In Akiva Goldstein’s first directorial debut, “Winter’s Tale” out Valentine’s Day tells the story of a man who tries his best to overcome his past and find his true love in a world that is trying to fight him. Starring Colin Farrell as Peter Lake, Jessica Brown Findlay as Beverly Penn and Russell Crowe as Pearly Soames, the movie is sure to entertain.
The story follows Lake as he runs away from Soames for deciding that the robbing life just isn’t for him and he goes running throughout the streets of New York through various times from the late 1800s to the early 1900s to even today in 2014. As he runs into trouble, he finds a horse that is considered the Dog of the East and he encounters Beverly, whom he falls in love with. All during the love story, the presence of immortal people becomes apparent, as is the case with the flying horse and with Crowe being a demon-like character who reports to Lucifer, the devil, played by a guest cameo. (Hint! Someone who’s worked with Akiva before!)
The movie was an adaptation of the book of the same title by Mark Helprin and it does have a captivating storyline that seems to drag along a bit, but the budding romance between Lake and Penn proves itself to be a remarkably romantic experience. Below are highlights from the press conference that also included Eva Marie Saint (as Beverly’s younger sister Willa) and Jennifer Connelly (as Virginia Gamely, a reporter for the New York Sun).
The movie has a lot of elements: destiny, sci-fi and a religious touch with good and evil. What about it did you enjoy most and or least?
Eva Marie Saint: I enjoyed Colin Farrell.
Colin Farrell: I was partial to Eva Marie Saint as well.
EMS: Write that down!
Akiva Goldsman: I enjoyed Colin Farrell and Eva Marie Saint as well. “Winter’s Tale” starts off (it always has) with this very lucid genre of magical realism, which is something we don’t typically do as Americans in films or movies. It’s the coexistence of serious dramatic scenes and a flying white horse. And that is either delightful to you or aversive. To me, it has always been something remarkable. It divided people and drew people in from the first moment the book was published all the way through this object. For me, what I think the movie became is kind of a secret message, it’s kind of a decoder ring. It’s a wink and a nod to people who have had loss and the need to believe in magic when you have and that’s what drew me to it.
Colin you jumped back and forth between centuries quite a few times. How did you remind yourself what century you were in?
CF: When I was wearing the wig, it was contemporary. It was all clearly demarked in the script and it was all very clearly demarked in the shooting of the film. The late Peter Lake is someone who exists very uncomfortably in the present – it’s an uncomfortable present. Each day is kind of devoid of meaning because of the repetition of the day before which he can’t remember. It’s almost like a Groundhog Day – he goes to bed at night and wakes up the next morning and it’s the beginning of a life that he has no reference point for and has no idea what his origin is. And we as human beings, we judge ourselves on our present based on our own origin stories – where we grew up, where we were born, what our families were like, how our cultural references forms our personalities. So it was interesting, it was fun. But there was certainly a very much more comfortable and very much more grounded Peter at the beginning of the story as flighty as he seems at the beginning of the story, because as much as he had a battle and as much as he had an internal rub based on his upbringing and on his orphan status, his disassociation of any sort of family until he meets Beverly and her family, the Penns, he’s ok in his discomfort. But it’s just later on in life when he’s consumed by this sense of loss but he has no idea where the loss comes from that he experiences this kind of profound discomfort that is agitating more than anything else and that is disturbing more than anything else.
What was the process like for adapting the novel?
AG: An adaptation is always the same process for me which is some version of throwing the book at the wall and seeing what pages fall out. It is trying to remember the story, reading it and trying to put it down and then write a sort of outline without the book in front of you with some hope that what you like about it will be filtered and distilled out through your memory and that would be somewhat similar to what you like about it. But you can never tell, so adaptations for me is sort of using my own memory and imagination as a template and trying to distill what is important to me out of an object. This one was easier than it appears to be because there are about 300 or so pages in the novel dedicated to a character called Hardesty Marratta who existed in one draft in an encounter with Jenny’s character at the very beginning and never made it past the first draft. So really the book was smaller than what it seemed to be when it came to the adaptation.
EMS: I just wanted to say that the talented love scene between this talented lady Jessica [Brown Findlay] and Colin is just one of the most beautifully done and so tastefully done. Akiva has left something to the imagination and you find in love scenes they try to show everything and you know it’s not the real thing anyway. It was so beautifully done; it brings tears to my eyes. I’ll never forget your profile with the kiss and Colin and I wanted to be there.
Jessica Brown Findlay: It would have been a whole different movie.
EMS: No no! In your place.
How was it filming that scene with Colin?
JBF: It was a beautiful moment and I suppose they’re kind of aware of finding the comedy within something and finding the naivety and the joy of it. A really special moment for the both of them, which is new in the sense that it’s true love in its highest sense and for Beverly especially, is something that she never ever thought would happen. Someone to love her who is not asked to, like a family member. She’s found real, true love from a stranger and it’s become something beautiful.
AG: Love scenes are the most horrible things you can ever ask actors to do. ‘I mean just try to take a moment, now take off your clothes, no but here. No really. No but really.’ Love scenes are the hardest things in the world and if you enjoy them, that’s wonderful because nobody making them says, ‘Let’s go do that again tomorrow!’
CF: I don’t know if I agree. Maybe that’s awfully cheap and sleazy of me, but it’s not like I get personal kicks and gratification out of them. I do believe in human touch in whatever form it comes in as long as that form is mutually compassionate and respectful, is a really gorgeous thing. So while it is an atmosphere of absolute artifice and it’s not romantic and it’s never going to be sexy, if the two people involved in it are on the same page and are taking care of each other, there are worst days at the office.
As we grow older, we tend to put away things like fairy tales and other magical stories, and do you believe there is a lure? Why is it necessary for us as adults to see?
AG: I agree, I think this is a fairy tale for grownups and I think it is very pointedly a fairy tale for grownups and that’s what I think we set out to do and it’s an interesting object because the first two thirds is a fairy tale for kids. There has always been in my life and in the development of this object, there are people who say, ‘Well can’t it just be over then? Can’t that be the movie? Can she not die?’ Fuck- I just totally gave it away…But ‘Can’t she die at the end of the movie and have that be tragic? Have it be over.’ But the reason it’s a fairy tale for grownups is that life isn’t that simple, that life actually includes loss and life doesn’t end with loss. Life requires life beyond loss, and this movie is a Hail Mary to faith. The idea that it even doesn’t turn out the way a story book promised, there’s a story behind it all that we can find.
EMS: I think so. I think Akiva – you said it really beautifully because everybody has their own life and the things they think about and think that are important in their lives and it’s going to be forever the fairy tale and you forget everything that’s outside and when I saw it, I had to sit there for a minute before I went in and expressed what I needed to outside and it was just thinking about what ended to happen and stars are important. I flew here from LA and the stars were beautiful and I was thinking of you Akiva and I was thinking ‘Who could make the sky so beautiful?’ and I really loved the movie, and I want to thank you Akiva.
-Catherina Gioino
