Boxoffice-November.1999

Sneak Preview
ANTHONY
IN ROME
Anthony Minghella Goes Italian for
''The Talented Mr. Ripley"
by Bridget Byrne
,he words flrnv'^rmTT Anthony tion that brought the jilaniour of Alain
Minghella, smoothlv and cnthnsi- Dclon to intcMnational attention,
asiically, as he tallis abou|""The .MinghcUa he«;an w(hIv on the screcnphiy
lalenled Mr. Riple>." I hedi
SRiniing "The Kn^lish I*atient."
intense romantie romantic dramas "Iruh. " I
]^Wi|> "'''*^^
J
"*'" '"'" "'^' ''^'^* diieetinji Oscar.
Deepl>"* and ""^e Enizh'sh Patient" Boh * Me Jij^ame, he says, immediafel>
the phone from Berkeley, CaHf., where "oh
>he« snperMsing post-|>rudnction on his abo
latest mo\ ic. The ParamounJ release stars who
with the theme of the n()>el
utsider (Damon as I oni Kiple>
vents himself in the gnise of
a quartet of ^claimed younji actors: another yoini*; man—a rich socialite
Hollywood's M^t Damon. Britain's .hide (law as Dickie (Jreenleaf).
Law, Oscar winner (;w>neth Paltrow and lioth in an early draft of prodnction
Australian star C^ate Blaiichett. "1 love notes and in this plnnie interview,
I_JBWBBL^
post-prodnctioii." sa>s Minghcl^^'Mt Minghella discuesses at length "the elesuits
the w riU^^^g|^_ WKk- nient of Kipley" that he believes we all
possess: I hat dangerous
I
longing to be a fake
somebodv rather than a
real nobodv. "Pm much
"TALENTED": Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Matt Damon.
less interested in Riplev
%1. as a sociopath than 1 am
in his sense of being an
outsider. We are all making
ourselves up as wc go
through life," says the
director, born of immigrant
Italians on the Isle
of White, off the coast of
southern England.
The original story,
which results in murder
j^yj „jjj ^^^^, .jcccDted retribution
for such a
He calls post "the chance to be meticu- crime, is set in Italy in the 1950s,
lous, to work at a more tortoise pace in Minghella pushed the timeframe to the
contrast to the filming, which is mar- latter part of that decade because he
velous dynamic chaos. When you're wanted to fully capitalize on "II Boom,"
shooting, you are so much at the mercy of an era of renaissance following World
the production schedule. Ibis is the when the country was bursting
chance to Ik> considered and contemplative." with pi/za//. "1 wanted it to feel as if
Of course. Minghella put a h)t of con- Pellini was sh(K)ting just around the corsidered
and contemplative time into "I he ner, to catch that feeling of beautiful
lalenled Mr. Kipley" before filming his young people whizzing by on Vespas and
version of Patricia lliglismith\ mordant groups of men congregating in the
novel, previously adapted In I960 as squares and cafes." Minghella, now 45,
"Purple Noon," a French/ltttlian produc- was of course a small bov at that time.
but he drew on faniilv njeinoriesUslv
studied photograpiis l)v Ruth Ork,_
discover the lo«)k lie was alter. \\ hat ]
was aiming for, he says, wasn't sonuihit
completely real, but rather a \iew ol Ua
wm #*•
AT THE HELM: Minghella on the streets of Romt
that is reflected in the lllms not only
Fellini but also Visconti and Rossellini.
Recreating that look in today's touris
crowded and much-modernized Italy post
>
many challenges, but after six months
location scouting, sixteen
weeks of pr
production and two weeks of rehearsal 1
was ready to shoot, assisted by many
'
the team that had worked with him c
"The English Patient," including cin|
matographer John Scale, costume desigj
er y\nn Roth, composer Gabriel Yan
and film editor Walter Murch.
Exteriors shot in Rome necessitate
clearing the pervasive clutter of peop
and things from many famous sit
including Piazza di Spagna and a ca
opposite Bernini's Fountain of the Foi \
Rivers. Filming also took place in Napl
and Palermo in Sicily and on the island
Iscliia, where it was possible to still ca
ture a version of the idyllic heachlife th
attracted 1950s hedonists. Minghel
describes the film as having "a surfai
below the surface rhythm" not confon
i
ing to the dark look of standard mystei
and suspense but savoring the sun ai
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