Interview: Ray Lawrence

“Haunting” is the word that comes to mind when watching Ray Lawrence’s third feature film Jindabyne. It took two decades to make, but the final product is a potent vision derived from Raymond Carver’s short story “So much Water, So Close to Home”.  

The narrative follows a group of blue-collar fisherman, deep in the Australian outback, who come upon the body of an aboriginal girl floating in the river. They decide to leave the girl in the water, tying her to a branch so her body won’t drift away. After three days they finally notify the authorities. Upon arriving home the group is greeted with outraged spouses, a village turned against them and the local aboriginal culture calling for their blood. This is a film that isn’t about easy answers; it’s about the hard questions.  It’s a film about morality and how cultures, sexes and age groups clash over their different interpretations of moral polemics.

The film wasn’t easy to make. The project had been a dream of Mr. Lawrence’s since the eighties. Laura Linney had been attached to the project for a number of years before the financing finally came through.  As a director, Ray is known for shooting completely on location with no artifical light and usually only allows his actors one or two takes.  These may be considered strenuous shooting conditions, but they make for a profound film. 

I was able to speak to Ray Lawrence over the phone about his upcoming release. 

Benjamin Crossley-Marra: When did you first read the Raymond Carver story?

Ray Lawrence: It was more then twenty years ago, I think back in 1984 that my friend Paul Kelly and I (he was the composer on Lantana and Jindabyne) were talking about ideas for films and he gave me a compilation of Raymond Carver’s short stories.  I read “So Much Water, So Close to Home” and really fell in love with it. I thought it would make a great film. The story really stuck in my head and just hasn’t let go. 

BCM: …that was a long time ago.

RL: Well we really didn’t try to launch a production until around 2000.  When Robert Altman’s Short Cuts came out in 1992 I thought: “Well this is it.  I’m never going to able make it now.” But after we wrapped up Lantana I began thinking about the story again and we managed to secure the rights.

BCM: What was your reaction to Robert Altman’s interpretation of the work?

RL: I thought it was a good film, but it wasn’t what I had in mind. That’s one of the reasons I don’t feel guilty about releasing my version. To me, this story is about responsibility and the differences between how men and women react to certain situations.  I’m not saying Altman’s film isn’t about that to some degree as well, but I think his film dealt a lot more with Americana commentary.

BCM: How hard was it to secure financing for this film?   

RL: It’s always hard for any independent filmmaker to find financing for their work and it took us about three years of false starts before all the money finally came together. It’s really tricky because you think you have the money from one place, only to find someone else has backed out. It was great that Laura Linney stayed with the project for over two years and showed an enthusiasm for the material. That really helped with our financial backing. 

BCM: What was the casting procedure like?

RL: Australia’s one of the most culturally diverse places in the world and I really wanted to reflect that in the cast. The character that Laura Linney played I wanted to come from somewhere else. It was funny because she came down to Australia expecting to do an Australian accent and was somewhat disappointed when I explained to her the characters nationality. I also really wanted Gabriel Byrne’s character be Irish because I thought it would be an interesting subtext paralleling the relationship between the Irish settlers and the Aboriginal people. It was really the Irish who came to Australia first and the Irish settlers established a relationship with the Aborigines similar to the British colonists and the Native Americans.

BCM: You got some fantastic performances from children in this film, how hard were they to work with?

RL: Well Sean Rees-Wemyss, who plays Laura Linney’s son, was only six at the time we shot it and he could pay attention for about six seconds (laughs). We would set up the shot and be all ready to go and then he would already be in another world or looking at something else. But he was a very special child and extremely precocious. Eva Lazzaro is quite special too and a character in her own right. I’m not sure, however, if I’ll be making films with children again in the near future.

BCM: Talk to me about the filming, how was it shooting in deep in the Australian countryside?

RL: Well I never shoot in studios and I really think that helps add to the naturalism of the story and the performances. It was difficult in the sense that we had to travel and move the equipment over long distances, especially when we were shooting down in Yarrangobilly at the river.  The terrain is undeveloped so the crew had to move through a lot of dense areas with valuable equipment. On top of that, the problem came from us only being able to shoot a limited amount per day. Once everything got set up, it was already mid-morning. 

BCM: Did you use all natural light in this film?

RL: Yes, with the exception of two night scenes. I really believe that the more natural the set is, the more natural the performances will be. Artificial lights bring a specific style to a film and to me that just seems false.  Other directors use it as part of their style and it works well. I don’t think stylized lighting would have made Jindabyne a better movie, I think it would have detracted from the naturalism of the film.

BCM: Do you think that the decision to leave the body and continue a fishing trip was a moral one or do you think the dilemma was more complex?

RL: Well I can understand why they did it, but that’s just my own opinion and I want audiences to form their own opinion. I’m hoping people will bring their opinions to the film and take the conversation out of the cinema. In the end it’s not really important what I think, but how the audience reacts to the story. It’s a very complicated dilemma and would they react differently if they had found a man’s body or a child’s? I actually think about the situation a lot and my opinion on it changes all the time.  I think the fact that the question is hard to answer makes the story so compelling. 

BCM: What about the character of Gregory (the actual killer), what is the audience to make of him?

RL: Well Gregory is really a representation of evil. Not that the character is completely and totally evil, his actions just represent evil. Evil happens all the time, it’s not something natural, it’s not something that comes from the animal kingdom, it just happens and there’s nothing you can do about it.  I didn’t want the film to be a mystery and that’s why I showed the killer at the beginning. I wanted this to be a love story and a story about how peoples actions come back to haunt them. 

BCM: Do you have any other projects in the works?

RL: Well the next project I hope to get off the ground is an adaptation of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge”.  It’s another one of those projects that’s been in limbo for a couple of years now.  There’s also a novel by Cormac McCarthy called Child of God that I hope to do and a project set in Bosnia. 

Sony Pictures Classics releases Jindabyne in limited release this coming friday, April 20th.