Symbolism of Biblical Proportions
The heaviest symbolism in "Road" relates to naming the aspiring the aspiring mid-20s novelist in the film "Eve" and having her live in an apple orchard with aspiring boyfriend "Adam." David explained that personal experiences prompted him to explore "archetypal aspects" of adult males and females and that he had considered naming his characters "Man" and "Woman."
David further explained that many people had the same experience as his Adam and Eve regarding the rocky course of their relationship and that David wanted "Road" to be a parable. He added that his approach to his (multi-flashbacks) film was to peel the story like an onion and have slow reveals. These included divulging the origin story of the almost literally starving artists after depicting their current lives together.
Quarter Life
On a more general level, David shared that he was in his mid-20s when he began working on this film about two roughly 25 year-old characters. This opened the door for David to share that "25 or 28 is when you are trying to figure out who you are and see other people doing the same." His follow-up observation was that "26 27 is the last little bit of childhood," and our last chance to ignore things with which we do not want to deal.
The present-day 30 year-old David stated that he learned to open himself up during the four-year journey that making "Road" required; his conclusion was that he was a human and that his his film work was what was coming out of him. He added that "I think that I'm a writer first, rather than a director."
Artist v. Artist
The auto-biographical aspects of "Road" related to David working on his writing at a time the he dated a fellow artist. Speaking about both his personal experience and that of Adam and Eve, he shared that those circumstances create a situation in which both people "compete to see who reaches self-realization first." He described such a conflict as causing a great deal of strife and bitterness.
Noting that "Road" is coming out on the heels of a New York Times essay on the reasons that people marry the wrong person included an observation that we hid our crazy until after getting married prompted David to respond that we "might know the crazy is still there and still marry" the other person.
Inside the Actors' and Director's Noggins
David further stated that the introspective nature of "Road" resulted in his actors having a "weird experience," noting that he (presumably in his director role) asked them to go to a different place. He added that he and his two leads all were born within eight months of each other and "were living" the type of drama around which "Road" centered.
David also described the experience of making "Road" as weirdly cathartic and noted that lacking a deadline regarding finishing the film allowed the editing process to be like writing and rewriting the film.
Kelly Lynch
Late '80s and early '90s star Kelly Lynch having the most recognizable name in the largely 20-something cast lead to discussing her involvement in the film. David described "Lynch as "a very strong woman" who played her role as the aunt of Eve in the manner that David pictured that mother figure. He enthusiastically added that it was "cool that she was interested in doing it."
Commentary on Modern Film Industry
David commenting that most movies facing completion deadlines is the reason that many of them are "awful." This related to the oft-expressed sentiment of directors who value quality that most studios focus on commerce, rather than art. David clearly communicated that that sentiment had extended to selecting films for the Sundance Film Festival,
The thoughts of David regarding the marketability of independent films was that studios only buy "Duplas Brothers or drinking brothers independent films" in this "interesting time for independent cinema and cinema overall."
The artist in David further revealed himself in regard to discussing a current effort to "rewrite film grammar" and stating that the grammatical revisionists were '60s filmmamkers, such as the legandary Franois Truffaut and "Rebel Without a Cause" director Nicholas Ray,
That's A Wrap
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Road" or David is encouraged to e-mail me; you can also connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
No comments:
Post a Comment