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| Linda Emond, Logan Lerman, James Schamus, Sarah Gadon and Danny Burstein Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Brokeback Mountain - The Ice Storm - Eat Drink Man Woman and Lust, Caution producer, James Schamus, becomes a director to take on Philip Roth's Indignation, starring Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon with Linda Emond and Danny Burstein (Justin Bateman's The Family Fang), Ben Rosenfield and Pico Alexander (JC Chandor's A Most Violent Year), Noah Robbins, Philip Ettinger, and August: Osage County playwright Tracy Letts.
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| James Schamus and Ang Lee share a laugh with Roadside Attractions founders Howard Cohen and Eric D'Arbeloff Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Lyrics to Jay Wadley's Is It Love, sung by Jane Monheit, Jacques Demy's Umbrellas Of Cherbourg wallpaper, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and a Caspar David Friedrich image appeared in my conversation with James Schamus.
Producer Anthony Bregman, Rebecca Luker, Annette Insdorf, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Jason Mann, Lena Hall, Zach Grenier, Tovah Feldshuh, Elvy Yost, Sebastian Stan, Colby Minifie, Taylor Louderman, Ben Shenkman, John Stossel and Paul Ochs were among those who attended the Summit Entertainment and Roadside Attractions MoMA premiere and Yale Club after party in New York.
Indignation is the story of Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), son of a butcher from New Jersey, who, with the help of a scholarship to an Ohio college, attempts to avoid being drafted during the Korean War. His parents (Linda Emond and Danny Burstein) are sick from worry as the number of funerals increases for the boys in their Newark neighborhood. "How will he keep kosher?" is the most urgent concern at send-off now.
It is in the college library that Marcus is pleasantly distracted by the shapely leg of classmate Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon), leading to their first date that includes his first escargots, his first kiss, and questions that will eternally haunt him.
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| James Schamus on his lyrics for Is It Love: "Exactly - the negation of the negation. The Aufhebung of our movie." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
When Dean Caudwell (Tracy Letts) asks Marcus to come to his office at the college, the two fight an imposing verbal dual that includes Bertrand Russell, dormitory life, a few "Sirs" too many, and results in a surprise turn with Marcus in the hospital, slurping green Jell-O and ginger ale.
Integrity, doubt, chance, a promise to his mother - ultimately it is when Marcus mistrusts his own better judgment and does what others tell him is "normal" that the worst comes true. Schamus builds his directorial debut to a shattering revelation that triggers many good questions that all start with "why?"
Anne-Katrin Titze: I loved the Shakespeare link.
James Schamus: Ah, thank you.
AKT: How did Twelfth Night come into the picture? I didn't even get it at first - there is Olivia!
JS: Olivia! Thank you! Because it's not in the book. I wanted to come up with a device that established how much this young man loved his roommate but couldn't say it. He couldn't say it openly. So he's going to have to say - "No man must know. Who do I love? No man must know." And then I realized, of course, also the motive of the book of letters. That Olivia and Marcus are writing letters. And that cluster …And I thought, oh my god, Twelfth Night, Malvolio.
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| Pico Alexander cheers on the Summit Entertainment and Roadside Attractions Indignation premiere at MoMA Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
You know, the cruelty of Shakespeare's comedies. There's always a Malvolio. There's always somebody thrown out and demeaned. And I thought, of course, the gay guy in this movie is going to be the guy who is going to be pushed away - without even anybody knowing it.
AKT: I also loved how you placed the Caspar David Friedrich image.
JS: Yes, of course, you got it. He is a Romantic, you know.
At the Yale Club after party, Annette Insdorf formally introduced me to the director, who said he was losing his voice.
AKT: Were there scenes you found particularly challenging? The Dean Caudwell scene?
JS: Well, the Dean scene was of course more challenging because we were doing 18 minute takes. That would be challenging - more for the actors than for me. I just had to sit there and watch the monitor for 18 minutes.
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| Congratulations for James Schamus with Linda Emond at the Yale Club Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
AKT: You decided to do everything on this movie. I saw you wrote the song lyrics, too. How did that come about?
JS: We couldn't afford a license for a song, so we made one up ourselves.
AKT: When is the song playing?
JS: In the car, when they are driving to the cemetery.
AKT: Did you have fun making up those lyrics?
JS: Yes, I did. I wrote very Hegelian lyrics.
AKT: Because it's a double negation?
JS: Exactly - the negation of the negation. The Aufhebung of our movie.
AKT: Let's take the obvious step from Hegel to the choice of wallpaper. The flowers in the hospital and the wallpaper - are you mirroring things?
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| Indignation at the Yale Club after party Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
JS: It's both a mirror, but it's also just kind of projection. It's like a movie screen and it means nothing because how can it mean anything? It had nothing to do with her story and yet, there it is. So it means everything and it means nothing.
AKT: It's good to have all of that in wallpaper. It made me think of the importance of wallpaper in Umbrellas Of Cherbourg.
JS: Oh, yeah, that's right.
Coming up - Indignation stars Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon, Linda Emond and Danny Burstein.
Indignation opens in the US on July 29.
