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Show Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, January 20-23, 2018 The Park Record A-9 In ‘White Fang,’ animated tale leaps off page to festival Director hopes film maintains grittiness of novel ANGELIQUE MCNAUGHTON The Park Record Director Alexandre Espigares wanted to offer audiences a new take on Jack London’s novel “White Fang” for his first feature film set to debut at the Sundance Film Festival. In his animated adaption, Espigares shifts the storyline’s focus from the human characters in the novel to the dog, White Fang, to highlight the grittiness of the story. He said he had to tread carefully while depicting certain scenes from the novel to avoid frightening his younger audience. “I know this gets thrown around a lot that ‘we’ve done something unique,’ but we are different because animation has allowed us to stay with our main character,” Espigares said in an interview from Paris. “Although there are humans in the film, we wanted them to take a back seat even when they are present in the scene. We always go back to White Fang.” The tale of “White Fang” is set during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s. It chronicles the life of a wolf dog who is abandoned after a dog fight at Fort Yukon, Alaska. Two people later befriend the injured dog and expose him to a different side of human nature. The film features the voice acting of Rashida Jones, Nick Offerman, Eddie Spears and Paul Giamatti. Espigares, who worked on major films such as “Happy Feet Two” and “Iron Man 3,” said he was commissioned to work on the project by a producer in Luxembourg. After reading the script, he knew the film had potential and immediately formed a picture in his mind about what he wanted the film to become. “I was given all the freedom I needed to make changes to the script to make it mine and take over the project,” he said. “The script was already pretty well written, but I made some artistic changes so I could tell the story in a different way. The end result and style is definitely mine.” Espigares toned down the commentary, he said, to move COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE | PHOTO BY WILHELM MOSER Rupert Everett appears in “The Happy Prince.” He also wrote and directed the film. It is an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. A Wilde story told in film PHOTO COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE A film still from “White Fang” directed by Alexandre Espigares, an official selection of the Kids program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. away from the cliché of animals talking or singing in films. He said the movie includes “very long scenes” where there is not a significant amount of dialogue, even when people are featured. “I didn’t want to pollute the film too much,” he said. “One difficulty I think with doing a film based on a novel is that, when you read it, there are a lot of things going on, a lot of characters and parallel story lines. We had to make a choice to cut characters and even invent some.” Espigares said he tried to stay true to the tone of the novel, while also making it appealing to a family audience. He said the novel is “pretty hard on White Fang and I didn’t want to lose that.” “We didn’t want to show the grittiness in a way that would scare people away, especially younger viewers,” he said. “We managed to show things without showing them, but still keep the intensity of the scene.” Espigares described “White Fang” as a coming-of-age story, where “life doesn’t always treat you the way you want to be treated.” But, he added, there is an element of redemption. “It’s about finding who you are in the world and where your place is,” he said. “White Fang needed to figure out if he belongs in the human world or with the wolves.” Espigares said he wants the audience, particularly younger viewers, to walk away with questions about the morals that are displayed in the film. He said it may not be immediately clear why some characters behave the way they do, but he hopes it is by the end of the film. “I hope it sparks discussion,” he said. “And I hope kids will ask the right question and the adults they are with will be able to answer them.” “White Fang” is the director’s first film to appear at the Sundance Film Festival. It is being screened in the Sundance Film Festival’s Kids category. Espigares said the opportunity validates his work. “It’s a great opportunity having a premiere at Sundance,” he said. “It is just like, ‘Wow.’ It gives the movie a certain credibility. Also, for me, it’s a big thing to be able to go there. I mean it’s Sundance, what else can I say?” “WHITE FANG,” an entry into the Sundance Film Festival Next program, is set to screen at the following times and locations: Sunday, Jan. 21, 11:30 a.m. Prospector Theater Sunday, Jan. 21, 6 p.m. Salt Lake City Library Saturday, Jan. 27, 3:30 p.m. Redstone Cinema 2 Drivers live for ‘Last Race’ Long Island’s last track’s uncertain future depicted CAROLYN WEBBER The Park Record Oscar Wilde was the talk of the town in 19th-century London. His fame grew as his plays gained attention, until his world turned upside down and his name was spoiled. “The Happy Prince” delves into the mind of the bright, colorful figure during his darkest days. The film, which premieres at the Sundance Film Festival, tells the story of Wilde after he was released from a two-year sentence in