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Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó first worked with Ellen Burstyn on his 2020 drama “Pieces of a Woman,” and immediately knew he wanted to make another movie with her.
“She was [on set] for two or three days only,
and I loved her,” Mundruczó tells Variety over Zoom from Budapest. “Of course, I love her movies, but just to work with her was on another level. I felt I was with a master.”
The Oscar-winning star of “The Exorcist” and “Requiem for a Dream” has built her 70-year career on roles in horror films and serious dramas, but Mundruczó envisioned something different. “I always wanted to give her a love story because her body of work is rather dark, you know?” he says. “I wanted to do kind of a light movie for her, that was also something very important and special for me, because I could easily be dark as well.”
Enter “Place to Be.” Premiering at Venice on Wednesday, the movie marks Mundruczó’s first time back at the festival since “Pieces of a Woman” — which wasn’t the “real Venice experience” due to COVID-19, he says — and is particularly special since Burstyn is being honored with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
In what Mundruczó describes as an “urban road movie,” Burstyn plays Brooke, a widowed woman whose children are trying to force her into a retirement home. When a pigeon flys through her window and refuses to leave, Brooke embarks on a cross-country road trip to return the bird to its owner, meeting divorcee Nelson (Taika Waititi) along the way. The two strike up an unlikely friendship with each other and the pigeon, learning that it’s never too late to start a new chapter in life.
Mundruczó says the idea struck him when he attended a pigeon race — a historic sport where specially trained pigeons are transported to a location and then released to fly home, with the winner being the bird that returns the fastest. “It was so beautiful,” he says. “It was like something forgotten, because pigeons were so important in the past — this is a messenger bird that comes from the Bible.” He also found within the pigeon a “great metaphor” for aging stars. “Once you had that kind of importance, and your importance is not there anymore but you’re still the same quality,” the director adds.
After Burstyn was on board, the next challenge was finding an actor to play opposite the Strasberg-trained actress. “I wanted to get someone who is a very strong personality and not an actor, in a way. I needed this real quality person. And then Taika popped up in my mind,” Mundruczó says. “Taika has kind of what Robin Williams had, like this sad clown. Someone who you feel this kind of true depth and complexity on this cheerful facade.”
When Burstyn and Waititi met, it was “immediately a big love,” he adds. “They were very connected and the chemistry between them was fantastic.”
In the supporting cast, Murray Bartlett and Pamela Anderson play Burstyn’s children, with all three actually bearing a striking resemblance to one another. “I mean genetically, it’s very close,” he says. “When you see them together, you completely believe that they are family, you know?”
But perhaps the biggest star of “Place to Be” is the pigeon itself. It was supremely important to Mundruczó that the film used real birds and as little CGI as possible. Seventeen pigeons played Intruder, the name that Burstyn’s character gives to her flying friend.
“Ellen fell in love with at least five of them,” Mundruczó says with a laugh. “It was a really beautiful experience and also just tells you how close you can be with animals.”
With several scenes showcasing flocks of pigeons, Mundruczó estimates that around 1,000 birds were used in the production — which filmed in Sydney, Australia and New York — with professional pigeon handlers present on set. “Part of the story that I’m really proud of is we didn’t lose a single pigeon!” Mundruczó says.
When audiences are able to see “Place to Be,” Mundruczó hopes they come away with hope — and perhaps a newfound love for pigeons.
“From Brooke’s perspective, she wants to help this little bird, but at one point the bird helps her. And that’s true as well for Nelson’s character,” he says. “This little bird is help for both of their lives.”
