Dean Conway on Conversations in Bed: "I'm really inspired by films that strive to blur that line between documentary and fiction"

Having previously made a splash with a series of shorts, Armagh filmmaker Dean Conway is looking to ascend to a new level with Conversations in Bed. Exploring young adult love, the film – set to be Belfast’s first ever improvised feature – focuses on a man (Jonny Grogan) and his relationships with two different women (played respectively by Skye McClenaghan and Grace McMahon).

Boasting three bravura lead performances, the film – which Conway intends to screen at festivals later this year – is also a compelling look at Irish youth culture. In terms of the improvisational approach and naturalistic acting, Conway points to a specific range of influences.

“I’m really inspired by films that strive to blur that line between documentary and fiction,” he explains. “Recently, probably one of the most famous British films of that movement would be This Is England. People like Shane Meadows and Andrea Arnold are definitely a big inspiration.”

The director’s short films have screened at the likes of the Belfast and Foyle Film Festivals, and he discovered his love for an improvisation on Double Vodka And Blackcurrant, which showed at the BFI Future Film Festival in London. The style of Conversations in Bed is also reminiscent of renowned directors Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, who collaborated on the 1995 cult classic Kids, for which Korine famously wrote the screenplay when he was only 19.

Indeed, when I bring up the comparison, Conway is quick to show me a painting of a scene from Korine’s 1997 directorial debut Gummo, made by his cinematographer on Conversations in Bed.

“My first experience with Harmony Korine was with Kids,” he explains. “Obviously, he wrote that and it was directed by Larry Clark. I know it’s very controversial and not everyone’s cup of tea. But for my money, it’s such an incredibly realistic film. In the first third, you’ve got a group of boys in one apartment in New York, and it cuts between them and a group of girls in another part of the city.

“They’re talking about each other at times – it’s the same subject but different perspectives. It was so lifelike, and really blew me away in terms of how realistic a film can be.”

As Conway notes, the idea for Conversations in Bed grew out of a previous short.

“The concept was an idea I explored in my first funded short, Shea and Hannah,” he says. “Essentially, it was the same thing. The morning after a one-night stand, two people get to know each other. The fella in this situationship, Shay, was still thinking about his previous relationship from a few years ago. He was in a bad place in his life and things sort of went off the rails. This is the first time he’s had a connection with someone new.

“That film was all focused on those two characters, but in Conversations in Bed, you get to see that first relationship. It’s a different actor, and I wouldn’t say the character is the same, but the concept of the story is. Doing the short, I thought I’d love to bring the story to life on a grander scale. I was also inspired by Godard’s Breathless, which has a 20-minute scene where the guy’s on the run from the police.

“He hides out in an American girl’s apartment, and there’s this extended sequence of the two of them just talking and carrying on in the bedroom. I saw that when I was 19 and it was a massive moment for me – it was the most exciting thing I’d seen in a long time. It felt like it came out yesterday.”

Clearly, new creative doors had been opened.

“It was a big element in wanting to make a film of people getting to know each other in a bedroom setting,” Conway continues. “I don’t know, I just think it’s really cool. There’s a chemistry, and an energy of, will this relationship go anywhere? Or will it end when this person leaves the room the next morning? It’s really fascinating.”

What’s the reaction to Conversations in Bed been like so far?

“It’s been really positive,” Dean enthuses. “We had a private screening for cast and crew in Belfast, and it went really well. People also brought along family and friends, so there was a range of ages. I was worried how much the film might appeal to older generations – my grandparents came, and I honestly thought the whole thing would go over their heads.

“But for them to come out and enjoy it, it really meant a lot. It made me think, ‘God, maybe there is a market for this outside the age of the characters.’ As much as it’s inspired by the likes of John Cassavettes, Shane Meadows and Andrea Arnold, it’s also quite light-hearted. It’s dealing with relationships as well, which every generation has been through.”

The director is full of praise for his young cast, who handle the improvisational style with remarkable skill.

“I’d worked with Jonny Grogan on Double Vodka And Blackcurrant,” says Dean. “The two of us are really on the same wavelength in terms of the style of performance we like. Whenever I talked to him about this film, it was like, ‘ I don’t want to do it with anyone else – you are this character.’ I’d also worked with Skye McClenaghan on the short.

“Different people auditioned for the role, some amazing people who come from theatre. They were fanatastic and I’d love to work with them – but it was obvious improv wasn’t in their wheelhouse. Then I thought of Skye, and the three of us had coffee. It was the first time they’d seen each other in over a year, and watching them together – the banter, the chemistry – I just knew she could pull it off.”

Clearly, as he readies Conversations in Bed for upcoming festivals, the talented Conway is a filmmaker with huge potential. Finally, I mention that in part of the film, Grogan’s character wears a GAA top – proof that football and hurling are becoming ever more bound up in popular representations of Irish youth culture.

“The couple’s one-night stand takes place on St. Patrick’s Day,” says Conway. “The Holy Lands is this residential area in Belfast beside Queens University, and it’s populated almost exclusively by students, although there’s a Romanian community as well. But it’s that classic idea of a place where all the students live and party. On St. Patrick’s Day, all the students – whether they’re into GAA or not – wear the jerseys, and go and party.

“The story follows them into the next morning and afternoon after St. Patrick’s Day. With that first relationship, there are scenes where the girl talks about playing Gaelic as a hobby, and she’s wearing a jersey in that part of the film. So it makes sense he’s then wearing a GAA top, because it’s like he’s still holding onto that part of her.

“All she talked about was playing Gaelic multiple times a week, and how she made a lot of friendships through that. So visually, it really worked.”

• For more info on Dean Conway’s work, see deanconway.com