Memphis Movie (2 page)

A:
 
You know, Donald, after 9/11 I found it very hard to work. Forget whether the world was waiting anxiously for another film from me. But 9/11 just blew me out of the water, creatively. I imagine other artists found themselves in similar straits—why create? The attack was the last artistic statement in a way. A negation statement. It made null future art. Or so I felt at the time. Then, someone said something to me that kicked me back into gear.

Q:
 
That if you don't make this movie the terrorists have won?

A:
 
No. No, not that. That was tired the second time I heard it. If you don't shop the terrorists have won. If you don't buy this car the terrorists have won. If you don't eat steak, if you don't go to the laundromat—anyway—

Q:
 
So what was said to you?

A:
 
A friend of mine, a writer, who was working in Prague at the time, said, Eric, buck up, you little bastard.

Q:
 
That's it.

A:
 
Well, I admit, as pith it lacks a certain elegance. Still, as a kick in the ass it was sufficient.

Q:
 
Ok. So, the last movie—

A:
 
You can call it by name. I'm not ashamed of it.

Q:
 
Spondulicks
.

A:
 
A title only its progenitor could love.

Q:
 
What does it mean?

A:
 
Didn't you read the crabby press? Money, it means money. A subject in Hollywood more taboo than incest or child molestation.

Q:
 
You think you opened some sores—

A:
 
Yes, that's one way of putting it. Hollywood, even more so than Las Vegas, is a city built on greed, on making money. Say all you want about Dream Factories and such. The dollar rules. And, the irony is, that there is more money in Hollywood than in the mob's secret stashes. Pocket money out there is measured in the thousands. Tens of thousands.

Q:
 
And your movie—

A:
 
Besides being disrespectful to the dream, it was disrespectful of the banks. Of the deep pockets.

Q:
 
Chris, in the movie, the character played by Peter Riegert, he seems a product of Hollywood rather than a man who dreams independently.

A:
 
Yes, I think so. Chris, with eye on the prize, thought that if he made one more movie, one more stab at contemporary angst, he would hit it big. He was seduced by the city, by the idea that a movie could both be provocative and profitable.

Q:
 
And his end is tragic, don't you think?

A:
 
Tragic and inevitable.

Q:
 
Inevitably tragic.

A:
 
Right.

Q:
 
So how much of Chris is you?

A:
 
Ah, that question. I'd say about 26 percent.

Q:
 
Ha. So, it's a question that bedevils you, one you have grown weary of.

A:
 
Well, a friend of mine sent me a T-shirt that read,
I AM NOT CHRIS
.

Q:
 
Uh-huh.

A:
 
So, yeah, you know. I am not Chris. But I am, too. I am that piece of the dream.

Q:
 
Do you see your end as tragic?

A:
 
Well, I hope I haven't reached the end.

Q:
 
No, no, I meant, in Hollywood. Do you—

A:
 
Think I'm washed up in Hollywood? For today. You know it's also a city where a comeback is pre-programmed and expected. They count you out only to wish you to rise again someday, renewed, reinvented, the Phoenix from the flameout.

Q:
 
Hm.

A:
 
You know, Donald. The thing is that most filmmakers have to do the Hollywood thing once or they don't feel validated. But, really, the reality is that today, with digital, with co-ops, with every state offering film companies incentives to work there, it's all so diverse, spread out, dispersed.

Q:
 
Do you see that as a healthy thing?

A:
 
Well, as an independent I have to. I would be a fool not to celebrate it.

Q:
 
Because it benefits you.

A:
 
Yes.

Q:
 
So, at the height of your Hollywood fame, you made . . .

A:
 
Titanic Opera.

Q:
 
Wha—I don't have that in my notes. Titanic Opera?

A:
 
Well, it's become a personal in-joke.

Q:
 
How so?

A:
 
Well, I made this film, this epic, three and a half hours. It was gonna be my—my—

Q:
 
Heaven's Gate
.

A:

Q:
 
Sorry.

