A young couple has the meal of a lifetime in Director Mark Mylod’s black comedy, The Menu.
Mylod’s film tells the story of A-list couple Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), who travel to a remote island to eat at Hawthorne, an exclusive restaurant run by celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). The plan is to have a lavish molecular gastronomy menu where food is treated as conceptual art. But the chef has some shocking surprises for his wealthy guests.
On November 13, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Mylod discussed the making of The Menu during a Q&A moderated by Director Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers).
During the conversation, Mylod spoke about the challenges of making a story set in limited locations feel more dynamic.
“That was the scariest bit actually. How do you make a film where a lot of the time people are sat down in one space, cinematic? I took inspiration from brilliant films … Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, where he kind of weaponizes the architecture so it feels intensely cinematic even though a lot of the action is taking place in one house. We crafted in the production design to have that open plan kitchen so when the camera is with the diners in the dining room, you've got that through line to the to the kitchen. So even though it's kind of unfocused, you've always got that lurking presence, that noise, that movement, that military choreography, so that's kind of a physical looming threat particularly as the film progresses. Then you swing 180 degrees and you're looking through that lovely big window out at the freedom of the ocean and the thing that you most covet is so close, but you can't get through that glass. And, of course, by having that transition as the sun goes down and you kind of tighten the spotlight on them and, hopefully, more tension to put more pressure on those characters.”
Mylod’s other directorial credits include the feature films The Big White and What’s Your Number?; the movies for television, The Royle Family: The New Sofa and Washingtonienne; the pilot for the series Once Upon a Time; and episodes of Shameless, Game of Thrones, Entourage, United States of Tara and Ali G Indahouse. He was nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series for his 2019 Succession episode, “This Is Not for Tears.” He won the award in that category for his 2021 Succession episode “All the Bells Say.”
Mylod has been a DGA member since 2006.
You can listen to Mylod's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.