Zoom In - In The Circuit: Keith Uhlich interviews Ira Sachs. It's audio in mov form. About 20 minutes ad 45mb
Did you know that surprisingly Pierce Brosnan is such a gifted actor and something he's only now beginning to utilize? You have to love (or maybe just chuckle) at all these rather left handed compliments.
The late '40s and '50s have become such pop culture shorthand for emotional repression and immaculately groomed exteriors that it takes a while to realize Ira Sachs' "Married Life" isn't just another parable of how darkness can be found even in the buttoned-up hearts of postwar Connecticut and Westchester County. The film is narrated by an arch Pierce Brosnan, whose character, Richard, is a cheery bachelor who learns that his staid friend Harry (Chris Cooper) has been having an affair with a younger woman, Kay (Rachel McAdams, the film's one weak link). Harry wants to leave his wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson), but is still fond of her and can't bear the thought of the hurt and humiliation that a divorce would bring her, and so conceives of an incredibly sad murder plot he thinks of in terms akin to putting a beloved dog to sleep.
"Married Life" isn't set in actual period America, it's set in movie period America, where women wear full make-up and an updo to just hang around the house, where a night out on the town is a montage of dining, dancing, and a giddy drive home that might as well take place along a rear-projected road. The characters at first seem just as stylized: Pat is the sensible, passionless matron; Kay is the impeccable blond who enters the film like a trouble-lugging Hitchcock heroine; Harry the cold fish ready to risk everything on an unexpected obsession. But then the film turns these impressions on their heads again and again, revealing new facets to each character and taking unexpected directions until "Married Life" emerges not as another winking exercise in genre stylings but as a believable and darkly funny account of a time in the lives of four people, though one filtered through Richard's slicked-over storytelling. It's deceptively fine work from Sachs, whose last film was the subdued indie drama "Forty Shades of Blue," and who here finds a way to both revel in vintage trappings and implode all of their cinematic associations, leaving behind a gently human story about how anyone's heart can contain... not darkness, necessarily, but unknowable depths.
by Blackfilm.com Special Correspondent Leslie (Hoban) Blake
Married Life, presents Ira Sachs’ jaded view of sex and marriage in the late ‘40’s, directed with a sure hand, a good eye and an excellent cast headed up by Chris Cooper as a married man who tells his womanizing friend, Pierce Brosnan that he’d rather murder his wife, Patricia Clarkson, than have her suffer the indignity and loneliness of a divorce. Surprises and humor abound in this beautifully acted film.
Ira Sachs' Married Life has a similar underlying theme to Stellet Licht, but oh what a difference in treatment in this rollicking serio-comedy. Against the vivid Pacific Northwest backdrop actors Chris Cooper and Pierce Brosnan try to second-guess the women in their lives (Patricia Clarkson and Rachel McAdams), to diverting and often hilarious effect.
The New York Film Festival runs through October 16th. Diana Barth covers theater and film for various publications.
Zoom In - In The Circuit: Keith Uhlich interviews Ira Sachs. It's audio in mov form. About 20 minutes ad 45mb
Did you know that surprisingly Pierce Brosnan is such a gifted actor and something he's only now beginning to utilize? You have to love (or maybe just chuckle) at all these rather left handed compliments.
From indie directors to hard-bitten movie critics, so many people want to take credit for discovering Pierce! Sorry, but they'll have to walk three steps behind us.<wink>
At least Sachs has intimated elsewhere he wasn't that familiar with PB's other work, or was that just his Bond films? I won't argue that he's lately doing some of his best acting and, as noted, the pleasure he takes in these roles shines through.
Zoom In - In The Circuit: Keith Uhlich interviews Ira Sachs. It's audio in mov form. About 20 minutes ad 45mb
Did you know that surprisingly Pierce Brosnan is such a gifted actor and something he's only now beginning to utilize? You have to love (or maybe just chuckle) at all these rather left handed compliments.
From indie directors to hard-bitten movie critics, so many people want to take credit for discovering Pierce! Sorry, but they'll have to walk three steps behind us.<wink>
LOL! And I guess even we can get behind Christopher Fettes, Yat Malmgen. Tennessee Williams etc...