A:
 
My magnum opus. It was great, I mean really great. The cast was superb: Jon Voigt, Gene Hackman, Ellen Green, Halle Berry, Faith Glory, Blue Positive. And the photography—my God, Haskell Wexler, some of his best late work—and a sprawling, multigenerational tale, loosely based on Nabokov's
Ada
, but set in the San Fernando Valley.

Q:
 
It sounds incredible. What happened to it?

A:
 
It disappeared. Poof. Cut down so small, bit by bit, both sides, studio and artistic, though I was left out and given no reason, snipping, snipping, so that eventually it was shown for the first and last time between features on IFC. About four and a half minutes, I think was the final run time.

Q:
 
Incredible.

A:
 
Yes, I think it's some kind of record.

Q:
 
Hm.

A:
 
Yes.

Q:
 
Ok, so, the new film. Let's talk about that.

A:
 
Of course.

Q:
 
What is its working title?

A:
 
Curiology.

Q:
 
What is that?

A:
 
It means picture writing. So, an obvious pun.

Q:
 
Do you think that will be the final title?

A:
 
No, I learned my lesson with
Spondulicks
. We have also discussed
Potemkin Village
.

Q:
 
Tell me why, what does that mean? An Eisenstein reference—

A:
 
It's a city that appears as an impressive showy facade designed to mask undesirable facts.

Q:
 
A city with dark secrets.

A:
 
Yes, dark city secrets down its dark streets.

Q:
 
Is this another Hollywood metaphor?

A:
 
No, not this time.

Q:
 
Then—

A:
 
Well, running the risk of ruffling feathers, it's Memphis that is the dark end of the street.

Q:
 
That's Dan Penn, our homeboy.

A:
 
Of course.

Q:
 
So you think that title will stick?

A:
 
Don't know. The working title is, simply,
Memphis Movie
. Sandy wanted it to be called
S Is for Symbolism
.

Q:
 
That's Sandy Shoars, your wife and collaborator.

A:
 
We're not married, but, yes. My collaborator and paramour. She has written every one of my movies.

Q:
 
And received an Independent Spirit Award for
After You I Almost Disappeared
.

A:
 
A nomination.

Q:
 
She didn't win?

A:
 
No, that was the year
Sleeping in a Box
won everything.

Q:
 
Oh, right.

A:
 
Sandy's new script, that is, for this movie set in Memphis, is the best thing she's ever done.

Q:
 
That's very exciting.

A:
 
Yes, it is. It is how we get the actors we want, the power of her words. Actors relish good scripts, as they should.

Q:
 
Hope Davis.

A:
 
Exactly. My first choice for all my movies, but this is the first time we'll be working together. She's the right stuff.

Q:
 
And lovely.

A:
 
Yes.

Q:
 
Elena Musick, Ike Bana, Suze Everingham. It's quite a cast.

A:
 
Yes, we're very lucky.

Q:
 
Trinka Dukes, Deni Kohut.

A:
 
Yes.

Q:
 
And this is the first time you'll be working with Dan Yumont.

A:
 
Yes, it is.

Q:
 
His reputation precedes him. How do you think he'll be to work with?

A:
 
I don't anticipate any problems.

Q:
 
Yet, upon his arrival in Memphis for preliminary meetings he was arrested at the airport.

A:
 
A misunderstanding.

Q:
 
They found a box cutter and a roach clip in his pockets.

A:
 
He explained that.

Q:
 
Ok.

A:
 
Dan is a complex man, a thinking man's actor. He is this generation's De Niro.

Q:
 
Some papers have compared him to Sean Penn—

A:
 
Or this generation's Sean Penn, an actor of the first water—

Q:
 
Sean Penn, of the Madonna era, I was going to say. The spitting at paparazzi, the antagonism with the press.

A:
 
The press . . . well, best I keep myself to myself. Let's talk about the new movie—the soundtrack—

Q:
 
And the soundtrack, you—

A:
 
Will be all Stax.

Q:
 
Stax—whatever—the whole Stax canon?

A:
 
Yes.

Q:
 
One would have thought you'd come to Memphis and use Memphis music. Is it too predictable, do you think?