtle references to the era that we are in."

The first and biggest challenge was to find a house for the Stoker family that would embody their isolation, alienation and social milieu. "The house is a character," says Therese DePrez. "It's an otherworldly place. The original idea was a large, stone Gothic castle. We probably looked at 80 different homes in numerous styles and sizes, but what we had envisioned didn't exist in Nashville."

They selected an expansive 1920s estate for the Stoker mansion, set on open, rolling hills with a creek and extensive gardens for India to lose herself in. Even so, the house was significantly smaller than what Park originally had in mind. He saw Evie and India as a fairytale queen and princess, trapped in a sprawling castle. "But this house had the right amount of antiquity and elegance, and the more I looked at it, the more appealing it became," the director says. "It had all the elements we needed, including a cellar and a garden all in one location, so we could film everything there once we fixed it up the way we wanted."

Most importantly, it had an impressive staircase for a scene that Park Chan-Wook saw as central to establishing the nuanced balance of power between Charlie and India. "In his mind, this whole movie revolved around a subtle dance that takes place between the two of them on that staircase," says Michael Costigan. "It all has to do with who is in control and that scene is the starting point."

For six weeks, the production designer and her team worked to transform a traditional home into the Stoker mansion with a top-to-bottom renovation. No detail was neglected, including colour and style, details in wallpaper, items on Richard's desk, and even bathroom toiletries.

"Richard Stoker put his family in this house to set them apart from the outside world," says Michael Costigan. "Finding a house that had the right aesthetic for an architect and a member of an old-money American family was very specific and challenging. It's sparsely furnished with impeccable elements that represent the wealth of the family. Each element was carefully chosen, because Director Park Chan-Wook's attention to detail is so acute. There's a philosophy behind every element."

The hunting trophies India and her father collected together, many of them avian, are on display in the house and add to Therese DePrez's concept of the house as a diorama. "We often talked about the house as an unravelling nest and the characters as birds," she says. "Evie is a peacock. Uncle Charlie becomes the mother hen and India the baby chick. They are all caught in this diorama of a house. It goes back to the idea of the hunting motif, and to Director Park Chan-Wook's image of India as a fledgling coming out of her shell."

The interior walls of the main floor are painted varying shades of icy green to make the viewer feel slightly unwelcome. "We also decided not to hang framed photographs or paintings on the walls," says Park Chan-Wook. "It makes the house seem larger with big empty walls creating the sense of isolation and loneliness of our characters."

"Director Park Chan-Wook wanted it to destabilise the audience a bit," says Therese DePrez. "It's quite elegant, but it has the feeling of a prison as well. In the downstairs rooms, the colours are quite cold. To add the idea of them being imprisoned, there are a lot of linear elements in the wallpaper and panel moulding."

The bedrooms in the upstairs of the house reflect more of each of the Stokers' individuality. "India as a character is very much about symmetry, order and pattern," the designer explains. "Evie is the opposite. She is asymmetrical, unravelling, a bit more chaotic. The rooms could not look any more different. India's room has yellow-patterned wall paper with things lined up perfectly, while Evie's room looks like an overgrown greenhouse."

The costume designers, Kurt Swanson and Bart Mueller, pulled Therese DePrez's unusual palette into the wardrobe, as well. At the beginning of the film, India is in pale yellow, which symbolises her innocence. India's costumes were inspired by the artist Balthus. "He captured all of these paintings of little girls in cardigans and skirts, falling asleep and cat napping on couches, and this was our inspiration for India," says Bart Mueller.

Evie is a peacock trapped in a cage during her mourning period, dressed in a tight silhouette with everything formfitting and sleek. Her feathers open up with Uncle Charlie's attention until she becomes completely vulnerable at the end, skin exposed and hair loose and messy.

Meanwhile, Uncle Charlie's dapper style recalls Cary Grant circa 1950. There's a precision to his casual elegance right down to his cashmere sweater and, of course, his saddle shoes.

