Oscar Nominated Austrian Director Michael Haneke Makes a loving Statement in Amour

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Wednesday, 25 January 2012 20:27

Written by Brad Balfour

A cultivated couple in their 80s, retired music teachers Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) have a beautiful apartment in a fine Parisian neighborhood. One night, after seeing a former student perform, Anne blanks out at home, presaging the condition to come.

Afterwards, the surgery to correct her blocked artery causes a stroke which paralyzes one side. Suddenly her husband has gone from companion to caretaker.

Their daughter, also a musician who lives abroad with her family, is at a loss as to what to do so she wants her mother to go into managed care. Instead, Georges takes another course.

Around this scenario, veteran director Michael Hanake has shaped a masterfully artistic, poetic film, Amour, one that has garnered him many award wins and nominations including an Oscar for Best Picture.

And it was a great judgement call on the part of New York Film Festival’s programmers. Ever since Amour had its American debut at the 2012 Festival, Haneke’s Amour has stirred praise, reaction, commentary, emotions and angst for its actors, characters, and storyline.

Obviously for an Austrian director to make a film entirely in French is an achievement in of itself -- something the 70-year-old Haneke has done before -- but to do a film of such elegance and complexity about this painful and delicate scenario makes it worthy of all accolades.

And though Haneke has been nominated for an Oscar before -- as well as having won many other awards -- few foreign language films also get nominations for Best Picture or its actors. But this one did this year and got a nom for the 86-year-old Rivas as well -- the oldest woman to be nominated for Best Actress.

The following Q&A is culled from the press conference conducted at the NYFF’s press preview screening in October, 2012.

Q: You’ve said that this film was inspired by events in your own family, but what was it about this subject that affected you so much as to make such a poignant film?

MH: It was my aunt, I loved her very much, and she was at the end of her life. She was suffering a great deal. It was the story of my aunt, an aunt whom I loved very deeply.

At the end of her life she was suffering terribly, and it was an awful experience for me to have to go through that -- to witness her suffering and not be able to do anything about it. That was the catalyst for the story, although the story of my aunt has nothing to do with the story I tell on screen.

Q: As a director, what were the challenges of staging this film almost entirely in an apartment?

MH: First of all, when you're old and elderly your life is then reduced to the four walls that you live in. That was the external reason for the choice. I could have opened the story up, and made a drama that included everything that goes on around the scenes in the hospital, everything to make a sort of socially critical film that you often see on television, but that wasn't my concern.

I was focusing on the love story. There was another consideration for the aesthetic choice however. When you're dealing with a theme that's as serious as this one you have to find a form that's worthy of what you're dealing with, and that was the reason that I went back to the three classical unities of Greek drama -- time, space, and action.

Q: Obviously casting the right leads was essential. Was there anything in the script that created concern for stars Jean-Louis Trintignant or Emmanuelle Riva about taking on these roles --something too revealing of themselves physically and/or emotionally?

MH: I wrote the screenplay for Jean-Louis Trintignant. In fact, I wouldn't have shot the film without him. Not only is he a superb actor but also he exudes the human warmth necessary for the role.

It was different with Emmanuelle Riva. I'd seen her as a young man in Hiroshima My Love. I was immediately smitten by her, but had lost sight of her over the years. So when I came to that part I did a normal casting in Paris, I met with all the actresses of the appropriate age.

It was clear from the first audition with Emmanuelle that she was ideal for the part. Not only because she's a wonderful actress but also because she and Jean-Louis Trintignant form a very credible couple.

Q: Emmanuelle has a particularly revealing scene in the shower. Was she ready for that? Did you have to lead her there as a director?

MH: After Emmanuelle had read the screenplay and when I met her for the first time to discuss the part I asked her if there was anything she found difficult or that made her nervous and she did refer to the nudity.

I told her that unfortunately the scene was unavoidable, it was absolutely essential for the film. She said that she'd shoot it then but that she'd shoot it not as herself, as Emmanuelle Riva, but rather she would shoot it in the part of Anne, and that made it bearable for her.

As a director I did everything I could to preserve her dignity. But I didn't exaggerate the physical misery that she was going through.

Q: In various cultures there is a superstition that when birds enter the house death will occur. You use this in the film. There’s the image of the bird, the drawing of the bird. In Paris birds come into the house all the time.

MH: Images like this in my films are an offering that I make to the audience, inviting the viewers to find their own interpretations for them.

