Crowned with the Golden Lion for Best Film in Venice and the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival,
Nomadland
has positioned itself from the start in pole position of the awards season. Shortlisted for six Oscars, Chloe Zhao's elegiac road trip celebrates freedom, the great outdoors and those who choose a modern-day nomadic existence and ply the asphalt of America. It should in all probability win the queen statuettes for best film and best director. And thus enter Hollywood history: Chloe Zhao would be the second director to be thus distinguished after Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 for
Minesweepers
.
The Chinese would also be the first colored filmmaker to break this glass ceiling.
An ultimate triumph for an atypical film which should be released on our screens, if the theaters reopen on June 9.
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Originally a reportage book
An ode to freedom, wandering and also loneliness
, Nomadland
follows the journey of Fern, a widow in her sixties, played by Frances McDormand. She leaves her mining town literally ruined and wiped off the map by the 2008 surcharge crisis. All the inhabitants of the town have been evicted and the postal code erased from the registers. Rather than cohabiting with his sister, Fern takes to the road in his campervan and adopts a modern nomadic life, breaking with the standards of society. She will multiply the meetings within this community. In contact with his companions for an evening, nature, craggy rocky landscapes and the starry sky, Fern will assert his independence.
Nomadland
crosses eight states in the western United States, from the Badlands of South Dakota to the Nevada desert to the Pacific Northwest. It is inspired by the book of the same name published in 2017 by Jessica Bruder and translated into French in 2019 by Globe editions. The independent American journalist stayed among these gray-haired retirees who crisscross the United States in their small motorhomes, living between deserts and odd jobs, but free. Half of his work detailed this nomadic life. The other part is an undercover report. Jessica Bruder was, like those whose lives she shared, enlisted incognito at Amazon and harvested beets. Two temporary jobs that Fern has in the film.
To read also: Jessica Bruder: "American nomads look like" yellow vests ""
Frances McDormand initiator of the project
The actress was first the producer of
Nomadland
.
In 2017, she and Peter Spears, producer of
Call Me By Your Name
, purchased the rights to the investigation from Jessica Bruder.
A few months later at the Toronto Festival, Frances McDormand attends a screening of
The Rider
on a severely disabled rider following a rodeo accident.
The modern western is signed by a certain Chloe Zhao.
Frances McDormand understands that she has just found her director.
But the two-time Oscar winner is reluctant to star in
Nomadland.
Then let himself be convinced by Zhao who believes that having a star of his caliber can help convince studio and moviegoers to let themselves be embarked on a story where the protagonists are the elderly and the marginalized.
Frances McDormand, like her character, packed packages for Amazon, served in the Badlands National Park cafeteria, and oversaw the beet harvest.
Searchlight
Like Bruder and Zhao who was in the process of fitting out her own van when Frances McDormand met her, the actress immersed herself in this nomadic way of life.
She and the small crew of the film, made up of 36 people, traveled in vans, slept in motels and watched the blue hour of twilight, between dog and wolf, where many scenes take place, almost dreamlike and spooky. , from the movie.
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Frances McDormand, like her character, packed packages for Amazon, served in the Badlands National Park cafeteria, and oversaw the beet harvest.
Most of the time incognito.
The actress wanted to feel the rhythm of these nomads of modern times.
With Chloe Zhao, she also integrated elements of her life into that of her character of Fern by decorating her van with personal items such as this porcelain service offered by her father.
Frances McDormand brought her hobbies like crochet and weaving to the set and in front of the camera.
During the six months of filming, she knitted and donated more than 75 potholders.
The experience stuck with her.
In the American daily
USA Today,
Frances McDormand confided in preparing for this spring a road-trip in a motorhome to visit friends on the east coast before reaching Canada where his next feature film is being filmed.
For
Nomadland
, the actress could receive two Oscars this Sunday, one as a producer and one as a performer.
If so, she will enter the very closed club to which Meryl Streep of triple award-winning actresses belongs.
Between documentary and fiction, the Zhao method
In
The Rider,
the 39-year-old filmmaker was already working with amateur actors from the Indian reservation where the plot took place.
For
Nomadland
, the director wanted to push this concept to the limit.
Apart from David Strathairn (
Lincoln
), neighbor and friend of Frances McDormand, and the actress, the entire cast of Nomadland is made up of real nomads who play their own roles and tell their experiences on screen.
To put them at ease in front of the camera, Chloe Zhao left a lot of room for improvisation.
Like her partners, Frances McDormand had to play and be in the moment.
Frances McDormand convinced Chloe Zhao to shoot the film;
Chloe Zhao convinced Frances McDormand to play it.
Searchlight
Among the most striking faces are Linda May, Swankie and Bob Wells who become Fern's mentors.
Chloe Zhao, who is also an editor and screenwriter of her film, selected certain people whom Bruder portrayed but also sought pillars of this nomadic community.
Bob Wells gave him a list of people to contact, listing their hobbies, equipment etc.
One of these, a young man named Derek, even made the film crew.
“
What I wanted to do was step into this world and explore a unique American identity: that of the true nomad,
” explains Chloe Zhao.
Searchlight
Although the economic crisis is the backdrop to Fern's odyssey, it is not the main point. “
My goal is not to give a social commentary on the bad things about American capitalism, I am not interested in that. I would prefer to see a documentary on this subject made by someone else,
”says Chloe Zhao in the film's press kit. "
What I wanted to do was step into this world and explore a unique American identity: that of the true nomad
."
Nomadland
exalts the asphalt, the road, this thirst for wide open spaces, travel and roaming, this “wanderlust” at the source of the pioneer spirit. Another side of the American dream.
