Robyn Candyce
In his directorial debut, writer Hossein Amini (Jude 1996, and “The Four Feathers”, 2002) brings an old-fashioned tale of murder and intrigue to the screen. Set in the 1960s, ”The Two Faces of January” (adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name) tells the story of Chester (Viggo Mortensen) and Colette MacFarland (Kirsten Dunst), a wealthy and seemingly perfect couple visiting Greece; and a small-time con artist named Rydal (Oscar Isaac) who acts as their tour guide for one night.
Everything is going smoothly until Chester requests Rydal’s help in moving the body of an ostensibly unconscious man he claims he had to defend himself against. At that moment, secrets about the MacFarlands begin to surface, and the trio, now relying on each other for survival, begins to fall apart.
In June, when the film opened in Australia, Moviehole’s Mandy Griffiths caught up with Hossein for an interview. Last week in New York, I caught up with him again, for some additional information about the film. Also in attendance were Kirsten and Viggo, who I was able to sit down with as well.
Talk about fate and fatalism.
Hossein: In a way, mythology plays a very important part, and I think there is a reason she sets it in Greece. The triangle of Theseus, the Minotaur and Ariadne, I think it’s very much reflected. I don’t think it’s an accident she has the big scene in the labyrinth where the Minotaur is mythically supposed to lean. There is this sort of mythological underpinning to this story, and I think she’s also interested in it as a kind of Greek tragedy, that you have these characters who appear gold and at the beginning, they are almost like a “Fitzgerald” couple who are beautifully dressed – and, you know, look beautiful – and then whether it’s the Fates, or destiny, or the Greek gods, something begins to conspire against them and tries to destroy them.
That’s one of the things that I found fascinating about the novel; there’s no real outside, there are no baddies that are trying to kill them; there’s people chasing them, but you never see them. It’s really about the damage that they inflict on each other as characters, and the “cruel tricks gods play on men,” which is a line at the beginning – that they are the victims of circumstance – and I think they are very unlucky. It’s an element of Greek tragedy, which has always been there.
I’d love it if you could talk a little bit about Chester and Colette.
Viggo: I like how they’re messy in their behavior sometimes and how everything is really expertly written; it’s a great adaptation. It’s one of those rare instances where the movie is not only up to the book, but is probably better than the book, in terms of the characters; they are more layered. You have somewhere to start and somewhere to go to in the movie with them, and for us as actors, because in the book you know Colette is kind of vapid, so there’s not much there. She’s an opportunist. She doesn’t really have feelings; you know she’s a little bit slutty.
Kirsten: Yeah, she’s a little bit of a floozy in the book, you know, money and sex.
Viggo: Anything that moves. But even the way she does that isn’t very interesting in the book. Chester is kind of a slob, all sweaty and paranoid; he’s crazy from the start, really. Doesn’t give you anything – you’re starting at 60 instead of starting at zero and building up. It’s great, these kind of stories that she writes, Highsmith, it lets you have secrets. It lets you have an inner world; you don’t have to make it up for yourself because it’s all right there.
Is there a fickleness to Colette?
Kirsten: Look, you’ve got to love the people you play. I don’t look at this and go, “She’s fickle.” Every move she makes is a feeling that I think is, yes, like servicing her in some way sometimes, because she has to protect herself. But also, I do think she loves her husband and [she does], even though he does start to push her away and [this] reveals things in her character, ugly things that she hasn’t really come into contact with.
Why do you think she stays with him?
Kirsten: I think that, first of all, she has no choice in the film. I mean, they’re already on the lamb. You don’t know in the beginning what their whole situation is. I mean, she’s kind of stuck with him; what is she going do? She’s been lying about things too, and turning a blind eye, but also going along with it. I think it was also a time where you didn’t question your husband as much. You’re just making the money and you have to do it. Also the big secret is too, what happened in the beginning of the film? Like, [she doesn’t] understand what really went down. So that’s another thing, and as soon as [she] realizes that is when I think [she does] turn, but [she doesn’t] have a choice. [She’s] already attached to him and this whole thing.
Going back to the book [Hossein], were there things you had to change from Highsmith to make it into a movie?
Hossein: The biggest change I made was that the ending of the book is in Paris, and I felt that these characters should be getting further and further away from America, which is where they start off, which is their place of comfort. So I thought that getting back to Paris was like a step back towards America, and the reason I changed that to Istanbul was because I wanted them to get further and further away from home; and further and further away from the lives they built for themselves. So that was the biggest change.
You said that without the support of Viggo that you wouldn’t have been able to do this film. Can you elaborate on that?
Hossein: Certainly. I just tried for so long and just couldn’t get anyone to finance the movie or be interested in kind of, you know, exploring it, and the moment Viggo read the script and was interested in doing it; it’s amazing how suddenly people start kind of saying, “Oh, well we’re interested in doing it,” because if it’s a business decision then they can. Suddenly, there’s foreign sales and they can sell the idea. It suddenly [went] from “this is too dark,” “the characters are [too] unlikable and complicated,”- it was suddenly, “Well it’s Viggo.”
Now as a follow-up on the subject of financing, you couldn’t get Oscar Isaac at first because he had only done Drive and you wouldn’t have been able to get proper financing with him in the role. Then he was cast in Llewyn Davis, and his career blew up, and you were able to get him. How was that for you as an achievement, because you were able to get the actor you originally wanted?
