Tuesday, May 12, 1998
Director Reynolds gets ugly, breaks dramatic conventions
FILM: First full-length effort takes on different approach,
enabling risks, opportunities
By Louise Chu
Daily Bruin Contributor
Having parents in the cinema is pretty much a free pass into a
successful film career, right? But what if your parents ran the
film projector and worked behind the snack bar?
For Scott Reynolds, the road to his first feature film, "The
Ugly," was paved with a humble, working-class background and an
unconditional love of film.
"For me, the important thing is the film," the 29-year-old
Auckland, New Zealand, native emphasizes. "I grew up in a movie
theater. I grew up watching films. It’s not about being director.
It’s not about sitting on set and having coffee made for you. It’s
about people sitting in the darkness and screaming or cheering or
laughing or running for the exits because they’re so scared. It’s
about that thing up on the screen."
This love carried Reynolds through an unconventional film career
that began in a movie theater as a projectionist, and continued to
a post-production house where he gained access to filmmaking
equipment and began making short films. Guided by the inspiration
of Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Brian DePalma, Reynolds
needed no formal film training to win Best Dramatic Short Film at
the Chicago Film Festival for "Game With No Rules" at the age of
25.
At 27, he began work on his current film, which he wrote and
directed. "The Ugly" is a psychological thriller about Simon
Cartwright (Paolo Rotondo), a confessed serial killer who claims to
commit his vicious crimes under a demonic power from within which
he calls "the Ugly." The film takes place in a mental hospital,
where he is evaluated by controversial psychiatrist Dr. Karen
Schumacher (Rebecca Hobbs), while his past is revealed through a
series of vivid flashbacks.
"With ‘The Ugly,’ the one thing I really wanted to do was I
wanted to try to make something a bit different," Reynolds
reflects. "I wanted to do a sub-genre. I wanted to take the horror
genre that I like, but I wanted to add elements that you don’t
usually see in a horror film."
He later adds, "I thought, ‘Look, I don’t know if I’ll ever get
to make another movie again, so I’m going to take as many risks as
I can.’ I’d rather take many risks and have some of them not work,
than be safe and only go halfway."
This go-for-broke attitude is evident in many of his artistic
choices in "The Ugly," including working with a musical score that
he describes as "sad and tragic," as opposed to the ominously
frightful sounds that are characteristic of most thrillers.
Reynolds also decided to take a different approach in the casting
of the demonic serial killer Simon Cartwright.
"A lot of (the actors who auditioned) would be doing their best
Hannibal Lecter impersonation or their best
I’m-not-crazy-but-I’m-really-crazy thing," he explains. "(Rotondo)
came in, and he sat down and just talked, which was exactly what I
wanted because whenever I’ve seen a real serial killer being
interviewed, they’re plain. I mean, look at Jeffrey Dahmer."
Although he claims no particular real-life or fictional
inspiration for Simon, he supposes that the character would be
comparable to Norman Bates from the Alfred Hitchcock classic
"Psycho." However, Reynolds made a conscious effort not to conduct
too much clinical research for the movie because he "didn’t think
that serial killers would go out and study each other."
Reynolds left no taboo unbroken, even working with the color
scheme of the film to defy the traditional earthy colors of films
from New Zealand. Remaining consistent with his theme of power and
intensity, he chose a palette of primarily sharp blues and reds,
although he incorporated white, black and silver to provide
striking contrasts. Reynolds also challenged the advice of a
costume designer in one scene, in which he insisted on filming a
red-suited Hobbs in front of a red wall.
"The costume designer said, ‘She’s going to be sitting in a red
dress in front of a red wall. You don’t do that,’" Reynolds
recalls. "I said, ‘You know what? That’s exactly why we’re going to
do it. Let’s break all the rules."
Not only did Reynolds’ unconventional filmmaking philosophy
translate onto the screen, he applied his intensity behind the
scenes as well in working with the actors. While most directors
leave their actors to employ their own acting methods, Reynolds
stresses the importance of working closely with the cast on their
technique and style. He believes that the director should play a
key role in the actor’s emotional preparation for a scene.
"To get them where they needed to be before they go on set, I’d
stand just off camera with them," Reynolds says. "If they needed to
be angry, I’d help them get angry, I’d let them get angry, I’d make
them get angry."
He recalls one scene in which Dr. Schumacher was supposed to
cry. To prepare Hobbs for the emotional challenge, Reynolds’
counseled her for 10 minutes, helping her recall difficult times in
her life and reminding her of those incidents throughout the
filming process.
As "The Ugly" enters the American market, Reynolds simply hopes
that his unique passion for films will be evident through the
degree of audience reaction.
"It’ll be interesting to see how Americans take ‘The Ugly’
because there will be people who really like it, and there’ll be
people who probably despise it," Reynolds admits. "But if you’re
going to make a film like this with what ‘The Ugly’ does, if you
just get a so-so response, then you haven’t done your job
properly."
FILM: "The Ugly" opens Friday.
Trimark Pictures
Convicted serial killer Simon Cartwright (Paolo Rotundo) tries
to convince a court-appointed psychiatrist that he’s been
rehabilitated in "The Ugly."