Seems as if Pierce is always being "discovered".
At least Sachs has intimated elsewhere he wasn't that familiar with PB's other work, or was that just his Bond films? I won't argue that he's lately doing some of his best acting and, as noted, the pleasure he takes in these roles shines through.
Sachs said he'd never seen him a Bond film and then mentioned seeing him in The Matador but didn't mention any other work. I wonder if The Matador is the first time he saw him? And if so why would he be surprised at anything Pierce could do in Married Life? Maybe he was surprised he cleaned up well.
From indie directors to hard-bitten movie critics, so many people want to take credit for discovering Pierce! Sorry, but they'll have to walk three steps behind us.<wink>
LOL! And I guess even we can get behind Christopher Fettes, Yat Malmgen. Tennessee Williams etc...
And that audience in Westcliff that first saw his attributes in "The Changing Room." Lucky bastards.
Seems as if Pierce is always being "discovered".
At least Sachs has intimated elsewhere he wasn't that familiar with PB's other work, or was that just his Bond films? I won't argue that he's lately doing some of his best acting and, as noted, the pleasure he takes in these roles shines through.
Sachs said he'd never seen him a Bond film and then mentioned seeing him in The Matador but didn't mention any other work. I wonder if The Matador is the first time he saw him? And if so why would he be surprised at anything Pierce could do in Married Life? Maybe he was surprised he cleaned up well.
Or at the civilized vocab, or that he didn't hand Rachel McAdams a cool fifty and shtupp her on the counter in the diner.<wink>
By Calvin Wilson ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 10/13/2007
NEW YORK: Over the decades, the New York Film Festival has earned a reputation as one of the world’s foremost cinema showcases, and its 45th edition – which concludes Sunday – was no exception.
Opening with “The Darjeeling Limited,” the new comedy from Wes Anderson (“The Royal Tenenbaums”), the festival premiered 28 films – hailing not only from the United States but also from a variety of other countries. Because of ongoing renovations at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, this year’s screenings were held at the nearby Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” featured a strong performance from Anamaria Marinca as a woman determined to help a friend get an illegal abortion. Set in the repressive Romania of the 1980s, the film benefited mightily from Mungiu’s pseudo-documentary approach.
“Secret Sunshine,” the latest film from South Korean director Lee Chang-dong, was an absorbing study in despair. Jeon Do-yeon was outstanding as a widow relocates to her husband’s hometown and, in the face of further tragedy, turns to religion. The film more than fulfilled the promise of Chang-dong’s splendid “Oasis” (2002).
Mexican director Carlos Reygadas confirmed his status as one of today’s most imaginative and ambitious filmmakers with the austerely beautiful drama, “Silent Light.” Its story of infidelity in a Mennonite community illuminated the clash between the needs of the individual and the demands of society.
Chris Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Patricia Clarkson and Pierce Brosnan added up to an impressive acting ensemble in “Married Life,” director Ira Sachs’ follow-up to his 2005 indie hit “Forty Shades of Blue.” A tale of marital discord, the film blended noir-style menace with sly humor to fine effect.
But the high point of the festival may well be “No Country for Old Men,” a crime drama based on the Cormac McCarthy novel and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Javier Bardem was appropriately chilling as Anton Chigurh, a soulless killer who’s bent on recovering a fortune in loot. Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones were also memorable in what may be the Coens’ masterpiece.
I got to Ira Sachs's "Married Life" late: delay on the subway. But it grabbed me from the moment I came in, which was about 5 minutes late. It's a meticulous film, with very careful camerawork, deliberate compositions, and exceptional set and costume design, all geared to mimic big studio melodramas of the late 1940s-early 1950s. It seems like a genre film, but with a difference: gradually, the perspective grows and the movie encompasses both a highly wrought noir melodrama and a satirical slant which allows for a more reflective approach to this story of marriage and (attempted) murder. I know that Lisa Schwarzbaum was very enthusiastic about this film when she filed her Toronto Film Festival report for Entertainment Weekly. (She's on the NYFF selection committee.) Ok, so I agree: I really thought "Married Life" was exceptional, and I'm very pleased with Ira's progress from film to film. I thought "The Delta" was insightful and evocative, but it didn't really flow; "40 Shades of Blue" was more powerful, but also had some problems of pacing. This time, Ira has really concentrated on the technical aspects of narrative filmmaking, and the result is a precisely tuned genre piece, with great subtlety and terrific irony.
