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SNEAK PREVIEW
A PERFECT MATCH
Why Director Barry Sonnenfeld Believes in
"Addams Family Values "
Breaking
By Jeff Schwager
The director at work Barry Sonnenfeld on the set
of Addams Family Values
into the film business
isn't supposed to be
easy, but every once in a
while you hear a story that just
makes you wonder— Lana
Tlimer being discovered at the
soda fountain of Schwab's Drugstore,
say, or John Wayne being
spotted by director John Ford
while doing extra work during a
summer off from the USC football
team.
Director
Barry Sonnenfeld's
entrance into the biz may not
have those sorts of mythical
makings, but it does sound surprisingly
effortless. "Growing
up," Sonnenfeld says, "I had no
interest at all in movies. I was a
political science major in college.
After graduating, I went to
film school for lack of anything
better to do. It was just a way to
stay off the street for three more
years. Then, while I was at film
Coen at a party. "They were trying
to raise the money to make
'Blood Simple' by shooting a
trailer as though it were a finished
movie, and then showang
that trailer to potential investors.
We hit it off and I shot the
trailer for them, and a year later
we were making the movie. So
the first day I was ever really
on a film set was the first day
1 shot 'Blood Simple."'
If the jump fi-om cinematographer
to director was
equally easy— after shooting
every Coens' film through
"Miller's Crossing" plus Rob
Reiner's "When Harry Met
Sally," diree agents oflFered to
land him directing assignments—actually
directing his
first film was not so simple. "It
was a nightmare," Sonnenfeld
says of "The Addams Family,"
the film with which he made his
directorial debut. "I thought I'd
never direct again."
Sonnenfeld had reason to be
school, I discovered I was sort of
an idiot savant when it came to
movies. I just had a certain talent
for shooting film."
The rest, as they say, is history.
After film school, he
bought a 16mm camera and
began shooting documentaries
and industrial films. Then he
nervous. There were well-documented
problems on the "Addams
Family" set, climaxing in
a Premiere magazine report alleging
that Sonnenfeld was on
the verge of a nervous breakdown.
ran into fellow fledgling
When Orion Pictures
filmmakers Joel and Ethan nearly went belly-up, it put "The
"
'The Munsters. ' than the first one. And best of
Addams Family" on the block to shooting schedule, and I had already
raise capital. When the dust
had been
directed two films. It's a
your cleared, the film lot easier directing third
picked up by Paramount,
and it
film
your
than
first
ended up becoming
film. It was
one of 1991 's
great work-
biggest blockbusters.
ing with
Raul Julia,
A nj el i ca
had no idea
Hustonn and
how successful
it would
a c o r s I
the Dther I
I
he," Sonnenfeld
again. We
says now. "It was
w ere
so difficult making
more re-
that movie
d, and
couldn't be
much more
that I
optimistic about
away
well paid.
amazing
It I was
hom my family;
It's
how much
was getting paid one quarter of fun it is making a movie when
what I make as a cinematographer;
you're making a ton of money
I was renovating my to do it."
house, and it went 200 percent Sonnenfeld is particularly
over budget; my wife spent happy v\ath the new film because
some time in the hospital. Everything
he feels it captures the
spirit of the Charles Addams
that could go wrong went wrong. It was such a disaster
cartoons that inspired it. "I was
you couldn't say, 'Yes! This is never particularly a fan of 'The
going to be a big hit.'"
Addams Family' TV show," he
In the wake of "The Addams admits, adding with a laugh, "I
Family's" phenomenal success, always preferred 'The Munsters.'
however, Sonnenfeld has few
But, growing up a Jew in
such worries today. His experience
Manhattan, it was sort of a cul-
on the second chapter of tural requirement that you read
the "Addams" saga was nothing the New Yorker, and I was a
like the nightmare of the first. gigantic fan of Charles Addams'
"It was so much easier this cartoons. I have a macabre
sense of humor myself, so I
"/ was never particularly
guess you could say we're a
perfect match."
a fan of the TV
Sonnenfeld promises that
"Addams Family Values" will
show, " be "less claustrophobic than
Sonnenfeld
first the one, taking place
says with a laugh. "/ more outside the mansion,
with the Addamses dealing
much more with the real
always preferred
world. It's a much better film
time," he saj's. "First of all, we
went into 'Addams Family
Values' with a much better
script. I actually turned down
the first film three times because
I was convinced that the
script was awfi.il. I'd like the
poster on 'Addams Family
Values' to look just like the first
one, but to have a banner across
it saying, 'This time with a plot!'
"But also, I was out here with
my family, it was a shorter
all, audiences won't leave the
theatre saying, 'Was he really
Fester?"'
"Addams Family Values. "
^
Starring:
Anjelica Huston, Raid Julta,
Christopher Lloyd, Joan Cusak,
Carol Kane, Christina Ricci and
Jimmy Workman. Screenplay by
Paul Rudnick. Directed by Barry
Sonnenfeld. A Paramount Pictures
Release.
Release Date: Nov.
19. For a plot synopsis, please see
Holiday Deats in this tssMe,
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