Nude Tuesday: New film with Jemaine Clement uses nudity and nonsense to express miscommunication

September 2020. In Makarora, a sparsely populated area two hours north of Queenstown, some of New Zealand's most exciting creative talent are running around naked talking utter gibberish.

It's all in the name of cinema. A bold new Kiwi comedy, Nude Tuesday, is being filmed in an improvised nonsense language. No English is spoken at all. There is a Scandinavian quality to the sounds, but beyond names and a few pre-determined translated words ("yes", "no", "nude") the actors are free to say whatever they like.

Nudity and nonsense. It is unlike anything this writer has ever seen or heard on any set visit in a career of set visits.

"I thought it would just be really fun to get all of our mates together and speak nonsense for weeks on end," says lead actor and writer Jackie van Beek, who conceived the project with creative collaborator Armagan Ballantyne, the director.

Nude Tuesday - a film about communication or the lack of it.

Witnessing this dynamic play out as a scene is filmed is quite something – while the emotional intention is consistent, the sounds uttered from take to take can vary wildly. There is a linguistic consultant present to make sure the actors don't devolve into Muppet-style Swedish Chef impressions, and an intimacy co-ordinator on hand for the full-frontal nude scenes.

"Sometimes I still think: I can't believe we're all here," says van Beek between scenes. "It's like: how did we fool so many people into doing this?"

"The hardest thing is not to laugh in the middle of a take," adds Ballantyne.

I'm standing off to the side, stifling my own guffaws.

Nude Tuesday's plot sees a buttoned-down suburban couple, Laura and Bruno (van Beek and Australian actor Damon Herriman), attending a relationship retreat, where they are quickly shocked out of their comfort zones by a sexed-up guru, Bjorg (Jemaine Clement), and the requirement that everyone goes naked on a certain day of the week.

Jemaine Clement says he was attracted to the boundary-pushing of the Nude Tuesday project.

Van Beek says the language concept speaks to the themes of miscommunication and misinterpretation within relationships that she wanted to explore.

"I'm sure we've all been in relationships where it's like: 'That's not what I meant, that's not what I said.'"

Van Beek's husband, actor and comedian Jesse Griffin, is also in the film, but she assures me that she and Ballantyne, who developed the story together, took most of the inspiration for Laura and Bruno's problems from previous relationships.

"Not a huge amount was from our own marriages," says van Beek. "But certainly we both enjoy having fun with stereotypical gender roles, trying to flip and deconstruct those."

"We'd spend hours reading classic 1970s relationship guides and really delving into the psychology of what it is to be in a marriage. Looking at things like monogamy and autonomy and how to communicate your feelings and your dreams."

As much as humour is the goal, there might actually be some genuine relationship wisdom to be discerned amid the gibberish and genitals.

On a break in shooting, Ballantyne and van Beek explain to Canvas that a script for the film exists so that the actors know what is being conveyed in any moment, but the plan is for others to write the eventual English subtitles, with the idea that there could be multiple versions of the film with entirely different subtitles.

"It makes the whole project feel like this living organism that could continue to change and grow," says van Beek.

Bruno and Laura (Damon Herriman and Jackie van Beek) flank director Armagan Ballantyne.

The Makarora shoot is based at a picturesque holiday camp called Wonderland, where the entire cast and crew is living and working, resulting in a luvvy theatre camp vibe highly conducive to creative expression.

Although van Beek is in front of the camera and Ballantyne is behind it, they are the film's unified driving force. The two met when, prior to shooting her 2018 film The Breaker Upperers, Van Beek asked Ballantyne to dinner to elicit some directorial advice. The dinner went extremely well.

"We were creatively intoxicated with each other," says van Beek. "Our brains kind of merged in a really interesting way because I come from a comedic and theatre background and Armagan had been to film school. We collided in this middle ground and thought: together our brains are going to make quite interesting projects."

The collegial tone on set is also informed by the established friendship between van Beek and Clement, which blossomed from Wellington theatre pal days to frequent collaborators.

