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荷里活天后 美琪賴恩Meg Ryan
銀幕上首度赤裸驚慄
驚殺
In the Cut
憑《緣份的天空》、《網上情緣》等被封為荷里活愛情片天后的美琪賴恩，浪漫甜心形象一直迷倒萬千觀眾。為作出新嘗試，她決定一改戲路，首度在銀幕上作最突破的一次III級裸露演出，演繹驚慄懸疑片《驚殺》！當中多場大膽情慾場面挑戰尺度，在美國掀起不少話題！
《驚殺》就像《七宗罪》加上《本能》及《大開眼戒》的結合，一宗懸疑謀殺案，竟會掀起女主角美琪賴恩的無窮情慾，在連場情慾和心理角力中，她愈危險、愈興奮，直至接近死亡邊緣，亦未知真兇…！
由《鋼琴別戀》紐西蘭籍金像提名女導演珍甘比恩(Jane Campion)執導，改編自同名暢銷小說，《驚殺》對情慾與罪惡的描寫相當引人入勝，更榮獲參與本年度多倫多國際電影節及東京國際電影節。
慾焰愈燒 殺意愈濃 高潮之上 刀鋒割下
紐約女教授芬妮(美琪賴恩飾)，單身獨立我行我素，更公然和學生交往。自從芬妮住所隔壁發生女子謀殺案開始，一連串兇殺案相繼發生，死者都是性感誘人的女性……
調查過程中，芬妮與警探馬萊發生似是而非的感情關係，在他身上，芬妮感受到前所未有的情慾境界，可是兩人關係愈是親密，芬妮愈是生疑；她開始深入危險的真相，卻又受不住糾纏不清的情慾誘惑，死亡，已經迫近……
慾望盡頭 死亡逼近
* 芬妮（美琪賴恩Meg Ryan）
紐約女教授，單身獨立我行我素，更公然和學生交往。芬妮表面意識開放，對男女事看似瞭解通透，內心實質複雜孤單，敏感的她心中更埋藏無窮情慾；遇上馬萊後心中的慾望一發不可收拾，明知危險，卻又受不住誘惑，不斷追求更高的情慾境界，興奮和高潮過後，她看到的會是……？
* 馬萊（麥克盧法洛Mark Ruffalo）
負責調查女子連環謀殺肢解案的警探，因而搭上芬妮，馬萊為她獨特的魅力所吸引，兩人開始互相挑逗，更引發激烈的愛慾關係；但馬萊行蹤神秘，說話似是而非，芬妮開始懷疑，究竟……？
* 保蓮（珍妮花積遜李Jennifer Jason Leigh）
芬妮同父異母妹妹，屢次受感情傷害，為得到愛情感覺甘願放縱情慾，換來精神上的嚴重打擊；芬妮和她感情要好，分亨一切喜樂，包括自己和馬萊的性事……
* 古約翰（奇雲貝根Kevin Bacon）
曾和芬妮有過情慾關係，自此對她非常痴纏，更有點失常，芬妮越想避開他，他就纏得更緊，甚至擅自闖入芬妮家中……
* 活康尼（沙利夫布克Sharrieff Pugh）
芬妮學生，是她在某一課題的研究對象，非常有風度的君子，處處保護著她。其實康尼一直對芬妮存有慾望，而芬妮對他欲拒還迎的態度更令康尼難耐，終於……
* 阿洛（尼克戴明Nick Damici）
馬萊的拍檔，因犯事警權被削，非常失意，唯有跟隨馬萊查案，在有需要時負責保護芬妮的安全。
荷里活天后 美琪賴恩 驚艷全球最突破演出
美琪賴恩為了《驚殺》犧了她一直在全球觀眾眼中的純情形象 -《緣份的天空》、《一切從失戀開始》、《網上情緣》的甜心笑容不再，取而代之的是一瞥性感眼神、一片微張的誘人紅唇、一個成熟女性的赤裸身軀，以及一場場挑戰尺度的大膽情慾場面……美國觀眾無不驚訝，為何美琪賴恩敢於一改戲路作出新嘗試？
「無論導演、劇本、角色都是完美的。當我首次讀過《驚殺》的劇本，就像被拖進夢幻的旋渦及一陣惡夢之中，每一步我都猜不到會如何發展，而女主角就像將女性的潛意識世界化成現實，講述一個女人如何透過情慾而改變，那正是我感到震撼的地方，亦是最吸引我，令我想深入瞭解她之處。」
這個角色和美琪賴恩以前拍過的沒有任何相同之處：「以前我演的角色都比較表面化，而相反今次的芬妮我行我素，不喜歡主動討好別人，不理會別人看法，內心世界黑暗複雜；而其實，她心裡充滿性慾，而且在劇情發展中情慾更變得越來越高漲 - 這種角色和場面我都從未試過在銀幕上演繹。」
最徹底．最性感．最越軌
美琪賴恩今次赤裸演出可謂最徹底一次，即使所有正面全裸場面亦不用替身：「我覺得那些場面拍得極好，我亦非常喜愛當中的對白，它們令整個過程更加親密。」
她亦為可以和自己最欣賞的女導演珍甘比恩合作而自豪：「自從接拍《驚殺》以後，我為它而推掉所有其他角色，因為想讓自己一直保持對這個角色的感覺，完全集中去演繹；而一年之後，我仍常想著我從珍甘比恩身上學到的東西。」
拍攝過程中，美琪賴恩鍥而不捨地與導演討論女主角的心理變化：「芬妮就像我演藝生涯中一顆原子彈，她完全改變我以往的演戲經驗，以及對角色的探討。」
導演亦大讚美琪賴恩有突破及超越界線的勇氣，更大膽地去深入和投入角色：「她想盡情發揮觀眾未見過的潛在能量。」
《鋼琴別戀》金像提名導演
珍甘比恩Jane Campion
1996年，當紐西蘭籍女導演珍甘比恩正進行《淑女本色》的後期製作，她讀到Susanna Moore的《驚殺》原著小說"IN THE CUT"時，立即被當中男、女、性與愛之間的種種複雜關係，竟能透過一個懸疑驚慄故事表達出來所吸引，小說無論在心理、生理、幻想抑或浪漫的層面上都描寫得非常出色，更是由女性角度出發去探索情慾，更令當時的珍甘比恩驚為天人。
《此時．此刻》金像影后 妮歌潔曼Nicole Kidman
首度親自監製
事實上，《淑女本色》的女主角妮歌潔曼在看過這本珍甘比恩推介的小說後，亦決定首次參與投資此片，並親自監製電影，至今仍是她唯一一部有份參與幕後監製的作品。
珍甘比恩：「4年內都不會再拍新片。」
珍甘比恩曾憑《鋼琴別戀》勇奪金像獎最佳編劇，及獲得最佳導演提名，實力不容置疑，今次美琪賴恩願意為電影裸露，也全因其對珍甘比恩的仰慕與信任。珍甘比恩早於1999年已開始與原著小說者Susanna Moore一同編寫《驚殺》劇本，至01年鐵定由美琪賴恩擔正演出。
生於1954年的珍甘比恩，是少數能揚名國際影壇的紐西蘭女導演兼編劇。父親是舞台劇導演、母親是演員兼作家，自小就受父母薰陶，早於大學時期就憑短片《PEEL》獲得康城影展大獎，備受矚目讚賞。
不算多產的珍甘比恩擅拍女性心理及情慾，作品有《鋼琴別戀》、《淑女本色》、《性煙》等，每次皆請來巨星為她作出突破性演出，荷莉亨特、妮歌潔曼、琦溫絲莉以至今次的美琪賴恩，都懷著仰慕與信任，為她傾力演出。珍甘比恩更聲明，在拍擺《驚殺》後4年內都不會再拍新片，所以眾位女星能和她合作絕對是非常難得。
