"When I first read the script, I loved its wit and pace,"
Crowe says. He also jumped at the chance to play Alex Ross "as
a parody of film noir tough guys. Just how many cigarettes can he
smoke in a movie and at what inopportune moments?"
Crowe also responded to the relationship between Myra and Ross
and how the two characters complement each other. "He has heart
and she loses hers. She has spirituality and his has been shattered
by his post-war malaise. In the traditional sense of the best film
noir, they are pre-destined to be together," Crowe says.
********************************
Thanks to Rose: Russell 's interview on "Rough Magic"
French DVD.
Q: what's the film about?
Russell: "It's about a lot of different things; it's about,
in a broad sense, about the spirituality and magic we all contain
and whether or not you can tap into it and whether you can open
up enough to believe in it.
Q: Did you already make period films?
Russell: " Yes, the look of different periods, you know, it’s
just another period of time to look at, explore, it's interesting.
Q: Do you find people’s manners and ways of speaking in those
times very different?
Russell: "In the movies, they certainly were. But I think
that's a lot to do with the style of performance that is acceptable.
I don't think necessarily that people's body language has undergone
a dramatic change, you know. The clothing has certainly, the language
forms have, and what people do in public arena (giggles) has, but,
you know, I saw a lot of movies from this time period… reference
for this film, so I don't think that we tried sort of to recreate
that; it’s more try to get yourself in the space where, you
know, where the way you communicate with people publicly, sort of
… I think there was a different respect level in that time
than there is now. I mean that between male and female basically.
I just think it was more reasonable for a relationship to take a
longer period of time, therefore it's a lot more romantic, you know.
Of course, this may also be just movies truth, not necessary truth?
I wasn't alive in 1950…(giggles)
But you can assume that from the divorce rates and marriage rates
and engagement length…
Q: Why did you agreed to play Alex?
Russell: "Because, I think that's what I told you before,
I mean he is a man who is an all-American boy, grew up the sort
of lad who intensely believed in his country, his country's foreign
affairs, policy, shall we say. Second world war begins, Pearl Harbour
happened; he enlists in the Marines, through certain sore circumstances
and lacks, basically fights in the war in the pacific and finds
himself volunteering to go to Japan for special duty after the bombs.
Because he is so caught up in the fight for victory, the fight for
right, you know, that his own personal beliefs have been sort of
suppressed for a while, shall we say.
And when he breezes in Nagasaki with that attitude…
Because we must understand, you know, for most people war isn't
about big tracks of land, it's about, particularly in the Pacific,
it's about that beach and that bush and that little hill over there
and that tree and that cave…It's a very small thing, you know…
So he arrives in Nagasaki with that energy that he's being having
and that resentment he has built up against the enemy, and he sees
that mass destruction…And he starts clicking over in his mind:
this is not just about soldiers that have been killed, it's three
or four generations of the same family. This is mothers, kids and
dogs, canaries, everything is wiped out. He sort of turned round
and it's one of the reasons why he does the job that he does, which
is, basically under the disguise of being a journalist, he does
whatever his political contacts, which are also assumed to be military,
ask him to do. And he can't go home… He gives up a place in
Los Angeles and he lives in Mexico. He can't go home, he can't sit
down, talk to his mummy. He can't say: "That's what I did this
four last years.”
He can't sit there and talk to his mother about what happened on
Iwo Jima, you know. When he was soaked down with rain, 10 000 men
had dysentery and they were there to kill people…He can't
just sit down and have a polite chat with his mum, it's not gonna
work , you know.
Everyone treats him like a hero and in his mental space it’s
not easy thinking he is; he thinks he is someone who killed people,
he is a murderer, so he can't face it.
It's a journey which 90% of the soldiers went through at the end
of the war."
genres,
has created a colorfully mad kaleidoscope of a film, combining equal
parts film noir, romantic adventure and magical thriller.
