There are films that are destined to remain in the time frame in which they were shot, as the themes do not travel well into the future.  Then there are films that explore the human condition and continue to have universal relevance.  One of  those motion pictures is the 2009 The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, adapted from Rebecca Miller’s book, who also directed with a soft, but steady hand   The compelling story is one that speaks for women who have never found their own individual “voices.”

Pippa Lee, extraordinarily well played by Robin Wright, is a woman whose life has been defined by others resulting in her having no sense of who she is, and much like a chameleon, whose colors change to suit the demands of the environment, she becomes whatever is asked of her.  She is married to the much older successful publishing giant Herb Lee, played by Alan Arkin, an actor you can always count on to deliver a solid performance.  He’s has several heart attacks and in the interest of living a longer life, he and his caretaking wife leave New York and move to the Marigold Retirement Community in Connecticut.  Akin to a Stepford wife, Pippa is serene, dutiful, caring, and loving, and is outwardly perfect in every way. Herb is not happy living in the Marigold because it reminds him that he is well on his way to dying, but his wife constantly reassures him that he will be fine.

It seems that Pippa is pretty content with being a wife, mother, and good friend, but there is another narrative.  In a series of flashbacks, we see her as a little girl who grew up with a crazy, drug-addicted mother, Suky Sarkissian, excellently portrayed by Maria Bello. This fine actor captures the essence of a woman popping Dexedrine multiple times a day, which jet-propels her into the simplest task such as vacuuming.  For a short time, as a little girl, Pippa lived with her lesbian Aunt Trish characterized by Robin Weigert and her girlfriend Kat, brought to life by the one and only Julianne Moore.

In her late teenage years, Pippa has blossomed into a stunning young woman with absolutely no direction and an addiction of her own.  Skillfully acted by beautiful Blake Lively, we see the flamboyantly dressed 19-year-old meeting Herb at a wild party at his much young wife Gigi’s opulent beach house.  He is clearly unfaithful and he and the young woman begin an affair.  Eventually, he wants to marry yet another “trophy wife.”  His current wife, played by Monica Bellucci, agrees to a divorce but first wants them to all have dinner together at her home.  Her way of granting his wish is well, rather shocking.

Back in the first narrative, Pippa has become friends with her neighbor Dot, well played by the late Shirley Knight, whose dysfunctional son Chris has come back home to live with her.  He has no particular ambitions and works in the local Kwik-E-Mart. Like every part Keanu Reeves plays, his character is believable, steady, and fascinating to watch as this popular actor has a very unique cadence in the way he delivers his lines.  In what is probably an escalating manifestation of her rebelling sub-conscious, Pippa develops several disorders including sleepwalking, where she raids the kitchen at night leaving it in total disarray, but with no memory of the event.  She meets Chris during one of those episodes where, dressed only in a nightgown, drives to his store asking for a pack of cigarettes whose brand she cannot remember.  He realizes something is terribly wrong and offers to drive her back home, and thus begins the barest traces of a new relationship.  Eventually, he tells her that he’s getting a divorce, lost his job and that his best friend is screwing his wife.

Rounding out the family unit are the two children – Ben (Ryan McDonald) and his sister Grace (Zoe Kazan).  A close family friend is the neurotic poet Sandra, played aptly by Winona Ryder.  She turns out not to be such a good friend and just like the tale of the scorpion and the turtle, Herb is at it again because that’s who he is and that’s what he does.  Except in this case, metaphorically speaking, he goes down in the middle of the lake.

As a viewer, you are watching a narrative within a narrative, and thanks to Miller’s perfect direction, and Declan Quinn’s spot-on cinematography, each sub-plot is well presented. Although it takes a little adjustment to get into the flashbacks, the 98-minute journey through this woman’s heart and soul lifts the veil on how and why she became that woman, one without hopes and dreams of her own, and how a new friendship becomes the spark that ignites our heroine’s determination to see what lies ahead in the new beginnings of her first real personal journey.

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Julianne Moore launched her career on episodic television programs such as  The Edge of Night, Another World, B.L. Stryker, and  30 Rock. She eventually moved onto the big screen where she gave memorable performances in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Body of Evidence, Benny & Joon, The Fugitive, Roommates, Nine Months, Surviving Picasso, The Lost World:  Jurassic Park, Boogie Nights, Welcome to Hollywood, Psycho, Hannibal, Far from Heaven, The Hours, Children of Men, I’m Not There, A Single Man, The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay – Part 1 (and Part 2), The Kids Are All Right, and The Big Lebowski. She is also the first American woman to receive acting awards from some of the most famous international film festivals including Cannes, Berlin, and Venice.

Julianne’s latest film is After the Wedding, which she not only produced, but also plays one of the lead roles of Theresa Young, a high-powered media mogul who has amassed millions.  Directed by her husband Bart Freundlich, Michelle Williams co-stars as the Isabel, who runs an orphanage in a poor section of Calcutta.  Billy Crudup plays Oscar, Theresa’s husband, and Abby Quinn* plays their daughter Grace, who has two younger twin siblings.

