Hey Folks, Harry here... Got a call this morning from Roger Avary in the UK, who was a bit amazed to see the details of Saturday Night's screening of RULES OF ATTRACTION. In addition to what the spy sent us, apparently many people fainted in the aisles during the bathtub scene and paramedics literally hauled them out on gurneys! EXCELLENT! He also told me that he hung out with PTA this morning and chatted and caught up, and that PTA was in town for a screening of PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Well... Now we have a report about how that screening went last night! AWESOME! Two wonderful complicated works in as many days, London's doing pretty good. Here's what PTA and Emily Watson had to say about the film...
Hi Harry,
Kid A here (I wrote an early review of Max for you a couple of weeks ago). Just thought I'd let you know that Punch-Drunk Love was given its British premiere at the London Film Festival tonight and PT Anderson and Emily Watson turned up to say a few words. After introducing the film they both took their seats in the audience and watched the film with us, and then answered a few questions at the end.
It's about 1am right now so excuse me if I misquote what was said. Here's what I remember:
SOUND: One woman was angry about the intense level of sound in this film and shouted at PT for "assaulting" her. She said she had to leave because she felt sick but then came back to finish watching it. PT said a film is 50 per cent image and 50 per cent sound and his intention was not to assault the senses but to show how explosive it is to fall in love. He said it was based on his experience of having a noisy "clanging" in his head when he had fallen in love. While most of the audience knew exactly what he was talking about, this woman just carried on shouting at him and accused the audience of sycophancy (which does often happen at these Q&A things admittedly, but we're talking about one of the best contemporary directors in the world here). PT told the woman she shouldn't have bothered coming back if she hated it so much.
THE INSPIRATION FOR PHONE SEX: PT admitted calling many phone sex numbers in the past and one operator told him about how other women would ring the man back the next morning and threaten to ring his wife unless they gave her money. He thought it would be good to put it in the film.
90 MINUTE FILM: Emily Watson said it was a 90 minute film because PT wanted to make a 90 minute film. PT said "Falling in love doesn't sit well in a three hour film."
OPENING CAR CRASH: PT didn't explain why a car suddenly flies through the air in the opening scene but was very pleased that it shocked the audience.
ADAM SANDLER: He was a fan of Sandler and wrote the role specifically for him and his talents. (While I'm not a fan of Sandler, I have to admit he was undeniably excellent in this film).
HAWAII: Emily Watson said that they only shot at sunrise and sunset for lighting reasons. Also, they originally shot the scene where Barry calls up Lena in her hotel room on an empty street. But someone told them that a parade was passing by the next day so they refilmed it in front of the parade.
AIR-MILES: As well as the true story about the guy who got the air-miles from all those puddings, PT told the audience that he found a promotion where if you flew with 11 Latin American airline companies within the space of a number of days you get 1 million air-miles. He did it but found out he did it out of season so missed out.
LENA: Emily Watson said PT refused to tell her anything about the character she was playing. He would just say "pretend she's just come off a spaceship". PT said this was because all the details didn't matter. What mattered was the shock and daze of falling in love - all the details could be thought about after this event.
Well, that's about all I can remember I'm afraid. I thought it was worth sending because in my opinion this is a quite literally stunning film. It was the most shocking and scary and unpredictable romantic comedy I've seen in a long time. Well, at least the darkest rom-com since Fight Club anyway.
Kid A.
