Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Started by Pozer, July 15, 2012, 01:01:16 PM

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polkablues

Short, first-impression review:

I don't know how there's a cut of this film that's eight minutes shorter than the one I just watched, because like I said above, there wasn't an extraneous minute to be found. The storytelling is so economical and the pacing so hypnotic, I really can't even imagine where these cuts are going.

As good as Affleck, Mara, and Foster are, and they are very good, Keith Carradine runs away with the movie. It's an absolute master-class on film acting; you can see everything going on in his mind without him having to move a muscle. I honestly believe this is the best performance of Carradine's career.

The little girl is also amazing. Getting natural, un-precocious performances out of children, especially a child that young, is a feat of directing skill. All the kudos in the world for that one.

I'm fascinated by the story structure, how the three main characters form this sort of triune of protagonists/antagonists, where each is both the hero of their own story and the villain (in a sense) of another's. And somehow through that they're all able to achieve some sort of redemption. It's a complex construction that somehow plays very naturally and simply on the screen.

And of course, all the technical marks: the film looks beautiful, there's such an authenticity and a timelessness to the costumes and set design that it looks like you could rub the screen and come away with dirt on your finger. The score is perfection. I hate to reuse the word hypnotic, but there you have it.

I can't wait for more people to see this, because it's a rich film that's rife for discussion, and this is going to become a very long thread by the end of summer.
My house, my rules, my coffee


Lottery


xerxes

I'm waiting in the rush line for the 4:50 screening and I'm scared I won't make it in. Is there some secret xixax code to get in?

polkablues

Quote from: xerxes on June 17, 2013, 06:02:24 PM
Is there some secret xixax code to get in?

"Ratner sent me."
My house, my rules, my coffee

Ghostboy

You should be fine. Everyone in the rush line on Saturday got in. I wish I was still there to say hello!

P.S. As the movie screens more widely, I hope folks here will feel free to discuss the movie and what they liked and didn't like freely. For better or worse, the picture is just about out of my hands at this point, which is terrifying and exciting at the same time. If anyone feels inclined, redommending it to friends and posting on twitter and/or Facebook will be much appreciated. And if anyone hates it, I hope it's at least a complex sort of hate that inspires discussion!

xerxes

Damn, no luck. No rushes in this time. Pretty bummed.

MacGuffin




'Ain't Them Bodies Saints' poster and director David Lowery on Rooney Mara, violence, and indies
By Lindsey Bahr; EW

It's Texas sometime in the 1970s and Ruth Guthrie and Bob Muldoon are in love. But in Ain't Them Bodies Saints, the passionate, earnest couple cannot stay together. There's a confrontation with the police, and Bob (Casey Affleck) ends up in prison, while Ruth (Rooney Mara) raises their daughter alone. But Ruth's quiet life is upended when she gets word that Bob has escaped from prison.
With Ain't Them Bodies Saints, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and will be released in theaters on Aug. 16 (and VOD on Aug. 23), director David Lowery crafts a tightly constructed, lyrical portrait of people tied together by love, tragic circumstance, and obligation. And even though there are guns, wounds, threats, and betrayals, Lowery has somehow managed to make nearly every character empathetic. EW spoke with Lowery about the film, his love of Robert Altman, his use of violence in the film, and the state of independent movies. Take a look after the break. WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The movie focuses on Bob Muldoon (Affleck), Ruth Guthrie (Mara), and the local policeman Patrick Wheeler (Ben Foster). Is it any one character's story?
David Lowery: I really wanted it to feel as evenly divided amongst the three as possible. You can break it down in terms of screen time and make calls on that, but I think the thing that has been really gratifying to me is that everyone who sees it comes away gravitating towards one character's story. That's really nice to hear because my goal was to be even-handed with everybody.

All the main characters are incredibly empathetic, even though some commit crimes, intentionally or not.
I really wanted to make a movie with a lot of nice people in it. I wanted to do something where everybody was trying to do the right thing — even though they all have different ideas of what is "right." I don't like to hate anyone. Even Keith Carradine's character, who could have easily turned into a villain of some sort, I just wanted to make him nice.

Your use of violence in the film seems very measured for a Western. The characters may use the threat of violence, but any acts are generally out of self-preservation or done by accident. Why is that?
When it came to Bob, he's a character who wishes he could hold a gun with some degree of authority. He's like a little kid with a cap gun. He never thinks about what the consequences are or the fact that this might hurt somebody. He's never actually thinking of what he's doing in violent terms. When he's given the opportunity to actually shoot someone, he can't do it. The gun was just an accessory to an image more than it was an implementation of violence. Ruth, her perspective was slightly different because she actually did shoot someone and had to deal with that.

What was your goal with how to present the violence?
I don't like violence that's made to be cool, and I hate fetishizing it. In this movie, when the violence does break out towards the end, it happens quickly and in a way that's not glamorous. I wanted it to be thrilling, but not exciting. I didn't want people to walk away thinking that was a fun part of the movie. I've shot one gun once and I hated it. I wanted all the violence in the movie to contain that disgust.

