In one of this year’s most tender films, there is a sparseness in the physical and verbal spaces between sisters Eva and Violeta and their father Vicente. Stretched over four summer visits, the presentation of crucial events and conversations that occur on screen are as vital as the information that we infer off-screen, like Vicente’s disappearing act, Violeta’s queer identity, and Eva’s peacemaker role. As time jumps from summer of being impressionable children to the summer of fatigued young adults, we see how the intersections of the three characters’ journeys affect each other. The film’s keen eye for hindsight understanding makes for a kind of unexpected magic, and a favorite of mine at that.
Director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio’s first feature is rooted in personal history and was written a few years after their father’s death. As Lacorazza mentions in this interview, In the Summers is not a factualized memoir to their family’s lives. However, it’s telling that Lacorazza’s portrayal of Vicente — intelligent, aware, sometimes patient — is a softened perspective when each character is able to hold the audience’s empathy at different parts. It’s a creative endeavor to answer questions with what we see and leave the rest to our experienced imaginations — and to also cast renowned Latin Grammy-winning rapper René Pérez Joglar (Residente) in his first leading role as Vicente.
The film first opens with a message that subtitles will not be provided for the lines spoken in Spanish. This is not cause for division. As winning the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic at Sundance and screening at the CineFest Latino Boston this past Wednesday, the performances in In the Summers will speak directly to your heart. Ahead of its opening at the Coolidge on Friday, the Hassle spoke with Lacorazza on their filmmaking process, working with a bilingual script and a multi-hyphenate talent, and securing a festival tradition.
The conversation has been edited for clarity.
BOSTON HASSLE: The movie is framed just for Eva and Violeta’s summer visits [with their father]. How did you decide to frame the narrative that way? Was it hard to not include supplemental notes, like [their relationship] with their mother?
ALESSANDRA LACORAZZA: The structure was the first thing that came to me, even before I knew exactly what the film was going to be about. I was sitting around speaking to my sister about the summers we spent with my dad– who went, what happened. It struck me that there was an interesting way to examine a father [and] to see him in these brief moments with his daughters through the eyes of the daughters. For me, the structure of only seeing those slivers of life was always there, and I didn’t question filling in the blanks per se. There was a phone call with a mom and a few more details that once we got further along, we’re like, “We don’t actually need that,” and it was okay to just live in the moment with them. I felt that the audience was getting enough information in those bits.
BH: In the beginning of the movie, I didn’t know where the perspective was going to be at first. I didn’t know if we were going to see it through the eyes of the daughters or through the father or how they perceive each other. It’s framed where the audience can see what’s happening and fill in the space. Like you give enough for the audience to make their own conclusions on what happens the next time they visit, which I thought was very forgiving, especially in a story like this. The father could be seen as villainous, but when you watch the film, that’s not the intention. Was it important for you to have that balance of no one being perceived as the bad guy?
AL: 100%. If there was any intention that I was trying to achieve from a writing process, it was to have —not even a fair reflection, but a nuanced reflection of a Latin father specifically. People aren’t good or bad, but everyone’s kind of a gradient of that. I wanted to show a father that falls into some of these stereotypes that you see of Latin men: addiction issues, anger issues, not a full-time parent but still has this life to him and has a lot of love for his daughters and continues to show up. Seeing both sides of it was very important to me.
BH: The film took an approach in not providing subtitles for the Spanish-speaking portions. How did you make that decision? In addition, did you form the script following that decision or before?
AL: It was something that I had the idea for when I was on set. Most of the script is in English. There wasn’t a lot of it in Spanish. But once we got on set, René’s first language is Spanish and [he] feels most comfortable in Spanish, which became something interesting for us to examine. What does it mean when he speaks in Spanish to his daughters? Is he trying to communicate something specific? Is there a way that he’s trying to reach them?
Even though I grew up bilingual in the US, not everyone in the Latin diaspora has that experience. Some people understands Spanish but don’t speak it, and people have different relationships. I wanted that to be reflected in the film and so part of me was wanting to put the audience in that perspective, where we never find out exactly how much the girls speak the language or even understand it. I wanted the audience to feel like the girls may not fully grasp what he’s saying but feel the intention for what he’s saying.
BH I think it becomes a creative device in how René uses it, like how he speaks in Spanish when he’s teaching them how to [cook] an egg, but sounds more blunt and harsh in English later in the movie when he’s explaining a dice game in the darker scenes. It is a really nice way to giving intelligence to the audience. Like “Hey, you figure it out, but I’m pretty sure you could figure it out.”
AL: Trusting the audience is so important. As a moviegoer myself, I don’t like being talked down to. I think audiences are incredibly smart and they want to experience something themselves. It was important not to overexplain a situation, but have the audience have their own experience. Part of that beauty was that it leads certain things up to interpretation. There’s no right or wrong way to look at the film, and I think all interpretations are valid.
BH: It’s really cool because I feel like American audiences are opening up to non-English speaking media. I like the idea that in this movie, you just have to listen.
AL: None of [the Spanish] is plot-driven. It was very specific. There are never two characters speaking in Spanish so you’re never out of the loop. My intention is not to alienate an audience, but put them in the perspective of the girls. It was important that A) there was nothing crucial coming out in the dialogue and B) that it wasn’t two people talking to each other and everything is understood through context.
