Cannes 2023: Riddle of Fire | Interview of Weston Razooli (Directors’ Fortnight)

We had a great time meeting and interviewing Weston Razooli, director of Riddle of Fire, which premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight, as part of the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

Receiving the honor of having the cover for the latest Cahiers du Cinema magazine, Weston Rizooli’s debut feature, Riddle of Fire, presented at the 2023 Directors’ Fortnight, maneuvers through screwball quests and challenges from three amazing child performances all to find the speckled egg in the American Midwest. Rizooli’s madcap journey of childhood friendship and adventure calls back to entertaining and magical cinema. Rizooli portrays an ingenious adventure story with endless possibilities, calling back the youthful spirit of past times. We had the pleasure of discussing this exciting kind of American Midwest Miyazaki-esque tale with its maker, Weston Razooli.

Film Fest Report: Tell us about the casting process: how did you find the children, who are stunning in the film?

Weston Razooli: I had a great casting director named Jeff Johnson, who was the premier Utah casting director. He cast Hereditary (Ari Aster) and the Utah Midsommar (Ari Aster) shoot and the show Yellowstone. It was during COVID so we were only looking at tapes that he sent me, you know, tapes. We saw only about 40 actors for the role of Jodie. And only four actors got callbacks, who ended up playing in the film. The crazy thing is that there was no chemistry reads. I actually cast them without them meeting each other because of budget constraints. I just felt they were going to work well together.

Film Fest Report: Did you have fun directing those young actors?

Weston Razooli: It was really fun! They were really into the story, which is an action adventure. It’s a fun movie with a lot of running and biking. It was kind of like summer camp, too. Plus, kids are into it and do not have the actor ego. So, you can direct them very directly: “faster, slower, bigger…”. Whereas with adults, you have to be careful and not damage the egos.

Film Fest Report: How did you handle shooting on 16mm? Did you have to shoot a lot of takes?

Weston Razooli: No, we averaged on 2 to 3 takes because SAG allows you 8 hours with the kids per day, but it’s really six and a half hours. Because they start the clock when they leave the hotel. So, the pace was really uncomfortable. It was very fast. And it made editing pretty tough too.

Film Fest Report: Tell us about the video game story style of the film?

Weston Razooli: I just love that as a story structure. Because if you have very entertaining characters and you keep a simple story, something is missing. I think it is a very satisfying rabbit hole to go down with all the side quests and all the characters. Specifically, when I was writing the script, I was replaying Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. They are the two Gameboy Color Zelda games that are so beautiful. And there are so many levels. I find it fascinating and I wanted those games to influence my film.

Film Fest Report: I am impressed by how unusual and weird the characters and places are in the film. Can you tell us about your influences?

Weston Razooli: Miyazaki is my number one favorite filmmaker. He’s the best in my opinion. As major inspirations, I wanted Miyazaki to meet Twin Peaks, Little Rascals and 70s fantasy like Fantastic Planet (René Laloux, 1973). Other big influences for this film are some old live action Disney movies that are pretty much forgotten. One of them is called The Apple Dumpling Gang (Norman Tokar, 1975) which deals with three kids that are kind of troublemakers. But they are left in a town and this gambling man has to take care of them. It is sort of a comedy. And then, there is one called The Biscuit Eater (Vincent McEveety, 1972) and another called Escape to Witch Mountain (John Hough, 1975) Disney went out on a limb to do something weird in the seventies and I wanted to bounce on this vibe of magic kids. As for the places, we shot in my hometown of Park City, Utah, in the forests where I would go playing as a kid. This is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful, epic places in the world. And I love forests. I just love adventuring in the in the mountains, going fishing and getting into adventures there.

Film Fest Report: Were there any specific autobiographical elements to the script?

Weston Razooli: Definitely! This movie is kind of like my childhood pumped to the max. I grew up riding motorcycles, dirt bikes and paintballing with friends, etc. Downhill mountain biking in high school, or bike racing, the fly fishing… Another cool autobiographical piece is the A-frame house where the kids live. This house is way out in the mountains, and growing up I would always look out to it and wonder who lives there? When scouting locations, I decided to go there for the first time. It was really hard to get that location but we got it ended up the perfect house to shoot into, because the main room is so spacious. It was such a beautiful place. A dream location. So, it was like full circle, to be able to make a movie there.