During its 45-year existence, the New York Film Festival has both championed emerging filmmakers at the dawn of their careers and offered ongoing support by showcasing new work by festival alums as they have evolved and matured. Included among this year's dozen festival veterans are the director Sidney Lumet, who is returning to Lincoln Center's autumn classic for the first time since 1964, and France's Eric Rohmer, who's making his 13th festival appearance.
But this year, the festival features one artist who is both debuting and repeating. As the co-scripter of Ira Sachs's brilliantly acute and engagingly mannered "Married Life" and Todd Haynes's mind-boggling, seven-headed Bob Dylan biopic "I'm Not There," the screenwriter Oren Moverman is the unacknowledged belle of Manhattan's grand movie ball.
So how does one guy wind up with two credits on two of the most talked about films on the festival's 28-feature roster?
"I have no background," Mr. Moverman said on the phone from his Manhattan apartment, adding, "you're going to make it up as you write anyway," by way of journalistic encouragement. But fabricating a filmmaking biography as atypical as Mr. Moverman's would be a tall order.
A native of Israel, Mr. Moverman grew up in Givatayim, outside of Tel Aviv. "I thought about film and always dreamed about film from childhood," he said. "But I had no plan." His country however, did have plans for him. During four years of military service as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces, Mr. Moverman cultivated the habit of writing not to fulfill literary or cinematic aspirations, but out of personal necessity. "I went through a lot of Lebanon and the First Intifada," he said of his combat experience in the 1980s. "I kept journals and wrote just to stay sane because I was in a lot of un-sane situations."
Two months after leaving the IDF in 1988, Mr. Moverman arrived in New York with an uncertain future and no particular means of employment. "I did a lot of odd jobs when I came to the states," he said, including a stint in airport security. At the same time he started to write in earnest, "but it was mostly in Hebrew. I sort of inserted myself as a film critic into a local Hebrew newspaper." That job that led to a chance meeting with the editor of Interview Magazine, Graham Fuller. "He gave me a shot writing some profiles in English," Mr. Moverman said, "and I started doing what they called the serious interviews, interviewing Ang Lee and Spike Lee and people who made serious movies where I would bring my serious face in and ask serious questions."
Between covering the art film beat and indie beat for Interview and working as an editor at large for Faber & Faber's film publication division, Mr. Moverman's reputation and his Rolodex grew. "That's how I met a few people within the film world," he said. He also began to have serious filmmaking ambitions of his own and in 2000, "I found myself with a script that I wrote and was lucky enough to get financed and that I was going to direct." With just two days to go before the cameras rolled, the film's French financiers pulled out. "The French company spent all this money on preproduction but then they just stopped," Mr. Moverman said. Instead of a feature directing credit, "I was left with a writing sample."
His unproduced script led to produced screenplay credits for Alison MacLean's 1999 art house Americana pastiche "Jesus' Son," and Bertha Bay-Sa Pan's 2002 drama "Face." It also yielded multiple projects that remain in various states of financial and developmental disarray, like an adaptation of William Burroughs "Queer," for director Steve Buscemi, a drama about director Nicholas Ray's final decade for the director Philip Kaufman, and a new take on Walter Tevis's science-fiction novel "The Man Who Fell to Earth." "I became a screenwriter," Mr. Moverman said bemusedly. "It's nice to have just one job."
And two languages? "It keeps me on my toes," he offered, admitting that his "uncomfortable relationship" with English sometimes "feels like this big drawback" when creating film scripts, simultaneously one of the least literary and yet most potently evocative forms of written expression. But regularly traversing the mental terrain between his native and adopted languages has turned out to be good exercise. "I don't always know that I'm doing things correctly. But it keeps me kind of guessing and wanting to learn more and wanting to improve. I like to stay in that sort of disadvantage," Mr. Moverman said. "It's a strategy."
