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Edited by Wendy Mitchell wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com
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Q&A Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz Brother and sister film-making duo Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz have written, directed and produced Gett: The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem — the third film in their trilogy following To Take A Wife and 7 Days — which centres on an Israeli woman trying to obtain a divorce. It will screen in Directors’ Fortnight on Friday. Foxcatcher
Wrestling a complex story By Jeremy Kay
“It’s the kind of film that’s very funny until it’s not funny,” says Bennett Miller of his US Competition entry Foxcatcher, backed by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures and Columbia Pictures. Foxcatcher has been a nine-year labour of love for Miller, ever since he read a newspaper article about a bizarre true-life episode and tried to make the film the followup to his 2005 narrative directorial debut Capote. “It’s the story of John du Pont, who was the heir to the du Pont fortune, and how he came to murder a wrestler,” he says. “It’s set in the mid-to-late 1980s in Pennsylvania. Du Pont is in his 50s, living on a 500-acre estate in the house where he grew up, with his 90-year-old mother living downstairs. “He decides he wants to get America’s best wrestlers to move into the estate and build them a training facility so he can be their
coach and lead them to victory over the Soviets in the [1988] Olympics in Seoul.” After his early efforts to find backers for Foxcatcher foundered, Miller went off and made Moneyball. Afterwards, on the advice of agents, he approached Ellison, the Hollywood financier who is not afraid of backing challenging fare. The young producer-financer committed quickly. Eventually Columbia Pictures would cofinance with Ellison, but it was she who dived in first and who made Miller feel comfortable about pulling out of the initial world premiere gala slot at AFI Fest 2013. Feeling rushed, Miller heeded his producer’s advice and withdrew from the November festival, some 10 months after production had wrapped in Pennsylvania. The timeline offers a hint about the intensity of post-production. “It’s been a huge editing process,” says Miller, who earned an
Oscar nomination in 2006 for directing Capote. “These films are not made in the normal way. I don’t work from a screenplay. The scenes we decide to shoot, we explore in rehearsal and again on the day with the actors. It makes for a much more complicated editing process.” Steve Carell nails it as du Pont, Miller says, because we don’t expect him to inhabit this kind of character. “Steve has a complexity to him and a strain of darkness, awkwardness and intelligence, and it worked. “I cannot imagine anybody in any of these roles other than the actors in there. Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo play the brothers [wrestler Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz] and all three of them are extraordinary.” The film has its world premiere on Monday in Competition. SPC will release Foxcatcher on November 14 and Annapurna handles international sales.
You throw up some shocking facts about Israeli divorce laws and the treatment of women. Shlomi Elkabetz The basis for our film is the absurd fact that in Israel, a woman can’t decide if she wants to live with someone or not. Her husband must choose to give his wife freedom. Ronit Elkabetz Every day I was in shock working on this. It’s very difficult to understand, in the democratic way we live in Israel, that this is still the law.
Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz
Testimony alone but I missed working with Ronit. I don’t think I would ever be able to make a film other than with Ronit because it’s so intensive. You need to be so open and patient. RE For me, this relationship is so huge, so special, so human, so beautiful. To create and live and to share my dream… there’s no greater gift.
Are you hoping your film will open discussions about changing the law? SE This law has been around for 4,000 years and it’s not changed an inch. But I hope it will evoke a serious conversation. It will put it into people’s awareness.
Ronit, you also star as Viviane in the film. Was it a challenge mixing two disciplines? RE It’s a big challenge but the more I know, the deeper I can explore the character. As actors, we try to build real life around the characters. For me, it’s been a reality for 10 years.
Did you always aspire to work together as brother and sister? SE It was always our dream to work together. We breathed the same air as kids, we ate the same food, we’ve seen the same sights and we heard the same music. Many of our memories are the same memories. It was always our dream to work together. I directed
Ronit, you’re one of a handful of women directors with films in Competition at Cannes. Would you like to see more? RE Each year there are more women but, still, every year there are never enough. We need to speak about our lives because we can do it better than anybody. Sarah Cooper
Pop duo play at love The artists formerly known as Russian pop group Tatu, Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina (pictured), will be in Cannes touting a new omnibus film, Cupidity, from Cornetto Films. In one of the project’s segments, Together Apart, the duo play cupids. They will be at the screening, along with director Elena Kiper, on May 21 at the Russian pavilion.
20 Screen International May 14, 2014
Cupidity
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
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