Most Anticipated Sundance Film: 'Keep the Lights On' by Ira Sachs (Weekend)

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/231960347/keep-the-lights-on



KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
A Narrative Film project in New York, NY
by Ira Sachs


Click for video of film's concept reel

About this project

I began working on Keep the Lights On  with my co-writer Mauricio Zacharias because we were both frustrated by how few films exist that reflect life as we have known it as gay men living in New York City. I also wanted to make a very personal film, in the vein of some of the filmmakers that I have most loved, artists like Jean Eustache, Jacques Nolot, Chantal Akerman, and that great film-memoirist Ingmar Bergman. Inspired by the ten years of my last relationship, Keep the Lights On  tells the story of two men torn apart by addiction and secrets, but bound together by love and hopefulness. It's a story fueled by shame that I intend to make shamelessly.  My hope is that when completed Keep the Lights On  will be an honest new work that can be added to the short list of dramatic films that have been made about the contemporary gay experience.

What's the story?

1997. Ben is another gay man in New York trying to make a connection through a phone sex line. He meets Nick - closeted, handsome and with a girlfriend attached. From the start, this casual encounter extends itself into a hopeful moment between potential lovers. As Ben negotiates life as a documentary filmmaker, his relationship with Nick, a precociously young lawyer in a prominent publishing house, becomes more than just a fling. Nick breaks up with his girlfriend and soon the two men move in together and start to build a home. But over the years, they discover that it’s easier to get out of the closet, than it is getting rid of its shadow. Nick’s drug use gets out of control, as Ben becomes increasingly sexual compulsive. After 10 years together, Ben realizes that it’s not the relationship he needs to save: it’s himself.

Why Kickstarter?

Hard as it is to believe, a film about gay life in contemporary America is rarer today than it’s ever been. Films like Brokeback Mountain and The Kids Are Alright were not, unfortunately, followed by a flood of new movies in our cinemas depicting queer relationships. From the start, we knew that to tell a story like this we would need the support of friends, families, gays, straights, filmmakers, film-lovers, the socially-committed, the generous-minded.... any one who would be interested in seeing a frankly explicit film about intimate relationships like this one get made. Thus, Kickstarter!


Keep the Lights On has recently received an Annenberg Grant from the Sundance Institute, as well as generous support from local vendors and institutions, and many, many individuals.  But having successfully raised a good portion of our budget, we are now at the point we really need your help. If we can reach our $25,000 Kickstarter goal we will reach our funding needs, and can start shooting our movie this summer. With your help, we are confident you'll see the movie at a theater near you in the year 2012!  And when you buy your popcorn, and the lights start to dim, you'll have the extra satisfaction of knowing that you were a real part of bringing this new work to the screen.


We thank you in advance for considering being a part of this project. All of us who are working on Keep the Lights On feel grateful for the community that we are a part of, and for the support that we continue to receive.


Ira Sachs, co-writer & director

[Mandy21]

This sounds like it will be interesting.  Certainly, the writers seem inspired.  I found this you-tube interview link on the Sundance website, but I don't know how to imbed it into this post.  John, maybe you can help?
~~~

http://www.sundance.org/video/meet-the-artists-12-ira-sachs/

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

This sounds like it will be interesting.  Certainly, the writers seem inspired.  I found this you-tube interview link on the Sundance website, but I don't know how to imbed it into this post.  John, maybe you can help?
~~~

http://www.sundance.org/video/meet-the-artists-12-ira-sachs/

Thank you, Mandy!
Here you are:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erIwNbOaIqY&feature[/youtube]

&feature
Uploaded by sff on Jan 3, 2012

Ira Sachs describes how a past relationship served as the starting point for his striking new film, "Keep The Lights On," in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

Plot Summary for


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2011953/


Keep the Lights On (2012)

It's 1997 and New York City is in a state of intense flux when documentary filmmaker Erik Rothman (Thure Lindhardt) first meets Paul Lucy (Zachary Booth), a handsome but closeted lawyer in the publishing field. What begins as a highly charged first encounter soon becomes something much more, and a relationship quickly develops. As the two men start building a home and life together, each continues to privately battle their own compulsions and addictions. A film about sex, friendship, intimacy and most of all, love, Keep the Lights On takes an honest look at the nature of relationships in our times. Written by Anonymous




http://filmguide.sundance.org/film/120092/keep_the_lights_on

KEEP THE LIGHTS ON

Keep the Lights On  chronicles the emotionally and sexually charged journey through the love, addiction, and friendship of two men. Documentary filmmaker Erik and closeted lawyer Paul meet through a casual encounter, but they find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers—compulsive, and fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity and to be true to himself.