演員介紹
美琪賴恩Meg Ryan
洛杉磯長大的美琪賴恩，畢業於紐約大學傳理系，81年憑《榮華富貴》出道，於《壯志凌雲》及《90男歡女愛》中的演出為人認識，正式踏上巨星之途，其後大熱作品有《緣份的天空》、《網上情緣》、《一切從失戀開始》、《晴天陰天半邊天》、《天使之城》、《生死豪情》、《當男人愛上女人》等。美琪賴恩一向被封為荷里活愛情喜劇天后，曾2次贏得美國喜劇大獎及3度提名金球獎影后，《驚殺》是她從影以來的最突破演出。
麥克盧法洛Mark Ruffalo
93年出道的麥克盧法洛於2000年憑《You Can Count on Me》贏得蒙特利爾電影節最佳演員大獎及洛杉磯影評人協會「New Generation Award」，其他作品有《烈血追風》，最新作品是與占基利及琦溫絲莉合作的《Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind》。
珍妮花積遜李Jennifer Jason Leigh
由電視、舞台劇至電影，珍妮花曾演出50多部作品包括《末路驕陽》、《人生交叉點》等；90年憑《Miami Blues》贏得波士頓影評人協會最佳女配角，95年憑《Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle》提名金球影后及奪得多項大獎，01作品《The King is Alive》更於東京國際電影節勇奪影后桂冠。此外，她更有自己的首部導演作品《The Anniversary Party》。
奇雲貝根Kevin Bacon
美國著名演員，最擅演繹驚慄懸疑片，作品有《懸河殺機》、《透明人魔》、《太陽神13號》、《驚天大刺殺》、《一級謀殺》等。
魅力迫人 誘惑難擋
「驚慄震撼、性感刺激，劇情出人意表，極具爭議性！」
- MOVIE INSIDER
「美琪賴恩突破性演出，極具吸引力！」
- MOVIEHOLE
「徹底改變你對美琪賴恩的印象！」
- Esquire
「極度性感，教你忘記呼吸...」
- Elle
「導演珍甘比恩有史以來的最佳作品。」
- The Times
「將女性的慾望徹底呈現！」
- OZUS' WORLD MOVIE REVIEWS
1月8日 驚慄獻映
sony.com/inthecut
Pathé Productions Ltd presents
A Laurie Parker Production
A Jane Campion Film
IN THE CUT
Starring
Meg Ryan
Mark Ruffalo
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Kevin Bacon
Distributed by: Intercontinental Film Dist. (HK) Ltd.
Release date: 5 Feb 2004
IN THE CUT
Production Notes
SYNOPSIS (as translated)
IN THE CUT stars Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Damici and Sharrieff Pugh. Directed by Jane Campion, the film is from a screenplay by Campion and Susanna Moore, based on the novel by Moore, produced by Laurie Parker, Nicole Kidman; Effie T. Brown, Francois Ivernel, executive producers.
* * *
"The still waters of the water under a frond of stars/
The still water of your mouth under a thicket of kisses"
- Federico Garcia-Lorca
"The story of Frannie is an investigation not just into a crime but into how men and women behave," says Meg Ryan, who portrays Frannie. Ryan was drawn to the character - antithetical to the romantic and comedic roles she is best known for - because she saw Frannie as an unusually complex woman whose outward persona turns out to be a mask that hides a profound inner vulnerability.
"Frannie is someone who the world has disappointed, who love has disappointed, who has grown smaller and smaller inside," Ryan continues. "But with Detective Malloy, for the first time, she finds herself surprised and even scared of the things he brings out in her. In that sense, IN THE CUT is not just a murder mystery, but a story of two people who become utterly exposed to one another."
