Any�one that read my review of Remem�ber Me already knows I enjoyed it, and was one of the select few. In fact, I have strong opin�ions of the film, not from the per�spec�tive of how great the act�ing is or whether direc�tor Allen Coul�ter turned in a tour de force bit of film�mak�ing nav�i�ga�tion, but merely at the idea behind the film and its inten�tions. How�ever, it�s inten�tions, it seems, have been largely lost on the crit�i�cal community.
Spoil�ers after the jump!
Remem�ber Me has been painted as a romance story by the major�ity, but is it? I saw it as some�thing entirely dif�fer�ent. As a result, it became a case of read�ing review after review and say�ing to myself those most cliche and pompous of all phrases, �They just don�t get it.� But instead of writ�ing some all-encompassing edi�to�r�ial of how I thought I was right and every�one else was wrong I decided to go to the source. I con�tacted Sum�mit Enter�tain�ment and requested inter�views with first-time screen�writer Will Fet�ters and direc�tor Allen Coul�ter. Coul�ter, as it turns out, is on vaca�tion for a week, but Fet�ters was avail�able for a con�ver�sa�tion and our dis�cus�sion ended up being more than enough when it came to real�iz�ing my inten�tions of the piece.
Fet�ters began work on what is a very per�sonal script for him in 2004, at the age of 22. The story had been boil�ing around in his head for about two years since the Sep�tem�ber 11, 2001 ter�ror�ist attacks and while try�ing to go to law school, it took a mis�un�der�stand�ing with Delaware law enforce�ment to finally find a start�ing point, a mis�un�der�stand�ing that can be seen in the film in a slightly fic�tion�al�ized form as Tyler (Robert Pat�tin�son) is arrested by Chris Cooper�s char�ac�ter. In fact, Will describes the film as very per�sonal, say�ing the rela�tion�ship between Tyler and Car�o�line (Ruby Jerins) is a very lit�eral one, resem�bling the rela�tion�ship he has with his two younger sis�ters. While this rela�tion�ship, and the rela�tion�ship between Tyler and his fam�ily and his new girl�friend (Emi�lie de Ravin) and her fam�ily are cen�tral to the story, it�s not specif�i�cally about those relationships.
So what is the film about? What were Will�s inten�tions? This was the start�ing point of our inter�view, which took place on Mon�day, March 15, three days after the film was released to largely neg�a�tive reviews (28% on Rot�ten�Toma�toes) before going on to make $8 mil�lion open�ing week�end after being made for $16 million.
Fea�tured below is our lengthy con�ver�sa�tion address�ing what the film is about, the crit�i�cal reac�tion and how Fet�ters is han�dling such neg�a�tiv�ity on what is only his first screenplay.
What is the film about and what were your intentions?
Will Fet�ters (WF): It seems peo�ple didn�t seem to get what the film was about. I think on some level, even get�ting what the film is about, peo�ple aren�t nec�es�sar�ily going to like it. I think pre�con�cep�tions tend to play a role, and what this film was, in a lot of ways, was a study of grief and a study of these �bolts from the blue� that alter the tra�jec�tory of life and for me the script started as a 22-year-old kid�s ther�apy session.
I had some per�sonal tragedy in my life and this broader event occurred and it dove�tailed what I expe�ri�enced as a young man into the same kind of anger and sad�ness that fol�lows, and this story, this script, was a way to kind of work it out.
I think the fairest crit�i�cism that I�ve read is going after the basic story points, which when you write a love story you�re going to tread on sim�i�lar grounds, that kind of stuff I really get. Some of the dia�logue is a lit�tle cute and some of it seems con�trived, I get that, but I think a lot of peo�ple aren�t get�ting what our inten�tions were. Like the idea I wrote this 100-page script and then with five pages left I didn�t know how to end it so I did this with 9/11. It was so far from that. This whole movie is about deal�ing with that trauma, deal�ing with that anger and try�ing to see how peo�ple can be united and divided by it.