Keep the Lights On  is shot with a grainy beauty that transports us to its late ’90s setting. It resonates with textures of New York City, accentuated by disco beats and a mournful cello, both from musician Arthur Russell’s eclectic catalog. Director Ira Sachs’s fearlessly personal screenplay is anchored by Danish actor Thure Lindhardt, who embodies Erik’s isolation and vulnerability with a gentle presence. Harrowing and romantic, visceral and intellectual, Keep the Lights On  is a moving film that looks at love and all of its manifestations, taking it to dark depths and bringing it back to a place of grace.
- K.Y.

Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth
 

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydNMHKl9ma8&feature[/youtube]
.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

http://anthemmagazine.com/sundance-%E2%80%9812-a-conversation-with-zachary-booth-and-thure-lindhardt/



Sundance ‘12: A Conversation with
Zachary Booth and Thure Lindhardt
The stars of Keep the Lights On discuss sex, addiction and the
funny things that happen when you shoot a movie in New York City

Text: Kee Chang
Images: Victoria Stevens
Posted: 18 January, 2012






It’s that time again! We’re packing our bags and getting ready to descend upon the picturesque mountain getaway that is Park City, Utah for what is without a doubt one of the essential landmark celebrations of independent cinema. The Sundance Film Festival is a proving ground, a place where films like Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, Little Miss Sunshine, Precious  and last year’s Martha Marcy May Marlene  first made their mark. There’s a lot of history there. For all intents and purposes, for us writers, filmmakers and stars, it’s very much about seeing what’s to come—the future. We have a lot of exciting coverage planned, but in lieu of spoiling everything, we’re starting a day early to direct your attention to a fantastic gem in this year’s U.S. Dramatic Competition.
 
Ira Sachs’ Keep the Lights On  chronicles the emotionally and sexually charged journey through the love, addiction, and friendship of two men. Documentary filmmaker Erik (Thure Lindhardt) and closeted lawyer Paul (Zachary Booth) meet through a casual encounter, but find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity in order to be true to himself.
 
Anthem  caught up with the film’s two lead stars in advance to Sundance in New York City.
 


How did you get involved with this film? What was attractive about it?
 
Thure Lindhardt: I was in Europe shooting a movie when I found out about this project, so I put myself on tape for the audition. Ira [Sachs] offered me the part after that. My character was supposed to be a Jewish New Yorker, so he obviously tweaked that once I came on board. [laughs ] I was very grateful for that. I only had three weeks to dye my hair and become comfortable with the New York accent. Also, what fascinated me was the desperation, love and frustration of my character Erik. The love these two characters share, despite everything that happens, is really beautiful. It’s a very universal story. To me, being European, this isn’t a gay, New York story. It’s a story about finding yourself.
 
Zachary Booth: I read the script and really responded to it. I wanted the opportunity to say the words that were on the page. The character on paper seems like he’s the antagonist, as if he’s the core problem, so the challenge was to find something sympathetic about a person who’s like that. It’s a challenge that I wanted. I was interested in figuring out how to play a drug addict who’s pulling apart his relationship, but still lovable at the same time. Ira told me to make an audition tape for him. When I did, I got this email from him saying, ‘I really wish I didn’t ask you to make me a tape.’ [laughs ] He didn’t like it, but he hired me anyway, thank god.



Both of your characters deal with compulsions and addictions, be it sex, drugs or something less pronounced. What kind of research did you do to play these parts?
 
TL: You just constantly talk to people, read books, think, reflect on your personal experiences and try to investigate as much as you can. What is abuse? What is it? My own abuse is extremely boring—cigarettes and coffee. Still, we all understand the concept of abuse or addiction.
 