If I were to provide a user's manual, like a commentary to the film, then I would rob the viewers of the possibility of using their imagination. That said, it's not that unusual that in Paris pigeons fly into apartments.

Q: How did you come up with the idea to end the movie with his decision to stop her from suffering?

MH: How does a melody occur to a composer? It simply occurs to you. There wasn't any theoretical consideration that led to this, it was just something that occurred to me.

Q: It’s hard to talk about the film because it's so visually and emotionally strong, but the color and the tone of the film, the choices you made, are very important to you and the film.

MH: We wanted to tell the story over the period of a year and we arranged that we set up the light for that reason. It was complicated because of the fact that there were external shots through the window with green screen. We shot those sequences, the externals that you see through the windows, over the period of a year. It was extremely complicated.

The period of post-production that we accomplished is the accomplishment of Darius Khondji, the great photographer. It was particularly complicated because usually you shoot the exterior shots first and then balance your interior lights to them, whereas we were working the other way around.

Q:  Before the movie’s events, there’s a full life to the two main characters. Did you discuss with the actors their backstory and married life before the film’s beginning?

MH: I'm not a fan of long discussions beforehand about the backstory and about the story of the characters. I think that the story arises through the set design, through the rooms that the people are acting in. You don't need long discussions about backstory if you're working with good actors and if you've made the right choices for the cast.

Here I'm speaking about my work in film and not in theater. The danger is if you do long discussions about it then they're going to act their opinions about the parts, their opinions about the situations rather than acting the situations themselves.

Q: Throughout the film -- particularly near the end -- there are several long single takes with Jean-Louis in particular. Was there a lot of rehearsal, or were they single takes where they nailed it? What was the filmmaking process, especially with those scenes?

MH: You can't generalize. There are some scenes that you nail the first time, others you have to keep going until you get what you want. The scenes with the pigeon were extremely difficult to shoot. Pigeons are hard to direct, they don't always go where you want them to.

Since Jean-Louis was so frail, so unsteady on his feet, we shot the two scenes with pigeons over a period of two and a half days. Other scenes we only had to do a couple of times.

The death scene we shot a first time, it was very good, yet we shot it a second take but it wasn't good so we stopped in the middle. We then did a third take and at that time we got it right. You can't do scenes like that a hundred times because it's too hard on the actors.

Q: Because the actors are at an advanced age they have a direct proximity to the dire situations they're portraying. Trintignant was frail and unsteady for certain scenes. Was there a thin line between detachment and self-consciousness in making this picture for these obviously trained and exceptional performers?

MH: You'd have to ask the actors that. It's hard for me to judge. I do remember both of them had read the script, and they were both shocked by what they'd seen. But since they're both professionals as well they immediately recognized how gratifying it would be to play these parts.

They didn't hesitate in taking the roles on. As to how difficult it was for them because of what the scenes meant you'd really have to ask them.

Q: Break-ins seem to be an element you've used in other films. You have three in the beginning and when he finds the door we never have the answer as to why the door was pried. And then there’s the dream sequence. What made you feel this was important to have in this film?

MH: I decided to make the ending of the film clear from the very beginning because I wanted to avoid any false suspense about where the film was headed. At a certain point in the story that it's clear where we're going, I wanted to avoid false suspense.

My priority wasn't where the film was going to end but rather how the characters got there. The beginning when they're coming home from the concert I wanted to show that someone had tried to force their way into the apartment. That preparation was necessary dramatically.

In my family I heard about someone who came back from vacation to find that their bathroom wasn't working. In itself that isn't a huge drama, but in this case that led to somebody getting very upset and in fact to a stroke. Even minor events like that can have big consequences.

I think it's quite often the case in Paris or here or Vienna that people come home to find that someone's tried to break in to your flat. It's just a fact that these sources of frustration lead you to becoming worked up. At a certain age that can be dangerous.

I also heard someone came up and gave me their interpretation of that, which was that death had tried to break in to the apartment. [Obviously,] He didn't manage the first time…

From The Help to Take Shelter, It's Jessica Chastain's Banner Year

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Saturday, 14 January 2012 15:31

Written by Brad Balfour

When actress Jessica Chastain attended the Sundance Film Festival more than a year ago, making the rounds for the film Take Shelter, she spoke on a panel for The Creative Coalition. The focus was squarely on her co-star Michael Shannon, who had been graced with an Oscar nom -- and hardly on the 30-year-old newcomer.

