New Cohen-inspired movie - Take This Waltz

[dick]

A new movie with LC music, and a title taken from his song, opened in Manhattan last week. Here is the New York Times review:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/mo ... olley.html

Margot (Michelle Williams) and Daniel (Luke Kirby) meet on a trip to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, site of an 18th-century French fort and a present-day National Historic Park. They sit together on the flight home to Toronto, and the attraction between them is obvious and mutual. This makes it a bit awkward when they discover, sharing a cab from the airport, that Daniel lives across the street from the charming, cozy row house where Margot lives with her husband, Lou (Seth Rogen).

Margot is not eager to give up her infatuation with her broodily handsome neighbor. Nor does she want to destroy her marriage, which in spite of moments of frictions and miscommunication, is playful and affectionate. (Mr. Rogen turns his natural clowning charm into an aspect of Lou’s personality that is, for Margot, both comforting and annoying.) Daniel, for his part, does not push himself on Margot but does not exactly push her away either. He hovers in the middle distance, letting her know that he is interested and available should her ambivalence resolve in his favor.

That ambivalence is the principal subject and dominant mood of “Take This Waltz,” Sarah Polley’s honest, sure-footed, emotionally generous second feature. Ms. Williams, one of the bravest and smartest actresses working in movies today, portrays a young woman who is indecisive and confused, but never passive. Margot’s uncertainty, as she and Ms. Polley understand it, is a kind of passion in its own right. The current of her desire runs strongly in two directions: toward the man she knows and loves, and toward the stranger she wants in ways beyond her immediate understanding.

Margot is stubborn, decent and disciplined, but also selfish, needy and coy. Nobody in this film is just one way. Ms. Polley, as a writer, a director of actors and a constructor of images, excels at managing the idiosyncrasies and contradictions of her characters so that our knowledge of them is both intimate and mined with potential surprise. Margot and Daniel don’t know what they are going to do, and Lou does not know what is happening, and for most of the movie we dwell in a similar state of suspense and partial knowledge.

We also find ourselves in a richly imagined, highly specific place. Toronto, which has obligingly impersonated just about every other North American city for decades, is here given the chance to play itself, to show off its special blend of dowdiness and sophistication. Speaking of the glories of Canada, “Take This Waltz” is also a tribute to the genius of Leonard Cohen. The title is taken from one of his songs, which accompanies an astonishing (and very sexy) montage late in the film. We also hear, at another crucial point in the drama, the Nova Scotia-born singer Feist’s ebullient, uncompromising cover of “Closing Time.”

But not “Hallelujah,” which Mr. Cohen himself has said is overused in films and on television. The lyrics to that song nevertheless contain a line that resonates through Ms. Polley’s movie: “All I ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you.” In other words, how to turn vulnerability into advantage. How to cheat. The wounding power of love, its essential asymmetry and unfairness, permeates “Take This Waltz.” The one thing you know for sure is that someone — maybe everyone — is going to get hurt.
And yet the film is neither depressing nor melodramatic. It is full of music, color and warmth, some of it supplied by a supporting cast that most notably includes Sarah Silverman as Lou’s wise and troubled sister Geraldine. The story takes its time unfolding and pauses to linger over funny, odd and touching details. The camera (Luc Montpellier is the director of photography) is as sensitive as Margot herself to nuances of feeling and perception.

Ms. Polley’s debut feature, “Away From Her,” was based on an Alice Munro short story, and Margot, with her mix of good sense and capriciousness, resembles some of Ms. Munro’s heroines. In a Munro story the men might not be as nice, but the balance of clarity and compassion in “Take This Waltz” suggests that this writer continues to exert an influence over Ms. Polley.

As a filmmaker she is good at subtlety, and also at obviousness. There is a striking scene in a swimming pool shower room where Geraldine, Margot and another friend chat idly about sex, marriage and other matters. A group of older women is in another part of the room, and Ms. Polley cuts from one set of naked bodies to the other, noting the contrasts of size, shape and firmness. It’s hard to miss the point — young flesh will age; old flesh was once young; time wins in the end — but it’s a point worth making.

The last section of the film may seem a bit fuzzier. There is a moment about 90 minutes in that I was sure was the end, and I still think that stopping there would have made “Take This Waltz” perfect. But I’m also willing to grant that perfection may not have been Ms. Polley’s chief concern, especially since the great theme of this wonderful movie — a source of delight as well as distress — is that imperfection is all anyone ever learns from love.

“Take This Waltz” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Sex, implicit and explicit.
Take This Waltz
Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Written and directed by Sarah Polley; director of photography, Luc Montpellier; edited by Christopher Donaldson; music by Jonathan Goldsmith; production design by Matthew Davies; costumes by Lea Carlson; produced by Susan Cavan and Ms. Polley; released by Magnolia Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes.
WITH: Michelle Williams (Margot), Seth Rogen (Lou), Luke Kirby (Daniel), Sarah Silverman (Geraldine), Jennifer Podemski (Karen) and Diane D’Aquila (Harriet).

