Danny Boyle, attending the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2019 for a screening of his film YESTERDAY, once made a touching observation that film is an especially powerful form of time travel; a snapshot of either real or imagined times, or even an opportunity to reflect on people and places we loved. In the case of RETURN, Sophia Carr-Gomm’s latest short film, the death of her friend and lead actor Peter Faulkner during post-production turned the musically-driven exploration of grief, love, and emotional turmoil into one of those time machines: a vehicle for both creative and very real emotional expression. The film – which had a fascinating journey to screen – became a retrospective celebration of Peter’s obvious talent, a view of hidden anguish, and a demonstration of Sophia’s creative spark with him.
Carr-Gomm’s previous short, THE WIDER SUN, won the 2018 TAKE ONE Award for Best Short Film. RETURN foregrounds her growing directorial voice, driving a musically-driven piece without dialogue (which recently won Best Original Score at Carmarthen Bay Film Festival). It also offers a cinematic short with a haunting central performance, rendered all the more poignant by its journey since filming.
Appropriately for a short film where music is one of the key driving forces, the genesis of RETURN sprung from a musical piece. Initially, Carr-Gomm was approached to create a visual accompaniment for a 30-minute piece of music commissioned by the Fieri Consort. “[The original remit] was fitting imagery into their music,” she recalls, “It was a very open brief, [and] I spoke to [composer] Ben Rowarth, and had a conversation. I asked, ‘What are the themes of this?’”. The broad and emotionally substantive feeling in the final version of RETURN was present even in this initial form. “It was a huge topic, [with the] idea of someone in turmoil, going over and over ideas, our connection and separation from people in death and life. My idea is that it’s almost like a shamanic journey: the soul’s journey in preparation to die. And when [the man depicted] dies, he returns to his love, who died when they were younger. I thought of that story or theme in response to the initial music that I heard, and I honed it down to this particular person with this journey. Then, it struck me as actually quite a similar story to Peter’s life.”
“I thought of [the] story or theme in response to the initial music that I heard, and I honed it down to this particular person with this journey. Then, it struck me as actually quite a similar story to Peter’s life.”
The concepts started to develop into something Carr-Gomm felt would resonate with Peter Faulkner, whom she had known since she was twelve years old; Peter was the father of a friend of Carr-Gomm’s who died of cystic fibrosis aged twenty-four. Five years later, Peter’s wife died of cancer. “And so Peter was alone, and he’d experienced the death of the two most important people in his life, and he was also an actor and brilliant actor. I always wanted to work with him.”
Carr-Gomm eventually found the imagery and themes developing deserved a bespoke musical expression. “I then decided that it would be great to have music to go with the film, rather than the other way around,” she explains. This desire led to a new collaboration with composer Ben Rowarth, whose score is now intrinsically woven into the film’s fabric. The result is a harmonic relationship between image and sound, and score and film quite different from the project’s original incarnation. “It’s a different film,” Carr-Gomm states. “The other form,” which she explains came in four chapters stretching over thirty minutes, compared to the 11-minute runtime of RETURN, “is great [but] really different because the original piece of music is only voices, and they’re all singing in different languages.”
“I talked through the script with him and what he would be required to do, if he had any concerns or anything to add. And he was just such a creative man. He was just so up for it.”
At the heart of RETURN is a remarkably emotionally raw performance by Faulkner. His portrayal of a man grappling with a lifetime of loss is expressed in a manner that validates the dialogue-free approach. The fact that Faulkner’s own life harmonises with the film’s themes of love and loss adds another layer of pathos. “I checked with him, because I thought, you know, this is pretty close to the bone. I don’t know if you’ll want to do this, but he said, ‘I really do want to do this.’ I talked through the script with him and what he would be required to do, if he had any concerns or anything to add. And he was just such a creative man. He was just so up for it.”
The collaboration between the director and actor was one of deep trust and shared vision. “A lot of the time, we didn’t worry about the sound. So I was talking to him the whole time while the camera was rolling,” Carr-Gomm explains. “I was giving him words of encouragement, or I was timing it.” This method allowed for moments of unscripted emotion, such as a haunting dance sequence, which serves as one of the film’s most memorable vignettes. “That wasn’t in the script,” she says. “We discussed how emotional pain can manifest in physical form, using this as a frame of reference, I asked him to just move to this music. He was just so full of creative spirit to just try stuff.”
The news of Peter’s death by suicide in the January after filming concluded imbued the film with a new and profound sense of responsibility for Carr-Gomm. “It made me feel like… this is quite uncanny. [It] definitely made me feel fueled for it to get out,” she reflects. The film’s meditation on mortality became a tribute to a man whose energy and experiences shine out of every frame alongside the director’s vision for them.
“I feel like this film is quite extraordinary in some ways. This film was the last piece of work that he did, and he was so happy with it.”
The film’s visual landscape provides an apt canvas for the emotional brushstrokes. Each shot in Sussex, Scotland, and the New Forest is clearly and meticulously composed. The result is a film with sweeping imagery but an intimate focus; the grand and the personal live in tune. RETURN is a work of art born from an unconventional process, conveying a heartbreaking feeling of loss and a beautiful celebration of life, and whose extratextual backdrop adds impact.
Peter Faulkner, Sophia Carr-Gomm, and their collaborators created a powerful short film and gave us a final glimpse of an actor whose talent is evident and missed. “The last time I saw him was at the premiere of the film, an internal one for the cast and crew, and then he died by suicide three months later. I want this film to highlight scenes of isolation and loneliness and how grief can affect people. [Peter] had a lot of very good friends, and he was in a community who loved him very much, which he’d lived in for years. But, despite that, the loss of his wife and his daughter was just too great. I feel like this film is quite extraordinary in some ways. This film was the last piece of work that he did, and he was so happy with it.”