| PRODUCTION NOTES
THE MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS began to take shape when Andy Garcia was sent the script two years ago by producers Andrew Pfeffer and Donald Zuckerman, and promptly fell in love with it. According to Garcia, "it was an unusual story, as well as a beautifully written piece. I knew that it would attract a lot of good actors. Every character has a very unique point of view and a fulfilling arc."
The producers secured financing and production assistance from Gold Circle Films, the film arm of Norm Waitt's Waitt Media group of companies. Over the next few months, they worked closely with writer Philip Jayson Lasker to refine the screenplay and consider potential directorial candidates. George Hickenlooper, a director with whom Zuckerman had worked on three prior films, was one of their top choices.
"George had an extraordinary passion for the material and spoke intelligently about what it was about. He suggested some great ideas and I identified with what he was saying. I saw some of his other films, liked what he had done and decided to embrace him," Garcia commented.
The casting process began soon after. Knowing that they had a strong script, the filmmakers were confident about their ability to attract high-caliber actors. "When you have very unique material, you know it's going to attract very interesting people regardless of the budget. Great artists can easily see a work's potential," according to producer Donald Zuckerman.
For the role of Luther, the director of the Elysian Fields escort service, the producers were looking to cast a man in his late fifties who could credibly play a fading Don Juan. In Hollywood, where vanity often comes before art, the producers knew it would be hard to get an actor willing to tackle the role.
"I remembered how brilliant Mick Jagger was in the 1970 film PERFORMANCE and thought, if I wasn't afraid of him being MICK JAGGER, and if I could just think of him as an actor, then he would be terrific in the role," director Hickenlooper recalled. "He is so strong and brilliant and the character plays right into his own rock and roll persona."
Jagger jumped into the role with only one week of preparation. "All the research was done in my own head," he said. "I thought he was an interesting character that I could have fun with and bring something to." Added Garcia, "He was obviously an icon coming in, but on the set he was a fellow actor and he was great. It was an honor to share time with him and I cherish our brief time together."
It was Jagger who suggested that the film convey a sense of Luther's desperate loneliness as well his ennui after so many years running Elysian Fields. A scene was ultimately written in which Luther would propose to a long time client and have a shattering epiphany about his own life. The producers asked Jagger whom he would suggest for the role, and he immediately suggested his personal friend Anjelica Huston. Their scenes
together - in a hotel room, at the opera and in a restaurant - took one evening to shoot. "It was great doing it with a friend of mine. Really quite a good experience," Jagger recalled. "It would have been difficult to have done something so quickly with someone you don't know." Said Huston, "I had a lot of fun. It was wonderful working with a longtime friend and we had great chemistry together."
Julianna Margulies' attraction to ELYSIAN FIELDS was based on its storyline, strong female characters, and complex exploration of the men who served as escorts. "You see all these movies where the women are prostitutes, or are part of an escort service, but other than AMERICAN GIGOLO you never really see this world from a male perspective," she commented. "But Andy Garcia and Mick Jagger were reason enough to
do the movie. Mick and I had no scenes together, but our paths crossed in the make-up trailer. He was incredibly down-to-earth. We were chitchatting away about acting and he leaves and I'm thinking 'Oh my God, I was just talking to a rock legend!'"
Olivia Williams, who plays Andrea Alcott, wife of the legendary writer Tobias Alcott, also didn't require too much convincing to come on board. "It was one of those extraordinary offers - the chance to snog a couple of your idols." In her case, she shared screen time with both Andy Garcia and James Coburn, who plays her husband. "Andy is great, such a wonderful actor and nice man to work with. And James is among
the coolest of men. He is so generous and has incredible warmth. He has this extraordinary voice that sort of reverberates like a drum," she noted.
Added producer Andrew Pfeffer, "We were very blessed with the cast that we have. Julianna is a consummate actress, as good as any in her generation. Olivia is also exceptionally gifted and very well trained. Anjelica is just extraordinary. And, of course, you really can't do better than having Andy, James and Mick."
The producers and director were unanimous in wanting James Coburn, an actor with over 125 films to his credit, for the role of Tobias Alcott. "He has a wonderfully wry sense of humor and is such an icon that we felt his persona would work very well with his larger-than-life screen character," said Hickenlooper. Coburn shared the producers' enthusiasm, and was instantly drawn to what he considered a beautifully written
story. He liked that the dialogue was both stimulating and moving, and that the characters were written so specifically. "I'm always interested in good characters, complex writing, and strong conflict. I'm not much of a fan of films that feature lots of chases," noted Coburn.
For the actors, working with Hickenlooper was also quite a wonderful experience. "He has a real vision for this film and I trusted his vision and judgment completely," noted Margulies. Added Garcia, "He has some great subconscious and subtextual tones which I thought he captured very well."
Working with Director of Photography Kramer Morgenthau, Hickenlooper designed the film with an operatic style that uses a wide range of camera movements. The storylines were broken down like different arias, and each aria had its own fluid style that follows Byron's journey.
Olivia Williams was impressed with Hickenlooper's visual style, which was characterized by a rich use of movement using both steadicam and dolly. "He often works from the master shot and not from the close-up, and if it is a close-up then it's very close," she commented. Offered Morgenthau, "George is a very cinematic director and has an amazing eye for composition. You can tell that he's inspired by John Ford
and Orson Welles and likes the wide angle, compositional mise-en-scene style of filmmaking."
Hickenlooper specifically chose different color tones in the film to represent Byron's journey. For example, the white, chilly Alcott mansion (which in reality was the former Hollywood home of silent screen star Antonio Moreno) represents the cold, blank emotional state Byron ultimately adopts as an Elysian Fields gigolo. Hickenlooper also used color as a way to bring the opposing natures of Luther and Byron into sharper relief.
The flamboyance of Luther's style and environment is portrayed with bright, sharp tones, while Byron's restrained environment is portrayed in more conventional earth-tones. And during the sequence when Byron sees two prostitutes standing on the sidewalk on the way to his first escort 'date', warm-orange coloring is contrasted with greenish-blue to show the dichotomy between the two worlds that Byron now finds himself in.
Many, of course, will recognize the term Elysian Fields from Virgil's The Aeneid, the great Roman tome about Aeneas' journey into an underworld to which good souls are sent. In this case, the soul arrives in the form of Byron, the MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS. |
