Monday, March 9, 1998
Love, death and differences
FILM: Director Richard Kwietniowski explains why cultural,
sexual and
philosophical diversity are keys to filmmaking
By Louise Chu
Daily Bruin Contributor
Watching him on the phone in the lobby of the Sunset Marquis
Hotel, he seems so British. His mild manner, clean haircut and
simple white-shirt, black-slacks-look only add to the illusion.
Then comes the dead giveaway: his classic British accent. One would
almost expect him to greet people with, "Care to join me for a spot
of tea?" That is, until one hears what he has to say.
"I have a certain love-hate relationship with British culture
and especially that superior, old-fashioned, very male type of
‘we’re-still-the-most-important-nation-in-the-world-and-we’re-not-interested-in-anything-else,’"
reveals Richard Kwietniowski, writer and director of "Love and
Death on Long Island," which stars John Hurt ("Contact" and "Rob
Roy") and Jason Priestly of "Beverly Hills 90210" fame.
The sentiment may largely be attributed to the influence of his
father, who was a Polish immigrant to England. Although
Kwietniowski was born and raised in London, he admits that having
contrasting cultures during his upbringing caused this slightly
detached attitude toward the British way of life.
"I still have no idea how you play cricket," Kwietniowski adds
jokingly. "I was the only guy ever to have gone to my high school
and not know how to play cricket. I was once asked by a teacher,
‘Is your dad dead?’ I said ‘no.’ ‘Is your dad disabled?’ ‘No.’ ‘Why
hasn’t he taught you how to play cricket?’"
This attitude, along with his love of movies, is what brought
him to write and direct his feature-film debut "Love and Death on
Long Island." Being an avid movie fan naturally exposed him to the
American film industry, which has historically dominated the world
market. In watching American films, Kwietniowski discovered a
preference for a genre of filmmaking that further solidified his
culturally divergent views.
"One of the problems I have, being based in Britain, (is that)
most British films are based either in the past or in a gritty
realism, which is very socio-economic, so it’s a diagnosis of the
way certain people live," Kwietniowski explains. "I tend to come
from a different, un-English tradition, which is more about
people’s interior lives and fantasy and desire."
The writer-director explores these aspects in "Love and Death,"
a film about a reclusive British writer named Giles De’Ath (Hurt),
who falls obsessively in love with Ronnie Bostock (Priestly), an
American heartthrob who stars in cheesy teen movies like "Hotpants
College II." Giles eventually travels to Ronnie’s Long Island home,
befriends him and his fiancee (Fiona Loewi), and fills his head
with dreams of a serious acting career in Europe.
Originally inspired by Gilbert Adair’s novel of the same name,
Kwietniowski also drew from aspects of Thomas Mann’s novel "Death
in Venice" and Vladimir Nabakov’s "Lolita." Despite his many
sources of inspiration, he found the writing process rather
complicated, especially in expressing the complexity of the
character Giles.
"One of the most difficult things for me about (Adair’s) book
was the fact that it was written in the first person." he says.
"There’s no dialogue in the book at all, and yet it’s a brilliantly
written piece. Sometimes it’s quite difficult to read because, as a
writer, the Giles of the novel does all sorts of gymnastics with
words. That’s something I think you can do in a novel. You can
choose a certain way of speaking which is very ‘characterful;’ it
tells us a lot about the awfulness of this character."
Another important aspect that Kwietniowski is familiar with is
the difference between the American and British cultures.
"(Giles) uses a lot of words like ‘perhaps’ and ‘rather,’
‘rather not’ and so on. To try to get a sort of evenness there in
the way that he talks, which would feel very different to the way,
for instance, that Long Islanders talk, which is much fresher and
‘How ya doin’!’ And yet to have a certain cross-fertilization."
To provide the strong contrast in the characters, Kwietniowski
started at the beginning and found a cast of actors that strongly
contrasted as well.
"Before I’d met either of them, I would put a photograph of John
next to a photograph of Jason, and it always made me smile,"
Kwietniowski recalls. "I was absolutely determined to try and cast
it in a way that reflected the storyline."
Within the drama of "Love and Death," there is also a comic
spoof of American teen movies. After doing extensive research on
this, he became fascinated with its perverseness, oftentimes being
very "phallocentric" (having an obsession with the penis).
"I went to my video store and rented every single ‘Porky’s’
film, and I saw lots of things with titles like ‘Lemon Popsicle’
and ‘The Last American Virgin’ and I discovered that they’re in
fact actually quite intriguing at a certain level," he says.
Kwietniowski tried to reflect the intensity of these films that
appeal to a cult following by paying serious attention to the
filming of the scenes in which Ronnie acts in his movies. He
attempted to accurately simulate them by using special techniques
such as "zooms, hand-held camera for no reason and Dutch angles
(contrasting opposing diagonal shots)," which he feels is trademark
of this genre of movies.
"It was slightly scary because we realized that we were doing
them quite well, and I thought that this is my future career here,"
he jokes. "If ‘Love and Death’ doesn’t work, I’d better make
‘Hotpants College II.’"
While he may excel at cheesy teen movies, Kwietniowski’s focus
in this movie was much deeper.
At the center of the story is Giles’ process of self-discovery,
which is something he believes has a universal meaning for
everyone, despite their detachment to the specific plot of the
movie.
"The way (Giles) lives in London is not really to be alive," he
explains. "He doesn’t have contact with anything he doesn’t already
know everything about. He doesn’t ever encounter anything different
 he doesn’t even have a television. He is apparently the
master of everything around him, and I think that’s like being
dead, really. I think to be alive is to be stimulated by all sorts
of things–cultural things, racial things, sexual things,
differences, gender.
"It’s the story of his rebirth and his finding new worlds, which
is the United States, which is modern technology, which is popular
culture, and being terribly enriched by it."
Ultimately, the story revolves around Giles’ coming of age,
although Kwietniowski presents it in an unusual and unexpected
form. But that is his point.
"What it’s saying, if anything, is something very simple:
difference is good. To be alive is to live and acknowledge
something different about yourself. You might be gay. You might be
left-handed. And the diversity is what being human is all
about."
Photos by CFP Distribution
Fiona Loewi, Jason Priestley and John Hurt star in the film
"Love and Death on Long Island."