For Academy AwardR nominated director Jane Campion, the character of Frannie was the perfect jumping-off point for a story that probes the mercurial nature of desire, exploring all at once its many sides from the idealistic fairy tale to the darkly terrifying to the thrillingly redemptive as passion evolves into the complexity of love. Frannie reminded Campion of Bree Daniels, the hard-edged prostitute at the center of Alan J. Pakula's classic American detective film turned love story, Klute - but a heightened 21st century perspective.
"I saw IN THE CUT as a modern love story within a detective genre that is also a mystery," she says. "It explores the contemporary mythology of love and sex and the effort at union with another person, and it does so amidst all the chaos and energy of the modern city. Frannie is dealing with problems I think many people in today's cities face: issues of sexuality and shame, of lust and fear - the things that just don't seem to behave in any orderly way. These are the things that interest me."
Campion became fascinated by Frannie after reading the best-seller In the Cut, written by Susanna Moore. The novel drew controversy for its unblinking treatment of Frannie's explosive and enigmatic sexual connection with Detective Malloy. Yet it also gained critical acclaim for forging "a masterful thriller" from the never-before-seen perspective of a woman uncovering her own hidden impulses even as she is stalked by a killer unable to control his.
The story leapt off the page as a neo-noir fairy tale, one in which a strong but uncertain woman descends through an alternate dark reality of fear and paranoia and emerges, vanquished but enlivened and ready to love. For Campion, it brought to mind her own feelings that in modern society, romance may have been brutally killed off, but that only leaves more room to explore a truthful love.
Campion comments, "At the beginning of the story, Frannie doesn't really know why she's living her life. It feels dead - safe yet lifeless. The safety she's created for herself feels like a weight. She needs some kind of stimulus, an event to catapult her out of it, and witnessing what she does in the Red Turtle bar is where it all begins. I always saw the story as a kind of 'Alice in Wonderland,' in that Frannie goes down the rabbit hole, or literally down the stairs, and finds herself in a different world, an underworld. Suddenly, this woman for whom words were once everything is transported to a place where words are going to escape her, where words aren't nearly enough."
Nicole Kidman optioned the film rights to In the Cut in 1996 and funded its initial development. Campion and Nicole Kidman brought the novel to producer Laurie Parker, who was equally compelled by the multifaceted, genre-blending story. "I was intrigued by the challenges of the material," says Parker. "In love and sex relationships between men and women, it's difficult to get to the essence, because they happen on so many levels: the psychological, the biological, the imagined, the romantic. So for us, one of the primary tasks was to get at something truly honest between two people in a way most movie love stories never do."
From the start, Parker was undaunted by the story's intensely raw sexual nature. "I see it more as straight-forward than explicit," she says. "Jane's idea was to remove artifice and show people in their passion by just letting it evolve before the camera. You're viewing a love story unfolding the way they really do, in living rooms and bedrooms. It's similar to the way in The Piano that you glimpse things through cracks in doors and walls. But of course, as both Frannie and Malloy are drawn into love, they become more and more alarmed and unsettled by it - Frannie to the point that she becomes convinced that she is in danger - and the intimacy of the filmmaking makes her anxiety feel very visceral."
Campion approached Susanna Moore with her ideas for adapting the novel; the novelist was pleased to collaborate on the screenplay. "I wasn't consciously writing about love when I wrote IN THE CUT," Moore admits, "but I do think it became about that. At first, I mostly wanted to write a noir thriller from a woman's point of view, because it's not usually done, and because I'm also very interested in how women make their way in the world. As I was writing, I began thinking all the time, 'What does it mean to be a female now, in this city, and a woman alone?' I think Jane saw that but more essentially, she also saw it as a story about a woman learning to trust and by trusting, not killing the thing that you love most."
* * *
"Midway along the journey of our life
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
For I had wandered off from the straight path"
- Dante's Inferno
When Meg Ryan read the completed script for IN THE CUT, she found herself pulled into it like a swirling dream or nightmare. "The whole time I was reading the script, I felt like I had no idea what was going to happen next, like I had never been in this world before and yet, just as in a dream, there was something very familiar about it to me," she says. "Somehow, by the end, I felt I really knew who Frannie was. To me, she is like a woman's subconscious inner world come to life. She's a very deep character and the events of this story rock her to her very soul."
Ryan was particularly attracted to how little the character of Frannie seemed to resemble any other character she had ever played or even other female characters she had seen on the screen. "She's just utterly different," the actress notes. "She's not interested in pleasing other people, and she doesn't care who likes her or even what other people think about her. She's just going about her life, trying to live as authentically as possible. She's also an extremely interior person. Normally, I'm used to playing exterior people, so this was almost like doing a silent movie for me. Frannie is very much about what's happening below the surface and that was really interesting. She's also of course highly sexual, and she becomes more sexually and emotionally awakened throughout the story, and that led to work I've never done on screen before."
Key to Ryan's depiction of Frannie was figuring out just what she falls for in Detective Malloy, who at first glance seems to share little in common with a brainy, self-reliant academic. "I love that their relationship is so very unexpected," Ryan says. "They're almost opposite people. She is extremely erudite, raised in boarding schools, and also very literary. He's from the street and he has that quality of dealing in life and death. In a sense, he's about hard realities and she's about poetry."
Ryan spent hour after hour discussing Frannie's inner psyche and debating the issues that her story raises with Jane Campion, a process that yielded even more depth to the character. "Jane was like an atomic bomb going off in my creative life," Ryan comments. "She just completely rearranged my idea of what to expect from a filmmaking experience and how to investigate a character. She's really interested in a very thorough and honest investigation process - understanding on a deep level why a woman would behave in this way, or why these particular events happen to her, or what she would find interesting about this particular man, or what she really believes about love. I think Jane is more interested in pondering these questions than in getting any definitive answer - and that is what makes her such a powerful artist."
