I suppose John
Sayles is the epitome of the American independent filmmaker. He’s been making
features for the last 20 years – writing, producing, editing and directing –
in a manner that would make him as close to an auteur as you could get. His
films are keenly observed (he doesn’t live in Hollywood and most of his
friends aren’t in the business), often social and political, and always varied
by what’s preceded them. A prolific writer, he’s written novels and also
done work on the screenplays of major studio pictures.
John’s latest picture is Casa de los Babys. It was filmed in Mexico,
but takes place in an unnamed South American nation as a group of gringo women
go through the process of trying to adopt native children. The cast includes
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Daryl Hannah, Marcia Gay Harden, Lili Taylor, Mary
Steenburgen, Rita Moreno and Susan Lynch.
While John carries the demeanor of a tough guy in the mold of Clint Eastwood,
he’s incredibly well-read and very liberal in his views. This was a big draw
for his actresses, all at different stages in their careers.
As the youngest, Maggie expressed her feelings quite bluntly: “Obviously,
it’s political. I don’t think there’s any way to say it isn’t. You’d
have to be an idiot.”
John simply states, “For me, it’s kind of unavoidable.”
He elaborates on Casa’s themes, “The North Americans saw it as a very
simple thing. There are these kids. They need families. They need adopting.
Somebody’s gotta do it. This is a great thing. Which I agree with. Then, the
Mexican people were saying, ‘The kids might never know their culture.’ In a
few cases it was religion, but more often…one guy said, ‘Look, if you have
money you can buy anything.’ It’s a little more cynical. There were people
who were more thoughtful who said, ‘We don’t have it much in Mexico, but the
places where they have it a lot it’s too bad for them. Isn’t it a little
shameful that they can’t take care of their own kids? Or aren’t taking care
of their own kids?’ I agree with that, too. I agree with both sides. It’s a
very complex situation. Korean people don’t come to The United States to adopt
our children.”
Lili earnestly adds, “I think it’s the haves and have-nots. The value –
why one human being has value and another doesn’t. Skin color.”
And Marcia, known for her strong screen roles, though displaying a fair amount
of vulnerability in person, offers, “It’s the American capitalistic
mentality and thinking nothing of, Well, of course we’ll go and adopt THEIR
babies. ‘Their’ is subtext for underdeveloped counties.” She continues,
“But the most interesting thing for me in the film – it’s an interesting
question – how would we, being Americans, feel if they came up to adopt our
kids? It’s an interesting question because, ‘Wh-wh-what? Oh, I see. You
would come here and get our kids…’ There’s this possessiveness.”
This theme of monetary possessiveness was on everybody’s minds when I spoke to
them. It was a subject that they felt affected the film industry as well. Lili,
a veteran of indies explained, “The rules of the game have changed a little
bit. Before it wasn’t like, Well, her stock price actually is…blah, blah,
blah…you know? It was just like, ‘Hey, you wanna do it?’ ‘Yeah.’ It
wasn’t a worry about the name value. Now the bankers are calling the shots.
It’s just a little bit different now.”
John understood this situation better than anybody. Having worked on films of
varying scales over several decades, he opined, “I think the mainstream movie
business – and you’d have to admit the non-mainstream movie business which
is just a neighborhood of that business – have kind of painted themselves into
a corner. They have gone for: we’re gonna win the weekend and we know that by
the second week the numbers are going to fall off, but we’re gonna make so
much money in that first week!”
“So what’s happened is that that has become the movie business and anything
else has become an aberration. Even little movies have to compete with those
movies. If you’re spending $50-million you can buy a lot of attention. So
you’re competing with maybe 3 of those movies every weekend, spending millions
in ads for people’s attention. If you’ve got this little movie it’s tough
to last. It’s tough to get enough people in so you have a critical mass.”
Lili tries to see both sides of the situation and concludes, “I’ve gone
through a lot in the past six years, cause it’s changed a lot. It was very sad
at first when I saw it changing. I felt like, Oh, there’s this niche and
we’re gonna keep working. We found all these like-minds. I love finding people
that I like working with. Then, all of a sudden – Pulp Fiction I think
is when it started – all of a sudden it became above ground. People realized
they could make money off it, so that’s it right there. That’s over. So,
I’m trying to see the pros of it and be positive and stuff like that, cause
like Boys Don’t Cry would never have been at the Academy Awards. If
people are getting to see more complicated and different things, then that’s a
positive. But I find a lot of directors are totally hampered.”
As for John Sayles, he keeps going on. He’s in the final stages of putting
together another movie to shoot, and he’s finally switched to editing
digitally (he claims he’s too old to read the numbers on film strips).
Independent pictures, and film in general, will keep evolving. As long as there
are voices to be heard they’ll find their way through the cracks of what John
calls “economic censorship.”
And as for Americans seeking to adopt abroad, if they have the money they can
probably find a child…
-Copyright 2003
by Jamie
Stuart