Hossein: He was probably the first person I did have in mind just because he is such an extraordinary actor, and we couldn’t get it financed with him. Then as soon as he got that part –so I really had nothing to do with it – it’s the fact that he got cast as Llewyn Davis. Again, it was a situation where finances said, “Can you still get him?” I was sort of like, “You know, you liked the script a year and a half ago, are you still interested?” He was. That’s how that happened.
Greece is such a magical place. How did it fuel your creative juices while you were there? What was that atmosphere like for you when you weren’t shooting?
Kirsten: We walked to work from our hotel that most of us would stay in. Everything was in very close proximity to each other. If I got done early from work I’d go swimming in the sea. I mean, we would take a little cab to the local beach and it was just so nice. It was such a luxury. I haven’t really shot a movie where it felt like this could be a vacation. I think this is the only movie I’ve done where it’s been like that. Now I know why Adam Sandler does every movie he does in a different vacation spot. It’s like I’ve got to get in one of these movies.
Viggo: When I read the script – ‘cause that’s what was described, these places that we then went and filmed in – it read like one of those great old movies from the ’50s or early ’60s. You know, you could see that kind of color, you could imagine that, and it felt like an adventure that we are going to go on; in terms of not only what the story’s about but the kind of shoot we were going to have. You know the kind of movies they don’t make very often anymore, and they don’t make them in that way. You don’t have to make believe anything about where we were. It’s when you come across a smart script that has smart characters, smart story with great dialogue, and great character relationships, it’s that much more fun to play.
Now that you’ve directed, how would you describe the function of the screenplay?
Hossein: One of the things that’s very different now having directed is [that] I think if you shoot a screen play exactly as written it’s a disaster. I think if you don’t allow the fluidity of the process, and what everyone else brings to it, and the life that happens on a film set, and the accidents and all of that, it can just become very, very stillborn. It just doesn’t come to life and that’s where, now as a writer, if someone says, “I just shot your script exactly,” in a way I’d be terrified, because I think it’s so limited – a script – in a sense; it’s just one person’s imagination. The great thing about a film is you’ve got so many different people who can add to [it], chiefly the actors who can suddenly turn two dimensional things on a page into three dimensional characters just by bringing so much [of] themselves to a part.
Even though this is the first directing attempt for Hossein, you never feel that this is his first time. Could you talk about your collaboration with him, how he tried to direct you?
Viggo: Well, he used a lot of common sense. He’s a very intelligent man, and as you saw I’m sure you realize he’s a gentleman. He’s well spoken, he’s thoughtful and patient. I mean, he’s a guy who waits 20 years to make a movie. He has patience, and he’s smart because he learned with his experience on sets, and watching very different kinds of directors working on his scripts, and working with actors. He took his best of that – in his opinion – and found a formula as far as preparation and the way of working from day to day that was practical. We moved around a lot. It was a tight schedule. We met a month before and it was really helpful. He got the three of us together so we got to know each other a little bit and so we could already start having the shorthand by the time we started filming. A lot of times you’re just thrown together with people you don’t know. You do your best and it usually works out, but it’s much better if you know each other. It allowed him to hear any doubts, questions, thoughts on the script, so he went back and he worked on it some more.
The character work for this, I’m assuming, was pretty intensive. What is something you can tell me about the characters off-screen that we don’t necessarily get to see on-screen, which could help us understand the characters, and help us understand why you portrayed the roles the way you portrayed them?
Viggo: One thing that I did – just because it’s interesting – I love that process before you start shooting, because the filming-the-movie experience, the shooting of the movie itself, doesn’t turn out to be the movie you thought it might be. The period before, there’s no limit. You can read as much as you want, think as many thoughts, make as many notes; ask as many questions, and then you have to put those aside and sit face to face with other actors and listen to the director and they say action, and you’ve got to be there and just assume that the most useful is in you, is part of you somehow. I love that period because that’s always good – that’s never bad. It’s like a chance to learn how, which I think is my job, to see the world from a point of view different than mine.
In this case, one thing that you don’t see is who I spoke to. People of my dad’s generation – the ones that are left – people like that who were in World War II, the Army, the Marines. I asked some of them about some of the terminology we used in the script, but also just, “What was it like?” And then I looked at photographs and documentaries; men of that time – and women – you know, people who grew up in the depression – as little kids in the Great Depression – and then through World War II and you know, they were kind of resilient; they had to be.
There was a certain toughness, and also – you know it still is for women, but it’s different with men now – presentation; it was more uniformity. Like even a working class guy, if he had one jacket he’d wear it to work. And the haircut … there was something about presentation that was important. Even though it’s part of Chester’s con a little bit, it’s also who he is, I think. Because when he’s really sloppy and drunk, he kind of makes an effort to put himself together for [Colette], but also for himself because it’s part of who he is; because his identity is very tied in to his presentation.
Why set this film in the 1960s? Did it ever cross your mind to change the setting to the present, that it might relate more to moviegoers?
Hossein: It did, but I think it’s impossible because of the whole idea of trying to find people now is very easy. I think thrillers are generally much harder to do now because with surveillance and T.V. cameras and whatever. I just think the idea of three people being able to get away for three days, hiding in Crete and not being discovered by everyone is just impossible. Just the way [Highsmith’s] thrillers are plotted, I don’t think you can really update them.
“The Two Faces of January” opens in New York and California on Friday, September 26th. To view more information about the film visit http://www.magpictures.com/twofacesofjanuary/. To read Mandy Griffiths’ interview with Hossein, visit https://moviehole.net/201477342hossein-amini-the-two-faces-of-january.