prison for “committing acts of gross indecency with certain male persons,” according to historical records. It focuses on his exile in France and Italy and the challenges he faced while reconciling his new life with his past one. Philipp Kreuzer, co-producer, said that many plays or films about Wilde tend to end at his condemnation. The idea to tell the story of his later years came from Rupert Everett, who wrote and directed the film while playing Wilde. The film is his directional debut. Kreuzer said Everett felt close to the story and worked on the script for several years before seeking out a production team. Once Kreuzer read the script, he was hooked. “It was one of the best scripts I’ve read,” he said. The film is built around the frame of “The Happy Prince,” a short story written by Wilde. It alternates between flashbacks showing important moments of the past and the juxtaposition of the love his fans had for him against the hate he received after the trial. But one thing that made the script stand out is the use of ambiguity Wilde’s speech and actions, Kreuzer said. “If you know Oscar Wilde you see that, but even if you don’t, it is still very moving,” he said. He said the technique causes viewers to gain empathy for the famous poet and playwright, especially as they see his indecisiveness in choosing his lovers and wife. Those struggling with accepting their identity can connect to a character who experienced similar emotions more than a century ago, Kreuzer said. Those who have not lived through that struggle get a glimpse of the pain many suffer. But love is a theme in the film that almost everyone can relate to. “The struggle of love and being loved, that was always driving (Wilde),” Kreuzer said. Everett spent years researching Wilde’s life before the film began production, Kreuzer said. He was in touch with Wilde’s family and studied old documents to ensure accuracy in the film. When the production team began planning filming locations, a friend of Kreuzer’s wife said that Wilde used to live in her home during part of his exile in Italy. Although the team was not able to film in the actual house, they filmed next to it and found other locations that matched Wilde’s reality, Kreuzer said. Filming in multiple countries with two co-producers, Sébastien Delloye and Joerg Schulze, proved to be difficult at times, but Kreuzer said that Everett’s vision and direction pulled everything together. “The movie turned out the way it is because he knew exactly what he wanted to tell, how he wanted to tell it and how he wanted it to come across,” Kreuzer said. Authenticity was vital to that, but keeping a clear theme was also important, he said. “The objective was always that you start feeling empathy for Oscar and his long injustice and struggle,” Kreuzer said. “THE HAPPY PRINCE,” an entry into the Sundance Premieres Competition, is set to screen at the following times and locations: Sunday, Jan. 21, 9:30 p.m. Eccles Center Monday, Jan. 22, 9 a.m. Park City Library Wednesday, Jan. 24, 9 p.m. Sundance Resort Saturday, Jan. 27, 7 p.m. Redstone Cinema 2 Sunday, Jan. 28, 3:15 p.m. Grand Theatre A cinematic labor of love Ethan Hawke’s passion on display in‘Blaze’ JAY MEEHAN The Park Record “He’s a poet, an’ he’s a picker, he’s a prophet, an’ he’s a pusher He’s a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he’s stoned” ~ Kris Kristofferson BEN RAMSEY The Park Record Michael Dweck, director of ‘The Last Race,’ had simple and profound reasons for making a ldocumentary about a racetrack on Long Island, New York. For one, he grew up near one of the 40 that once dotted Long Island, and when he found Riverhead Raceway, the last of the ,tracks left, he might as well have walked back into his childhood. e “I realized two drivers in particular I knew as a child were still racing,” he said. “I felt like I was ahome.” g He was inspired by the track, mand spent five years photographing it before realizing there was esomething about the nature of the otrack that couldn’t be captured in estill photography, and decided to shoot a documentary. k The other big reason Dweck chose to make “The Last Race” was what the racetrack provided for the racing community. It was a lonely island of action that gave its participants (literally, as the film shows) a reason to live, and it was slowly sinking into a rising tide of strip malls and, more generally, the vacuousness of modern life. On all sides, the walls were closing in. A massive big-box store that sells Christmas tree decorations, a Walmart within 1.5 miles of another Walmart, a Costco, Dick’s Sporting Goods. The dense forest that once surrounded the track had been stripped for development, and developers wanted to replace the track with, ironically, a multiplex movie theater. The 84-year-old owners of the racetrack were receiving daily offers to sell for millions of dol- Tale explores the life of famous poet and playwright COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE Barbara Goldcrest and Jim Goldcrest appear in “The Last Race” by Michael Dweck, an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. lars, and were declining, largely because they loved the track, and because it gave them purpose. “When they came to the track they all transformed into something else,” Dweck said. “Ordinary people were all transformed into heroes.” It was the same case for the racers, who were largely blue-collar workers. “Races may last 11 or 12 