Lauridsen and Sir Ridley
Morning Poodles! Well our Spring concert on Saturday went well. I was very proud of us. The hall we sang in was gorgeous. It is part of the Colburn School of Music and across the street from Disney Hall. What a location! My thanks to my incredible friends who came to the show. Afterwards a large number of the singers went to an after-performance bistro for cocktails and bread pudding. One of the highlights (besides looking out and seeing of all people Fred Savage in the audience) was having one of my favorite singers Baritone Greg Dohi say to me after that is was a pleasure singing next to me. Aww shucks. I'm taking a break from the chorale for the last concert of the year since I will be on a plane home to Buffalo the night of the show, June 24th. But I'll be back....singing is one of my stress relievers, ya know?
Last night I had the distinct pleasure of going to a screening of the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven at the Arclight with a Q&A with Sir Ridley himself and the writer William Monahan. Get this: Merri, Parlance, Francophile and myself were FRONT ROW CENTER! We were IN the movie. There was a 10 minute break after the film before the Q&A and Merri ran out to use the facilities. She came back and said to me: "Well I was in such a hurry to get to the bathroom that I totally rushed past Ridley without realizing it was him until it was too late. So on my way back I walked up to him and apologized for blowing past him like that. And then I thanked him for this version of the film. He shook my hand and thanked me for appreciating his work. then he introduced me to the writer....then WE chatted for a bit about his script. i let him know that i was VERY happy to see the various restored scenes, not to mention the subplot. he grinned and thanked ME!" Cool as a cucumber that one is.
Bill, the writer had literally just gotten off a plane from NYC and it took him a moment or two to get going. Ridley was witty and charming and a genuine pleasure. I took a few notes (just trying to look professional here) so let's see what my sleep-deprived brain can remember here.
Bill and Ridley met after Ridley had read a spec script that Bill had written called Tripoli, a project that is in the works. At their first meeting (this was right around the time the BHD was in pre-production) Ridley asked if Bill is he knew anything about knights. Turns out that's Bill's pet subject. And somehow during the course of this momentous breakfast meeting, Bill got his corn muffin in his hair. He said no more than that.
When they were discussing what period of the crusades would be interesting, Bill wanted to do this in-between time since "you can't beat a leper King." In chosing this time period the focus wasn't about war, it was about peace, this peace that had lasted for 100 year. Ridley felt that a lot of people missed that point.
Ridley made an interesting comment about how the Chrisitian rulers in Jerusalem were really intruders forcing their culture on the inhabitants of the city.
The director's cut existed before the final theatrical cut. Ridley explained that "previews are the enemy." Here you were giving over something so many had spent a major part of their lives working and molding to an audience who you expect to suddenly become Siskel and Ebert. For audiences you either like the movie, medium like it, or hate it. But he also recognizes that he is a business man. If he were the head of a studio he'd want previews as well. He is constantly fighting his business side with his creative side. Fear he admitted helps tremendously in regulating the creativity.
The trebuchets were actual working machines. Ridley said you could "fling a prop man about 40 yards." He told how the designer was standing there one morning with his cup of coffee in one hand getting ready to show how it work. He kept telling Ridley to movie back...no further...further. Then he has one of he PAs set it off. They were impressed with the distance but more concerned that the PA was gonna lose a limb.
The final shooting draft was 137 pages, though Bill had read a rumor on the internet that it was 280 pages.
There was a scene that didn't make the final director's cut the explains a bit the political situation involving Jerusalem where Godfrey takes Balian to Rome for an audience with the Pope. The Pope is yelling that the Christian lords in Jerusalem have become "Orientalists", that they're sympathizing with the Muslims, who they are supposed to be fighting. Balian was an example of Chrisitanity done right. His is "a voice of reason being shouted down by madmen."
The movie wasn't intentionally religiously neutral but more like the Hospitalier says about "putting no stock in faith or religion." That concept is used too often to do evil and not good.
*edit 1* forgot this bit before: Someone asked about Ed Norton's uncredited apperance. Ridley said it was Ed's idea and the whole thing was rather exciting.
As said before there were historically accurate people like Saladin and Guy. Also, the taking of the caravan with Saladin's sister really happened. The thing about Jerusalem for Saladin was at the time he had bigger problems in the east. Jerusalem was "a little pimple" on his political radar. So the Chrisitians like Guy(?) were literally provoking him with things like the taking of the caravan until finally Saladin had no choice but to react. Facinating stuff.
Ridley was asked about going back and doing Director's Cuts of his past movies. He said that with this new digital format it's almost become expected that something like this will be done. Normally he's not the kind to go back, "you're revisiting where you didn't before." It sounded like he thought it was more work for him in the long run.
Hurray for Parlance for asking the one Orlando question of the evening! She asked what Orlando brought to the project that Ridley maybe hadn't encountered before. (Good question!) Ridley started out by asking if the audience agreed that Orlando had done a good job. He described Orlando as honest, straight-forward, open, innocent (and if he manages to maintain that innocence as he has, it should lead to great things for him), such a hard-worker and extremely committed. He equated him to Russell Crowe in that respect.
I can't finish this without thanking Arlene and Faye both for their tremendous generosity. We wish you both could have been there with us..
Edit #2: stupid brain, remembering more: The question was asked how much rehearsal time Ridley likes to do for something like this. He joked and said 2 hours. Typically he only sees the actors at costume fittings or on-set on the day of the shoot "Oh hello *shakes hand* who are you again? Oh good!". In KOH's case he tried to get the principles together like Balian and Sybilla and Godfrey and the Hospitaler at a rehearsal space in Hamstead. It's rare to get people to meet face-to-face prior to the shoot unless it's dinner or like I said, a costume fitting.
A comment was made about the great character actors in the film like Brendan Gleeson, Marton (sssspeaK!), Jeremy, and David Thewlis. The person thought it was unusal that the actors would take "smaller roles" than what they usually do. Ridley replied that the parts were wonderful and impossible to not do. In terms of Marton's performance it was asked it Ridley had to pull him back at any point. Ridley replied that it's always a compromise when you're shooting Sometimes they'd do a shot and he'd sit there and think "now what the bloody hell was that?"
(there may be more later..lunch may awaken the memory cells!)
*edit #3* see, milk does do a body good! An audience member asked about the battle scene when the wall is breached and how it was difficult to distinguish Muslim from Chrisitian at that point and was that in intentional. Ridley said "well spotted". He equated that shot, when the camera pulls up and away from the fight to a can of maggots. He asked if any of us were fishermen. Naturally in a room like that we all were....not! He described how when you get a fresh tin of maggots for fishing how they're all packed in there and sort of waving at you. He remembered opening one and thinking "Oh yeah, this is what the shot will look like when we pull back."
Another question had to do with Balian's evenutal surrender of the city. If they were fighting for the people and not the stones then why not surrender it right away instead of losing all those people? When you're defending a seiged city the normal course of action was once the city's walls were breached the attackers would kill everyone and destroy everything. That's more or less what the Christian's did when they took the city 100 years before. And the attackers are putting so much at risk, money, men, and time. Sieges could last months, years. (this one was really short. It only lasted 10 days) A couple ways to end a siege were to starve them out or disease them out by throwing plague ridden animal caracasses over the walls. Even after the wall came down Saladin knew it would still take time to get into the city and as Balian says "your army will die here and you will never raise another. To take this city will be the end of you." So to fight was the only viable solution because there's a chance you might see it through. Besides, makes for a cool last act.
There was supposed to be a battle at Kerak but Ridley had to lose it (he really wanted one) in order to make the final battle that much more spectacular.