Bob even asks at one point, in a comedic respite from the tension and action, "Why did you shoot me?!"
It's really hard for me to wrap my head around certain things, and one of those things is the idea of actually hating someone enough to want to get revenge. I always wonder, "Why would this guy do this?" And I thought, well, I'm just going to have him say it. I shot it and thought it wouldn't work. It's such a weird thing to have someone say that in the middle of a shoot-out. But those words actually ended up making sense.

Ben Foster is so compelling in this film, and he said once that Patrick represented
"core American values." Is this something you talked about while developing his character?

I think it goes further back than American values. It's this idea of chivalry and being a gentleman. Here's a character who, in the archetypal sense, would normally be out to get Bob, or after something more duplicitous. I wanted to take that character and make him be open and to be able to let things go. I tried to make him a genuinely good man.

Rooney Mara is terrific too, and her career is really taking off. What was it like working with her?
She's remarkable. It might sound lazy, but as a director you kind of hope that actors will intuitively get everything you want so you don't really have to explain too much to them. But it's great when it happens. It just means you're on the same page with somebody. She definitely had that. She got the project. She got the character. And she was very professional. She'd come knowing her lines. She could do any scene at the drop of a hat. So that freed up our ability to discuss different options of where to take things and push it further than we had on the page.

You've talked a lot about the influence of Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller and you were able to cast Keith Carradine, who appeared in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, in a key role. How did you get connected with him?
He came on pretty late in the game. We were having a lot of trouble casting that part. I'd initially wanted to go out to him and for whatever reason we weren't able to get the script to him. We were already shooting by the time we got the script to him, and he read it and came to town. It was a nice that he has a direct tie to McCabe and Mrs. Miller, but first and foremost was the quality of his acting.

You're in a very enviable spot in the independent film world. You co-edited Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, you've worked with Joe Swanberg, you are connected to the Ross brothers. Are you optimistic about the state of indies?
I would make Ain't Them Bodies Saints for $12,000 if that's all I had to do it with. The means to make things are constantly available and there's nothing stopping me. They can be big or small, but I know that I can always make something and express myself through this form. I think that's true of my peers and collaborators too. We've all chosen this medium outside of any industry factors. We can do it on our own. If the industry pays attention and wants to give us money or help us make a living, that's icing on the cake, but that's not the goal.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

jenkins

felt excited for you that it's playing at cinema 21 in portland (aug 30). that's the most beautiful theater in portland, by far. they have another really nice theater that i'm sure you're aware of, and it's a really nice theater, but cinema 21 is by far more beautiful. victory here

jenkins

the other day alex ross perry tweeted a thank you to producers and included lowery, and i wondered why without knowing why, and then i thought about other things anyway, and today --

alex ross perry's next movie "listen up philip" has an atbs producer list including david lowery, and james johnston and toby halbrooks, and the casting news was jason schwartzman and elisabeth moss

i'm going to put this here because duh we have a favorite name, although the movie will get its own thread and that will be good

Ghostboy

Indeed, we're gonna use whatever good will this movie has given us to help our friends however we can. We loved Alex's film THE COLOR WHEEL and are excited to be making this new one happen. Unfortunately for me, it starts shooting right around the time SAINTS is coming out both here and abroad, so I'll be gone for most of it. But my fellas have my back.

THE COLOR WHEEL is on iTunes, if anyone is interested in seeing my favorite independent comedy of the past few years.

jenkins

i have an outright hilarious story from when the color wheel played in la. i'd guess lowery has heard it from people who were there (for example alex ross perry), it's jeff garlin battling a heckler with a comedic response. where was garlin? chilling in the audience

on topic, lowery is a good person :love: :love:

max from fearless

After a week of being sick and spending too much time watching Claire Denis filmmaking workshops, I finally broke my movie sabbatical and watched THE COLOR WHEEL then jumped straight into Sophie Takal's GREEN.

THE COLOR WHEEL is INCREDIBLE. Vicious, heartfelt and hilarious. I got that same feeling I got whilst watching The Master, like this filmmaker was seeing how far they could push everything, the form, the characters, the performances, the situations/scenes. This shit had bite. Loved it and Green was similarly strong and singular and just totally it's own thing with great performances. Super inspiring. Thanks for the recommendation. Now onto Sun Don't Shine.

Looking forward to Saints. Any idea when it's reaching London?

jenkins

as a trailer, before johnnie to's drug war, at the sundance on sunset blvd, there came the saints. it's wonderful they're headed to los angeles

Ghostboy

I never cease to get excited when I see the trailer at the theater.

The movie opens in NY and LA on the 16th, about 20 more cities on the 23rd and then continues to expand through September 20th. It'll be in the UK on September 6th and France on the 18th. If anyone is looking for specific city information, let me know.

The lead-up to the release has been equal parts intense /  frustrating / terrifying / exciting. I tried watching the movie myself again the other day and couldn't get through ten minutes of it. My feelings towards it change on a moment by moment basis. Sometimes I love the jam-packed first 20 minutes and wonder how I let the rest of the movie get so slow. Lately I can't believe the first 20 minutes are so fast and wish I had let them take a breather. I can't wait for it to be a year or two old, at which point the hypersensitivity will have worn off and I can embrace it again!