Campion found herself particularly impressed with Ryan's courage to go to the very edge and beyond, in this breakout role. "I wanted to see Meg really get a chance to tap her dramatic potential," she says. "I thought she was ready to take a step into the deep and there are so few stories that really give a woman the chance to explore themselves like Frannie does. Meg turned out to be utterly unafraid. Unafraid is a word that sums up Frannie, and it also sums up the way Meg approached the role."
But, Ryan never completely abandoned her innate charm in taking on Frannie's persona. "One of the wonderful things about Meg is that she has real access to being both remote and walled-up and also being very warm and human and emotionally touching," observes Campion. "Frannie keeps everyone out at first but then completely lets you into her experience, and it would have been impossible to create this sense of intimacy and transformation without Meg's ability to explore both."
"Meg does a real metamorphosis for this role," concludes producer Laurie Parker. "We had long been thinking of Jane Fonda in Klute when we were talking about casting, and Meg made that kind of daring, adult quality very much her own."
But if Meg Ryan's Frannie was to tumble through major emotional changes in the heat of the story, the filmmakers knew those changes would have to be facilitated by the actor playing Detective Malloy. From the start, Campion had an entirely intuitive feeling about rising young star Mark Ruffalo, who also is seen in an entirely new and revealing light in IN THE CUT. "I'd seen Mark in You Can Count On Me, and I thought he was a really subtle and interesting actor - there was something very thrilling and personal about his performance," she explains. "It's a very different role from Malloy, and yet he seemed to have this quality that makes people really pay attention to him so I took a leap of faith."
It was a leap of faith Ruffalo himself was uncertain about taking. "When I read the script, Malloy scared the hell out of me," he admits. "I'd never done anything like this before and I wasn't entirely sure I was ready. But Jane saw it in me. She saw this man who had a kind of masculine stillness and a kind of sadness and sexiness to him all at once, and it just became very appealing to me. I had played all these boyish characters before and somewhere in me was this longing to be a man in the world, and not knowing what exactly that is anymore, and Malloy is all of that."
Ruffalo worked closely with Campion, improvising dozens of different accents, voice styles and even postures for the director in numerous improve sessions until they both felt they had found Malloy. To further prepare for the role, Ruffalo headed out on the beat with several different real-life New York City detectives.
"I learned that they drink a lot of bourbon," he jokes. "But really, they invited me into their world with a lot of trust and respect. It's a very difficult job, and it gets very heavy to see that world day in and day out. I began to understand how Malloy, who is so deadened by all the violence and corruption he sees, would be so moved by Frannie's pure spirit. When he says to her 'let's make out like kids,' I think it's really exciting to him because he really doesn't know innocence anymore. As much as their relationship is charged by sex, what he most wants is to have that innocent moment with Frannie. It made me see him as a knight in armor, you know, who wakes up sleeping beauty."
But there is more to Malloy than fairy tales and innocent moments. His character is suffused with a frank masculine sexuality, which Ruffalo also found challenging to embody. "There's no pretense to sex for Malloy," he observes. "There's no dancing around it because he just doesn't have time for that. If he's attracted to a woman and he'd like to have sex with her, he just says it. But since people don't do that very often, it's very jarring, and exciting, for Frannie."
He continues, "Malloy is very confident sexually which was intimidating at first to me. Jane would always say to me, 'No apologies! He doesn't apologize ever!' and I finally discovered there's something very freeing about becoming someone who never apologizes. There's no shame in him at all, no shame about desire or about what turns him on. It's refreshing to me because the rest of us are all walking around like these neurotic, erotic messes and Malloy has no problem with his sexuality."
Beneath even his fervent passion and carnal knowledge, however, there's another layer to Malloy - his anger. Says Ruffalo, "There is a stillness on Malloy's surface, but underneath there's this boiling, raging interior life going on and we don't know what he's up to really, and Frannie certainly doesn't either. It provokes her worst fears about who he really is."
Together, Ruffalo and Ryan had to develop an intimacy rare even in the most romantic of love stories. "We had to let go of all inhibitions and say 'when the camera's rolling, I'm completely in love and living in the moment' and let that carry us," explains Ruffalo. "The rehearsals were very raw, and Jane was always asking a lot from us and it was scary. But Jane creates an atmosphere where she lets it all hang out and the more Meg and I rehearsed, the more the work paid off."
Adds Ryan, "There was a real connection between me and Mark, one of those 'it seems as if we'd always known each other' things, and that is essential when you're going out there on a limb. Mark helped give me the courage to head for the edge."
Another intimate relationship at the heart of IN THE CUT is that between Frannie and her half-sister Pauline, who though far more outgoing than Frannie, is nevertheless equally lonely, flirting with passion by having yet another doomed affair, this time with her married doctor. Pauline is played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, who was drawn to the opportunity to work for the first time with Campion. "I'm a huge Jane Campion fan and her films have always been an inspiration for me," she says. "In fact, my portrait of Georgia [in Ulu Grosbard's film] was based in part on Jane's movie Sweetie. So it was incredible to have a chance to work with her. I also was intrigued by the role of Pauline. There is something very open about her and there's a kind of hopefulness to her that appealed to me."
Campion encouraged Ryan and Leigh to dive into all the contradictions of a sisterly relationship by fully developing both the sister's disparate personalities and their unbreakable bond. "She had us do things like each write on a card what our character's greatest fear was about each other and then compare them, and even more unusual things, like buy each other gifts," Jason Leigh recalls. "We also did a lot of improvisations so the whole process was very unusual and creative and fun."
