For Kent Jones and Samy Burch, almost all about the manufacture of their new drama in Venice, “Late Fame”, was Kismet.
The two had never met before discussing the film – an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s novel in 1895 on an official who suddenly accelerated for his past poetry of a group of emerging writers – but the name of Helmer Jones was the most important for the scribe “May December”. Having seen many of his documentaries and the narrative beginnings in 2018 “Diane”, Burch said he was the man for work.
“I remember thinking:” It would be really good for Kent Jones. I always have this application of notes on my phone, ”says Burch Variety On Zoom, citing “the eye for humanity” of Jones. The two caught a coffee in New York and “just felt this immediate click,” as Burch says.
“Really, knowledge of all the cinema is in his pocket,” explains Burch. “And he is SO New York. He lived in so many new Yorks and recognizes these people. »»
The adaptation of Burch of the “late renown” changes the framework of the Vienne from the 19th century to the current New York and modernizes the characters, including the retired poet Ed Saxberger (played by Willem Dafoe), the Glamor actress but mysterious Gloria (Greta Lee) and the group of generational artists from Wannabe who lift Saxberger as New Hero. NYC himself is also a character in the film, while the group tries to recreate the artistic scene of West Village in which Saxberger came in the 70s.
Although Jones usually works from his own scripts, he was on board as soon as he read Burch’s adaptation – in fact, he was seen in it. Jones is in a way a New York cinema legend himself, after having worked in a new video in Manhattan before starting his career as a film criticism, finally collaborating on several documentaries with Martin Scorsese and in the New York Film Festival from 2013 to 2019.
“I was very involved in the film scene and in the world of avant-garde film,” explains Jones Variety From his beginnings to New York. “It’s a world that was there and then disappeared, so I wanted to reflect this. And in the extreme cinephilia, there is nothing that someone loves more than rediscovering a forgotten master. ”
Dafoe also appeared in the New York experimental theater community, helping to found the Wooster group in the 1970s. Although Jones and Dafoe already crossed the trails, it was only when a blow on a plane last year that they were really able to speak.
“I get on the plane and who I sit next to Willem,” recalls Jones. “We simply talked for five hours, everything except” late renown “. When he was sent the scenario, he realized that we were talking on the plane, he had a copy of the news in his backpack.
Dafoe’s performance as a saxberger is underestimated but powerful because viewers see his humble post office worker when he is tempted by the possibility of literary glory. “He’s just lightning,” said Burch. “What he brings to this character, there is such sensitivity and such vulnerability.”
The tempting also the muse of the Gloria group, which delights in attention while masking the reality of her life and his career. Although Sandra Hüller was initially attached to the project, she had to abandon due to planning conflicts – but that Lee occurs transparently.
“When it happened in Greta, it was like, wait a minute, why didn’t we have this discussion six months ago? If I knew that Greta Lee …” said Jones. “So I said,” I’m going to pray so that she would like to do it. “What is funny, she immediately jumped on it.”
From Lee, Jones says: “Everything in her performances counts. She did something extremely difficult because there is flamboyance in her performance, but flamboyance is more the property of his character. So, this differentiation was crucial.”
The film ends in the group of artists who launches a showcase where they force Saxberger to read one of his poems for the first time in decades. Jones and Burch went back and forth on the source material of the poem he reads, with the director who plans to ask one of his poet friends to write it. But at the end of the day, the answer was right in front of them.
“Kent was like” Oh, I wrote it. I just wrote a poem. And then it’s like this incredible poem, ”explains Burch. “It’s so funny for me. I said to myself, “Wait where did you find this, what poem is it?” And he said: “Oh, I wrote it today.” There is something that undeniably moves on this subject and very relatable this way. »»
“Late Fame” is presented on Saturday in the Section of the horizons of Venice, marking the first time of Burch on the Lido and Jones the first in 26 years. Although Jones does not want viewers necessarily moving away from the film with a specific message, he hopes that the film can help “crop” their point of view.
“This is the thing about art,” says Jones. “It is not the practical value of this one, it is the expansion of the vision that can occur through it.”
Then, Jones teases that he wrote two narrative scripts which are “100% ready to leave” – one is another film in New York and the other takes place in the Berkshires. But he and Burch would love to work together again.
“She was just the best,” said Jones with Burch. “And oh my God, she is so funny. Whenever I get a text from her, she makes me laugh.”
