{"id":7524,"date":"2010-09-28T03:45:28","date_gmt":"2010-09-28T10:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=7524"},"modified":"2010-10-02T13:44:36","modified_gmt":"2010-10-02T20:44:36","slug":"haifa-iff-2010-paul-giamatti-and-robert-lantos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=7524","title":{"rendered":"Haifa IFF 2010: Paul Giamatti and Robert Lantos"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Robert Lantos, Paul Giamatti, David D'Arcy\/Photo: Hagai Aharon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0\u201cYeah, he\u2019s a jerk,\u201d says actor Paul Giamatti of Barney Panofsky, the picaresque Jewish anti-hero he portrays in Barney\u2019s Version<\/em><\/strong>, producer Robert Lantos adaptation of the novel by Canadian author Mordechai Richler. Giamatti and Lantos have accompanied the film to the Haifa International Film Festival 2010, where they met with the press in the garden of the cinematheque. Responding to questions with blunt candor, a piercing gaze, and casual demeanor, Giamatti\u2019s mix of eloquence and quirky humor make it easy to see how he imbues Barney with an irresistible appeal.<\/p>\n

Life takes Barney from one absurd adventure to another, as he blunders through relationships with three very different wives (Rachelle Lefevre, Minnie Driver, and the exquisite Rosamund Pike), with Dustin Hoffman as his bizarre but loving ex-cop father, and Scott Speedman as his free-spirited best friend. \u201cI like playing the character because he\u2019s nothing like me,\u201d said Giamatti, \u201che\u2019s kind of aggressive and passionate and I\u2019m boring and sedate. I don\u2019t see a whole lot of similarities and I don\u2019t want to – he\u2019s not the nicest guy in the world.\u201d Yet, following Barney over the course of his tumultuous life, one cannot help but become intensely involved with Barney and his story.<\/p>\n

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Robert Lantos, Paul Giamatti and David D'Arcy\/Photo: Hagai Aharon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The film is a project born of a long-standing relationship \u2013 the friendship between producer Lantos and novelist Richler. It is the second adaptation of a Richler novel for Lantos who produced Joshua Then and Now in 1985. \u201cThe original plan was for him to write the screenplay,\u201d said Lantos, but Richler died before he could write the screenplay. The adaptation went through five different writers, and reached completion, according to Lantos, because the last one, Michael Konyves, \u201cignored everything that I said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the difficulty was due to the epic length of the novel. \u201cIt was twelve years of torture,\u201d said Lantos, \u201cone by one, things I loved [from the novel] had to go. The first cut of the film was three hours long.\u201d In editing the film, \u201c50 minutes of wonderful gems\u201d ended up on the cutting room floor, which will, perhaps eventually find a place on the DVD version.<\/p>\n

Although Lantos says that Barney\u2019s Version is \u201cabout people who happen to be Jewish but it\u2019s not a Jewish film,\u201d the process of making the film had at least one characteristic Jewish aspect \u2013 where there are two Jews, you will have at least three opinions. Lantos shared with the press the film\u2019s \u201cJewish existential crisis\u201d: In the scene where Paul and Dustin go to visit the wife\u2019s grave\u2026there was a big debate about whether kippah\u2019s should be worn or not. We didn\u2019t all agree – secular Jews who don\u2019t go to synagogue, and are not religious, would they wear a kippah or not at a cemetery?\u201d<\/p>\n

Giamatti said, \u201cDustin and I didn\u2019 t think they would be wearing the kippahs, at least I was pretty sure that I wouldn\u2019t be, I didn\u2019t want to speak for him but\u00a0 he didn\u2019t think that he would be wearing one either.\u201d<\/p>\n

They decided to resolve the dilemma by going the traditional route: consulting a rabbi. Or rather, several rabbis: \u201cFor about an hour and a half we called certain rabbis all over North America.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Robert Lantos\/Photo: Hagai Aharon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe first rabbi,\u201d said Lantos, \u201cwas the rabbi I called and he said for sure you have to wear a kippah in a cemetery. It\u2019s religion and your mother\u2019s grave. Paul said that wasn\u2019t necessarily the final answer and Dustin wasn\u2019t sure either and wanted to call his rabbi in Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

They decided that they were not going to tell the rabbi who believes what, in order \u201cnot to prejudice the answer,\u201d recounts Lantos, \u201cand we put him on speakerphone. We said we have a private situation in a Jewish cemetery with his wife, his mother.\u201d After they described the scene, the rabbi said that in his opinion kippahs should be worn. Lantos continued, \u201cDustin wasn\u2019t really sure it was the answer he wanted and it wasn\u2019t the answer Paul wanted. Dustin said, but you know rabbi he\u2019s standing at his wife\u2019s grave but he sees a girl at the next grave and she\u2019s wearing a mini skirt and he\u2019s really looking at her legs and his next line of dialogue is \u2018I really need to get laid\u2019. You really think I should be wearing a kippah? Well [said the rabbi] in that case it could be either way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the producer has the final word, Lantos concluded the story: \u201cSo I said ok, don\u2019t wear a kippah I can always put it on in post-production or CGI and you\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Robert Lantos and Paul Giamatti\/Photo: Hagai Aharon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through all the ups and downs of Barney\u2019s destiny, there is a sense of fun throughout the film, and even some in-jokes. Barney is a producer of what Lantos described as \u201cschlock TV programs\u201d and he cast prominent Canadian directors Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg as the directors of those low-level flics. Said Lantos, \u201cIt was nice to have fun, it was my own way of indulging myself.\u201d He told Egoyan and Kronenberg \u201cWe\u2019re gonna make fun of you and do what you\u2019re told.\u201d Added Giamatti, \u201cIt was nice to be able to tell those guys to go to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giamatti is a versatile actor who has portrayed different characters, both fictional and real, imparting a memorable presence in each performance. Initially a theatre actor, he recalled his first screen role as a stage hand, and described the odd feeling of film\u2019s realism as opposed to the theatre when he realized he had to literally brush a real horse rather than creating the feeling of the moment. In comparing different roles, he said he is open to all types of films \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m happy to do anything\u201d \u2013 even acting in front of a blue screen, which, in its reliance on the imagination he compares to the theatre, saying it \u201cfeels like you\u2019re on stage again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lantos, Giamatti and D'Arcy onstage, surrounded by journalists\/Photo: Hagai Aharon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0AYELET DEKEL<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cYeah, he\u2019s a jerk,\u201d says actor Paul Giamatti of Barney Panofsky, the picaresque Jewish anti-hero he portrays in Barney\u2019s Version, producer Robert Lantos adaptation of the novel by Canadian author Mordechai Richler. Giamatti and Lantos have accompanied the film to the Haifa International Film Festival 2010, where they met with the press in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}