Says Campion, "When I was casting the role of Pauline, I just thought what a great cool sister Jennifer Jason Leigh would be and I wanted her to play the role pretty much as she is, very close to herself. I love how smart and exquisitely sexy Jennifer is, and I thought it would be really interesting to have a woman with a profound confusion about her identity also be incredibly smart, because the two things are definitely not exclusive."
For the roles of Detective Rodriguez, Malloy's partner who also is attracted to Frannie, and Cornelius, the student with a crush on his teacher, Campion chose to cast two relative newcomers - Nick Damici and Sharrieff Pugh. "These are big roles for both Nick and Sharieff," comments Campion, "and they're both striking in terms of their performances."
She continues, "For Detective Rodriguez, I was looking for someone who could bring something fresh and different to this kind of cop role." She found that quality in Damici, who is a kickboxing instructor and trainer as well as an actor, after being given his name by The Piano star Harvey Keitel. "Nick is just so old New York," Campion says. "And he's also very hard to read. There's a real sense of mystery about him and that is intriguing for Rodriguez, and I also love that he sings so tenderly and well - it's him singing in the closing credits."
As for casting Sharrieff Pugh, Campion says she wanted a rare contrast. "I liked Sharrieff because he's such a big guy, with a physique like a boxer, and he can be really scary but, at the same time, he's so sweet, expressive and sort of irresistible. You can understand Frannie taking an interest in him as a student."
Rounding out the cast is Kevin Bacon, adding another entirely different character to his diverse roster of film roles, with John Graham - Meg Ryan's insecure ex-boyfriend who follows her around in a way that becomes increasingly menacing in light of a string of local murders.
"I like this character because he gives you a chance to see somebody progressively unraveling," says Bacon. "He's basically having a breakdown, and he's feeling this tremendous amount of pressure, and unfortunately, Frannie happens to be in the middle of his world when this happens. The character is the perfect example of a smaller role with a lot of depth. I don't always want to be the lead guy or the hero of the story. So John Graham gave me a chance to do a lot of things in a short space - he goes from being amusing to frightening in a very intense period of time - and I became an actor in order to take on these kind of challenges."
Bacon was also excited to work with Ryan. "It's always a great opportunity when you get to be obsessed with Meg Ryan," he notes. "And it was a real thrill to see her embody this part in a way that no one, including myself, has ever seen her before. It was a lot of fun, and inspiring to watch."
Campion was moved by Bacon's emotionally labile performance, and by his creative contributions, such as suggesting Graham walk around the city in his hospital scrubs. "Kevin is so subtle and clever with what he does that you see John Graham as someone who could either be very scary or someone who's just innocently off the mark and bit needy. I think he also gets to the idea that John Graham is in us all. It's the part of us that gets all paranoid and cloying and we can't control it. I think we've all gone there, and Kevin had the idea to make him this guy who turns up in his hospital scrubs like they're a costume."
All of the actors were surprised and pushed to new limits by Jane Campion's extensive rehearsal procedures, replete with exercises and psychological inquiries. Campion sees it as an essential part of getting actors to reach deeper inside. "The exercises, the research, the attention I offer and ask for in return is important but there's something else going on that, for me, is the most important aspect of working with actors," she explains. "To me it's all about the exercise of trust. Everything else is just a big distraction unless you have that. Especially on this film. Somehow we had to get to a place where the actors were comfortable and felt really safe - safe enough to dive off the edge."
* * *
"Come at last to this point/
I look back on my passion/
And realize that I/
Have been like a blind man/
Who is unafraid of the dark."
- Yosana Akiko
The look of IN THE CUT emerges from the tradition of the gritty, independent-minded, emotionally-charged dramas and thrillers that distinguished US filmmaking in the 1970s. From the very beginning, Campion wanted to capture the kind of intensely atmospheric visuals that made those films so memorable and human, adding her own
distinctive, contemporary touches to the style. "You have to acknowledge that the brilliant films of the 70s sort of redefined the genre of noir films," says Campion. "And this is my personal interpretation of the genre."
A major touchstone for the filmmakers was Klute. "We used Klute as a key visual reference point for IN THE CUT because it's a great iconic film that also melds a love story and a mystery together just like IN THE CUT," says Campion. "It's also one of my favorite films and every time I see it I wonder - why aren't people making more love story-mystery-detective dramas?"
Other films Campion watched as a prelude to making IN THE CUT include Taxi Driver, which Campion notes for its poetic urban realism, and The French Connection, the film that turned the adrenaline of the police procedure into a major cinematic addiction. She also researched the classic noir films of the 40s with their femme fatales and starkly defined shadows.
To heighten the realism further, Campion relied on extensive research. "The goal was to infuse the film with reality, so we employed and interviewed a lot of professional consultants: poetry professors, creative writing students who write in street slang, NYPD homocide detectives, strippers and their patrons, transvestite bouncers, sex workers, sex experts," explains Laurie Parker. "We researched everything to the nth degree, we did not control the streets, we used real people whenever possible, all of which, by the time you get it on camera, gives it a real specificity and believability."
Ultimately, Campion used New York City as her primary inspiration, choosing to shoot in the heart of the city, rather than use a stand-in. "The whole of the lower half of Manhattan, where the story is set, is so full of life, and things are happening there all the time and that led to this idea that everything we see and hear down there is all part of our story," she says.
Campion moved the story from the West Village locale of the novel to the funkier East Village. "The East Village has this kind of hand-made feeling to it," she observes. "It's full of efforts to create a little bit of beauty and nature in the middle of the city, and I just think that's the kind of place Frannie would live."