I thought it was inter�est�ing how some crit�ics called the end�ing a cheat, but in real�ity isn�t that exactly what that expe�ri�ence is? It�s cheat�ing the audi�ence out of the bond they formed with that char�ac�ter as the result of a tragic and unex�pected accident.
WF: Absolutely, that�s exactly what it is. Ulti�mately, this is the chal�lenge, I think this was kind of the para�dox of doing a film about 9/11; How do you recre�ate an event that came out of nowhere?
I want to look at it kind of like Pre�cious. I think com�ing up through the film fes�ti�val cir�cuit Pre�ciousgot a lot of buzz for being dark, but with Remem�ber Me, I think the fact it was pre�sented to the world as this Dear John, Nick Sparks romance and it ends up being some�thing much dif�fer�ent has hurt it is as far as peo�ple going into it. What we tried to do with the end�ing, and maybe some�day some�body will make a movie about the event bet�ter than we did, prob�a�bly they will, maybe they already have, but as far as recre�at�ing the actual emo�tion of the actual expe�ri�ence and what I tried to do with the writ�ing was try to fore�shadow tonally and emo�tion�ally what the movie is about with�out actu�ally telegraph�ing it literally.
We tried to give enough bread�crumbs, enough cul�pa�bil�ity for the audi�ence to kind of have some sense, but not actu�ally know. Because if they actu�ally know, like in United 93 and World Trade Cen�ter, it�s a very dif�fer�ent movie going expe�ri�ence. So I guess [what you said was] well put, it is a �cheat,� it was sup�posed to be dev�as�tat�ing and with some peo�ple it just made them really angry, which it�s fine to be angry, but I wish they would have kind of respected the inten�tions of every�one a lit�tle more. I don�t think any�one was ever try�ing to exploit anything.
That�s sort of the funny thing. I�ve talked to peo�ple already that said the end�ing was a cheat or it angered them and I told them that�s per�fect and asked them how they felt when 9/11 hap�pened. Peo�ple felt angry and felt cheated out of the thou�sands of lives that were lost. In essence, the movie puts the audi�ence in that sit�u�a�tion to some degree.
So, when Manohla Dar�gis at the �The New York Times� calls it �a shame�lessly exploita�tive end,� as did oth�ers, I fail to see what the exploita�tion is because this movie was always about 9/11, it just wasn�t explicit in telling the audi�ence at the out�set. Sim�i�larly, when peo�ple woke up on Sep�tem�ber 11, 2001 they didn�t know what the day would bring. The only way I think you can see this as exploita�tion is if you don�t under�stand what the movie is truly about.
WF: I think that�s the key. Peo�ple who aren�t con�nect�ing to what the broader mes�sage of the story is � Allen Coul�ter and I talked about it and we couldn�t help but think of David Chase when try�ing to describe it. At the end�ing of �The Sopra�nos� he kind of famously said �it�s all there� and every�body killed him for his end�ing. Our movie is tied to an actual event so in a lot of ways it�s an unfair par�al�lel, but I think for Allen and me, we spent so much time think�ing about every sin�gle deci�sion we were mak�ing nar�ra�tively to do every�thing we could to fore�shadow it.
In a lot of ways the movie is flawed in some instances, I would never step back and say it isn�t. Every time I watch it there is dia�logue I hear and think we could have done it dif�fer�ently, but as far as han�dling 9/11, we put the World Trade Cen�ter in the first shot. If you look at the shot setup it�s delib�er�ately done. There are three char�ac�ters in that open�ing shot.
As far as the exploita�tion, I think that�s com�pletely unfair because it�s been used in dif�fer�ent art forms � books have been writ�ten, fic�tional sto�ries � and I don�t know what the statute of lim�i�ta�tions on it is. I guess that�s what I�m most con�fused by. I don�t get why we�re exploitive for mak�ing a really small movie that essen�tially deals with the emo�tion of the day, and how that�s dif�fer�ent from a movie like World Trade Cen�ter which, while being true, just recre�ates an event and puts you through it all lit�er�ally again.
Read more Here
Thanks thinkingofrob
No comments:
Post a Comment