37th Montreal Festival of Nouveau Cinema: John Boorman

Recipient of the Louve d’Honneur, John Boorman is the official guest of honor at this year’s Montreal Festival of Nouveau Cinema edition. Along with the showing of four of his films, a Master Class was offered with one of my favorite profs, Mario Falsetto from Concordia University’s Film Program presided over the event with an introspective Q and A session and then the floor was given to the patrons that packed the theater. Here are some of the Boorman’s anecdotes from a lifetime of filmmaking…

Early beginnings:
After the World War II, Boorman first began as a film editor and then started making documentaries for television. It was when he became curious about what happened behind closed doors of homes that he started to dramatize docus – this naturally evolved into the first steps into a long-standing feature filmmaking career. His 1987 film, Hope & Glory was a recounting of his childhood.

On his filmmaking process:
Boorman tries to rehearse as much as possible, and in a stickler for shot lists – so preparation is key to his form before the cameras roll. He mentioned that while some directors struggle to find where to place their cameras and try to get as much footage as possible, he on the other hand, places the camera where it “has to be” and avoids “coverage” shots — preferring not to break an actor’s concentration when working on a given scene.    

Point Break:
“Lee Marvin moved like a dancer” and he learned an incredible amount from the thesp who would champion the young filmmaker on the set of the large MGM-production. After filming The Dirty Dozen in Europe, Marvin meet with Boorman at his home and agreed to make the film: but on one condition: “he then threw the script out the window.” The picture would be Boorman’s first film in color.

Deliverance:
By far his biggest commercial success, Boorman was extremely well-prepared for the shooting of this project — he had the actors rehearsing together several weeks beforehand, but nothing prepared them for the challenges of working on a river. Boorman admitted he likes making things difficult for himself, and on this film he shot with a very small crew with no sound. He discussed the chemistry on set between the actors, stating that method actor Jon “Voight’s first response to a scene was fantastic” but then he would “over-intellectualize” following takes. Burt Reynolds described as a good TV actor and somewhat of a stiff, was thinking more in terms of “I know how to get around this”.

On the infamous Rape Scene:
When Boorman found the location, the dead leaves and the acid green light from the top of the trees he planned out the scene to a T and got exactly the results that he wanted, but the studio’s request for an alternative television version brought about the “squealing pig” response. The rest is history.

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977):
Boorman was offered the chance to direct the first film but passed on it – he was horrified by the idea of torturing a child in Linda Blair’s character. When he took on part II, it was his way to do good, ultimately he thinks this was a bad move since audiences were expecting the same gore. Boorman also had to shut down production for four weeks due to getting Valley Fever.

On the Symbolic value of Rivers in his films:
Boorman sees rivers as a fundamental symbol for life – hence the inclusion in other films of his such as The Emerald Forrest and Hope & Glory.
 
Broken Dreams:
An audience member pointed to a 20 year-old article from Premiere magazine about the best un-produced screenplays and on the top of the list was this Boorman project. Despite re-working the script to death, it never got off the ground because as Boorman explains it: “it was an art-house film with a mainstream budget”. Boorman wrote the picture 25 years ago with Neil Jordan.

Boorman concluded by discussing other films of his such as cult favorites Excalibur, Zardoz (a film he made for cheap and Sean Connery pocketed 100 grand), The General (for which he won Best Director at Cannes. And his most recent film In My Country.

Memoirs of Hadrian:
Just before the conversation with Boorman concluded, I asked him about his 2009 shoot for Hadrian and a follow up question about how comfortable he felt with emerging technologies especially when we consider that the budget reported for the film is in the 50 million dollar range and that producers are probably looking for the next 300. Boorman admitted that he antsy about the project, given that the financial market right now is wobbly. What he likes best is being able to shot and then see the results instantaneously without having to send the film to the lab for processing. 
 
Favorite quote of the event (I think I’m paraphrasing here):
“Originality becomes the enemy especially when you have a 30 second television spot and can’t explain the film” — a conversation he had with a heavyweight Hollywood Studio executive on what movies the end up making…This says a lot about the quality of films and the lack of original works.