ZB: The behavior is the same whether it’s a bag of potato chips or a bag of crack. If you think about it in those terms, it’s easier to access for an actor. We brought in a recovering drug addict on set and he walked us through the details of physically packing a crack pipe. It was about getting into the mindset of a drug addict and tapping into the feeling of craving something—it could be potato chips or ice cream—in the moment. When I’m high on crack and a hustler comes to visit me while my boyfriend is in the same hotel room, what am I going to be thinking about?
 
TL: I played a drug addict many years ago. I met this guy who lives in Copenhagen and he told me something that I never forgot. He told me there’s a center in our brain that controls both our desires for food and drugs. But the craving for heroin is a thousand times bigger than our craving for food, as you might expect. We all know how it feels to be to really, really hungry. It can get to a point where it almost feels like an addiction. It’s about filling up the hole… [laughs ] But it’s not about the hole; it’s about filling up the emptiness…
 
ZB: [laughs ] I’m so sorry you went there.
 


Were you at all concerned about your obligations to this project in terms of the nudity and all that?
 
ZB: The first draft was really graphic. It outlined things that I wasn’t comfortable doing. When Ira offered me the role, I was curious to know why he decided to write the screenplay in such a graphic fashion and I asked him that. He basically said he intended to show everything in a tasteful way, but knew that if he didn’t write it really graphically and pull it back during the shoot, he would never be able to get what he really needed. If he had written it timidly and then asked us, during the shoot, if we wouldn’t mind having sex—mime it—we would tell him that’s not what we signed up for. So it was certainly a concern. I needed him to explain why he wrote it like that and then I felt fine with it. We were also concerned about making everything look as authentic as possible. It was always a question of how to make everything look as real as possible.
 
TL: I saw Shortbus  a year before shooting this and thought, “Is this how they make movies in New York?” [laughs ] I loved the movie, but it just scared me, the whole sex thing. But sometimes you just have to go there. I felt really safe doing the sex scenes. When it serves the story and you get into your character’s mindset, the fear goes away.
 
ZB: You can’t tell the story of this relationship without showing the sex because there’s an immediate intimacy that’s created between these two guys even before they get to know each others’ first names. You can’t show all the different sides of their relationship without showing that physical side. At times, that was the only thing that kept them together, you know? Those instances where they’re unable to communicate verbally, but they can physically.
 


There’s really no point in taking a role that won’t challenge you as an actor, right?
 
TL: For me, it’s pretty simple. I need to be a part of something that moves me in some way. I think the projects that I really feel proud of are always the ones that I chose based on intuition. It doesn’t take much thought to say yes to something when you have a strong feeling that it might be special. I’m not very strategic when it comes to mapping out my career. I certainly have dreams and hopes, but I can’t really control it.
 
ZB: I have no control over it either. I’ve only had to make a few choices in my career. It’s still at a point where I don’t feel comfortable saying the word “career”. You make a couple of movies and just hope that you get to keep doing it. It’s about what comes along. I wouldn’t do something if I thought the people working on it didn’t seem to be on the same page or didn’t seem like collaborators. It’s important to know that somebody doesn’t think what they’re doing is too precious. They also need to know that I don’t think what I’m doing is too precious so they’re unafraid to be totally honest. So, the people involved are really important. A film doesn’t necessarily have to move me. The character has to be a new person for me in my body of work. It doesn’t matter if the character feels close to my real self or far from me. He just has to seem like a new guy and then I’ll decide if I can play him. Sometimes the biggest challenge is playing roles that are closest to you because then you just have to be yourself and you have people telling you you’re doing it wrong.
 
TL: I tried that once and it was so difficult. I was thinking too much instead of just doing it. I think there will always be this desire to work with good directors and opposite good actors, so it’s a question of what your values are in life. How do you see yourself? How do you see other people?
 


What are your thoughts on straight actors taking on gay roles and gay actors taking on straight ones? Why do people get so fixated on stuff like this?
 
