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“I Knew Exactly How to Bring It to the Screen”: Marco Calvani on High Tide
High Tide Italian playwright Marco Calvani makes his feature film debut as a writer-director with High Tide, a Provincetown-set indie drama that centers on the need for communal tenderness after a heartbreak.
Lourenço (Marco Pigossi, now Calvani’s husband) considers P-town a paradise. Having left his native Brazil years ago in order to live life as an out gay man (a fact he still conceals from his mother), the queer enclave provides ample community and connection for the handsome young man. However, recent events have made the locale feel more oppressive than he expected: his long-term boyfriend up and left without warning, visa prospects look increasingly dismal and the former accountant must work demanding odd jobs to make ends meet.
Even amidst this turmoil, his natural magnetism opens up new avenues of opportunity—though some end up asking more from Lourenço than he is comfortable giving. There’s Scott (Bill Irwin), a gay elder whose husband sadly passed away years ago and whose guest house Lourenço lives in rent-free; Miriam (Marisa Tomei), the ex-wife of his unpleasant boss (Sean Mahon) who he befriends after arriving on a job to paint her house; and hunky Maurice (James Bland), a New Yorker who’s in town for the last gasp of New England summer, accompanied by a gaggle of queer friends who all show Lourenço how to get out of his own head—or at least try. While love might be the last thing on the recently-single, undocumented man’s mind, Maurice’s companionship continuously surprises Lourenço during their brief encounter.
I interviewed Calvani via phone call a few days before the film’s NewFest screening and limited theatrical release about his thespian roots, relationship with star Marco Pigossi and the Netflix project he’s currently working on.
Filmmaker: As a filmmaker, High Tide is your feature debut. I’m curious how this process of writing and directing compares to your previous short films and extensive work in the realm of theater.
Calvani: I’ve always been a storyteller, I believe. I started out by saying I wanted to be a director, then for some weird reason I started to say around 14 years old that in order to be a good director I needed to be a good actor. All I know about directing and writing is through my acting training. Then, at the beginning of my 20s, I was like, “I don’t like this.” I didn’t feel in control of the stories I really wanted to tell, so I started to write. Of course, the first play I wrote wasn’t that great, but I was stubborn enough that I found the money, put people together, created a company and put it up. Over the course of a few years, I had a company and was writing, directing and producing. That’s when I stopped acting [full time].
The work itself brought me to New York, where my plays have been performed and produced, but my real first love has always been movies. It’s more accessible, of course, to turn the TV on and watch movies when you are five years old. My family wasn’t really involved in the arts or very curious about that, so my first approach to storytelling was through movies. I always said to myself—very silently, not to everybody—that I want to make a movie.
At some point, The Actors Studio put on a short play of mine, which was a great success. It was directed by Estelle Parsons, who commissioned the play from me. [Watching from] the audience, I was like, “This could be a great short film. We must do it.” I knew I wanted to direct it, and that’s how it started. [The short was called] The View from Up Here with Melissa Leo. Once I started, I didn’t want to go back. But filmmaking is not accessible, especially if you are a nobody [laughs]. I was able to make a second short film while I was still working in theater, then the pandemic hit. I was working on two other screenplays, but something told me that I had to write the story of High Tide. I don’t even know why I started writing it, because at that time, who was going to produce a film? But I kept going, and now I know why I was writing it. I’d never told a queer story before, and needed to make some kind of investigation into who I really was. I have to thank the space and time that the pandemic allowed me to have, so I could push the boundaries of my own creativity.
I think this is the first work of mine that is more delicate and vulnerable. At the same time, I feel like it is the most political. I don’t think I would have been able to talk about love, connection, companionship and heartbreak in that way if I didn’t have all those years of playwriting and [theater] directing.
Filmmaker: This film also marked your first collaboration with your husband Marco Pigossi. What made this project feel perfect for casting Marco in the lead role and how did you approach directing him?