BH: Following that, it does have to rely on performance, too. I recognized Lío [Mehiel] from Mutt, but I was shocked to see that it was René’s first leading role. It’s not his first time in the spotlight. Can you explain a little bit about how he became involved with the film?
AL: René is an incredible talent. He’s a very famous rapper. He’s been in the spotlight his whole life, so he’s very comfortable in front of the camera. I think sometimes when you talk about first-time actors, you’re also dealing with people that don’t know the camera language, and that’s not the case here. He’s someone I’ve known about my whole life. My sister’s a super fan, but it never occurred to me [to cast him] because I see him as a rapper in the music industry, right? One of my producers mentioned him and immediately I knew it was the right fit, because René embodies everything that I wanted to bring out in this character in the sense that he has a lot of the stereotypical look to him. In terms of how Latin men are perceived, like he has the tattoos, the muscles, a certain way of interacting. But you listen to his music and interviews or watch the film that he made, and [they’re] incredibly thoughtful and poetic. He’s so smart and the combination of those two things is something I wanted to bring out in this character.
For me, it was a no-brainer. Working with him was such a pleasure, and even though he hadn’t acted before, he took this role very seriously. He worked with some great acting coaches and took the time to understand the character. One of the difficulties of the character is that, because it’s fragmented through time, it’s tracking the evolution of his character and dynamics with each of the sets of daughters. I’m so excited for more people to get to see his performance.
BH: It’s one of those things where you’re like, was the role written for him or did he tailor to the role? He was such a natural fit.
AL: We did not change the character at all. The only change that happened was that the character spoke a little more Spanish than was in the script and that the character became Puerto Rican instead of Colombian.
BH: While he played the same character through the movie, you had different actors for Eva and Violeta. Did you aim to keep anything consistent, or was there anything that you specifically wanted for their journey?
AL: It was important that there was a through line and an honesty that came through in the performances [while] not feeling jarring for the audience. It’s hard when you age a character on screen and then have another actor embody that role. As a viewer, I’ve seen it and experienced it. Part of that bump is unavoidable because your brain has to rejigger, but I wanted it to be as smooth as possible. It didn’t mean that they had to look identical [but] they had to look believably similar. There was just more so about making sure each actor understood the character and the character’s essence in a real way, but also understand how the characters evolve based on the experience they had the previous summer.
BH: I’m not really a summer person, but I thought the movie was very inviting. It felt like a lot of it was filmed during the golden hour.
AL: We filmed it in Las Cruces, New Mexico in May and June. It was definitely getting hot. [For the lighting], I don’t think the intention was it to be inviting and more to be like nostalgic in the way that memory can be for those childhood memories. The softness is there, but lighting changes for each summer. That was something I worked with my cinematographer: what is the evolution of the camera and light in each summer, and how does that reflect what’s going on on screen? That comes with its challenges. When we were shooting the scene in the sand dunes in White Sands [National Park], we had to start shooting very early in the morning because by 12 o’clock, it was like 108 degrees and just too much for everyone and the camera.
BH: This might be a New England kind of question, but I’m curious about how you shot the evolution of the pool. Did you shoot it in that order where it was pristine and clean and then got dirty and then got remodeled?
AL: Nothing was shot in actual sequential order, including the pool. When we found the pool, it was in Summer 2 where it was already dirty and grimy and green. We started there, emptied it out for the following summer, cleaned it out for the next summer, and then filled it up for the first summer. That’s what made the logistics of shooting the film difficult, because obviously we couldn’t shoot it sequentially. It’s way too expensive to do that with all the things — [especially] because the house also had to change. The house might be in Summer 3 outside but inside, the living room was Summer 1 and then the bedroom was Summer 4. It was playing around with what stage the house was, and then adapting to what scenes we should do based on that.
BH: Correct me if I’m wrong, but the film ends with the sisters at the age that I presume is where Vicente was at the beginning of the movie. How did you decide to end the movie with this stage in their life?
AL: That felt like a natural place, like it can’t go on forever, right? Life goes on forever, but films have to have a beginning, middle, and end. The last summer is completely fictionalized. None of that happened. Some of the other summers — there are at least elements that are semi-autobiographical. But the last summer has none of it based on reality, and I wanted to both evoke the feeling that so much can remain unanswered — and that’s part of life, like you don’t always get the big answers to your questions — but I still wanted to create a semblance of an ending. When you find them in their 20s, that’s like the precipice of leaving your childhood behind and moving forward. It leaves the audience with the task of figuring out, do they ever go back? What is the relationship with your father like? I didn’t want to answer those questions. I wanted to leave those open.
BH: As you mentioned before, the movie touches upon personal elements in your life. You mentioned talking to your sister first and formulating this movie. Has your sister been part of the filmmaking process? Has she seen the final product?
AL: She had seen several of the drafts and she was on set for some of it and she had seen it. I always say semi-autobiographical, because it’s not a reflection of my life, her life, or who my father was. It just has some truths that are inspired by my interpretation of that experience. But if her or my other sister were to make the film, it would be completely different. She was at the Sundance for the premiere, which was really sweet.
BH: Ah, cool! How was Sundance? Was it your first time there?
AL: It was my first time there. It was beautiful, chaotic, astonishing, every emotion. I also ended up getting very sick and got the Sundance flu. Everyone’s like, yep, that happens [laughs]. It felt like a rite of passage.
In the Summers
2024
dir. Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio
98 mins
In the Summers opens Friday, 9/27 @ Coolidge Corner Theatre