ZB: I have no idea. It seems like that sort of sensitivity will lessen as long as more films like this are made. The more people are exposed to these types of stories, the less they’ll be concerned with labels like that. It’s just actors playing roles. You have to give actors the opportunity to explore different characters.
 


Weekend  is another good example. Did you see it?

ZB: I did. People watch that movie and they don’t think they’re watching a gay movie.


 
Right.
 
ZB: That’s an important shift. I think that’s an important thing that Keep the Lights On  accomplishes as well. This movie is accessible to anyone who is loved, wanted to love or ever had a relationship. When I first read the script, I thought it was a gay, drug movie, but Ira told me it’s a relationship movie. I was just looking at it from my character’s perspective. I hope things continue to change and people stop looking at “gay films” as “gay films”. The Kids Are Alright  was a family movie. Obviously, a lot was made about the couple being gay, but straight people were able to access it because there are so many human scenes in it.



I love how Keep the Lights On  takes place in New York, but Ira doesn’t spoon-feed viewers the kinds of backdrops we consider quintessentially New York. We see you guys in hotel rooms, dimly lit apartments, cramped restaurants—real spaces that New Yorkers more commonly associate their lives with day in, day out.
 
ZB: It gives the film its intimate quality for sure. There’s a lot of authenticity in the backdrops.


 
Can you tell us about the production itself? How many people were on the crew?
 
ZB: I’d say between 25-40 people on set at any given time, including the office.
 
TL: It was a great crew and we all felt like we were part of a family. Everyone was very respectful and it was a very intimate shoot. We felt very safe.
 
ZB: Everyone seemed very eager to create. There were some really accomplished people there, but they didn’t have any egos. Ira walked in one day and said, ‘You know more about this. You’ve spent more days on a film set than I have.’ I was like, “Dude! You’re Ira Sachs! What are you doing?” [laughs ] That sort of humility trickled down to everyone. We shot in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. We shot on University Avenue between 9th and 11th for the argument scene and there was 45 feet of dolly tracks lying on the sidewalk.
 
TL: That was so cool!
 
ZB: I was stressing out and whining, “I don’t want to do this!” and Thure yanks me back to reality. He goes, ‘Do you know what’s happening right now? We’re in the middle of New York City making a movie!’


 
Is the heckling kept down to a shout when you shoot in New York?
 
TL: People just want us to move out of their way. They’re just trying to get to wherever they need to go.
 
ZB: They don’t heckle, but they certainly don’t respect you at all. [laughs ] We also had some Europeans that would pass by yelling, ‘Is that Toure?!’
 
TL: This really funny thing happened one day with the line producer.

ZB: Who?
 
TL: Louis?
 
ZB: He was the AD, assistant director.
 
TL: He would tell people, ‘No, it’s not Robert DeNiro. You can keep on walking!’ [laughs ]
 
ZB: I haven’t shot so much outside of New York. It’s different when it’s an independent film. When they shoot a TV show, there’s like 10 trucks and teamsters everywhere, so the crowds tend to huddle. With a small film like this, people literally walk right in front of the camera and you can see it! It’s in the movie. [laughs ] They don’t notice it, but I do! A guy just walked right in front of me with headphones and it’s like, “Oh, after you!”
 


Have your acting goals changed since you first started out? What do you hope to accomplish?
 
TL: I just want to keep getting better at it and continue telling stories with great people. I want to meet new friends. Maybe get an Oscar—two!
 
ZB: ‘Two.’ [laughs ] I like that ‘two.’ You have enough awards Thure. Look at him. He’s thinking, ‘But there’s always room for more! I built this shelf and now I need to fill it!’
 
TL: [laughs ] The whole shelf!
 
ZB: In my first acting class, I realized that acting should be taken seriously. I thought it was fun and I might be good at it, so it seemed like a safe decision. Then life happened and I was suddenly a working actor. I would just love to keep doing what I’m doing. There’s always the fear that the gig’s going to be up. When you have a good life, it’s always the fear that someone’s going to find out that maybe you’re not as great as people have been telling them that you are. [laughs ] I want to mature emotionally so it becomes less and less about what people say about what I do and more about what they learn from the stories I’m telling them.