Inside The Phoenician Scheme: Martin Scali on Collaboration, Craft, and the Joy of Working with Wes Anderson
The Phoenician Scheme. Photo courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus.
It is always exciting whenever Wes Anderson releases a new movie. The delightfully quirky characters, witty deadpan humour, and imaginative worlds he creates are always an absolute joy to experience. His newest film, The Phoenician Scheme, follows businessman Anatole "Zsa-Zsa" Korda (played by Benicio Del Toro), who appoints his only daughter, a nun named Sister Liesl (played by Mia Threapleton), as the sole heir to his estate in an attempt to secure the future of his empire. While embarking on a new business endeavour, the two of them, along with their tutor Bjørn Lund (played by Michael Cera), must deal with deadly assassins, cunning tycoons, and foreign terrorists. The Phoenician Scheme is visually stunning, the funniest movie Anderson has made since The Grand Budapest Hotel, has a smooth balance of goofiness and sincerity, and features a career-best and scene-stealing performance by Cera.
Recently, REVERIE chatted with second unit director Martin Scali about The Phoenician Scheme.
“I think The Phoenician Scheme is Wes going back to what he does best, which is having very witty interactions between characters,” says Scali. “The past films he has done, maybe not Asteroid City.... But The French Dispatch was a lot more visual, conceptual, and about shape and image. The Phoenician Scheme, truly, when I read it, I felt like it was the core of what Wes was. I found it incredibly funny. It has this thing where it is a mix of nostalgia, and there is something just about the interaction with the characters in that script that really struck me as ‘Oh, this is cool.’”
Seeing Del Toro in a more prominent role than what he had in The French Dispatch really intrigued Scali. “The French Dispatch was a collection of short snippets and short films, and at the end of the day, the presence of Benicio was not that long,” shares Scali. “Also, the character was incredibly interesting but very silent, and this time [in The Phoenician Scheme], it was a chatty character. I was very, very enthused about Benicio playing that type of character.”
As the second unit director, Scali works very closely with Anderson, making sure that everything runs smoothly and according to plan. “I’m at the service of the film, a sort of Marshall of what the film requires or needs,” says Scali. “Whatever Wes wants, I am here to help him do… In pre-production, he builds and puzzles everything together. The blueprints are very clear. Everyone knows where they’re headed. Whenever something gets on my desk, I already have a good idea of what needs to be done. Also, because I’ve made so many films with Wes, I am familiar with his visuals, his aesthetics, and his priorities for whatever he wants. I’m a force of proposition, like I know where he is headed, and I can propose things that are going to go in his direction. I am mostly in touch with him about what has to be done. Then I go and I forward that to production and make sure that it works, and it happens the way he wants it to happen.”
The Phoenician Scheme required the second unit to do a lot more work than they did on Anderson's previous films. "We were required for a lot of shots," says Scali. "The second unit ended up filming every day from crew call to wrap. There were nonstop things that we were getting on our plates. We were constantly receiving new things to do, whether it was a technically complicated shot that Wes wanted someone to dig their hands into and take the time to make properly, or an element that was meant to be in one shot but was too time-consuming for Wes… For multiple reasons, I pretty unexplainably missed three official screenings of that film. I ended up going to see it with my Mom, who lives in Spain, and I went to Spain when it came out. The first time I saw the film, it was with my Mom. I told my Mom, ‘I’m going to pinch your thigh every time there is a shot in the film that I have made or that I participated in.’ After 10 minutes of the movie, she started saying, ‘Stop, this is annoying.’”
Along with being the second unit director, Scali has a small role in The Phoenician Scheme, playing one of the Radical Freedom Militia Corps. “Ever since the first film that we have ever done together, Wes has always commented at the beginning of the film, saying like ‘Hey Martin, maybe you should stop shaving, or maybe you should stop cutting your hair, in that ‘I have an idea for a character for you,’” explains Scali. “This was the first time that I had a role, and you cannot see me. I am meant to be a soldier, but you barely see me. Then, I am meant to be a pilot on a chopper, and you barely see a glimpse of me in the background. But I finally managed to have a part in a Wes Anderson film. A funny anecdote, I would say, is that it became a joke amongst the team members that I always get promised a big part and always end up not being in the film.”
