Time Enough At Last
Oct 14, 2016 18:01:53 GMT -5
Post by foeller on Oct 14, 2016 18:01:53 GMT -5
deadline.com/2016/10/silence-irwin-winkler-hacksaw-ridge-oscars-andrew-garfield-helen-mirren-1201836185/
“This is Marty’s best movie,” Silence producer Irwin Winkler told me when I ran into him at the Motion Picture Television Fund’s 95th anniversary event. Sure, he is high on the film because he produced it, but keep in mind this is also the man who also produced Scorsese classics Raging Bull and Goodfellas, so this kind of praise is not to be taken lightly. His wife Margo concurred that the movie is a stunner.
Scorsese has been editing it, and when last I spoke to executive producer Ken Kao a few weeks ago it was a little more than three hours long. When we spoke, Winkler said it has been tightened currently to 2 hours and 39 minutes. Paramount has set a limited release for December 23, going wider with hoped-for Oscar nominations in January. Can’t wait for this one.
The 17th century-set film about two Jesuit priests who travel to Japan where Catholicism has been banned stars Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Liam Neeson. Garfield, who won a standing ovation last Friday at a SAG Foundation Q&A after a screening of his other fall juggernaut, Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, told me making Silence was a “wild ride.” Garfield said he saw it when it was at about 2 hours and 50 minutes but added he didn’t want to see it end. He described the difference between working for the two Oscar-winning directors as both great experiences — but different as night and day.
“Mel likes to mess around with different takes. He keeps the set light; he likes to keep everyone light,” Garfield told me. “I like to do more focus, and he pissed me off so much and we’d just laugh about it because he knew what he was doing. Whereas Mr. Scorsese creates this kind of sacred circle on the set always, this invisible circle. He requires absolute silence (no pun), which is gorgeous and also terrifying because then you know there is something sacred happening, there’s like a ritual you are about to perform and anything can happen within this circle. Both methods work.
“I do believe they are both masters of the craft, and as an actor in a directors medium I would struggle to go to work if I were not fully entrusting myself to my leader, to the person who is in the directors chair,” he added. “It was a total privilege as an actor to work with two such supremely confident artists that are confident enough to trust you with your instincts about character and what you are doing.”
Could Garfield be a Best Actor contender this year for one or the other? I can tell you based on two viewings so far of Hacksaw Ridge he is definitely in the race, with Silence still to be seen and adding to a very big year for Garfield.
Scorsese has been editing it, and when last I spoke to executive producer Ken Kao a few weeks ago it was a little more than three hours long. When we spoke, Winkler said it has been tightened currently to 2 hours and 39 minutes. Paramount has set a limited release for December 23, going wider with hoped-for Oscar nominations in January. Can’t wait for this one.
The 17th century-set film about two Jesuit priests who travel to Japan where Catholicism has been banned stars Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Liam Neeson. Garfield, who won a standing ovation last Friday at a SAG Foundation Q&A after a screening of his other fall juggernaut, Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, told me making Silence was a “wild ride.” Garfield said he saw it when it was at about 2 hours and 50 minutes but added he didn’t want to see it end. He described the difference between working for the two Oscar-winning directors as both great experiences — but different as night and day.
“Mel likes to mess around with different takes. He keeps the set light; he likes to keep everyone light,” Garfield told me. “I like to do more focus, and he pissed me off so much and we’d just laugh about it because he knew what he was doing. Whereas Mr. Scorsese creates this kind of sacred circle on the set always, this invisible circle. He requires absolute silence (no pun), which is gorgeous and also terrifying because then you know there is something sacred happening, there’s like a ritual you are about to perform and anything can happen within this circle. Both methods work.
“I do believe they are both masters of the craft, and as an actor in a directors medium I would struggle to go to work if I were not fully entrusting myself to my leader, to the person who is in the directors chair,” he added. “It was a total privilege as an actor to work with two such supremely confident artists that are confident enough to trust you with your instincts about character and what you are doing.”
Could Garfield be a Best Actor contender this year for one or the other? I can tell you based on two viewings so far of Hacksaw Ridge he is definitely in the race, with Silence still to be seen and adding to a very big year for Garfield.
