He Was A Quiet Man
The Best Feature Film winner from STIFF 2007 opens at the Galleria 11 today before its world-wide DVD release in few weeks. I actually took a bit of heat for screening this film last year because of the cast (Christian Slater, William H Macy, and Elisha Cuthbert). Several people wanted to know how that qualified as a “True Independent” film. Director Frank Cappello had mentioned that he got some of the same kind of flack when he screened at a few film festivals and called it “reverse snobbery”.
It’s funny because Frank had told me when I first met him that he had tried to make the movie in the studio system for quite some time, but could never quite find the right people to make it happen. Out of sheer frustration, he just woke up one day and decided to finance and make the movie himself. During a party at his house, Christian Slater showed up uninvited and started telling everyone at the party that he “was Bob”. Slater believed in the project so much that he basically worked for free on it and brought his friend (Macy) along. Frank did many of the effects himself and shot much of it guerrilla style without permits, etc.
I have heard horror stories about festivals that charge submit to their festivals and turn around to fill their program slots up with movies that play the major fests. This is something that I am always conscious of and want to make sure never happens with STIFF, but I am also aware of the fact that some members of the press only care about movies with celebrities that they know. So, the last couple years while visiting fests like SXSW, Sundance and Slamdance for my day-job, I reached out to a few films that I thought might generate some interest about playing at STIFF. I found that it is actually pretty hard to pull off. Many of these films have so many layers of bureaucracy that it is almost impossible to talk to a real decision maker. When you finally run across one, they are often only interested in talking if you can come up with a hefty screening fee and first class travel and accommodations for the cast and crew – something that our small fest just can’t afford. He Was a Quiet Man is the only film that I have ever approached about screening where everything just worked out. I think a lot of it had to do with Frank Cappello and I almost never even saw this movie or met Frank to begin with.
I was at SXSW with my friend Dave and I had a break from work. We were planning to catch a certain film (I can’t remember which one) and went to the wrong theater by accident. Dave and I read the description for He Was a Quiet Man and almost didn’t go. Dave wasn’t very excited about Christian Slater. I remember him saying that Christian Slater hadn’t been in a good movie since Kuffs (and even then…). We decided to give it a try since Elisha Cuthbert was in it though and I am so glad we did. I really loved the movie and I think that it is going to put Slater back on the map. His acting was incredible. He really nailed it.
I have linked some reviews from a few papers. Like most of my favorite movies, people seem to either love it or hate it. Moira McDonald from the Seattle Times gave it 3 out of 4 stars, William Arnold from the PI agrees that Slater kicks ass, Annie Wagner at the Stranger didn’t seem to care for it, but Scott Foundas at the Seattle Weekly loved it and they made it a SW Pick, so go figure… I say, go see it now and decide for yourself, or go pick up a DVD in a few weeks. You’ll be glad you did. He Was a Quiet Man is AWESOME!
http://edb.seattletimes.nwsource.com/ae/scr/edb_ed.cfm?s=st&evt=273677
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/345932_quiet04q.html
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=474248
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