The end result is a look that is both oddly familiar and a bit disorienting; completely contemporary, yet dislocated in time and place. "What was most exciting for me as a fan of Park Chan-Wook is that this has a different look from his other films," says Therese DePrez. "It is similar in the way he approaches the characters and his impeccable compositions and framing. But the setting is different from anything he's ever done."

Stoker's haunting, evocative score was created by Clint Mansell, who received a 2012 Grammy® nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for the psychological thriller, Black Swan. Director Park was impressed with Clint Mansell's work on that and other films, including Moon, Requiem For A Dream and p. He was offered the job after the director attended a performance at the legendary Los Angeles nightspot, Largo.

Clint Mansell had seen Director Park's previous films Oldboy and Thirst, and was aware of his renown within the film community. "I took the gig, because I wanted to work with Director Park Chan-Wook," he says. "I look for different sensibilities and different experiences than might be found in many movies. Stoker has these."

Clint Mansell holds Director Park Chan-Wook in high regard, both as an artist and a collaborator. "He is very relaxed, yet very focused. Even when his notes were quite small, they had a big impact on the score. He knows what he wants, but is open-minded about new ideas, so working with him was extremely fulfilling."

"My number one goal is always to create music that serves the film," adds the composer. "But I feel I do my best work when I connect with the film in a way that the music I create is very personal to me."

Director Park Chan-Wook has long been enthralled by Clint Mansell's music. "When we were making the trailer for Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, I heard a piece of temporary music that the editor had put in on his own, and I was thunderstruck. It was because this music, the kind that I heard for the first time in my life, was shockingly beautiful. I was told it was music from an American film, p, but I didn't think to memorise the composer's name. We didn't have enough money to afford the rights."

"Clint Mansell exquisitely brings alive the texture of each and every instrument," says Park Chan-Wook. "He doesn't forcibly impose any one single emotion. The piano, the strings, vocals, and percussions, each seemingly singing about different emotions, come together to create a new emotion which is so complex it's difficult to describe with words. And this music, in the end, is beautiful. Exciting, but beautifully exciting, sad but beautifully sad, terrifying, but beautifully terrifying."

Park Chan-Wook continues, "Our minds met not only on doing all of this, but also on bringing out a sense of movement while doing so. Just like dancing, gracefully moving forward, then back, turning, jumping, landing to immediately roll, then stomping while getting up, then forwards and back again… Graceful, like a cat."

Music plays a key role in a scene that Park Chan-Wook says was essential to his vision of the film. India and her uncle are seated at the piano together. Charlie, who has previously professed no musical ability, joins her for a complex, soul-stirring duet, a hypnotic piece written for the film by trailblazing contemporary composer Philip Glass. By the time they have finished, India has been transformed and there is no longer any doubt who he has come all this way to see.

"I had long dreamed of working with the maestro," Park Chan-Wook says of Philip Glass. "I was a bit nervous, but he was very kind and warm. Even when I dared to ask him to change a part here and there, he was never bothered or annoyed. The resulting piece is dramatic and beautiful, and I believe the piano scene is a true gem."

Mia Wasikowska had never played piano before this film and took a three-month crash course to prepare. "The scene took one whole day to shoot even though it had no lines," she says. "It's a powerful and emotional piece of music. I could just let the music wash over me and that was the scene. That was the best day of filming for me."

Stoker is a fitting addition to Park Chan-Wook's acclaimed canon of work, according to Michael Costigan. "Like all of Director Park Chan-Wook's films, it is primal, but also poetic and human. It's about overwhelming emotion and its intersection with violence. He was able to craft Wentworth Miller's riveting script into something even scarier, surprising, beautiful and lush, even funny at times. Everyone involved with the film feels very proud to have been able to help director Park Chan-Wook make a true 'Park Chan-Wook film' in America."

Stoker
Release Date: April 4th, 2013