Alexandra McGuinness

In some ways, Lotus Eaters is a journey disguised as a party film; there's a circus in the movie, and there are parties, but the real story is of an internal journey. There's themes of emptiness and excess and beauty and grief around it, but it's always surrounded by these glamorous events, and those are ways of waylaying her on her journey in the same way that it is in the ancient Greek story.

Alexandra McGuinness

party grief real

We wanted to have in Lotus Eaters something that looks really beautiful on the outside but is not necessarily on the inside. There's a lot of superficial references. I remember we were looking at Helmut Newton's photographs - they just look so glossy and beautiful, but you look closely and you can see the cellulite.

Alexandra McGuinness

photograph remember beautiful

Everyone in the Lotus Eaters is so concerned with appearances, but there's an emptiness under the surface that they're trying to ignore. We talked about the theme of perception versus reality a lot with mirrors and masks what people were wearing - and we shot on two formats; we shot it on film and on digital, and a lot of the night-time scenes are film, and it looks better, and people can put on a mask and they can go out there and show an artifice to the world.

Alexandra McGuinness

perception reality people

Lotus Eaters is a movie about people who can't really be alone, but they're always alone, really, even when they're together.

Alexandra McGuinness

together people