Rotterdam 2009: Alexis dos Santos Rolls Around “Unmade Beds”

The buzz is building around Alexis dos Santos' swoony sophomore effort, "Unmade Beds." Premiering at...

Did you encourage a lot of improvisation?

I like working with improvisation a lot. I like the life it can bring to performances when you give actors space. They can come up with ideas you hadn’t thought of.

Was the threesome scene improvised? It has a very loose feel.

That scene in the script is four lines. We knew they would get involved somehow, but we weren’t sure how it was going to happen. It starts with music and dancing, but we brought all these wigs, props and costumes onto the set and gave them to the actors to role play. Katia Winter was putting wigs on. In one scene, she’s blond, then she’s got black hair. From that playfulness, the whole scene was built.

What was the atmosphere like on the set?

Well, we partied a lot. The squat was the location, and when we had a party on the set, we’d throw cigarette butts and cans on the floor, and the art director would be happy because it’s what he needed for the shoot.

“Unmade Beds” currently has no U.S. distribution.

[Additional photo: Déborah François in "Unmade Beds," Film4, 2009;

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