Miles regularly walks around the dark and rainy streets of London to photograph people in the city’s hidden corners. He posts the images that result from his voyeuristic outings on social media under the pseudonym Rain Catcher, earning him a loyal following. But then, things take a twist and a turn or two – and his work and very existence come under threat. A neighbor seems to notice what the anonymous photographer is doing. And Miles starts to notice a mysterious woman in not just one of his photos.
What is going on!? And is this one of the most commercially-leaning new movies at the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF)? Well, you have to dive into the shadowy atmosphere and immersive cinematic experience that is Rain Catcher, the feature directorial debut of Michele Fiascaris, which plays in the Czech festival’s Proxima Competition program.
But know this: Dudley O’Shaughnessy (Top Boy) plays Miles, and you’ll know or recognize other key cast members of the U.K. production as well. After all, the talent lineup includes Kate Dickie (Dept. Q, The Day of the Jackal, Everybody to Kenmure Street), Jessie Mei Li (Shadow and Bone) and Iris Law (yes, the model and daughter of Jude Law!). And London’s famous Barbican, the Brutalist performance arts center and sprawling residential complex, is one of the stars of the film as well.
And Karlovy Vary’s mayor told THR that Rain Catcher was on her to-watch list for this year’s double anniversary edition of the fest.
Fiascaris wrote the screenplay for Rain Catcher with Filippo Polesel. The director of photography is Evgeny Sinelnikov, and the editor is Mike Pike. James Kermack, Julien Loeffler and Polesel produced the movie, on which Cercamon is handling sales.
THR talked to Fiascaris about what sparked the idea for his neo-noir thrill ride for eyes, ears and the mind, his role models, and how he brought together his cast and got to shoot at the Barbican.
What was the inspiration for Rain Catcher?
We first shot a short film in 2018 [called Rain Catcher]. The inception of that short was actually a random video that we found online, myself and Filippo, the producer and co-writer. It was this strange video of a very long lens shot – a videographer filming a square full of people from a distance. And then there was a guy in the crowd who suddenly turns around, starts looking into the camera, and he’s looking quite angry. And then he starts walking towards the camera, and the videographer starts zooming back and zooming back and zooming back, and he’s getting close. And when the guy is maybe 20 meters away, the cameraman packs up the camera and runs away. But it actually turns out that this man was not looking at him, but was looking at some monument behind him, maybe a building.
Michele Fiascaris, courtesy of Michele Fiascaris
So it was about this idea of somebody who has been spied on realizing they have been spied on, and then turning the tables. They go from victim to perpetrator. So we came up with this idea of a voyeuristic photographer who then suddenly starts noticing a person in his photographs. We thought he could notice this person not once, but multiple times, without ever having realized they were there before.
How did the name and title Rain Catcher come about?
In the short film, there is actually a very specific payoff related to his name. The final twist of the short film is different from the feature’s, but we kept the name because we liked how it sounds, and we like the fact that he basically catches the rain because he’s often on rooftops, exposed to the weather, and in London, it’s so rainy.
How did you cast Dudley in the lead role?
When we did the short film, we met Dudley and he became the lead actor for the short. And we then also cast him for the feature. We brainstormed with him after meeting him and rehearsing, and so we got more ideas for the feature. The character was even molded a little bit on Dudley and his input himself, because he partially inspired the development of the character. Miles is a more introverted, quiet guy who looks at other people’s lives, because he really doesn’t have much of a social life himself. That’s why he looks into windows and into other people’s realities.
Iris Law in ‘Rain Catcher,’ courtesy of KVIFF
How did Iris Law come on board?
Our great casting director, Gary Davy, who has done so many great projects, such as Band of Brothers and a lot of Steve McQueen’s films. He was a big fan of Dudley, so Dudley connected us. Gary put together a list of possible actresses who could play Cassandra, and Iris was one of the names. Because Cassandra sings, he also proposed a few singers, but we felt we needed somebody who can act more, because the singing can be faked or dubbed.
We saw Iris, and we felt, “Wow, she looks so interesting and magnetic,” and really unique. We didn’t realize straight away who she was, in terms of her family or anything. We just thought this girl looks really interesting. She relt right for this role and delivered a really good performance, even in terms of body language. For her young age, and this being one of her first movies, she was very confident and understood the whole dynamic, so she was just great.
Tell me a bit more about the other cast members. I mean how did you get Kate Dickie?
Our co-producers had made a film with her, and they recommended her. She was just perfect for this role. Her presence is just so strong. She doesn’t have many lines until the end, so the thing we needed was somebody with a strong presence and somebody who could intimidate Miles, whose strong and very agile. So, we were looking for somebody with strong charisma and screen presence. So, Kate was perfect. And she was so cool to work with.
And Jessie also did such an amazing job. She was really great. We approached her and wrote this character, and it turns out she’s exactly like that. Her natural vibe is exactly what we needed. She was just perfect.
Jessie Mei Li in ‘Rain Catcher,’ courtesy of KVIFF
The Barbican almost feels like another character in Rain Catcher…
We immediately thought that this was the place. It is just perfect, because first of all, it’s like a labyrinth. There are so many windows, there are thousands of apartments, and there are three towers that are perfect viewpoints. So we knew Miles should be living in one of these and looking all around London. You can see everything when you are in those towers. You almost see London like a LEGO city underneath you. It’s surreal.
And its Brutalist look adds to the atmosphere!
It was a really pioneering building and very futuristic with so many levels. They had these utopian ideas of how to build it, and they wanted to make it a three-dimensional city that was self-sufficient.
I felt Rain Catcher is all about immersive atmosphere. Who or what are your inspirations? And how would you describe the film to people who haven’t seen it yet?
We had a very clear idea of what we wanted. And I have clear film references in my mind. For example, David Fincher was a big inspiration for me, even growing up and in university. I did my final thesis about David Fincher, so Seven was always on my mind when we showed the short film. I was thinking of Seven in terms of the color palette and the whole directing style. But over the years, I also started looking at other filmmakers, such as Brian De Palma. I also love Martin Scorsese.
For the feature, we built on the style of the short and expanded the color palette with more colors, such as the reds and the blues. We wanted this very dark neo-noir with a neon-lit city, giving you the feeling of the underbelly, and also discovering like the city from above.
I describe it as elevated genre. It’s a psychological thriller. In my mind, it’s a neo-noir thriller, but I know that people are not necessarily very familiar with all these terms.
‘Rain Catcher,’ courtesy of KVIFF
Is all the rain in Rain Catcher real, or did you need to use any CGI?
We didn’t need much CGI, only mainly for some rain in certain scenes. But in the rainy opening sequence, that’s all real rain.
And that was really heavy rain, so it was challenging in terms of the camera, the crew and the cast. The crew had a Steadicam and this massive umbrella, with everybody following and pulling focus. But they are a really great crew and really tough, so they didn’t mind the rain or cold. We all just powered through it.
Other rainy scenes have the cast in the car, also with real rain, but nobody’s actually exposed to it. But it was a big deal, and since we shot at night in the rain, it gets colder as well. We mostly were really lucky with the weather.
Do you know what you want to do next?
We are thinking of a body horror, more of a body thriller that focuses on body transformations. It focuses on how in modern times, even just this year, there is all this talk of looksmaxxing and modifying your body, and all this crazy stuff that people think they can do through the advancement of medicine. They think they can just modify everything they are not happy with. This film would be an extreme of that in a future that is very close to our present. It’s about a specific surgery that I don’t want to reveal more about yet. But it would be a very dramatic and mind-bending surgery for body transformation.