AB - You’re telling the story about of two troubled people, Phoenix and Paltrow’s characters, who both suffer from mental disease. They weather the storm together. You give me them dignity and avoid sensationalism.
JG - “I'm so happy that we made a film with no condescension at all, that was compassionate to people who are in it. It is an honourable position for the characters. And that’s very much in contrast to what’s in vogue – hipster, ironic distance that says everyone is an idiot. We wanted to do the opposite, to be endlessly compassionate and understanding of people's foibles.”
“It’s an angry culture. Everyone wants to laugh at other people. My attitude has been you cannot make a work of art which has any level of transcendence or emotional impact and have it be that snarky and vicious. Even Dr. Strangelove which you'd think at first blush was ironic, actually has unending compassion for the human being's weaknesses, that is what makes it transcendent.”
AB - You capture ordinary people in telling moments, like the men who saved Phoenix’ character from drowning who become hostile when he doesn’t thank them.
JG - “Yes because you want to achieve a level of humour that comes from the absurdity of the situation and our own ridiculous behaviour. Not that we are better than or smarter than. We can look and say in their absurdity we recognise ourselves.”
AB - Gwyneth Paltrow is wonderfully nuanced as a troubled young woman. How was that? She hasn’t acted in a long while.
JG - “I loved her. Joaquin and I adored her. She is unbelievably precise, you ask her to do this little thing in take three and she can change it like a beautiful instrument she is. And it’s not just the skill. She definitely has it and being the world we are in, some people don’t even understand. She’s earthy and has a great awareness of human behaviour and empathy. I had no idea what to expect because she was away, raising her children. That’s a virtuous reason not to want to be in every film. She crashed the party this time, we had worked together and we were in love with her.”
AB - Do you think this is really Phoenix’ last film? He says he’s retired from movies.
JG - “I hope not, who knows, I’m hoping it’s a Sean Penn retirement where he’s burned out and exhausted and convinced to work again.”
AB - Isabella Rossellini, who plays Phoenix’ mother, says you are a true modern master.
JG - “That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard. She is fantastic, maybe she thinks well of me, but I didn’t have a lot to do with her. I distracted her asking for stories of her life and her dad and mum (director Roberto Rossellini and actress Ingrid Bergman). I was a terrible influence. She has so much soul, you give them the space they need and make them feel comfortable and loved and that’s 90 percent of your job, to make sure they feel safe.”
“People say I want my vision on the screen, that’s a notion that terrifies me. It's better that you let the actors bring you things you never imagined, you have to let them be.”
AB - Your films describes a specific segment of New York outside the city, concerning the lower class that has stricter family values. Why that world?
JG- “I grew up in Queens and had decided that I would try to put onscreen a slightly different, textured version of New York that we don’t see every two minutes. It was not classic clichéd Manhattan. It’s a heavy idea. It says that people have a strong need to fit in and an intense clannishness that is so central to our existence that it’s hard to break away from it. All my films.”
AB – Do you think you’ll branch out to work somewhere besides New York and the suburbs?
JG – “I’m working on a script for “The Lost City of Z”. It’s a fantasy story about Percy Fawcett who mediated a border dispute in 1905 between Bolivia and Brazil. They were arguing over land. There were no maps of Amazonia but the British sent him to chart the Amazon for the rubber trade. He very quickly got lost focus and began to be obsessed with City of Gold and went mad. Brad Pitt sent me the book and I’m adapting it. I’m polishing it and will hand it in Monday.”
Anne Brodie - I review films each week on Corus and Rogers TV and for Metro News Canada, AskMen.com and Monsters and Critics. I profile celebrities for ...
