Since “Citizen Ruth” in 1996, director-writer Alexander Payne and writer Jim Taylor have quietly carved out their own corner of the American movie landscape. “Election,” the story of a power-hungry teen played by Reese Witherspoon, and “About Schmidt,” a comedy about the quiet desperation of a 66-year-old widower (a tour de force for Jack Nicholson), put them at the front of their class.
Payne and Taylor visited the area last week for a publicity tour for “Sideways,” a brilliant new film about two 40ish friends on a week’s trip to the Santa Barbara wine country. Like the two men in the picture, the filmmakers have different styles: Payne was deliberate and somewhat formal, Taylor (who grew up in the Seattle area) more casual. But they were on the same wavelength in the way they thought about movies.
I asked about how they captured the tone of the movie, which is sometimes thoughtful and sad, and sometimes slapstick comedy. Taylor explained that achieving that blend is mostly a matter of instinct, and having an “inner ear” for finding the balance.
It begins with having serious issues at the core of the idea, and then allowing comedy to emerge. “For us,” Taylor said, “it’s really important to us to have the base there, and the jokes are sort of on top of that. So that if you fall, you have a soft landing.”
Payne added, “I’m just thinking about ‘The Kid,’ and about silent comedians, and the way they mixed pathos and comedy, especially Chaplin.” (“The Kid” is Chaplin’s 1921 masterpiece about a little boy, with classic slapstick routines mixed with heart-wrenching emotion.) “It’s hilarious, but then halfway through, it changes when the cop takes the kid away and Chaplin chases them across the rooftops. … and the ending of ‘City Lights,’ too. … I don’t think what we’re doing is any different.”
“Sideways” gives prominent roles to a couple of good actors who have knocked around without really catching on, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen. Payne said that both casting choices were the result of auditions – he had remembered Church from auditions for “Election” and “About Schmidt” and thought this might be the role for him. Madsen was proposed by a casting director who showed Payne Madsen’s photo and said, “Don’t her eyes look like she has experience?” That’s what the director was looking for.
I asked about the movie’s feel for average places, bars and motels and apartments, and Payne proudly said that not a single set was built for the film. They used real locations in the Santa Ynez Valley outside Santa Barbara, including real wineries and the kooky Danish-style town of Solvang. The Hitching Post restaurant, where many important scenes are set, is an actual place.
“We like the world as it is,” said Payne of his approach, decrying the false veneer of so many contemporary films. Taylor added, “It’s strange that seeing things the way they are is considered radical.”
Taylor said their approach when writing a scene often took the form of asking, “What’s the real version of this, as opposed to the movie version?” He pointed to a scene in “Sideways” in which Paul Giamatti’s character must sit in a hospital waiting room, idly flipping through a copy of Cosmopolitan magazine. “It gets a laugh,” Taylor said, “but it’s also true. You do end up reading a women’s magazine in a hospital, because that’s what’s there.”
Payne and Taylor have made a nice career out of capturing what’s there.
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