BIG GOLD BRICK will be In Theaters, On Demand and Digital February 25, 2022
Here’s the trailer:
Big Gold Brick recounts the story of fledgling writer Samuel Liston and his experiences with Floyd Deveraux, the enigmatic middle-aged father of two who enlists Samuel to write his biography. But the circumstances that lead up to this arrangement in the first place are quite astonishing—and efforts to write the biography are quickly stymied by ensuing chaos in this darkly comedic, genre-bending film.
BIG GOLD BRICK stars Emory Cohen, Andy Garcia, Megan Fox, Lucy Hale, and Oscar Isaac
BROOKLYN is a film about a young Irish woman, Eilis, who moves to America in the 1950s and then returns to Ireland after a family tragedy. It seemed a perfect role for actress Saoirse Ronan (pronounced “Sear-sha”), who was born in New York but when she was three, her parents took her to their native Ireland when they returned there. Now 20 years old, Ronan first gained wide notice for her role in ATONEMENT when she was 12.
Ronan spoke recently about BROOKLYN by phone in a conference call. Here is a portion of that interview, edited for length and clarity.
Movie Geeks: “How does your own experience coming to the country compare and influence the movie in turn?”
Saoirse Ronan: “When you’ve had your own personal experience of leaving home yourself and it is as emotional as it can be, you can’t help but allow that to sort of influence how you play someone, I guess, and how much meaning it holds for you. It influenced everything I did in the film, the fact that I had gone through it myself.”
MG: “I was wondering, do you think the movie is more so a testament of how universal love can be or rather how conducive 1950s America is as a melting pot to connect an Italian and an Irish through the environment that Brooklyn affords?”
SR: “I think it’s the former. It depends on the person I think, but we’re dealing with two people here, especially Eilis, who kind of naturally is quite an open person. I think when she goes over to New York, I know I’ve even felt this going over to New York even though I was born there, but I am very, very Irish, and we are kind of a nation that’s really celebrated in the city, and so I think she has this confidence. She’s kind of seen as exotic by him you know, and he’s fascinated by her because she’s different. I do think there’s a fascination on his end that allows her to have this sort of confidence. Yes, I think their love kind of rises about any cultural differences or anything like that. As I said before, what brings her back ultimately of course, is waking up and realizing that she’s got this man at home back in New York that really loves her. But it’s also, because of the time, she couldn’t divorce, she had made a vow to this man, and that was where she needed to be.”
MG: “In Colm Toibin novels, ‘Brooklyn’ included, they’re often said to focus heavily on character detail and on gestures more so than the story itself, did you ever find yourself referring to the novel more than the script when you were trying to portray Eilis?”
SR: “No, I didn’t. I usually don’t. I had read the book previously maybe about two years before I knew about the film and before the film was properly being developed, but I’ve always found—I mean I’ve also been very, very lucky that I’ve had great scripts that are very well written already, and it’s kind of all the reference and all the text that I need. But Nick was able to adapt this very colorful, rich piece of literature for film, and any question, I guess, that we had, John was there for that.”
MG: “Eilis arguably undergoes both a physical and an emotional transformation in this movie because she becomes confident, she becomes older, she’s more comfortable, she’s stronger because of what she’s been through, and you do a really great job in the movie of manifesting this physically, so I was wondering what preparation that you took in preparing for this role and sort of manifesting her physicality, and also does it differ from the preparation that you’ve taken in before other roles?”
SR: “When I did a film called ‘Atonement’ a few years ago when I was about 12, the director on that, one of the first things that we worked on apart from the accent, was the way a character would walk. And so that’s always been quite important for me, and I think from that it naturally meant that a character’s emotional face really reflected and fed into their physicality as well, and it kind of naturally starts to happen. Yes, I guess it was just one of those things that sort of naturally, as you say, manifested through the course of the script, but the more confident emotionally the character was, I guess I just kind of naturally stood in a different way.”