NY Observer: Just How 'Indie' Is The New York Film Festival? by David Foxley Published: October 8, 2007
Tags: Arts & Culture, Brian De Palma, Ira Sachs, New York Film Festival, Patricia Clarkson, Pierce Brosnan
Late last night in the front room of O’Neals Restaurant at West 64th Street and Broadway, director Ira Sachs was explaining the importance of the New York Film Festival.
“A commitment to cinema—over a long period of time—as an art form,” the 42-year-old director said, was the hallmark of the festival, which for the first time was presenting his work, the film Married Life, starring Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Cooper and Rachel McAdams.
“To me, that’s something that’s been lost in the independent movement, which is something that I came out of, which is to think of film in the same context as a painting, or a photograph, or a ballet, or the Met, or whatever else it may be that is artful in cinema that is significant in itself,” Mr. Sachs said.
The occasion was a dinner held in honor of the directors whose films are being showed at Lincoln Center during the festival’s 17-day run, and Mr. Sachs was about to tuck into an omelet.
But no sooner had Mr. Sachs’ indictment escaped his lips before he seemed to think a little better of it. His film, after all, is hardly independent of Hollywood—whether or not it deserves to be viewed in the same context as a painting, etc.
Married Life stars an Indie goddess but also a former James Bond, and is a Sony Pictures Classics release (in the United States) of a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment presentation of an Anonymous Content/Firm Films production. (International sales handled by Kimmel International of Beverly Hills.) “I think that there is a way in which the corporate arm of Hollywood has co-opted the independent movement,” he said, “but at the same time, the independent movement needs the economic industry which is Hollywood moviemaking.”
“So I think it’s a process and it morphs over time just as any other art form does. There’s a period of evolution. You can’t stop the evolution, you can just respond to it.”
Mr. Sachs’ response is an adaptation of British crime novelist John Bingham’s Five Roundabouts to Heaven, which he has reset in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1940’s.
The director Brian DePalma also had a film at the festival for the first time—Redacted, it’s called.
He was to be found in the restaurant’s back room, where he stood in the seemingly endless line for one of those omelets and tiramisu. The 67-year-old said he used to frequent the festival as a Columbia physics student, and prefers to go to festivals when he hasn’t got any movies in them.
“Usually it has the pick of all the other festivals, so you see a lot of films that have been sold, fine films that were in all of the festivals earlier,” he said. “Going to a film festival when you’re promoting a movie is not a lot of fun because all you’re doing is press all the time. You don’t get a chance to see a lot of things. So, I go to film festivals from day one to the end of the festival—I do that in Toronto; I do that in Montreal; I’ve done it Berlin; I’ve done it in Cannes. I just go to see movies, because I love seeing interesting movies from all over the world,” he explained.
Anything really interesting coming up?
“I’ve seen a lot of good films, but you know… Last year, I saw a Bruno Dumont film called Flanders I thought was incredibly striking, that stayed with me for over a year now.”
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A rich cultural mix of worldwide films -- including a large menu of cinematic showings from the Arab world -- was unveiled Monday by the Dubai International Film Festival, with organizers saying that this year's event will be the biggest yet.
The fourth edition of the DIFF, set to run Dec. 9-16, will show 141 films, from American movies to the burgeoning cinema of Turkey and Iran.
"In 2007, we have 141 of the best international films from 52 countries, many of them from the Arab world," fest chairman Abdulhamid Juma said. "We have made numerous improvements for our fourth edition that will take us further in our mission to celebrate excellence in cinema and to the nurture and develop local and international talent while also adding value to culture and the arts in Dubai and the UAE."
Leading the programs the Gala selection is "The Darjeeling Limited," Wes Anderson's wry comic outing of three estranged bothers and their train journey through India.
In a strong showing for American cinema, the Gala section also contains "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" and "Married Life," with Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper.
The strong U.S. representation continues with "Things We Lost in the Fire", starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro, while indie veterans Gus Van Sant and Wayne Wang complete the pack with the showing of "Paranoid Park" and "The Princess of Nebraska," respectively.