[st theresa1]

Thanks for the reminder about this movie--also open in Edmonton...look forward to seeing another Sarah Polley movie ,especially one inspired by Leonard Cohen. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117946072?refcatid=31
Appreciate the review and here is another one, from it's first screening.

[Roy]

Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World has the album cover for The Death of a Ladies' Man in it. Now in theatres.

[Andrew (Darby)]

Thanks for that, Dick!

I saw this movie a couple of weeks ago and was very favourably impressed with it – for some reason though, it didn’t occur to me to put a post here about it.

Our widely watched national broadcaster’s review program (ABC’s ‘At The Movies’) also gave it an agreed upon high rating, with both reviewers giving it 4 stars out of 5. They engage in a dialogue discussion style of review and in this instance it involves more than just passing comment on Leonard and his song - you can see it here:

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s3509336.htm

Take This Waltz

Rated MA

Review by Margaret Pomeranz

After her impressive debut feature AWAY FROM HER in 2006, Canadian actress, writer, director Sarah Polley ventures into more personal territory with TAKE THIS WALTZ. It stars MICHELLE WILLIAMS as Margot who is married to Lou - SETH ROGAN. Their relationship relies on babyish games that were obviously a turn-on in the past but have now passed their use-by date. And then on a working trip Margot meets Daniel - LUKE KIRBY. Coincidences abound, he's sitting on the plane next to her on their return and it turns out he lives opposite Margot and Lou in Toronto.

Margot is torn between loyalty to her marriage and her attraction to Daniel.

There is something searingly honest about Margot's plight. This is a woman who wants to feel alive. If any actress working today can bring a truth to a role like this it's Michelle Williams. She is never less than intensely, bewitchingly watchable. Seth Rogan is maturing beautifully as an actor and Luke Kirby is very charismatic. If sometimes Polley's choices grate - Daniel is a rickshaw driver and part-time artist, Lou a writer of chicken cookbooks, and their worlds are so insistently inner city twee - there is no doubting the sincerity with which she made Take This Waltz.

The Leonard Cohen song to which the title refers inspired Polley while writing it and informs the whole.

Further comments

MARGARET: David?

DAVID: Yes, I was thinking that, because it does have these sort of rather strange and seemingly slightly clunky elements of coincidence and contrivance and what have you, but it seemed to me that maybe it's a little bit like a Leonard Cohen song that when...

MARGARET: With his indecipherable lyrics?

DAVID: Well, yes, they're not indecipherable.

MARGARET: No, they're not.

DAVID: But they're kind of bizarre.

MARGARET: Yes.

DAVID: And they don't sort of connect somehow and yet they do.

MARGARET: Yes.

DAVID: And even when they're at their weirdest, they convey a wonderful feeling.

MARGARET: Yes, they do, actually.

DAVID: A wonderful sentiment.

MARGARET: Yes.

DAVID: And I think that's what the film does too.

MARGARET: Yes.

DAVID: So I saw it a little bit like that.

MARGARET: Through the prism of Cohen?

DAVID: Of the song, yes.

MARGARET: Yes.

DAVID: Because, after all, it's named after a Cohen song and the song...

MARGARET: Well, I think it's metaphorical too, the song.

DAVID: Yes.

MARGARET: Because it's going around and around and around.

DAVID: That's right. That rather wonderful sequence where the song is used which, again, is a sort of strange sequence. Look, I think Sarah Polley is really, really interesting. I think only a woman could have directed some of the scenes in this film, some very frank scenes.

MARGARET: That sounds like a very sexist thing to say, David.

DAVID: No, well, I don't mean it that way. I can't imagine that a man would have directed the scenes of the women just talking in the shower in the way they do.

MARGARET: Yes. Yes.

DAVID: And it's so natural and unforced and so lovely really.

MARGARET: Yes.

DAVID: And it seems absolutely right but very distinctive and Toronto has never looked quite like this, with all these bright sort of summary colours and so on.

MARGARET: I think she's talented.

DAVID: I think she's very, very talented and offbeat.

MARGARET: There's something really honest about her film.

DAVID: Yes.

MARGARET: And, good films aim at some sort of truth on screen.

DAVID: Yes.

MARGARET: I think she's really achieved quite a lot with this. I'm giving it four stars.

DAVID: Yes, me too, four stars.

Cheers,
Andrew

[bridger15]

Thanks for the heads up, Dick.
This film is scheduled to open in Los Angeles on July 6.