“I think when a character has purpose as well, when a young woman has purpose and she knows where she’s going, your walk is going to always reflect that. And so I think it was just one of those things that really kind of happened naturally. I could feel that like when we brought Eilis back home to Ireland in the second half of the film, she was more in control of herself. She, as you said, has been through quite a life experience since she’s been away, has gone through fear and grief and love, and has taken on so much responsibility for herself. And so, just like it would in real life, that just kind of naturally reflects or feeds into the way you hold yourself, I guess.”
MG: “I was wondering what it felt like filming so close to where you grew up? Well, I know some of the scenes were shot in Ireland, so what was it like filming so close?”
SR: “It was weird. It was really weird. We actually shot in Enniscorthy where the book and the film were set, and Colm Toibin, the author, is actually from there. To go there, which is like 25 minutes away from where I grew up in Carlow, and it’s a place that we used to go to the cinema when the film that we wanted to see in our one-screen cinema in Carlow wasn’t on, we would go to Enniscorthy, so I knew the faces there, they were quite familiar to me and there were a lot of extras who would be in the dance hall or at the church, and would come up to me and say like, do you remember me from years ago? We played basketball together or were at sports together. These were people that I wouldn’t have known personally, but kind of met in passing. “
“To have a life that even I’m not part of anymore, that was very much my childhood colliding with work which had always been kept so separate when I was kid was bizarre and amazing. It was really amazing. It was great to be surrounded by really kind of Irish characters. This wasn’t imitated in any way. We were surrounded by the Irish spirit, so I think it really helped the film.”
MG: “You’ve done a very eclectic mix of films and now developing into more mature roles, what do you look for when you’re considering a script and what attracted you to this script specifically?”
SR: “I think one of the really important things for me and it always has been is that I’m always doing something different. The project that I’m looking at for the future needs to be different to whatever I’ve done in the past. Obviously, you can’t always make a dramatic change, but I feel like you need to do that as much as possible in order to grow and learn more and just being able to really adapt to different types of personalities that you’re playing.”
“What I’ve found more as I’ve gotten older and where I’m at personally kind of at this stage now in my life, it’s important for me to play someone who maturity-wise is at the same kind of place. It’s always important that they’re not just the crutch to somebody else’s character, that they’re interesting and well written and intelligently written. I would never want to play someone that’s just the girl next door or something like that, I’ve never found that interesting. I’ve always kind of thought when I look at the likes of Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton that so many of the roles that they’ve taken on could have easily been a man, and it could’ve been a male character because it’s not necessarily gender specific, it’s very much just about this person that they’re playing, and so that’s kind of what I’d like to emulate too.”
MG: “Something that I thought was very interesting about the immigrant story and that of your parents is that unlike earlier generations, it was easier travel-wise to go back to the old country, so earlier generations really had to make this kind of choice; they didn’t have the opportunity to go back. Could you talk about that aspect of the story and whether your parents’ decision colored how you played the character?
SR: “My mom and dad went over in the ’80s, they took a plane. I mean even for them, they were illegal when they were here initially, so they couldn’t go back for about three years to Ireland, and even that was like a huge, huge thing. You can imagine how much of a sacrifice it would have been for someone in the ’50s and even earlier to physically get on a boat and watch their country disappear into the distance. I can’t imagine how terrifying that would be, and it’s so kind of finite. There’s such finality to it that I’d imagine was really kind of terrifying and heartbreaking.”
“Yes, I think the fact that—just since I had made the film I talked to Mom specifically more so about how it felt to leave, and she told me about, because my dad had gone over ahead of time, when she went to the airport and her sister and her father brought her to the airport, and my Auntie Margaret even says now, like I was Rose. She bought her her plane ticket, and it was the hardest thing she ever had to do, but she knew it was the right thing for my mom, and that was heartbreaking for them. Regardless of the fact that she was getting on a plane, she would’ve been there in a few hours, and if she really needed to she could’ve come back ultimately, to actually essentially give up your younger sibling was a huge thing to do, and to talk to them about it definitely helps me to feel the weight of that situation.”