Other highlights from around the world include "A Man's Fear of God" from Turkey; "Hafez," from Iranian director Abolfazl Jalili; and "Silent Night" from Mexico's enfant terrible of cinema Carlos Reygadas.
In a new development for the event, festivalgoers will be able to exercise their vote on some of the movies on offer, with the People's Choice Awards, which will honor festival favorites in the feature, short and documentary categories. Following each screening, viewers will receive a ballot on which they can rate the film they have just seen. The festival will add the results, with the winning filmmakers receiving a People's Choice Award trophy.
The People's Choice won't be the only awards being carried away from the festival this year, as organizers Monday also announced the results of their Lifetime Achievement Awards. Danny Glover, Egyptian director- actor-producer Youssef Chahine and South Korean filmmaker Im Kwon-taek will be honored for their outstanding work in cinema.
About 10 new official photos added to the gallery at my Married Life site. Alas only one is of Pierce and it's of the back of his head, but his hands are showing.
I've updated my Married Life site with a larger photo of Pierce as Richard and the Press Kit Production Notes in doc form.
From the production notes -- Beware Spoilers
" “Every time I describe the film in a one-sentence line—people smile,” Sachs continues. “And there’s a reason for that. It’s over-the-top. A gentle, middle-aged man who falls in love decides to kill his wife because divorce would cause her too much pain. You could maybe find it hard to understand the decision our protagonist, Harry (Chris Cooper) makes, but that’s looking at the story too literally. It’s really more of a metaphor. I find Harry very familiar—all too many people have difficulty choosing themselves over their marriage. All the same, he’s not an easy character to make sympathetic, and I needed someone to play him that the audience would always empathize and identify with. And Chris Cooper makes a very good Everyman.”
Harry’s assumption that his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) can’t live without him is based on a complete misunderstanding of who she is. “There’s immense narcissism to his actions,” says Sachs. “He considers himself of such importance that he thinks Pat would be better off dead than without him—and he’s totally wrong. He’s lost and he doesn’t know his way out, but instead of choosing an honest way, he chooses a dishonest one and that leads him into a lot of trouble. But as it turns out, Harry turns out to not be a particularly good murderer, which is part of the humor of the film.”
“I think Harry’s big flaw is that he expects too much,” says Cooper. “When Kay comes to meet Harry and Richard at the restaurant, it caps what Harry wants all the time. In Noel Coward’s words, he’s looking for that ‘first, fine careless rapture.’ I think he had it with his wife, but it didn’t last, and now Harry is carried away by his curious need for something more. He could be going through what we all call a mid-life crisis.”
“Harry starts out in the film like a young man in love,” says Sachs. “He’s like a kid in a candy store. And then things get more serious for him because adult life is not like that adolescent joy from first love—there are too many complications that spring from all the history that’s come before.”
Sachs sees Harry’s friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) as the most fun character in the film. “He’s intelligent, he’s charming, he has a wicked, dry sense of humor,” says Sachs, “he gives pleasure to everyone around him. And Pierce Brosnan brings lightness and a mischievous energy to Richard, while also showing you his vulnerability. He makes him a cad you hopefully will come to love.”
Richard is involved in what might be seen as the biggest betrayal in the film—trying to seduce and steal away Kay (Rachel McAdams), the love of Harry’s life and the woman he sees as his sole hope for happiness. “I’m not going to try to defend what Richard does,” says Sachs, “but this story is about how people pursue their desires, and each of these characters pursues them with great passion. And that’s not necessarily when people are the most kind to everyone around them. And to be honest, haven’t we all done things for ourselves at some point, rather than for the people we love?”
“Richard really is intoxicated by Kay,” says Brosnan, “but at the same time it’s his best friend, so there’s a little tug of guilt in his heart. But he doesn’t have any burden of conscience, that’s the mantra of Richard. He talks about the burden of conscience, but basically he wants Kay. Also, Harry and Pat are Richard’s only true friends—they really know him. And if Harry goes off with Kay, and breaks up his marriage, Richard loses everything.”
