December 5, 2002

Love the one you’re with…

When Stephen Stills wrote it, it seemed to be a bit ironic, a bit indulgent.  But as I wander through the awards season maze, I am kind of enjoying the romance of each new day.  After all, each film, each filmmaker has different strengths and weaknesses and reasons to appreciate them. 

Wednesday was a light film day – just one screening – but there was still plenty of happiness.  The day ended with an after party for the benefit premiere of The Pianist, one of Focus Features two serious Oscar contenders. 

For me, this was the third visit to Roman Polanski’s latest film.   It just keeps getting better.  So now, after fighting the film off for all the wrong reasons (it won at Cannes, it’s too Jewish for the primarily Jewish AMPAS to get behind), I am convinced that it will be right there when it comes to Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume, Best Production Design, Best Score, etc. 

I’ve already written about the film, so there’s no point in repeating myself too much.  Except to repeat that this is the best drama about the Jewish Holocaust ever made.  And, in the reflection of the other “big” films in the awards races, it keeps rising higher. 

I went looking for any negative reviews of the film, because it is hard to imagine any.  I found one.  Kirk Honeycutt’s Hollywood Reporter review from Cannes… a review that makes it clear that Kirk just didn’t “get” the movie. He writes about his disappointment that it was not a more personal film.  But the thing that is remarkable about the film is the unremarkable.  This is not a Hollywood version of an unspeakable horror.  This is a simple, real, intimate human story.  Our hero is only a hero by circumstance and survival.  He is but a human, as are the men and women on the other side of the conflict. 

Earlier in the day, I spent a little time with Adrian Brody, the star of The Pianist, a role so singular that the film is virtually bereft of any performance that qualifies as much more than a cameo.  Which is not to say that the supporting performances aren’t great.  From Frank Finlay to Thomas Kretschmann to Maureen Lipman to Ed Stoppard and on and on… every one of them is not only good, but special and surprisingly memorable, given the limited amount of screen time involved. 

But I digress…

Adrien Brody is as gentle and accessible off screen as on.  We sat at the Four Seasons bar, as he wound down by playing the piano before our chat.  Turns out that The Pianist is neither Brody’s first foray into music or his last.  He’s even trying out some work in rap these days.

Brody has been a career cipher.  In the last nine years, he’s made a dozen “major” films, yet he is still seen as an “indie” guy.  He’s worked with Francis Ford Coppola, Terrance Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Ken Loach, Barry Levinson, Spike Lee and Roman Polanski, yet there are people who still think that his career has not been successful enough.  Heck, he’s even done a Disney movie!

If Brody has a trademark, it’s that his performances expose his characters as having thin so skin that you can practically see through them.  Yet, Brody remembers his childhood as a thick-skinned time.  As a skinny, Jewish kid in New York, he had to portray himself as a tough guy just to get through the day.  The “performance” became so much a part of him that only a cross-country move to L.A freed him to act with the emotionality that has become familiar to his small, but committed, legion of fans. 

Getting through the six-month shoot of The Pianist with director Roman Polanski obviously was not easy, though Brody struggles to find the right words to express it.  He doesn’t want to show any disrespect to a man whom he credits with changing his life repeatedly through our talk.  Yet, there seems little doubt that this was the toughest shoot of Brody’s career.  About half of the movie consists of scenes in which Brody is alone.  The skinny actor dropped down to about 140 pounds to portray his character in the stages of near starvation.  But more than that, Brody and Polanski pushed together to create an unforgettable witness to humanity’s worst side in the most quiet and intimate ways.

Brody has a very Zen approach to his career.  He lives simply and spends carefully so that his acting salaries are enough to give him the freedom not to work and the opportunity to travel and experience life.  Will The Pianist be his catapult to “the big show?”  I hope so, for him.  And I hope not, for him.  He seems to live, philosophically, between Sean Penn and Nic Cage.  He’d like to make some big movies, if the roles are interesting enough for him to do.  And he’ll certainly continue to fight to be a part of any great script he reads, no matter indie or studio based.  After all, if Gone in 60 Seconds helped get Nic Cage get popular enough to get Sony to back Adaptation, it has to be worth it. But as Adrien says, it literally hurts him to be involved in a meaningless project… physical pain born of emotion.  So, let’s all lay back and let the man take his time without pressuring him to be People’s Sexiest Man Alive next year.

I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing more of Adrien and The Pianist in the next few months.  It is easily one of the best movies of the year.

SEAN BAILEY looks like Ben Affleck’s brother… not that he looks like Casey Affleck.  But he looks like he could be the second most sexy cop on NYPD Blue or the young dad of a two-year-old on any commercial trying to skew to hip 30somethings. 

But he is none of those things.  He is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of LivePlanet, the production company best known for being home to Matt Damon and the aforementioned Mr. Affleck.  And he seems as satisfied being just those things as Matt and Ben seem… which is to say, not at all.  He’s young, smart and hungry to push the envelope.  He and his partners, who include the now-infamous celebrity Chris “The Screaming Guy On Project Greenlight” Moore, started LivePlanet with the idea that it would be a convergence company, combining film, TV, the internet and who knows what else in the creation of new programming.  But the internet bubble burst and even after coming to the company with a lot of experience, Sean, Chris, Matt and Ben have all gone through the mill together and learned one key lesson… good work is good work, in whatever format. 