Anderson’s longtime cinematographer Robert “Bob” Yeoman did not return for The Phoenician Scheme, making it the first live-action film of Anderson’s not to be shot by Yeoman. Bruno Delbonnel was the cinematographer for The Phoenician Scheme. Having Delbonnel as the cinematographer meant that Scali and the rest of the second unit had to adapt to his approach to shooting films. “Bruno has made a lot of insane films, and obviously, as the genius that he is, he is very controlling about his work and is very precise,” says Scali. “Bob and I made so many films together. He knew that he could trust me. Whereas Bruno Delbonnel, at the beginning, was a bit surprised that there was a second unit that was filming things that would end up being in the film. He wasn’t liking that he wasn’t technically involved in those. So, for the beginning, for him it was a challenging thing, and it was a challenging thing for us because we were trying to make it work the way he wanted, but he was working with the first unit, so he had very little time for us. At the beginning, it was a bit challenging because, obviously, we were showing the results of what we are doing to Wes, but in this case, for The Phoenician Scheme, we also had to end up running it through Bruno. This helped us get more independent by applying the things Bruno liked. This got me to gather a lot of knowledge in lighting.”
As one would expect from a Wes Anderson film, The Phoenician Scheme has several gorgeously colourful and beautifully breathtaking sets, all of which immerse the viewer into its unique world. “The sets are always amazing,” states Scali. “The tunnel scene with Bryan Cranston and Tom Hanks, we shot in the longest studio in all of Europe. The entire tunnel has been built from beginning to end, even though we only used the middle part of it… Basically, every set has something crazy about it, and that’s all thanks to the work of Adam Stockhausen, the production designer. He's amazing. The collaboration [between him] and Wes is insane."
One of Scali's favourite scenes happens in this tunnel. "When Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston [start] playing basketball in the middle of the tunnel, it's such nonsense," he laughs. “I have to be honest, up until we were producing it, even while we were fabricating it, I was like, ‘What the fuck! This is never gonna be funny or work.’ But then, when I saw it in a theatre, people were crying laughing at it. It is absolutely hilarious with the timing and the awkwardness of it.”
Scali’s favourite thing about working on The Phoenician Scheme or any Anderson film is reuniting with the cast and crew. “We always end up being together in one hotel for the length of like four months, and it is sort of for the main cast and heads of department: it’s this place where we work, where we sleep, where we eat, and where we discuss things,” he shares. “That always makes it super exciting ‘cause you meet with people who you have worked with in the past. It is like a family reuniting… There is a joke among us in that every time a shoot finishes, everyone looks at each other and is like, ‘Oh, that was my last one. I think I am done with this.’ Then, a year and a half after Wes sends an email like ‘Hey guys, what about this and everyone ends up calling each other, and we end up doing it all the time.”
Currently Scali is working on his first feature film, ‘Rubis,’ which Vixens will produce. “Funny enough, my way of directing and the way I stage my films has very little to do with Wes,” he comments. Despite this, Scali still shares that Anderson's influence works its way into everything he films. “Whatever I’m shooting, whether it’s a commercial, a short film, or obviously my feature, I always find myself having a few shots where I’m like, ‘Whoa, this is completely influenced by Wes.’ All of a sudden, I will get completely obsessed with things being symmetrical and that visual harmony, even though my film is completely unrelated to the Wes world… Another thing that has influenced me a lot is that he has an incredible capacity of achieving what he has in mind. He never really takes no for an answer, but never really gets into a conflict. He has a very subtle way of reaching what he wants to reach. One of the best lessons I got from him is to never set so for something that’s not what you had in mind to begin with. Filmmaking can be super tough and challenging – getting your projects made requires constant energy and personal fighting – a lot of brainpower. Working episodically with Wes allows me to get out of my head, put my own projects on the side and let them simmer for a little while, and go back to the pure cinematic craftsmanship – like a cabinetmaker – which is ultimately the core of why we do the job we do. I’m really grateful for that, and it’s very refreshing. Wes is very good at moviemaking, obviously. I really admire him for that.”