---Arlene

[dick]

Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news ... z-20120706

Sarah Polley Finds Inspiration in Leonard Cohen for 'Take This Waltz'
'Every pivotal visual was inspired by a song I was listening to' By Steve Baltin July 6, 2012 4:40 PM ET

Take This Waltz, the riveting indie relationship drama that opened in New York last Friday and follows this weekend in California, Chicago and Washington, D.C., shares its name with a Leonard Cohen song for a reason. "I'm a pretty hardcore fan, and I was listening to this song almost nonstop when I was conceiving of and originally writing the film," actress-turned-writer and director Sarah Polley tells Rolling Stone. "It really informed the tone and spirit ... when I was writing I almost imagined it as a musical – in my head, it kind of was."

The film stars Seth Rogen (Lou) and Michelle Williams (Margot) as a married couple whose relationship is tested by a third-party attraction (Daniel, played by newcomer Luke Kirby). Polley, who earned an Oscar nod for Best Adapted Screenplay with her first feature-length script, for 2006's Away From Her, says she wanted to ensure that the film was not a clear-cut morality tale. "It was really important for me that there be no heroes and villains in this film," Polley explains. "I just tried to write three very flawed human beings fumbling their way through, and I didn't really feel passionately that anybody was right or wrong."

Polley says Rogen and Williams brought their characters to life in unexpected ways. "The weirdest thing of writing a script is, you're living alone with these imaginary people who are so real to you and take up so much of your brain space, but they don’t exist to anybody else ... With Michelle, I really needed an actor to help me understand who that character was. I was a little bit critical of Margot when I was writing the screenplay, and Michelle made her someone that I really liked and could advocate for."

As for Rogen, Polley says, "He brought some edges to the character, which it desperately needed ... [the scene] where Seth is reacting to her breaking up with him, and it's a series of jump cuts of him sitting at the table in close-up – we just rolled the camera on that for about two and a half hours and let Seth and Michelle talk and break up in front of the camera. That was basically all improvised by Seth, with a few exceptions. He really surprised me, just how he was able to capture all of the ups and downs and levels that you go through when something emotionally traumatic happens."

While its title comes from a Cohen tune, Polley says she found inspiration in several artists while making the film, including fellow Canadian Feist, Mazzy Star and Jason Collett, among others. "I had a really long playlist while I was writing," explains Polley. "Every sort of pivotal visual was inspired by a song I was listening to at the time."

Next up, Polley is set to helm an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace. And she says that if the opportunity ever came up to pair up with a single musician to collaborate on a film and soundtrack, she'd find it "incredibly tempting." Says Polley, "I can think of like five [artists I'd want to work with.] Feist, Corrina Rose, Jason Collett, Howie Beck, and ... I'm gonna leave it at that for now."

[holydove]

Thanks for posting the articles, Dick. It sounds like a great film, & I hope it comes to my neighborhood soon (or I might have to make a trip into NYC), as I'm very eager to see it!

[Sochijava]

Thanks for this. I haven't made it out to see the movie yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully over the next week or so.

[lizzytysh]

MY GOSH! What a review to make you want to see a film!

And this:

Margot is stubborn, decent and disciplined, but also selfish, needy and coy. Nobody in this film is just one way. Ms. Polley, as a writer, a director of actors and a constructor of images, excels at managing the idiosyncrasies and contradictions of her characters so that our knowledge of them is both intimate and mined with potential surprise. Margot and Daniel don’t know what they are going to do, and Lou does not know what is happening, and for most of the movie we dwell in a similar state of suspense and partial knowledge.

and this:

The lyrics to that song nevertheless contain a line that resonates through Ms. Polley’s movie: "All I ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you.” In other words, how to turn vulnerability into advantage. How to cheat. The wounding power of love, its essential asymmetry and unfairness, permeates “Take This Waltz.” The one thing you know for sure is that someone — maybe everyone — is going to get hurt.
And yet the film is neither depressing nor melodramatic. It is full of music, color and warmth, some of it supplied by a supporting cast that most notably includes Sarah Silverman as Lou’s wise and troubled sister Geraldine. The story takes its time unfolding and pauses to linger over funny, odd and touching details. The camera (Luc Montpellier is the director of photography) is as sensitive as Margot herself to nuances of feeling and perception.

and this:

As a filmmaker she is good at subtlety, and also at obviousness. There is a striking scene in a swimming pool shower room where Geraldine, Margot and another friend chat idly about sex, marriage and other matters. A group of older women is in another part of the room, and Ms. Polley cuts from one set of naked bodies to the other, noting the contrasts of size, shape and firmness. It’s hard to miss the point — young flesh will age; old flesh was once young; time wins in the end — but it’s a point worth making.

... strongly suggest that the filmmaker created this film following the same principles of Leonard's lyrics. Would love to have a copy of this film to share with others.

