Adrian Țofei: “My filmmaking method usually consists of working for months or even years on an alternative psychological reality for the actors including myself, partially living in character, so that when we start improvising, I mainly need to record the unfolding events and to make sure the improvisation goes in the right direction. The script mostly consists of plot points. I shoot tens of hours of footage guerrilla style, and then I watch the footage like a documentary filmmaker would and I create the details of the story in post-production during the editing process. This method of filmmaking, combined with the mockumentary / found footage approach, leads to incredibly creative and realistic results in terms of both acting and storytelling, but it’s almost impossible to work in the system this way. Since there’s no traditional script, I have no traditional ways to convince investors and production companies to finance my films, other than the success of my previous works. Therefore I rely on crowdfunding and those who appreciate my films and trust my method.”
The movies Be My Cat: A Film for Anne, We Put the World to Sleep and Pure are part of a trilogy made by Adrian Țofei and his life and creative partner Duru Yücel. All three movies are radically different from each other, yet together they form a cohesive universe. The trilogy is symmetric in 3 essential ways. Symmetry no. 1: Be My Cat anchored in the lower self (irrational instincts and impulses, the subconscious), We Put the World to Sleep anchored in the middle self (the conscious rational mind), and Pure anchored in the higher self (mysteries beyond reason, the supraconscious). Symmetry no. 2: Be My Cat 50% scripted and 50% improvised, We Put the World to Sleep 25% scripted and 75% improvised, and Pure 75% scripted and 25% improvised. Symmetry no. 3: Be My Cat with Adrian Tofei starring in the lead role, We Put the World to Sleep with both Adrian Tofei and & Duru Yücel starring in the two lead roles, and Pure with Duru Yücel starring in the lead role (in other words, the trilogy begins with Adrian and ends with Duru, whose name in Turkish means “pure”).
Update from Adrian Țofei [October 2023]: “I’ve lately seen more social media comments (on TikTok especially) from people saying all kinds of things about me and my movie Be My Cat: A Film for Anne which are completely untrue, so I feel obliged to clarify:
- The movie is 100% fictional, and the character I play is 100% fictional, I personally have no inappropriate thoughts or feelings towards Anne Hathaway. My only thoughts are those of appreciation for her acting performance in Les Miserables.
- The movie was prepared months in advance in hundreds of emails and phone calls between me and the 3 actresses, no one was deceived, endangered or made to feel unsafe during the production. The movie was 50% scripted and 50% improvised, and the improvisation was heavily controlled, it wasn’t as if anything could happen the way some people imagine.
- The movie itself is not menacing or threatening in any way towards Anne Hathaway, I suggest to anyone imagining this to watch the movie and see for themselves.
- No animal was hurt in the making.
I always found it absurd and funny that some people would think Be My Cat is real or that I’m a real psychopath, because that’s the magic of found footage films, to appear real, hence why I never defended myself against such claims. However, now’s getting out of hand as more mainstream audiences discover it after being praised on IndieWire and going viral on TikTok. I read a comment from a woman saying “stay away from me and my family” after hearing about the movie, and I knew she wasn’t joking because she kept being mad at me for no reason after I commented back and explained that I play a fictional character in a fictional movie.”
Production Insights for Be My Cat: A Film for Anne
Adrian Țofei • Official Site 