It’s that time of year. As the award-winning biopics and
heavy-hitting dramas slowly move from the big screen to DVD, a
stampede of horror flicks and light-hearted comedies pervade the
theaters.
And while these genres of film traditionally accompany the
growth of green leaves back on trees, some filmmakers have begun to
despise the labels.
Enter John Maybury, a prolific and sought-after English film
director, who makes his American debut with Warner Independent
Pictures’ “The Jacket.” Starring Adrien Brody as
a mentally insane Gulf War veteran and Keira Knightley as his
partner in solving the mystery of his death, the film can easily be
mislabeled from afar.
“They’re marketing this film as a horror film, which
is a lie,” Maybury said.
From Maybury’s perspective, as well as that of many other
film auteurs, their films are pieces of art rather than products
for the market. As a result, the tendency for large studios to pick
up “independent” features as part of newly created
Independent Film divisions has rubbed many directors the wrong way,
and it can often attract the wrong audiences, Maybury said.
“It’s going to be a disaster the first weekend when
all the kids who think they’re going to see “˜The
Grid’ or “˜The Hole’ or “˜The
Whatever,’ find out they’re watching some pretentious
European drama,” he said.
Maybury is aware of the need to market the film to sell to
certain audiences, but he still holds on to his artistic ideals. As
a filmmaker who has so far been successful outside the Hollywood
system, he is appalled at the sheer number of “bad”
films that are being released in the United States today.
“If they put a lot of money behind it, it’ll make a
lot of money,” Maybury said. “It’s as simple as
that. Marketing has created a new world.”
Despite an entourage of 19 producers (including George Clooney
and Steven Soderbergh), big budgets and Hollywood stars, “The
Jacket” still retains the air of an independent film. There
is an emphasis on character, rather than action, and little blood
is shown. And despite the apparent goals of Hollywood, the art of
“The Jacket” takes precedent over the product.
“On all levels it was a very creative environment,
including the process in which they edited the film and did the
effects,” actor Brody said. “It was very organic and
very much like crafting something ““ it had a real
artist’s feel to everything.”
Throughout the film, the walls of the mental institution are
littered with art pieces done by the director himself, and many of
the expensive multi-layered CGI sequences were initially handed to
art students to play with. Substances such as moth wings and
spatters of real blood were used on negatives to create the unique
“gone crazy” effects used in many close-up
sequences.
Still, despite the artistic elements, the need for genre
provides the ultimate Hollywood obstacle.
“As soon you can call it one sort of genre, it becomes
something else entirely,” said Jennifer Jason Leigh, who
plays a doctor in the film.
To Maybury, the individual reaction embodies the purpose of
filmmaking.
“(I want to) ask the audiences to come along and do a bit
of work, to invest some of their own intellect, their own emotional
responses, and try and construct some of the story for
themselves,” he said.
The film’s actors share the same opinions.
“It’s pretty amazing to go to a movie and not be
spoon-fed,” Brody said. “You don’t want to be fed
everything. I like the ambiguity of it. In life, things are
ambiguous.”
Not only do the characters of “The Jacket” leave
plenty of room for interpretation, the plot itself is extremely
inconclusive. By failing to distinguish reality from fantasy, right
from wrong, Maybury hopes to open the minds of Hollywood and its
followers.
“(A certain interpretation) could be true,” Maybury
said. “And that might be what this film is about. But there
are other options open to you and in a way it denies the point of
making films if I tell you this is how it begins, and this is what
it’s about, and this is what it’s meant to do. Because
then, why bother to go to see it?”