There’s a Safdie Brothers aesthetic to Gareth Bowen’s new short The Licensed Fool. Despite the film being set in a Medieval past, it carries that gritty, textured look that we’ve come to expect from New York’s brightest filmmakers. Story-wise, it follows a travelling court jester who begins to unravel when he learns of a sinister motive behind his hiring for an upcoming performance. Whilst, from what I’ve said so far, this may sound like a tense, charged affair, Bowen’s film actually has a comedic quality to it as well, with plenty of jokes amidst its twisted folkloric vibes. With the short currently playing festivals, DN joined up with Bowen to break down his journey with the film so far, from the internet rabbit hole that inspired its creation through to the technical specs that inform The Licensed Fool’s distinctive, zoom-lensed look.
When and how did the inception of The Licensed Fool occur?
I wrote the script as a short story in 2020 during lockdown, which was eventually published in a flash fiction magazine called Young Punch which I set up with a group of mates. The initial idea came when being bored at home and going down a deep internet rabbit hole, which ended in reading about jesters.
Pitting a group of depressed heavy drinking jesters together seemed like a rich idea, and from there it turned into a kind of trippy twisted folktale.
What was it about the character of Jester that rang a chord with you?
I loved the idea of a struggling jaded comic, trying to elevate his material above the standard jokes of the time, fart and penis jokes were all the rage, with him believing he’s slightly above the other jesters and fools performing in his industry. Pitting a group of depressed heavy drinking jesters together seemed like a rich idea, and from there it turned into a kind of trippy twisted folktale, and in some ways, the film is a very longwinded fart joke. We knew the only way to make it was to get BFI backing so we were over the moon when they agreed to finance it. Since then The Licensed Fool has turned into a way bigger project and a concept for a feature we are working on.
What does preproduction look like for you? Given that you’re capturing the film mostly on zoom lenses are you storyboarding/thinking about blocking?
During pre-production, I storyboarded most of the film, but then I never really looked at the boards again after that. They are just a nice safety net if I’m on set and feel like I have no idea what I’m doing next. The zoom lenses are great for being able to let actors move around quite freely, but still capturing them in a super tight close up. I wanted it to look chaotic and to a certain extent cobbled together, it was still very much planned out and rehearsed beforehand though. I also did a lot of work with our incredible production designer, Melina Mei Veropoulou, on getting the look and feel right. It’s a period movie so obviously, a lot of research goes into the history of that time, but to really immerse you in the story; it’s the tiny details that really evaluate it.
What struck me off the bat was that great dirty, textured tone of the film. What led you to tell this story with that sensibility?
Our mantra throughout the production was that we wanted it to feel like this film had been dug up from the ground, we wanted it to have a corrosive quality to it. Our references were things like, Monty Python: The Holy Grail, McCabe and Mrs Miller and then anything from John Cassavetes. Even though it’s a medieval movie I wanted it to look and feel like something made in the 70s and we shot most of the film on zoom lenses, mainly on Angineux’s 25-250 and Tribe 7 Blackwings, big thanks to our DOP Wouter Verheul.
The score I feel feeds into that strange, hypnotic quality too. Who did you work with on that aspect of the film?
Music was also a big part of the story and we wanted the score to run for the entire film pretty much. BUØY created this incredible soundscape, which was hypnotic and off-kilter and felt ye-oldy but also very modern. We decided a clarinet should be a running theme throughout the score and BUØY even came onto set when we were shooting and played the score live as the actors were performing for many of the scenes.
Our mantra throughout the production was that we wanted it to feel like this film had been dug up from the ground, we wanted it to have a corrosive quality to it.
How much of a challenge was it nailing the period look of the costumes?
We spent a lot of time during the prep getting the costumes right, and Lucy James our costume designer went above and beyond and did a phenomenal job designing all the looks. For The Licensed Fool himself, we discussed that his jester outfit would be incredibly precious to him as material was a big luxury during that period, and he would have outworn parts of it, have marks and stains, and he would have then repaired bits of it himself.
Are there any other moments during production or collaborators you worked with that jump out to you when you reflect back on the process of making the short?
A highlight was working with Antonio, the donkey who played The Licensed Fool’s mule. Antonio was in Oppenheimer and apparently the latest Dune, he was a total card-carrying professional.
I didn’t really have an ending in the script. I was pretty stumped.
I’m really curious to know how you arrived at that ending.
We actually went into one of the last scenes of the film, the execution scene, and I didn’t really have an ending in the script. I was pretty stumped. And then like some kind of miracle and out of nowhere Pit Bukowski, the actor playing ‘The Licensed Fool’ just let out this huge fart in front of the entire crew and all the extras, it went on for what felt like minutes and it sounded like a piece of music. Luckily, we were rolling and the sound guy turned to me and said, “That’s it. That’s your ending!” and it went straight into the film.
I’m assuming you can’t say too much, but how are you looking to expand The Licensed Fool into a feature?
I can’t really say too much about the feature, as wanky as that sounds, I get a bit cagey about talking about ideas and there have been a couple other shorts that have jumped on the jester bandwagon since The Licensed Fool came out. We’ve been working on the feature for ages now. But what I can say is this, think There Will Be Blood… with fart jokes!
And lastly, what do you have on the horizon in addition to the feature?
Currently, I’m just finishing another short that we shot before this, it’s about a wannabe filmmaker who loses his film and is called, Race For The Cure. I’m editing it with my Producer Alex Handschuh and together we’ve set up a production company called Grody Tavern. We’re developing a handful of animations and live action stuff, collaborating with other directors.