Bart, Julianne, and Abby Quinn* recently sat down with a select group of journalists to talk about their film and other topics and the following is Part 2* of that interview, which has been edited for content and continuity for print purposes.

Part 2

You have created so many memorable characters.  What is your approach to developing them?

Julie:  You know, the older I’ve gotten, the more research I do.  When I was younger, I would just read the script and that was it.  Now, I think I don’t know anything about this.  I have to talk to my friends or start reading about a particular subject or asking questions because I don’t know.  I want evidence to base my character on.  I want it to be something I’ve seen or something someone has told me about.  I want information.  So, with each character, no matter who they are, whether it’s a fictional character or based on a real person, I just try to learn as much as I can beforehand.

Do you do a back-story?

Julie:  No. Surprisingly no.  I like to collect evidence from the real world.  But the story is what happens on the page.  Sometimes I don’t even know my character’s last name.  (Laughter)

Bart:  The story deals with very real-life things like being parents, being sick, connecting, art, and money.

Producing is not one of the hats you’ve worn very often. Did you seek advice?

Julie:  We have a friend who has an independent company called Horizon Media.  I spent a lot of time with him talking about what media placement means and this idea that you have this ephemeral thing that you’ve created and have to place it somewhere.  There’s no physical there, there.  He was very helpful in giving us guidance on how to approach this, including how to delegate.

What influenced you into wanting to produce?

Julie:  I think what’s happened is that our industry has changed significantly and if you are looking for stuff to do, you have to find it yourself.  Producing is not something I was compelled to do, but because there has been so much change, actors are taking responsibility for their own projects.  So, it’s mainly a result of that.   It’s not as though I had some burning desire to produce – I just wanted to keep doing the work I like doing.  I really admire what Reese Witherspoon has done because she said at a certain point that she was tired of not enough roles for women and seeing her contemporaries going after the same small parts.  I thought she’s right.  It really feels good to be able to say to somebody hey, I’m going to develop this.  So, it’s exciting to make opportunities for yourself and others.

Were you and Julie always in agreement in how a scene should be played out?

Bart:  Not always.  Because Julie is a producer on the movie, we got to talk and because we live together, we talked about it a lot.  (Laughter)  I would say, “What about this?” Sometimes she would respond, “I don’t think that would happen.”  The way we handled that was generally I would trust Julie’s instincts as her reasons were usually valid and never ego driven, especially when it came to her character.  So, unless I was absolutely 100% clear that the reason I wanted to shoot it a certain way was because I had a more macro view as the director of the film, I would listen to her.

Julie:  There were times when there were choices I made didn’t work out when we were shooting a scene or they disappeared in the editing.  Film is a collaborative effort so you’re always going to try to adjust to each other’s needs of the day.

Bart:  It is a big narrative with so many secrets.  Movies are pretend ultimately so sometimes when you are trying to catch such a rich world, if you open too many doors, you start to see the falsehood.  So, occasionally we would entertain an idea but would decide that it wasn’t working and it was a bridge too far.

The film has a look of being shot with an unlimited budget.  How did cinematographer Julio Macat pull it off?

Bart: I know Julio and he’s like this Argentinean poet.  I worked with him on a kid’s movie called Catch That Kid, which strangely enough was another original Danish film.  He’s known for shooting those big Hollywood comedies like Wedding Crashers, Home Alone II, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and The Nutty Professor, the total antithesis of After the Wedding.  I reached out to him and he happened to be available.  He called every rental house and every lab and because of all the good will he’s established over the years, he got them to give us what they would give to a huge movie.  Using the same camera he shot with for Roma, our idea was to treat the actors’ faces like landscapes so you could see every detail.  The camera has this great selective focus so the shots really looked like an abstract painting.  Without having to do a big camera move, you could just hang back and have everything in the background out of focus and just be on Julie. It would feel like you were witnessing a private moment.  Julio bought and clawed to get us everything that a fifty million dollar movie would have and as a result, he was almost like another actor in the movie.  He worked so hard that we are actually on the cover of the September issue of “American Cinematographer.” That is a huge deal for such a small movie.

In the film, most of the characters make life-changing mistakes.  How do you feel about mistakes in general and what is the audience take-away?

Julie:  There has to be room for people to make mistakes. Some things might be irreversible, but rarely are.  It’s important to take responsibility for what you’ve done.  That’s what we all have to do in life.  You want your children to know that it’s okay to make a mistake.

Bart:  In the film, there are actions and consequences.  There are no judgments.  But teaching kids that you have a choice, and if you make that choice, there might be consequences, which aren’t necessarily bad consequences, but what you do affects your life, as well as other people. That’s really taking ownership of your choices and celebrating those moments knowing that’s the stuff that life’s really made of.   Life is kind of what we make it and I think that’s a great message to give to kids.