And so, LivePlanet, which as Sean describes, was founded with the idea that they have passed on Good Will Hunting because it was too conventional, is open to anything and everything… everything that stirs their passions.  (That would include Good Will Hunting these days.)

Bailey does what many smart interviewees do to their approaching interrogators.  He interviewed me.  And being the egomaniac I am, I obliged and told him all kinds of junk.  But in between stories about my first pimple and my grooming tips for graying hair, we got to share some interesting perspectives on the business, none of which bear repeating right now.

The whole breakfast was just another reminder about the humanity of all of this.  It’s so easy to simplify LivePlanet into a vanity company from two growing celebrities.  But it’s much more than that to Sean.  And spending a little time with him, you get the distinct impression that it’s a lot more than that to Matt & Ben & Chris… which is very encouraging. 

If there was anything that really stays with me, besides Sean Bailey being a good guy who loves movies, it’s that in the last two years, they have learned a key to survival that is too often forgotten in this town: Say no.

I talked to Adrien Brody about this too, as he’s spent the last eight months or so not working, waiting for the right script. 

I always tell the story of Larry David, whose name you now know, but probably didn’t in the mid-80s, when I knew him a little in New York City.  He was known as the greatest comedy mind in New York… and one of the most intimidating stand-ups in the city.  Audiences don’t really like to be intimidated.  When Larry came to L.A  to shoot the Seinfeld pilot, he didn’t expect it to be picked up, much less to bring him hundreds of millions of dollars.  But it did.  And when I once asked him what advice he, in the midst of Seinfeld, would give to upcoming people in this business, he said two words.  “Say no.”  There is more power in saying “no” than in anything else you can do. 

Larry said “no” for a long time before his fate touched him.  Adrien Brody is still saying “no” and The Pianist may be the light at the end of Tunnel One.   And Sean Bailey is prepared to say “no” until his company’s TV shows/movie/on-line projects have the right kind of support to make them work in a complicated marketplace. 

If you’re going to love the one you’re with, make sure that you are with the one you love.  Or just say “no.”

Today, it’s The Hours, The 25^th Hour and God knows what… love it.

READER OF THE DAY:  THE NATTY ONE writes:  “I think I've written to you before defending the NBR. Now I just want to vomit....and I take back everything I said.

I felt sick looking over those awards. Half of them are for Miramax. It can't be a coincidence. It's a fix. 5 of their top 10 and (all three of the top three) are from the same studio? Give me a break.

And all three of their directorial awards are going to men who helmed Miramax pictures.

Sick.

How do the other studios deal with/react to/survive all of Miramax's campaign tactics? And does the industry really see this and know that it's happening.”

DAVID NOTE:  Complete coverage of NBR and more at www.moviecitynews.com, including my commentary on yesterday’s announcement.  And yes, as Leonard Cohen once said, everybody knows.

THE PORTUGUESE ROCK writes:  “NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW thoughts:

Gangs of New York ranked third at the list. That's it. Nothing more. Poor Scorsese!!
Chicago the same thing, plus Rob Marshall debut director. The best directorial debut in 2002? I though this was a "critical" award. Talk about Lobby to Her, by Pedro Almodovar. Hehe.

The Hours, the big winner, was shut out of other categories. Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Stephen Daldry, and the whole ensemble. Ouch.

Adaptation got 3 awards: 5th place, supporting actor, screenplay. Surprise Winner?

Screenwriter of the Year? What tf is that? They changed this category? WHERE IS THE BEST SCREENPLAY OF THE YEAR? It's supposed to be Adaptation? Or Charlie Kaufman is now the winner for 3 best screenplays of the year? They seem to be improving every year. Actresses and actors with multiple performances are often the winners, now directors and screenwriters. What next? Do 5 films a year, at least 2 watchable, the other 3 just to make money and you have 80% of chances to be at their party? Wow, talk about giving too much...

Kathy Bates is the winner for ABOUT SCHMIDT but the film itself and Jack are out. Is she the best thing in the film? I doubt it.

Nice to see the foreign films' list. CITY OF GOD ranked 4th. The same place NO MAN'S LAND got last year at NBR. And then went to win the Oscar. My fingers crossed here in Brazil; it's about time! (On the other hand; Walter Salles' BEHIND THE SUN ranked third last year at the NBR and just got a Golden Glob nod, no Oscar talk....)

The first (TALK TO HER) and the second (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) are ineligible. That leaves 8 WOMEN, CITY OF GOD and EL CRIME DEL PADRE AMARO.

Why they (or you?!) call some foreign films at their original title and the others like CITY OF GOD (Cidade de Deus), TALK TO HER (Hable Com Ela) and 8 WOMEN (8 Femmes) in the English title? Weird. Or it's all original or all English. Don't you agree?”

DAVID NOTE:  Variety is the spice of vida.

And THE KIRSH BALL adds:  “Thanks for the advance rave on LOTR:TTT. It's about what I expected ... if the first film was the best fantasy film ever made (my opinion), I expect nothing less than the continuation of that story. The one thing you didn't address was the film's Oscar chances. Because it is a "middle" film, will the Academy take a pass this year, and wait to give its well-deserved Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay to "Return of the King"?

If Peter Jackson does not scoop up at least one little gold guy for this achievement ... oh wait, I was going to say the Oscars would then be a sick joke, but I forgot they already are a sick joke. The only thing sicker is going to be the snarky mudslinging of Jeff Wells as he bashes TTT for no other reason than it's popular.”

E ME:  Take a line…