Boy have times changed. In the span of about a year, Chastain’s profile has risen to the top thanks to the deluge of films featuring this new It Girl and drawing critical acclaim. 

Read more: From The Help to Take Shelter,...

Michelle Williams' Uncanny Turn In "My Week With Marilyn"

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Saturday, 14 January 2012 15:29

Written by Brad Balfour

It wasn't enough when the close-cropped blond Michelle Williams spoke with the New York press corps before the the film's 2011 New York Film Festival premiere, so the following Q&A is also culled from her red carpet comments and a session before the official New York opening.

But it was necessary to hear her insights about playing Marilyn Monroe -- she even assilmilating her vocal stylizations -- as a character in the much nominated My Week With Marilyn.

Who knew that when actress Michelle Williams first appeared as the bad girl Jen in Dawson’s Creek, she would have the uncanny good sense to take on roles which offered her real challenges? From a supporting part in Brokeback Mountain to the lead in Wendy and Lucy, this 30-something rose to the occasion.

So now, another year, another Williams’ award nomination.

Last year, her star turn in Blue Valentine, garnered this former small town Montana native various noms; now she’s up for the Best Actress Oscar for playing Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn – a 1950s' chronicle of the making of the Lawrence Olivier-directed The Prince and the Showgirl. Based on the memoir of Brit Colin Clark, who had served as a production assistant and Monroe's sometimes-companion/confidante during the shoot, the film offers a gauzy behind-the-scenes look at the legendary actress, as well as the great thespian Olivier and the era – as being more than a star but also a celebrity came into its own.

Without making her Marilyn simply an "incredible simulation," Williams rendered as authentic a performance as an actor can give of such an iconic chameleon. But given Williams' ever-arching resume, she has developed the chops to validate such an achievement.

Born in 1980, Williams’ strong characterization in Dawson's led to film appearances in the comedic Dick and depressive Prozac Nation before the series even ended.

Since then she was in such quality indie films as The Station Agent, Imaginary Heroes, and The Baxter. But real success happened in 2005 when she starred in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain as a woman who realizes her husband is in love with a man.

That role landed her an Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actress as well as an intro to Heath Ledger who fathered daughter Matilda Rose. They split, and when Heath died, she withdrew only to come roaring back, including this many-nominated role.

Q: What was the most difficult part about channeling Marilyn Monroe?

MW: Maybe letting myself just believing that I could. Previous representations of her were more  [like impersonations so] I felt maybe there was room. That was the first thing that made me think, "Okay, I can explore this."

It was a decision made in the safety of my own home, and I didn't really consider the larger implications of it. It was a very, very slow process.

It started at home with watching movies, listening to interviews, poring over books. [I would] try and mimic a walk, or figure out how exactly it was that she was holding her mouth.

The first big discovery that I stumbled on was that "Marilyn Monroe" was a character that she played, and that [despite] the image that you're most familiar with, there was a person underneath it. That [persona] was carefully honed, but it was artifice -- and it was honed to where you couldn't tell that it was artifice. It felt so real.

It was something that she'd studied, perfected and crafted. So once I discovered that that was a layer, and then finding out what that layer was and then getting underneath it -- it was a long and ungainly process.

Q: It seems almost like this is a multiple role -- you're playing someone who's playing a role who's playing a role. Did you think of it in those terms?

MW: In some way it's not, when you think of them separately. You want to think of them together because they need to adhere. But I don't know how much it helps me to think of them as three separate people because they are, of course, connected.

Q: It's a hard thing to do singing, and then to do it in someone else's voice.

MW: Well, like I said, Marilyn Monroe was a creation, and that creation took a lot of personal work. She also had teachers. Trainers were more common then, professionals who would help make these stars and help develop these talents. So I was -- as she was -- very lucky on this movie to be surrounded and supported by great people.

I had a wonderful man, David Crane, who worked with me every day for a couple of weeks and taught me. I have not sung since I was [about] 10 years old. So he taught me about breathing, how to deliver emotion on lines instead of just [sound].

And then in my ears, I listened to her. It comes up on my iPod all the time, all the Marilyn Monroe. And she was very influenced by Ella Fitzgerald, so I listened to a lot of her music.

Q: For the opening musical number -- which you did so well -- how difficult was it to learn the choreography and then to perform it as Marilyn?

MW: I'm not a singer or a dancer. So, like everything else in this movie for me, they took a tremendous amount of preparation and willingness to start at the very beginning. [I had to be willing] to not know what to do, to make mistakes along the way and to not be hard on myself and to realize that they're a part of the process.