MG: “One thing that made Eilish’s story as an immigrant to America in the 1950s different from the story of immigrants of earlier generations is that she can change her mind and go back to Ireland. And after she’s been in New York for some time, she does go back to Ireland for family reasons, for a visit, but once there, she considers whether to stay or go back. That’s part of the emotional crux of the film, not just the romance. And that’s a choice immigrants of earlier generations didn’t have an option to make – but in the 1950s, they could.
SR: “Yes, I mean if you were lucky. But if that family tragedy hadn’t of happened, she probably wouldn’t have come back. She maybe would’ve come back once more, but that was something that of course, brought her back home, but she wouldn’t necessarily have done that otherwise. But yes, you’re right. I mean in earlier cases, the majority of people that were going over there where going over there to work because there was no work at home and they had no money. As we said in the film, even in the ’50s, the men who went over 40, 50 years before, who didn’t kind of achieve the American dream and didn’t make an awful lot of money and didn’t become rich or whatever else they were told they were going to be maybe when they went over, [well they] were stuck there. Generations before, of course, that was even more so, that kind of feeling of very much sticking to that one place. Yes, it was a huge sacrifice, and they were incredibly brave to do what they did, to give everything up at home.”
On the surface, BROOKLYN is about a young Irish woman in the 1950s moving to American to start a new life, but it is also about anyone growing up and moving away from home, whether that is going away to college or moving away to a new city for a job. The film deals with the loneliness, the homesickness, and the strangeness of being somewhere new, and all the adjustments and changes that brings. It also deals with how it feels to go back home after that. It is a story that will make anyone who has experienced that ache with remembered things. It is a meditation on identity, self-discovery and life-choices, full of nuances and shadings, set in a lovely nostalgic landscape.
Beautifully photographed and beautifully acted as well, BROOKLYN is a lovely film based on Irish writer Colm Toibin’s novel of the same name, and directed by John Crowley (“Boy A”) with a screenplay written by Nick Hornby. Set in Toibin’s small rural hometown, the story is about a young Irish woman, Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan), who moves to America in the 1950s and then later returns to Ireland after a family tragedy. Eilis is struggling with only a part-time job, working for a boss who belittles her at every opportunity, in her small rural Irish town. At the insistence of her affectionate older sister (Fiona Glascott), who sees only a limited future for Eilis in Ireland, their mother (Jane Brennan) writes to an Irish priest (Jim Broadbent) living in New York, asking him to find her a job and place to stay in America. Eilis herself is less sure about he move but, shy, uncertain and frightened, she boards a ship for the trip across the ocean.
Many American families have stories of an immigrant ancestor, tales they tell of grandma or grandpa coming from the Old Country, stories tinged with nostalgia. BROOKLYN evokes some of that with its period setting and old-fashioned atmosphere. At the same time, this is tale for any young person leaving home, a timeless experience.
In Brooklyn, the kindly priest has found her a room at a boarding house with other Irish immigrant girls and a job at a department store. She quickly learns that Brooklyn, a place full of immigrants like herself, is not the New York she imagined. It is all very strange, and Eilis aches with homesickness. But the sympathetic priest helps her adjust and the landlady (Julie Walters) at the boardinghouse is a kind of sharp-tongued mother hen, who helps Eilis figure out her new home. A sophisticated supervisor at work (Jessica Paré) helps her learn to dress like an American woman, and fellow residents at the boardinghouse, who were once as green as she is, help her figure out life in Brooklyn as well.
She meets a young Italian man, Tony (Emory Cohen) who is smitten with her, while she is more cautious. In one funny, charming scene, Eilis’ friends at the boardinghouse help her practice how to eat spaghetti properly, twirling it on her fork, so she can eat dinner with Tony’s almost stereotypically Italian family without embarrassing herself.