"There was a sense of tragedy and despair and uncertainty downtown when we were filming that was not unlike the vision of the world in film noir," comments Laurie Parker. "It became part of the poetic landscape of our story that hadn't ever, obviously, existed before."
In shooting that landscape, Campion worked with Director of Photography Dion Beebe, ACS to mix raw realism with a more poetic sensibility. She also encouraged production designer David Brisbin to develop a surprising scheme of light, ephemeral colors and textures, in order to achieve an original look that radically alters the typical dark, heavy constructs of thrillers.
"Despite the fact that the story of IN THE CUT explores so many dark edges, it's really an awakening, a love story, so we wanted the primary feeling of the film to be sensual," says Campion. "We wanted it to be rife with the sensuality of a hot summer, the feeling of bodies sweating on the street, finding one another. I guess you could say it's not the cold noir you would have seen in the 40s or 70s. It's a hot noir."
* * *
ABOUT THE CAST
MEG RYAN (Frannie Avery), who is renowned for her ineffable charm in a career that has spanned a wide variety of both dramatic and comedic roles, delivers her grittiest, most exposed role to date with IN THE CUT. Most recently, she starred with Hugh Jackman in the romantic comedy Kate & Leopold, and she'll next be seen in Against the Ropes as a female boxing promoter opposite Omar Epps.
Her recent roles include Proof of Life opposite Russell Crowe; Diane Keaton's comedy Hanging Up; Nora Ephron's romance You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks, which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination; and Anthony Drazan's searing independent film version of Hurlyburly, featuring Sean Penn, Chazz Palminteri, Garry Shandling, Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright Penn.
Ryan's comedic appeal was widely recognized in her Golden Globe nominated performance as Sally Allbright in When Harry Met Sally, directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron. She went on to star in Nora Ephron's hit romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle opposite Tom Hanks, which earned Ryan another Golden Globe nomination.
Acclaim also has come to Ryan for several distinctive dramas, including her role as the first military woman nominated for a Medal of Honor in Courage Under Fire, co-starring Denzel Washington and directed by Ed Zwick; and her portrayal of a woman with a drinking problem in Luis Mandoki's When a Man Loves a Woman with Andy Garcia. For her performance opposite Kiefer Sutherland in the Sundance Institute's Promised Land, she earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination.
Ryan has starred opposite Nicolas Cage in City of Angels, with Matthew Broderick in Addicted to Love and alongside Kevin Kline in French Kiss. Her additional film credits include I.Q., Anastasia, Innerspace, D.O.A., The Presidio, Joe Versus the Volcano, The Doors, Prelude to a Kiss, Flesh and Bone and Restoration.
A native of Fairfield, Conn., Ryan embarked on her acting career after studying journalism at New York University. She made her motion picture debut as Candice Bergen's daughter in Rich and Famous, and attracted the attention of moviegoers and critics in her 1986 performance as a fighter pilot's wife in Top Gun.
Ryan resides in Los Angeles.
MARK RUFFALO (Detective Malloy) won the Best Actor Award at the 2000 Montreal Film Festival and the New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for his standout performance in Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me opposite Laura Linney and Matthew Broderick. The film, which won both the coveted Grand Jury Prize for best dramatic film and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival, also garnered Ruffalo an Independent Spirit Award nomination.
Considered one of the rising stars of his generation, Ruffalo most recently was seen in the comedy View From The Top with Gwyneth Paltrow; John Woo's Windtalkers opposite Nicolas Cage; The Last Castle, starring Robert Redford; and the independent feature XX/YY. Next up for Ruffalo is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind directed by Michael Gondry, written by Charlie Kaufman and starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and Kirsten Dunst; and My Life Without Me, with Sarah Polley and produced by Pedro Almodóvar. He just completed production on the independent film We Don't Live Here Anymore opposite Naomi Watts and the romantic comedy 13 Going On 30, in which he stars with Jennifer Garner.
Among Ruffalo's other feature film credits are Lisa Kreuger's Committed with Heather Graham, Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil and 54. His independent films include Joan Micklin Silver's A Fish in the Bathtub, Life/Drawing and Safe Men. Additionally, he wrote and co-starred in The Destiny of Marty Fine, which was the first runner up at the 1995 Slamdance Film Festival. On television, Ruffalo starred in The Beat, created by Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana.
Ruffalo first gained attention starring in the critically acclaimed off-Broadway production of This is Our Youth written by Kenneth Lonergan, for which he garnered a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actor. He has won numerous awards for his theatrical performances, including a Dramalogue Award and a Theater World Award. He recently made a return to the stage in the off-Broadway production The Moment When, a new play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner James Lapine. In addition to acting, he has directed several plays, including Margaret at the Hudson Backstage Theater in Los Angeles.
Ruffalo resides in New York and Los Angeles.
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH (Pauline) has demonstrated a propensity for immersing herself completely, both physically and psychologically, in a broad range of roles. She made her directorial debut with The Anniversary Party, in which she also starred with an ensemble cast, including Alan Cumming, Jennifer Beals, Kevin Kline, Gwyneth Paltrow and John C. Reilly. For the film, Leigh received a citation for Excellence in Filmmaking from The National Board of Review and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.
Leigh first came to prominence in 1990, winning both The New York Times Film Critics Circle and The Boston Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Last Exit To Brooklyn and Miami Blues. She went on to star in Short Cuts, Kansas City and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics and Chicago Film Critics for Best Actress and also received Best Actress nominations from the Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Awards. Leigh next produced and starred in Georgia, garnering the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the Montreal Film Festival Award for Best Actress.