Calvani: I met Marco when I was almost done with the first draft of High Tide. [Lourenço] was already a Latino character. Initially he was Italian, for obvious reasons [laughs]. The day we met, we had such a wonderful conversation about coming out and what it means to be a queer man in a foreign country—the topics that we address in the film. I remember looking him in the eye when he was telling me these things and thinking, “Oh, wow. Maybe Lourenço is Brazilian.” Of course, I was also falling in love with him. I changed the whole [script] to Brazilian themes without telling him. I am very protective of what I write, but when I finally finished the script, I gave it to him. It was like a gift that he wasn’t expecting. From that moment on, my script became our film, our baby [laughs]. By the time we went on set, there was complete trust, respect and confidence. It had been two years of us basically raising this child of ours, trying to find a producer and financing. Everyone was so scared for us, but it was actually such a fantastic experience. If anything, it actually deepened our relationship and our commitment to each other.
But the only thing that I did [enforce] was not living together [during production]. Of course we brought our love to set, but as a director, you never stop. The actor needs to stop, he needs to learn his lines, he needs to rest. But during those weeks of production, we needed that boundary to save our relationship.
Filmmaker: I know you lived in Provincetown for a period of time. What locations felt most vital for you to capture, both in terms of physical and emotional significance?
Calvani: For emotional significance, it would probably be the little guest house/cottage where Lourenço lives. That is exactly where I used to live when I was in Provincetown and writing the [High Tide] script. The day when I went back to Provincetown and asked my friends if I could shoot their guest house and main house, and they said yes, was one of the best days of my life—after my wedding, of course!
Also, we were the first film crew ever to be allowed to shoot in the marshes of Provincetown and Herring Cove Beach. It’s a national seashore, so that was both incredible and very difficult for an independent film crew. Really high tides come in at 5 p.m. every day, so it was a challenge. But that is the essence of Provincetown for me. It’s at the edge of this peninsula, the Cape, and to be able to capture that beauty and splendor was such an honor.
Filmmaker: Speaking of capturing images, Oscar Ignacio Jiménez’s cinematography is striking here. How did you come to work together and what conversations did you have about aesthetic choices?
Calvani: I saw Oscar’s work in The Killing of Two Lovers and fell in love. I went straight to him and he said yes right away. I remember him saying, “Wow, I’ve never had a first conversation with a director who knows exactly what he wants.” As a first-time feature filmmaker, I thought, “Nice!” But I knew the place so well and exactly where I wanted everything to be. I didn’t have to go out looking for a location, I knew where everything was taking place. I wrote the script there, I knew the light, I knew the movement of color. I knew exactly how to bring it to the screen.
Of course, Oscar brought so much more to it. Initially, I really wanted to shoot on film. It was really my dream. My second short film, A Better Half, is shot on film. But we couldn’t do it, money-wise. We tried shooting [on film] at the beach, but it was impossible. So, our conversation switched to how we could get that vintage look you get with film. We also had extensive conversations about lenses and our references. We both love the work of Chloé Zhao, Andrea Arnold and Eliza Hittman, three female directors who work with film. Eliza works with bodies and actors in such a sensual and raw way. Chloé captures landscapes so wonderfully. For me, that specifically was a great combination to use for High Tide.
Filmmaker: Going back to the cast, it features actors of vastly different backgrounds. You have Bill Irwin, who revitalized vaudeville-style theatrical performances in the ’70s, your previous collaborator and Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei as well as Giants web series creator and star James Bland in the mix, all playing characters that feel hyper-naturalistic. Can you speak about the overall casting process and what these actors may have uniquely brought to the table?
Calvani: James Bland was a real find, because it was very hard to cast that role, It took us quite some time. I had a very specific idea about the character. He needed to be taller than Marco, who is tall already, and I wanted an openly queer actor. Someone who is very sensual, sensitive and strong at the same time, and available for the price that we were offering! I went online and did a deep dive—of course we had a casting director—but I watched Giants in five hours and was like, “I want to meet this guy on Monday.” When I met him, we had this conversation that made me feel like I was falling in love again. This was 20 days before we started production. Before I forget, I have to say now that we shot the film in 17 days. Anyway, James loved the script. When we met on Zoom, we were both having butterflies. He had committed himself to telling stories about being queer and Black in America at that specific time. He brought so much sensitivity to these conversations we were having about racism and living in white spaces.