Speaking to Canvas at the end of a shoot day, the Kiwi comedy superstar clearly appreciates how the experience contrasts with the big American projects (like the Avatar sequel) that take up much of his time.

"The way that people collaborate [here] is like a really good, healthy way," says Clement. "I've been making a TV show in America the last two years and you have to know all the rules all the time. I like it here; people just figure it out together. It feels a lot more creative."

Clement says he was attracted to the boundary-pushing nature of the project.

"When you make a comedy, you're always trying to please people. But it's good that there is some form of experiment within that."

Herriman, who resolved to work with van Beek after they met at the Australian premiere of The Breaker Upperers ("I was just blown away by her comedic talent"), found the unique shooting process liberating.

"It certainly frees up a lot of brain space because so much of normal acting is the line-learning," says Herriman. "What's interesting is how much you can get across in terms of your intent. Even though the words you're saying are nonsensical, we still feel like we're communicating with each other. It's quite strange."

Jemaine Clement.

All those on location in Makarora are deeply committed to the cause of this uniquely ambitious proposition. But at this stage of the process, there remains some ambiguity as to whether or not this crazy idea will actually work.

Twenty months later, on the verge of the film's world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, a prestigious Tribeca berth in New York and a theatrical rollout in New Zealand and Australia, that doubt has gone.

"The balance of absurdity and pathos in the film is exactly what we were aiming for," says Ballantyne in a follow-up chat.

Both Ballantyne and van Beek agree the finished product is close to their original conception of the film.

"Alarmingly close," says van Beek. "For better or worse, we have created what we set out to create. And now we're at that very exciting time of seeing how people respond to it."

The version going into theatres here and in Australia has subtitles written by British actor and comedian Julia Davis (Gavin & Stacey).

"I've always looked up to her," says van Beek of Davis. "She worked so hard on this. I was constantly being surprised and shocked by her brilliant ideas. An extremely irreverent take on things."

"She has such mischief," adds Ballantyne "She's got an anarchic spirit."

Davis, who had also wanted to work with van Beek since seeing The Breaker Upperers, says she sparked to the unique nature of the project.

"I thought it was brilliant," says Davis via Zoom from her home in London. "I really loved the idea of it. It's so exciting working with people that aren't British."

Davis was not given the script and had total free rein to write whatever subtitles she wanted.

"A few weeks in, I was like: I don't know if I can do this. Then once I got going, I was like: No, I like doing this. The permutations are endless. That's the difficulty."

Another version of the film is being released on Australian streaming service Stan, with subtitles written by Aussie comics Ronny Chieng and Celia Pacquola. As the film hits more territories, future versions are anticipated.

Beyond the language gambit, the most striking aspect of the film is all the full-frontal nudity. The climax sees the entire cast hiking up a mountain, commando-style.

"[Laura and Bruno's] nightmare would be to take off all their clothes and go on a group hike," explains van Beek, who took inspiration from her own experience disrobing at a New Age retreat. "So we thought, 'That's got to be in there.' Then of course, we needed to find a whole lot of actors who also thought that was a good idea. Which we did. We assembled the most beautiful ensemble to join us on our nude trek."

Ballantyne says it's important that the nudity isn't sexualised.

"It's in the story for a different reason. All the actors understood before they auditioned that [nudity] was part of it. And we took a lot of care. We had a wonderful intimacy co-ordinator, Tandi Wright, who I collaborated with to make sure that everyone felt comfortable."

The very game supporting cast includes New Zealand comedy all-stars like Chris Parker, Karen O'Leary, Morgana O'Reilly and Natalie Medlock, among many other familiar faces.

All that talent, the insane gibberish gambit, copious casual nudity adds up to a movie truly unlike any that has come before. All that remains is for the audience to see it.

"I'm still intrigued with the film," admits van Beek of her singular creation. "I'm imagining there will be a whole range of responses. I'm so excited to embrace all of them."

Nude Tuesday opens in New Zealand cinemas on June 16.