Most recently, she had a starring role in The Road To Perdition, opposite Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Jude Law. In 2001, Leigh starred in the The King Is Alive, for which she won Best Actress as the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Her additional film credits include eXistenZ, Washington Square, the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy, Dolores Claiborne opposite Kathy Bates, Single White Female, Rush and A Thousand Acres with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange.
Leigh starred on Broadway in David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof. In addition, she has performed in Picnic at the Ahmanson Theater, Sunshine with the Circle Repertory and Cabaret on Broadway, playing Sally Bowles.
KEVIN BACON (John Graham) has built a widely varied and critically acclaimed body of work spanning genres from action thrillers to romantic comedies to dramas. Bacon next will be seen in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, starring with Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney. His most recent roles include Trapped, Hollow Man, Stir of Echoes, My Dog Skip, Timothy Hutton's Digging to China, Wild Things, Picture Perfect and Telling Lies in America.
An accomplished stage actor, Bacon recently starred on Broadway in An Almost Holy Picture, a one-man play written by Heather McDonald. The actor received stellar reviews for his emotional portrayal of Samuel Gentle, an Episcopal priest turned church groundskeeper whose daughter is ostracized by a rare disease.
Bacon began his career as the youngest student at Circle in the Square Theatre in New York where he studied until making his film debut in National Lampoon's Animal House. This led to roles in Diner and Footloose, the latter of which propelled him to stardom. He went on to star in John Hughes' She's Having a Baby, Criminal Law, The Big Picture and Tremors. His first animated feature film was as the lead voice of the title character in Steven Spielberg's Balto.
Some of his most acclaimed work includes his roles in Oliver Stone's JFK, Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men, Ron Howard's Apollo 13 and Barry Levinson's Sleepers. For his role in Murder in the First, Bacon was voted Best Actor by The Broadcast Film Critics Association and received Best Supporting Actor nominations from both The Screen Actors Guild and the London Film Critics Circle. In 1994, Bacon was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his work in The River Wild, co-starring Meryl Streep.
In 1996, he turned to directing with Losing Chase, featuring his wife Kyra Sedgwick, Beau Bridges and Helen Mirren. Produced for Showtime, the film was honored with three Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture made for Television.
Bacon's stage work includes such off-Broadway productions as Album, Poor Little Lambs and Getting Out. He made his Broadway debut in 1983 with Sean Penn in Slab Boys, and starred in the 1986 production of Joe Orton's Loot as well as Theresa Rebeck's comedy Spike Heels. With his older brother Michael, Bacon is the other half of The Bacon Brothers, a successful band with a sound that he describes as "Forosoco" - folk, rock, soul and country, which is also the title of their first album. Already highly regarded and hugely successful on the national club circuit, they just released their third CD "Can't Complain."
Bacon resides in New York.
NICK DAMICI (Detective Rodriguez) has worked in independent films, television and theatre. His film credits include Fast Horses, which he also wrote, Forever the Hurricane, Chamber Music, First We Take Manhattan, East Side Story, All My Yesterdays, Elements and Harry & Micky. He has appeared on the television series Law & Order and starred in two television adaptations of the classic plays Of Mice and Men and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
On the New York stage, Damici has appeared in Fast Horses at the Circle in the Square Theatre; productions of Johnny Angel and Burn This at the Cubiculo Theatre; Edward Albee's Zoo Story at the Houston Street Theatre; So Long Sal at the 29th Street Theatre; and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Alish Theatre. An accomplished boxer, Damici teachers the sport to others and included in his clientele are various members of the acting community.
SHARRIEFF PUGH (Cornelius) is a rising young actor whose credits include Copland, starring Sylvester Stallone, Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel, Trigger Happy, A Bronx Tale and Night and City, which starred DeNiro and was produced by Tribeca Productions. In addition, he has appeared in The Pickle with Danny Aiello and The Hard Way, starring Michael J. Fox and James Woods. On television, Pugh has guest starred in numerous series, including Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Third Watch. On stage, Pugh has appeared in All American at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center National Playwright's Conference and A Soulful Scream of a Chosen Son at the Vineyard Theatre.
Pugh proudly hails from Newark, NJ.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
JANE CAMPION (Director/Screenwriter), born in New Zealand and working between Australia and New Zealand, won international renown for her critically acclaimed film The Piano, which starred Holly Hunter, Sam Neill and Harvey Keitel. The film received more than 30 international awards, including the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, nine Academy AwardR nominations and three OscarsR, including Best Screenplay for Campion. In addition, Campion received awards for Best Director from The New York Film Critics Circle, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Australian Film Critics. She also received nominations as Best Director from the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA and Great Britain's Guild of Regional Film Writers. The film also won Best Picture from the Australian Film Institute.
More recently, Campion directed and co-wrote with her sister Anna, Holy Smoke, starring Harvey Keitel and Kate Winslet. In 1996, Campion directed Portrait of a Lady based on the Henry James novel with Nicole Kidman as the lead actor. The film was screened at the Venice Film Festival, was nominated for two Academy AwardsR and garnered the Francesco Pasinetti Award for Best Film by the National Union of Film Journalists.
Campion graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand then pursued a Diploma of Fine Arts at Chelsea School of Arts in London, completing her studies at Sydney College of Arts where she majored in painting. Subsequently, Campion decided to study film at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney.
She made her directorial debut with the short film Peel, which auspiciously went on to win the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She directed numerous award-winning short films before making her feature debut with Sweetie, which premiered in competition at Cannes. The film, a striking and original portrait of a troubled family, won the George Sadoul Prize in 1989 for Best Foreign Film, the Los Angeles Film Critics' New Generation Award, the American Spirit of Independence Award for Best Foreign Feature and the Australian Critics Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress.