When I went to ask Marisa Tomei, I had zero hopes that she would say yes. Even though we worked together before and she loves my work, it’s not a lead role. But she loved the character right away. She brings so much light to everything she touches. All of her lines in the film are my friends’ favorites.
Bill was just the cherry on top of the cake. His son is gay, but he’s never played a gay character before, so he really wanted this role. He’s such a wonderful human being and such a gentle soul. He was also so curious about the community. When he arrived [in Provincetown], he really dove into Scott so profoundly. I feel very lucky to have had such a cast. You mentioned that they’re all very naturalistic, and I think they all related so much to the script in different forms. Even Marisa loves the film—she’s not queer, she’s not a man, she’s not an immigrant, but that story of heartbreak, abandonment and betrayal speaks so much to her. I think everybody really felt the urgency of the script in different forms. We all aligned on why we wanted to tell this story right now. It was beautiful.
Filmmaker: The film examines social divides and the shifting boundaries emblematic of these relationships through a queer lens: older vs. younger generations, American vs. immigrant experiences, straight vs. queer, woman vs. man. What made these themes feel particularly ripe for critique or exploration?
Calvani: Sometimes I feel that the movie is really about the need for connection with somebody else and the despair of losing that. Everybody deals with falling in love, with a lack of love, with the hunger for love, with the compulsion of love. These elements are all so out there in Provincetown. Everybody’s there with their own personality and it is a place where being queer is the majority, so everybody there is fully themselves. These are the themes that have always been of interest to me: relationships, how to engage with one another and what makes you feel close to somebody else or vice versa. If you think of the character of Scott, there is still so much attached to the husband who passed away years ago. And Marisa Tomei’s character is still dealing with this breakup with her former husband. Everybody needed to speak to the theme in a different way. But something I rarely see in films with so much honesty is this discourse around social and ethnic differences and the deep meaning of long-lasting companionship. I also felt the duty of telling [a story] like that at a particular time. I was deeply homophobic inside, yet I’ve been a gay man all my life. I didn’t even know, but I was carrying homophobia. It was actually [living in] Provincetown and working on High Tide that revealed that to me. It’s actually quite a profound thing to say, but I’m confident that this is the truth. I can see now, after four years of working on the film, the deep effect that had on me.
Filmmaker: You mentioned before our interview that you’re in the middle of shooting something right now. I’d love to know more about that project, or maybe anything else you have on the horizon?
Calvani: I will surprise you right now. I was dying to go back to directing on set, and I had two scripts ready to go. One is with Marco Pigossi again and I can’t reveal much of the other one. We were ready to move forward with financing, and I probably would have been back on set at the beginning of 2025. But in June, a big gift came my way: a job as an actor. So, I’m on set, not shooting behind the camera, but actually in front of it. It’s crazy, because I stopped considering myself an actor a long time ago. The last [acting] job I had was 15-16 years ago, and I was happy with that. But now I am on set with The Four Seasons, the new Tina Fey Netflix show. It’s a remake of Alan Alda’s film of the same title from the early ’80s with Rita Moreno, Carol Burnett and Alan Alda. It’s a remake into an eight 30-minute episodes series with Steve Carrell and Colman Domingo, and I play the Rita Moreno character. In the 2024 version of the story, I am Colman Domingo’s husband.
Filmmaker: Wow!
Calvani: Yeah, it was very hard to say no. When this [project] came along, I saw it as an obstacle in the beginning, because I had everything lined up, including the release of High Tide. There are things I cannot do for the release of the film because I’m busy on set. And then everyone was like, “You’re crazy, just say yes to this.” So I did. We started a month ago, so [production will last] three months, more or less. It’s a comedy, very elegant, clever and full of heart. But you watched High Tide—it’s not a comedy. It’s not something I immediately feel like I belong to, but I’m having fun. It’s such a great group of people. We’ll see, maybe I’ll direct a comedy next time.
Filmmaker: And what about those scripts you have ready?
Calvani: I remember telling my manager that I would only do this show if in 2025 we make this [script]. That’s where my heart really is. It’s my story and I can’t wait to be on set. Making a film is a miracle, but it’ll be all set for March, maybe. We are working on it. It feels in the vein of High Tide, but I also think it’s a departure for me, in terms of plot and the architecture of the story. I’m very excited.
