Director of photography Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC helps director Willard Carroll create an ode to love's many splendors in Playing by Heart.
by Bob Fisher.
Love is an emotion that has fueled the artistic imagination for centuries. From the sonnets of Shakespeare to the sculptures of Rodin, this transcendent state has retained its ability to fascinate and seduce an audience.
Director Willard Carroll was moved to capture love's many facets after a memorable conversation with a musician friend, who observed that language alone rarely captures the most ephemeral aspects of this powerful human impulse. The duo's discussion kindled an idea for a script that weaves six distinctly different relationships into a contemporary love story which unfolds during eight days and nights in Los Angeles. The city's environs play a ubiquitous role throughout the tale. As Carroll explains, "Suddenly it came to me that I could connect a series of love stories that crossed different generations in a variety of situations: romantic love, maternal love and even illicit love."
As a multi-hyphenate filmmaker, Carroll has compiled a growing body of independent feature and telefilm work since graduating from the USC Cinema and Television School. Playing by Heart is his third outing as a writer/director (following Tom's Midnight Garden and The Runestone).
"So many books, poems and songs have been written about love — in an attempt to find special ways to put into words feelings that are somewhat intangible," Carroll says. "We've made a movie in which a variety of characters try to talk about love, a subject that affects everyone but is so difficult to talk about."
In his effort to capture this elusive feeling of emotional effervescence onscreen, Carroll assembled an extraordinary cast, which includes Gillian Anderson, Ellen Burstyn, Sean Connery, Anthony Edwards, Angelina Jolie, Nastassja Kinski, Jay Mohr, Amanda Peet, Ryan Phillippe, Dennis Quaid, Gena Rowlands, Jon Stewart and Madeleine Stowe.
Carroll cast Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC in the role of cinematographer. Zsigmond has earned an Academy Award for his work on Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, nominations for The River and The Deer Hunter, and numerous other honors. Other key players behind the scenes included editor Pietro Scalia (who earned an Oscar for JFK and a nomination for Good Will Hunting), production designer Missy Stewart (Good Will Hunting) and costumer April Ferry (who received an Oscar nomination for Maverick, which was also shot by Zsigmond).
How did Carroll bring all of this talent together on a film with a lean $14 million budget? Zsigmond explains, "This movie reminds me of my early days in Hollywood, when I did little pictures like McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Cinderella Liberty and Deliverance. It tells a real story and recaptures the joy of filmmaking."
The film was developed by Hyperion Studio, which Carroll founded in 1984 along with its current president, Tom Wilhite, the former head of motion picture and television production for Walt Disney Studios. The duo share producing credits on Playing by Heart with casting director Meg Liberman and executive producer Paul Feldsher (Wings of the Dove). Miramax Films will distribute the film in the U. S., while Intermedia Films will distribute it internationally.
The following are excerpts from a recent conversation with Carroll and Zsigmond:
American Cinematographer: Willard, why did you choose Vilmos to photograph this film?
Carroll: Vilmos has shot some of my favorite films, and I felt he would understand why I wanted to make a character-driven movie in the 'Scope' [widescreen] format, which is an actor-friendly medium. At our first meeting, we discussed playing dialogue scenes in two-shots. I didn't want talking heads. I also wanted an elegant, romantic view of Los Angeles. It's a city we don't normally associate with romance.
Most of your exteriors were filmed at night.
Carroll: That was by design. Los Angeles comes alive at night, and we wanted to have these romances taking place in the city at night in more atmospheric situations and settings, including nightclubs and restaurants.
What was the process for making decisions about the visual approach to the material?
Zsigmond: We discussed each character and couple, including the look and feel of their scenes and environments. It wasn't always explicit. Sometimes we just discussed our feelings about individuals and couples. When I worked with [director] Mark Rydell on Cinderella Liberty, the lighting style was a kind of 'poetic realism.' That's also what Willard wanted. It's prettier than reality, and serves the story better.
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