minutes, but they work on their cars every day, all through the winter, all for the chance of racing in front of 2,000 people and feeling their lives have meaning to it,” Dweck said. During the film, a racer crashes and is burned over 60 percent of his body. On his first day out of the hospital, he returns to the racetrack. In another scene, a racer’s wife confronts him about his health. His doctor has advised him to stop racing because of his many ailments, but he tells his wife he never will. “Here’s a guy who thinks he could die and has no problem with it,” Dweck said. “And this is constant for all the characters in it. They all feel like their lives have a value to it.” Over the five years Dweck spent shooting the film, he accrued massive libraries of both sound and video, and said winnowing down the material was extremely challenging. When he was first asked to select his favorite scenes, he taped 1,200 scenes to the wall – 19 hours of film. What remains is just over an hour of cinematic poetry. Everything comes second behind the priority of beautifully showing the place and people as they are. It’s about finding the truth of a rare and visceral scene, and showing why the race community, and community in general, is something that money can’t buy. “THE LAST RACE,” an entry into the Sundance Film Festival U.S. Documentary Competition, is set to screen at the following times and locations: Monday, Jan. 22, 6 p.m. Park City Library Tuesday, Jan. 23, noon Temple Theater Thursday, Jan. 25, 9 p.m. Tower Theatre Friday, Jan. 26, 4 p.m. Redstone 2 Saturday, Jan. 27, noon Park City Library One of the first things you notice when in conversation with filmmaker-actor-writer Ethan Hawke is how considerate he is. Whether it be a question about his current film at Sundance, “Blaze” in this case, or an allusion to a common thread that just popped up out of nowhere, he carefully considers whatever is on the table prior to responding. It is then that, like film directors are wont to do, he goes visual on you and begins blocking the shot or scene. Although it’s a telephone interview with The Park Record, the sense is of him leaning forward in his chair. Before you know it, you’re in Hawke’s living room where Ethan is casually hanging out with longtime friend Ben Dickey. There is a third aura in the room – that of the late legendary yet not-widely-celebrated Austin outlaw music progenitor, the singer/songwriter Blaze Foley. With guitar in hand, Dickey has been picking and singing one of he and Ethan’s favorite Foley tunes and they were both quite caught up in the reverie as it drew to a close. It was at that point that a light bulb went off in Ethan Hawke’s always-enabled creative centers. Turning to his buddy Ben, he posed a question: “How would you like to play Blaze Foley in a movie?” Dickeys response was that it would be the dream of a lifetime. So Hawke made the film with Dickey in the title role and here we are at Sundance 2018 with “Blaze” screening in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category and premiering Sunday January COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE | PHOTO BY STEVE COSENS Benjamin Dickey and Alia Shawkat appear in “BLAZE”, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. 21 at the Park City Library Theater at 3:00 PM. When delving into the saga of Blaze Foley, he comes off as much more idiosyncratic than quintessential. There is a template for the Austin outlaw singer/ songwriter hovering about, to be sure, but the model and the muse are singular. Not that aspects of the then burgeoning movement couldn’t be traced back to the now legend in question. Hawke filmed “Blaze” in the form of a triptych, a three-pronged affair as it were. With separate threads exploring his love affair with Sibyl Rosen, his final night on Earth spent recording a soonto-become collector’s item cassette, and the effect his sudden demise had on those around him, Hawke systematically peels back layers of the human complexity that was Blaze Foley. For those familiar with Hawke’s artistic sensibility, the feeling is very much that this yarn of a before-his-time artist cut down in what might or might not have been his prime, is in quite capable hands. The casting of Kris Kristofferson as Blaze’s father and Charlie Sexton in the role of friend Townes Van Zandt also keeps it creatively close to home. And then there’s the interesting musical trivia that further adds to the heft of Foley’s musical soul. Not only did Merle Haggard record Blaze’s tune “If I Could Only Fly” but he also named the album after it. Legend has it that Blaze kept a copy of a music magazine that quotes Haggard’s praise rolled-up in his boot so he could pull it out like a six-shooter whenever called for. You might say “Blaze” has been a long time coming and a long time gone. Cinematic labors of love at this level by a filmmaker of this stature with connections to the Sundance Film Festival as close as Ethan Hawke’s are a gift to be treasured. For allowing us a creative glimpse into the life and times of the quirky Blaze Foley, he has earned our deepest appreciation. “BLAZE,” an entry into the Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Competition, is set to screen at the following times and locations: Sunday, Jan. 21, 3 p.m. Park City Library Tuesday, Jan. 23, 8:30 a.m. The Egyptian Thursday, Jan. 25, 6:15 p.m. Wagner Friday, Jan. 26, 12:15 p.m. Eccles Saturday, Jan. 27, 3 p.m. Redstone 7 |