For the role of Kay, Sachs needed an actress who would leave no doubt about her ability to enchant Harry and Richard. “The whole drama turns on Kay,” says Sachs. “She’s the star in the middle of the universe between these two men. When Kay walks into the Cloud Room restaurant in the opening of the movie, you needed to have someone with whom these two men could believably fall in love with. Obviously Rachel McAdams has the loveliness, but more importantly, she has a mystery—and that’s what holds your interest. She’s very touching and sympathetic, but at the same time, she holds things back. There’s always something going on just under the surface.”
Kay is a character who has suffered an incredible amount of loss—her father died when she was young, and she recently lost both her mother and her husband. “She’s spent a lot of time with herself, and I think she’s lost touch with reality a little bit,” says McAdams. “I think she’s drawn to Harry because they’re both a little bit broken, and need mending—and they comfort each other.”
“Kay sees Harry as someone who can give her a home, security and love” says Sachs, “and that means economic security, strength, consistency, and a kind of paternal comfort. It’s a feeling of paternal love that she has transformed into a romantic love for Harry. I think that at the start of the film she believes that she has met the man of her life. Unfortunately, she then meets a man who might be even better. I think things would have been good for her and Harry, but when she meets Richard, it suddenly seems the world could not only be safe, but big.” “When Richard comes along,” says McAdams, “Kay starts to feel the wind in her hair and the leather seats in his car. He brings her out of her shell.”
Harry’s wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson), is also someone who’s trying to find her way in life. “She doesn’t know what she wants,” says Sachs. “She’s in great conflict. She’s someone who has come to the point in her life where she feels the need for a little more, but she can’t make a decision.” “Pat has lived a rather conventional life,” says Clarkson, “but she isn’t conventional herself. She thinks people have a self-deceiving attitude about love, and that it’s really only about sex. So if she fulfills that, she’s fulfilling her wifely duties. I do think she has a real relationship with Harry—it isn’t some false marriage—but I don’t think it was ever a deep, romantic love. And there’s something to be said for a woman, particularly at that point in her life when she has to look down the barrel of growing old with her husband, wanting that as well.”
“A lot of people, particularly women, identify with Pat more than any of the other characters in the movie,” says Sachs. “She seems like someone you know. And Patty imbues her with an earthiness, and a wry, loving nature. Pat’s full of life, passion and tenderness, and that gives her such poignancy, as she is the woman who Harry is plotting to kill.”
Both Harry and Pat are characters that are frightened of their own needs. “They both feel guilty,” says Sachs. “I believe on some level it’s because of the formal structure of married life. It’s a very monolithic way of living, and I think the people inside these monoliths are struggling. I think that anyone who is married or in a relationship has some understanding of that. You can’t point a finger at these characters if you’re being honest with yourself.”
“The most important thing for me was that the tone of Married Life not be a cynical one,” says Sachs, “because I don’t feel cynical at all about long-term relationships. I just feel that they’re always a great, even noble, challenge. You could say it’s a humanist approach to a genre story, so in the end, it becomes perhaps not really a genre picture at all. Everyone has some level of good, bad, and beauty in them.” “Harry’s put Pat and his relationship with her in a box,” says Cooper. “He just settled and didn’t really appreciate how much he had. It’s a fatal flaw in a lot of relationships. Couples have to constantly work at keeping their relationships interesting and fresh. And I think Harry lost sight of that.”
“Marriage is a struggle, and it takes work,” says Brosnan. “You may be challenged in life when you least expect it. And this film makes you ask yourself: ‘Can you do the honorable thing?’”
“This film sheds a lot of light on the complications of relationships,” says McAdams. “You don’t always feel what you’re supposed to feel, and you’re not always the person that other people think you are. You’re not even always the person you think you are, until push comes to shove and your character is tested.”
“What I hope the movie does is make people feel less alone,” says Sachs. “When you’re in bed and you’re feeling slightly alienated from your wife or loved one, you can feel a certain kind of distance that is painful. And I hope that people will realize that they are just like the person in the next house, who’s also coping with these kinds of questions.”
“Harry starts off in the beginning of the movie knowing the least about the other characters,” Sachs continues, “and by the end he knows the most. He’s the one who knows all the secrets. He has come to wisdom, and through that wisdom has the ability to love.”