In some ways because of that, when I was able to put the nerves aside, I really felt a tremendous outpouring of joy. I felt like a little girl whose dreams came true for the first time. I was able to tap into what I imagine made Marilyn Monroe so luminous in those singing and dancing numbers.

What I experienced is that when you're in that state, your critical mind has to turn off. There's no room for it because you're remembering steps and lyrics. It's sort of like learning to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time.

And maybe that's what makes those performances of hers so magical -- that she's not thinking.

Q: A lot was made about Method Acting in this movie. What are your thoughts on Method?

MW: I suppose, yeah, whatever works. I'd never done anything that had ever required so much technical know-how. This was the first attempt that I had made, really the first time, that I had actually, admittedly, started from the outside in because I knew that I was going to have a very, very long way to go.

Where I, Michelle, have wound up after 31 years physically is very different from Marilyn. So for the first time, I started externally, which was a switch to me.

Similar to Marilyn, I suppose, I'm not trained. I sort of popped into classes now and then. I read books. I read a lot of books.

I have made some kind of amalgamation, some sort of hodgepodge of my own personal experience, what I know works for me in the moment, what I've learned from other actors.

I certainly don't know what I'd call it, but at the time the people who were driving the Method were actually live in the room, [I think] how exciting would that have been to be directed in class by [Elia] Kazan, to have [Lee] Strasberg by your side.

Now we get secondhand information. It's like the soup of the soup. It's been sort of passed on.

I'm not beyond doing rain dances or throwing the [cards] or whatever. And I'm still experimenting. I'm still finding out what works for me.

That's the reason that it keeps me acting, and keeps me excited. I'm still learning, and those answers change and new information comes in all the time that transforms my idea of how I'm going to do what I'm going to do.

Q: Has Marilyn Monroe influenced you as an actress as well?

MW: She hasn't, to be honest. I had a picture of her in my bedroom when I was growing up, and so I've always had some sort of response to her, but only because of her image. I wasn't aware of her movies.

When I had that picture in my bedroom, I hadn't really seen any work that she had done -- although at that time, I was very interested in the Method. God knows why, but at 12 that's what I was reading about.

I was reading about James Dean and Montgomery Clift, [Marlon] Brando and thus Marilyn, but I didn't know her body of work. Really, I only came to it as a result of taking on this film.

Q: Of her films, which one was your favorite and why do you like it the best?

MW: I wish I could say Prince and the Showgirl. Some Like It Hot -- how can you not? And I also am pretty fond of The Misfits. It was still a shot at a serious part.

Q: How did you and Kenneth Branagh develop the relationship of Monroe and Olivier -- you had to establish that distance between you?

MW: The only distance that we might have kept was because we were both so absorbed in our process. We sat next to each other in the hair and makeup chair and it was like Command Central Number 1 and Command Central Number 2.

We both were kind of married to our computers, headphones in our ears, and constantly watching, listening, absorbing and then going out and doing.

So the only kind of separation [that] occurred is a part of trying to capture somebody who was. And that that requires a certain amount of technical attention.

Q: Was it hard to leave Marilyn behind at the end of filming?

MW: In some ways, something that I like so much about what I get to do is that you never have to leave people behind. There's not a part of my contract that says, "You must abandon your character when you finish shooting." So I get to keep her with me in any way that I choose.

Q: How have you viewed her as a woman from a very different time with very different expectations of women?

MW: I wish that she could experience what I've been able to, which is to work outside of a studio system, to not be bound to playing the same role, to not be a contract player, to not basically have to be on salary and have to take what's given to you.

I wish that [she] could experience choice and independence and exert her sort of creative will, like I feel very lucky to have been able to.

Q: Why do you think the world continues to be fascinated with Marilyn?

MW: Because there's something indescribable about her, even though she's been so examined and so much has been made of her. There's still something mysterious.

Q: There is a difference between the 1950s celebrity culture and today. The film seems to to comment on that. What do you feel is the biggest difference in celebrity culture today versus then?

MW: The internet. It's the acceleration and proliferation of information. It has always existed and it just has more forms to take.

Q: Eddie Redmayne said one of the great things with the whole production was the sense that you shot in the same studio that The Prince and the Showgirl was shot in.

MW: My dressing room was Marilyn's actual dressing room when she was making The Prince and the Showgirl.

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