Campion followed this with An Angel At My Table, an epic dramatization of the searingly emotional autobiography of author Janet Frame. The film had its premiere at The Venice Film Festival in 1990 where it won seven prizes, including The Silver Lion. It won the American Spirit of Independence Award, garnered prizes at the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals and was voted most popular film at the 1990 Sydney Film Festival.
Other honors and awards Campion has received for her talent include the Byron Kennedy Award for excellence and contribution to Australian cinema, Hollywood's Women in Film Icon Award, an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Victoria University of Wellington and a 2001 WIN Award at the Winfemme Film Festival, USA.
Campion lives in Sydney with her nine-year-old horse-crazy daughter, Alice.
LAURIE PARKER (Producer/Music Supervisor) has worked on many critically acclaimed independent films as both a producer and a production executive. She has collaborated with Gus Van Sant on Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. As an independent film producer, her credits include Mark Peploe's Afraid of the Dark, Michael Tolkin's The Rapture and Claire Peploe's Rough Magic.
Parker began her entertainment career as a teenager, performing in a traveling circus as a fire-eater and magician. She then joined a theatre company and worked across the southern U.S. from Mobile to San Antonio, settling in San Francisco where she studied dance and choreography and worked as a nightclub magician. After studying acting and directing at UC Berkeley, she worked at the Pacific Film Archive, managed a repertory cinema in the Mission District and then transferred to San Francisco State to study theatre and film production.
Parker acted in and directed plays for several years at local San Francisco and Berkeley theatres before moving to Los Angeles to work for the legendary theatre director Jose Quintero. After furthering her study of film at UCLA, her first industry job was at the Samuel Goldwyn Company, where she worked for Jeff Lipsky on the theatrical distribution of Stranger Than Paradise and Another Time, Another Place, among other features. Parker then went to work at Island Alive, where she was involved in the acquisition and distribution of Down By Law, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Mona Lisa and Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It. In London, she worked for Island on the productions of Francesco Rosi's Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Nikita Mikhailkov's Dark Eyes. A few years later, Parker joined Avenue Entertainment and was production executive for Drugstore Cowboy.
Following several years as an independent producer, Parker was hired by Warner Bros. to run Tim Burton Productions. There, she oversaw the development and animation production of Mars Attacks! and developed several other films before returning to independent production.
Born in Hawaii and raised in Australia, NICOLE KIDMAN (Producer) first came to the attention of American audiences with her critically acclaimed performance in the riveting psychological thriller Dead Calm. Since then, Kidman has earned the accolades of audiences and critics everywhere.
She achieved Hollywood's highest honor at the 2003 Academy AwardsR by winning Best Actress for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's feature adaptation of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Hours, also starring Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. In addition, she received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress and the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Recently, Kidman starred in Lars Von Trier's provocative independent feature Dogville with Chloe Sevigny, Jeremy Davies, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall and Stellan Skarsgard. She completed production on Birth opposite Lauren Bacall and Danny Huston for director Jonathan Glazer. Later this year, Kidman will be seen in Cold Mountain directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Renee Zellwegger, Natalie Portman and Jude Law, and Robert Benton's The Human Stain with Anthony Hopkins, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris.
For her performances in Baz Luhrmann's musical feature Moulin Rouge and in Alejandro Amenabar's psychological thriller The Others, Kidman received dual Golden Globe Award nominations as Best Actress in a Musical and Best Actress in a Drama, winning for the musical. Moulin Rouge also earned Kidman a London Critics Circle Best Actress Award and an Oscar nomination.
In addition, her feature film credits include Gus Van Sant's To Die For, Days of Thunder, Billy Bathgate, Malice, My Life, Ron Howard's Far and Away and Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever. Kidman has starred in such films as Jez Butterworth's Birthday Girl, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut opposite Tom Cruise, The Peacemaker opposite George Clooney and Jane Campion's Portrait of a Lady with John Malkovich. She made her stage debut in 1998 in London, starring with Iain Glenn in The Blue Room, for which Kidman was nominated in the Best Actress category for a Laurence Olivier Award. The play moved to Broadway for a sold-out, limited run from November 1998 through March 1999.
SUSANNA MOORE's (Screenwriter/Author) first novel, My Old Sweetheart, was published in 1983 and won both the PEN/Hemingway Prize and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She followed with two more novels, The Whiteness of Bones and Sleeping Beauties. She garnered controversy for the noir intensity of In the Cut published in 1995. In 2001, Moore received a prize for Achievement in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
A book of nonfiction, I Myself Have Seen It, was published this spring. Her fifth novel, One Last Look, set in Calcutta, will be published by Knopf in September.
Moore resides in New York.
DION BEEBE, ACS (Director of Photography) most recently shot the OscarR-winning musical Chicago, starring Richard Gere, Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, for which he received an Academy AwardR nomination for Best Cinematography. Beebe first teamed up with director Jane Campion on Holy Smoke. Other recent film credits include Gillian Armstrong's Charlotte Gray and Kurt Wimmer's Equilibrium.
Beebe has been recognized by the Australian Cinematographers Society three times, winning the Award of Distinction for the feature films Praise and the documentary The Journey and the Golden Tripod award for the short film Down Rusty Down. In 1995, he won the Australian Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Cinematography for What I Have Written, and has twice been nominated by the Australian Film Institute for his cinematography on Praise and What I Have Written. In addition, he received Taiwan's Golden Horse nomination for the feature Floating Life directed by Claire Law.
Beebe's documentary work includes One Hundred Years of Cinema directed by George Miller and Eternity directed by Lawrence Johnston, which won the Australian Film Institute Award. He has worked extensively in Australian television, and for American television, he shot Showtime's My Own Country directed by Mira Nair.
"Academy Award(R)" and "Oscar(R)" are the registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
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