Last week, Elvis Mitchell interviewed Sarah Polley on NPR’s “The Treatment.” They talked about Polley’s new film, Away from Her, which stars Julie Christie.
This led them to talking about how Polley was enthralled with Christie’s performance in Doctor Zhivago.
Mitchell then asked her if David Lean was an influence on her own creative work as a director.
Polley’s answer made me happy, so I’m sharing it…
Polley: [after shrugging off Lean as an influence]
Certainly filmmakers like Terrence Malick, or Bergman, or Kieslowski would be filmmakers who probably influenced me a lot more.Mitchell:
Kieslowski? How? How does Kieslowski influence you?Polley:
I think the patience he has with his characters, and the complexity he allows them to have, and the way they challenge each other. I’m completely transported when I watch his films, and … on some sort of very unexplainable level I feel like I understand just a tiny bit more about human nature every time I see one of his films.Mitchell:
A lot of these directors you’re talking about tend to use silence a lot.Polley:
Absolutely. Which I think, as I moviegoer, I’m always so happy to see — great actors in silence is something I always look forward to.
I couldn’t agree more. That has a lot to do with why I’m so passionate about Malick and Kieslowski. They have the patience to see things that the script does not deliver on its own… and they film silence and stillness with such confidence that the audience is compelled to pay attention. It allows for mystery to slowly unveil itself and dazzle us through what at first might seem ordinary.
What are your favorite moments of stillness or silence in a film?
(And you can be more creative than Into Great Silence, can’t you?)
I’ve always enjoyed Cast Away. How many other actors could have succeeded in that role?
To take two very different films:
I thought Spielberg’s use of quiet during the chaos of the Normandy invasion in “Saving Private Ryan” was quite powerful.
And Karen Shakhnazarov makes beautifully poignant use of silence in his amazing film “Day of the Full Moon” — in fact, there’s very little dialogue in the film overall. The film is full to overflowing with silences that speak volumes. Jeff, you must see this movie sometime.
I suppose this isn’t a moment of complete silence, but I am thinking of a few moments in “Rabbit-Proof Fence” with no dialogue, where the young, untrained actresses communicated amazing stories in their faces.
I also think of the “Dear Frankie” scene, where Auerbach let there be a long, almost uncomfortable pause before the kiss.
Recently, I’ve really loved Ulrich Mehe as Wiessler in “The Lives of Others.” His character is silent for most of the film and you can really see the change in his character in his face and mannerisms. I love the scene where he is listeneing to Dreyman play the sonata and the camera dollies around his anguished face as he listens to the music and is changed.