PR Rep:  Sorry.  Time’s up.

Best of luck with the film.

Julie & Bart:  Thank you for the interview.  It was fun.

*Due to space limitations, Abby’s portion of the interview is not included.

Conversation With Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich, Part 1

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Julianne Moore (Julie) is one of Hollywood’s most gifted actors.  She has won an Academy Award and an Emmy and was the first American woman to be feted with acting awards at film festivals including, Cannes, Berlin and Venice.  Due to her father’s military career, Julianne lived in dozens of countries around the world.  Eventually, she enrolled in Boston University where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.  She cut her teeth on episodic television series such as, “The Edge of Night,” “Another World,” “B.L. Stryker,’ and “30 Rock.” Moving onto the big screen, she gave memorable performances in such films as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Body of Evidence, Benny & Joon, The Fugitive, Roommates, Nine Months, Surviving Picasso, The Lost World:  Jurassic Park, Boogie Nights, Welcome to Hollywood, Psycho, Hannibal, Far from Heaven, The Hours, Children of Men, I’m Not There, A Single Man, The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay – Part 1, (and Part 2) The Kids Are Alright, and The Big Lebowski, which, starring Jeff Bridges, turned into a cult classic.

Julianne’s latest film is After the Wedding in which she plays Theresa Young, a high-powered media mogul who has amassed millions.  Directed by her husband Bart Freundlich, Michelle Williams co-stars as the mysterious Isabel, who runs an orphanage in a poor section of Calcutta.  Billy Crudup plays Oscar, Theresa’s husband, and Abby Quinn plays their daughter Grace, who has two younger twin siblings.

Bart, Julianne, and Abby Quinn* recently sat down with a select group of journalists to talk about their film and other topics and the following interview has been edited for content and continuity for print purposes.

Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier’s Academy Award nominated film — featured the two main characters as men.  Why did you change those characters to women?

Bart:  Susanne Bier’s and Anders Thomas Jensen’s film was so complex emotionally that I didn’t see any reason to remake it in English.  So, it needed some kind of reinvention.  When Julie saw the movie, she was really drawn to the role of Theresa and expressed interest in that role.  I don’t think it was a real thought that we were actually going to change the genders.

How did the change actually take place?

Bart:  During discussions with the producers, I talked about how we would give the story a new life. They said that we should try to reinvent it with the lead characters as two women instead of men. Because I knew the plot so well, I was confident that it would not be a major stumbling block. I struggle talking about this because I don’t want to give away too much away, so I rely on all of you to figure it out. (Laughter) But obviously the challenge was going to be if you’re a woman and have a baby, you’re going to know. One of the male characters in the original screenplay was ignorant about the existence of the baby. The thing that became the ultimate stumbling block became the thing that helped me reinvent the story.

How did you approach the new concept?

Bart:  I researched people who had been given up as babies and were adopted by a different family asking them how they felt about that.  It gave me a whole new world to explore and it felt really exciting to have two women at the heart of the movie — both of them very strong characters with totally different life philosophies and both of them convinced that their philosophy of the world is the right one.  I loved that contrast and having Julie and Michelle play those roles.

Julie:  We all had to make a considered decision.  Every adult in this film knows about the decision and kept it a secret.  That deliberateness really heightened the drama tremendously. It’s like people make the best decision they can at the time and later oftentimes have regrets.

Your character is very strong and successful.  Did you base her on someone you know?

Julie:  I’ve seen examples of women who have big lives — who have successful careers and also have families they are dedicated to, and what it takes to achieve that. I’m always impressed by how much they are able to accomplish. Many roles for women are paper-thin where you are that horrible person who hires you.  It’s nice to see a woman in a powerful position who is not represented as an evil boss lady.

Did you guide the actors in the development of their characters and did you take input from them?

Bart:  I thought a lot about the story line and the characters, but the actors did their own work in becoming those people. You try to listen to them because they’re usually right.

What did you use in your acting toolbox in that emotional scene between you and your husband?

Julie:  A lot of water.  (Laughter) My character doesn’t reveal that she’s sick to anybody so when you get to that moment, that’s truly a very private moment and the only person who will see her that way is her husband.  Despite all her pent-up tension, you’ve never seen her crack, and then you see her implode.

Bart:  I feel why her character was so important was that she was doing all the things she had to do so set up everyone’s life as a way to keep moving forward. And, after all was said and the secrets were finally out, there was no more to do. And, I loved it because she’s not just sad – she’s furious because she’s someone who’s so capable and yet there’s nothing she can do to change the impending outcome.

*Due to space limitations, Abby’s portion of the interview is not included.

In Part 2, Julianne Moore talks about her personal philosophy, her approach to character development, and the shortage of good roles for women.

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