[Placeholder for stupid error that used to be in this spot ]

Thanks so much for this, Dick!!!

[friscogrl]

Actually Lizzy it's "how to shoot at someone who outdrew you"

M

[lizzytysh]

Oh, for godssake, Marsha... it's the same dang wrong line that I've seen so much, I took it for right ! Thanks for the correction... I'm going to delete my error, even though the follow-up posts will make it clear what it was... just can't let it stand like that, though. You are SO right... that the line is SOOOO WRONG! Still! And it's always been such a 'thing' with me... I'm clearly pretty distracted right now .

[Adrian]

Don't be too hard on yourself, Lizzy It's The New York Times that misquotes the lyric that got things rolling. And, that writer is likely hearing in their head one of the many versions that does include the line as "shoot" - and not "shoot at" - which, as Marsha notes, is the original lyric, and the way Leonard Cohen sings it. John Cale dropped the "at" in the early '90s - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckbdLVX736U - and a lot of the artists to cover the song since go with Cale's version of the song lyrics - and with some variations further.

Leonard has been very gracious in acceptance of the changes made by Bono to the lyrics of "Hallelujah" - and is likely as characteristically understanding of this change made by Cale and others. He still performs his songs however he wants

Toronto Life has just published a piece on "Take This Waltz" @
http://www.torontolife.com/daily/hype/print-edition/2012/07/09/the-argument-unreal-city

[hydriot]

But not “Hallelujah,” which Mr. Cohen himself has said is overused in films and on television. The lyrics to that song nevertheless contain a line that resonates through Ms. Polley’s movie: “All I ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you.” In other words, how to turn vulnerability into advantage. How to cheat. The wounding power of love, its essential asymmetry and unfairness, permeates “Take This Waltz.” The one thing you know for sure is that someone — maybe everyone — is going to get hurt.

Those missing two letters ('at') are immensely damaging, and have led many to the totally unsupportable analysis above. To me, the correct line refers to heroic failure, for Leonard never ever suggested that the target who is outdrawn has any real chance of hitting the shooter. To shoot back regardless of the fact that you have lost a duel is a defiant gesture of no-surrender, hopeless though it may be, comparable to holding up that little wild bouquet.

[Adrian]

One of the remarkable things about songs is they're living things, and, as such, can adapt to all sorts of visions and ears.

I've heard plenty of versions of "Hallelujah" - both with and without "at" at that point in the song. The NYT writer's perspective is one I've not heard before, nor considered as an interpretation. Each person hears words in their own way. At least if the lyrics are not so plain or one-dimensional as to not be open to interpretation.

One of the signficant lyrical changes to "Hallelujah" in recent years has been the Katherine Jenkins version - recorded for her "Sacred Arias" album, and performed live by her many times.

Jenkins chooses to omit entirely the verse which begins "You saw her bathing on the roof..." and which ends "...broke your throne and cut your hair." Instead of "remember when I moved in you" Jenkins sings "remember when I moved with you". This alteration caused The Independent to say: "It seems a shame to take an image of sexual connection, and change it to read as though the singer was moving house to Croydon."

Jenkins' reply to the criticism: "It's a beautiful song but it had to be adapted."

The perspective, sometimes simply the ears or tongue, not even the sensibilities or artistic intent of the interpreter, leads to changes that create for us as listeners those versions we hold most dear, and versions to which others find themselves most attuned. "Hallelujah" is a song which brings forth passionate feelings and associations - as evidenced by it turning up in a review of "Take This Waltz" - a movie in which it does not appear! Whatever the interpretation, and however individual or different to another, it is resonant.

[holydove]

But not “Hallelujah,” which Mr. Cohen himself has said is overused in films and on television. The lyrics to that song nevertheless contain a line that resonates through Ms. Polley’s movie: “All I ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you.” In other words, how to turn vulnerability into advantage. How to cheat. The wounding power of love, its essential asymmetry and unfairness, permeates “Take This Waltz.” The one thing you know for sure is that someone — maybe everyone — is going to get hurt.

Those missing two letters ('at') are immensely damaging, and have led many to the totally unsupportable analysis above. To me, the correct line refers to heroic failure, for Leonard never ever suggested that the target who is outdrawn has any real chance of hitting the shooter. To shoot back regardless of the fact that you have lost a duel is a defiant gesture of no-surrender, hopeless though it may be, comparable to holding up that little wild bouquet.

Hydriot, I completely agree with you. That little 2-letter word makes a huge difference, & it creates a much more powerful, emotionally complex & original image/idea. Continuing to make the effort even when you know it's all over & everything is lost & there's no hope of ever hitting the target. Like a grief-stricken, wounded, hysterical child thrashing his arms at the ghost of a dead parent, in an effort to elicit the love that the living parent never gave him. That little "at" changes everything.