A family tragedy brings her back home to Ireland. Like everyone who has gone away, she sees the place through new eyes, and the people back home see her in a new way as well. Looking polished and poised in her fashionable American clothes, Eilis possesses a new self-confidence and presence. She draws the attention of a young local aristocrat, Jim (Domhnall Gleeson), someone who never would have noticed her before, and the frisson of the new romantic possibility forces her to consider whether to stay or go back to Brooklyn.
The two suitors are stand-ins for the two homes as much as anything, but one of the strengths of the film is its ability to work well on several levels. It is both a personal story and a universal one, a love story and a metaphor for life, a period piece and one of the present. Credit for that has to go to many people – Toibin for his haunting, complex yet simple story, Nick Hornby for his adaptation and John Crowley for his skillful direction. And to star Saoirse Ronan, whose performance in her first really grown-up role is brilliant and effecting, a performance already being mentioned for an Oscar nomination.
All the story takes place in landscapes that have a nostalgic period loveliness, from the old-fashioned brink streets of Brooklyn to the polished ’50s department store, to the charm of the little Irish town and Eilis’ pretty ’50s costumes. In one scene, Tony takes Eilis to Coney Island, and in a quiet, open corner, he talks about building a home there and starting his own business. It is a scene that evokes visions of what lies ahead for the country – growing suburbs and news businesses in the economic boom of the later ’50s and ’60s, but these are unknowns to Eilis and the characters in the film. In a parallel scene, Eilis and Jim with a pair of friends have a day at the seashore in Ireland, a visually beautiful scene, where she contemplates her choices and future, while gazing across the ocean.
Because it works so well on so many levels, BROOKLYN is a near-perfect film about growing up, leaving home and returning, and about choosing one’s own life.
BROOKLYN opens in St. Louis on Friday, November, 20, 2015.
From Fox Searchlight comes the new poster for director John Crowley’s BROOKLYN.
BROOKLYN tells the profoundly moving story of Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan), a young Irish immigrant navigating her way through 1950s Brooklyn. Lured by the promise of America, Eilis departs Ireland and the comfort of her mother’s home for the shores of New York City.
The initial shackles of homesickness quickly diminish as a fresh romance sweeps Eilis into the intoxicating charm of love. But soon, her new vivacity is disrupted by her past, and Eilis must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.
Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters also star.
Opening in select theaters on November 6, BROOKLYN made its premiere at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and is an “Official Selection” at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Lakeshore Records will release the soundtrack featuring the score by Golden Globe Nominee Michael Brook (INTO THE WILD).
The new trailer has come online for director Derek Cianfrance’s (“Blue Valentine”) THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES. The film powerfully explores the consequences of motorcycle rider Luke’s (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling) fateful decision to commit a crime to support his child. The incident renders him targeted by policeman Avery (Golden Globe Award nominee Bradley Cooper), and the two men become locked on a tense collision course which will have a devastating impact on both of their families in the years following.
(via Yahoo! Movies)
Written by Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, and Darius Marder, the cast also includes Eva Mendes, Golden Globe Award nominee Rose Byrne (Damages), Mahershala Ali (Treme), Emory Cohen (Smash), Dane DeHaan (Chronicle), Gabe Fazio, Bruce Greenwood (Flight), Ray Liotta (Killing Them Softly), Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises), and Harris Yulin (Scarface).
In September Focus Features announced that it had acquired the US rights for Cianfrance’s film at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the it had its world premiere. In his glowing review, Kevin Jagernauth of IndieWire wrote, “Derek Cianfrance has now placed himself in the canon of great, contemporary American filmmakers like James Gray, Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coen Brothers. This is a film that desires to say something about how we relate to each other, and how the often overlooked consequences of our actions can refract down avenues we could never expect. A brilliant, towering picture, “The Place Beyond The Pines” is a cinematic accomplishment of extraordinary grace and insight.”
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES will be in theaters March 29, 2013. MPAA Rating: R
Bradley Cooper stars as Avery Cross. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima
