SUNDANCE, ‘98. DAY V. 1/19...
"At Large" brings you Day 5 of Sundance live and in black & white...
A numbers theory genius is obsessed with figuring out the pattern of the stock market under the tutelage of an aging mathematician who devoted most of his academic life to the study of Pi. Through his escalating migraine headache-plagued computer research, he unlocks the code. The Wall Street Mafia wants what’s in is head, as do a gaggle of rabbinical Jewish thugs dabbling in the mystical Kabbalah who believe the numerical code to be the "name of God." Our numbers boy ain’t spilling, and what’s in his head is killing him.
Would you buy that pitch? Didn’t think so. Try that on any studio head and get laughed out of Hollywood. Fancy this: "Pi" (actually billed as the mathematical sign, a font for which I cannot find on this Powerbook) is the most talked about film at Sundance. And deservedly so. This low-budget/high production value black & white sci-fi thriller directed by first timer Darren Aronofsky is not only the talk of the fest, it’s also the target of an acquisitions scramble featuring at least ten potential buyers. Far too heady for the mainstream, but sure to catch on with the art house crowd, distributors won’t be investing to make a profit as much as they will be trying to lock a relationship they can exploit down the road with the director.
If the "Pi" sale falls through, the producers will be long remembered for throwing the best party in Park City this year. At least a thousand revelers braved snowed in roads up a mountain to their bash. Nobody even complained about the cash-bar so long as they were seen with others who had seen the film. Featuring two "legendary" DJs, the Pi party put the "dance" in Sundance.
Young British director/co-writer, Shane Meadows, in America for the first time with his first feature film, "TwentyFourSeven," couldn’t afford a bash to celebrate his Sundance World Cinema selection. He’d probably buy you a brew though. Meadows looks like a fierce skinhead from the North of England, but beneath his dome lies a BBC/independent movie house assimilated aesthetic that dropped an incredibly intelligent film on the festival.
Starring Bob Hoskins ("Mona Lisa," "The Long Good Friday"), "TwentyFourSeven" is an important, affecting story about disaffected kids much like the director. Darcy (Hoskins’ character) has given a huge part of his life to his community. The movie is about this man’s final stand at trying to help the youth of a community who have been neglected and rejected. Sick to near-death of watching on-the-dole kids wasting their lives away on drugs, petty crime and television, he gets them involved in a boxing club, and changes their lives -- not in a "Rocky" way, but in sweet, small measure for the better. And in doing so, Hoskins’ character gives his life up for them.
Meadows and co-writer, Paul Fraser took time out for a chat...
Ebner: How old are you guys?
Fraser: I was 21 when we started writing it.
Meadows: I was 22.
Ebner: Where are you from?
Meadows: Nottingham, in England.
Ebner: So, you were raised not far from where your film is set. I figured you were true-blue to your neighborhood.
Meadows: Well, Nottingham is bang in the center of England. Where we actually grew up is North Midlands...
Ebner: How would you describe the typical yank’s idea of what a British film should be?
Meadows: The problem with the trend of British films since the Eighties is the Americanism. The star gangster movies with guns. But that only works in a country with guns. The set up in America is different. When a British guy goes "You fucking toss-bag," and he’s got two guns going, it sort of looks like a cartoon. A crack on the head works better for British films.
Ebner: Come to think of it, "The Long Good Friday" was more of a terrorist film with more bombs exploding than actual gunplay. When you came up with the title "TwentyFourSeven" did you realize that that was an American urban expression?
Fraser: A lot of the black community in Britain use that expression.
Ebner: You might catch a Hollywood agent using that term from time to time. "Twenty Four-Seven, man. I’m here for you."
Meadows: Yeah, right. You and the rest of the six-thousand people on the books.
Ebner: Have you made films before?
Meadows: Only short films. A lot of people come up through the BBC drama system. I just made a lot of hum-drum stuff on my own.
Ebner: Well the BBC political system is not as interesting as the fact that, to my knowledge, the best British cinema is always hidden there.
Meadows: It only gets pathetic when they try and go American. We actually had a surf movie made in Cornwall called "Blue Juice." It wasn’t the worst film in the world, but if you want to export films -- America exports films here that we can’t make here. Some of the stuff you send out, we love. Everyone wants to see "Titanic," and it also has a wonderful independent scene. I’ve followed Jarmusch, Scorsese, and even Buscemi. I really liked "Trees Lounge." So, you’ve kind of got a whole framework. What Britain’s got at the top end of the scale in comparison to Hollywood are things like "Four Weddings And A Funeral." That’s a Britain that people want to see. You’ve got Hugh Grant and all those people, but they end up having to work in America. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the point is -- thirty or forty years ago you had people like Alec Guiness. You know, the classics... Trying to make films to please an American audience won’t please them, because you’re trying to make them for them, and no one’s that stupid.
Ebner: Do you think you were able to make a film that really matters in England?
Meadows: Well, that remains to be seen.
Ebner: Your film matters. It’s incredibly mature filmmaking for someone as young as you. Did you hone your skills through making shorts?
Meadows: Me and Paul have worked together throughout on the shorts -- whether it was acting, or choreographing, or whatever. I’m mean, literally, we didn’t have tripods, or even a track. But I’d always visualize the sequences, and shoot them as best I could.
Ebner: Any other technical handicaps?
Meadows: Shopping trolleys for dollies. "TwentyFourSeven" was really the first opportunity that I got. I mean, the cinematographer [Ashley Rowe] was just outstanding. I was just so enthusiastic when I’d look on the monitor to see what this guy was doing for me. It was just like, "Jesus Christ!" What you’ve been seeing for the last year while you were writing the script... this guy’s doing what you’re wanting him to do, and even taking it further. And when you get someone like that, how fortunate are you to meet someone like that? There was not one argument. He was a revelation.
Ebner: Is the film being seen yet in Britain?
Meadows: Not broadly. It opens March 27, so it remains to be seen.
Ebner: Do you think that your film might make a difference? At least in your community?
Meadows: Of course, but although I think films can change the way films are made, I don’t really think they can change cultures. Films can transform the way we think about films. I mean, you wouldn’t really be able to walk into a boxing club. Chances are they’d turn aggressive on you. I mean, they’ve been excluded in their own town. The people around them, their teachers at school are like ‘You’re fucking thick.’ Treated like dogs because of the nature of their intelligence. They become aggressive and angry. They were given fifty-dollar-a-week jobs and promised more within time; then they were replaced by people that would work for the same fifty bucks. You have a whole generation of people who suddenly lost faith. It’s like you’ve just given us a whole crock of shit, and expected us to believe in it. So Darcy [Hoskin’s character], really knows at the end of the day that at the bottom of it, at the heart of it, they are really just kids. They are bored out of their minds, and because they’ve grown somewhat, they’ve also become physically dangerous.
Ebner: Sounds like you guys are talking from experience.
Meadows: Of course. Well, Fraser here, a couple of weeks ago caught one in the eye.
Fraser: [Turning his head to show the broken blood vessels in his eye] Yeah. It was late-night at a pub, having a few late night drinks. I walked out, and walked into these three very violent lads that were just pent up and frustrated. They were looking for a fight, and I walked into it. The dignity has gone out of fighting. Now it’s like six people on one -- bottles in the face. It’s not guns, but it’s detestable.
Meadows: What you’re given, is as well as being given nothing. There’s nothing for you to go into. You lose your self respect in school, you leave, and you get into robbing. You rob one car and you can get more from one car than you could earn in a week. You lose respect for the people around you and you start robbing from them. You start having to do drugs because you don’t want to feel anything for it, right? You’ve gone cold inside of yourself. On the flipside, you have the whole technology thing -- computers, satellite television... What you’ve got are people who just sit in their houses. They don’t mix. How the fuck are they supposed to feel anything for anybody? These are major, major problems. Imagine if you haven’t got nothing at the core of your life.
Imagine that bleakness, then watch it transform into a ray of hope in "TwentyFourSeven." Pray for a stateside release.