Cinema Canada (Sep 1981)

evidence is right there on film. It was the right thing to do. Cinema Canada: For what it’s worth, Ithoughtit worked well. Iwas impressed with Mancuso. Ralph Thomas: He's an extraordinary actor. And I’m not saying R.H. couldn’t have carried the role. But it would have been different. You have to go with the best mix. When you cast a film, you're casting personalities as much as you are actors. It’s a lot different than casting a stage play. Cinema Canada: What role did Ron Cohen have as executive producer ? Vivienne Leebosh: As his partner, I had total creative control. It was in the contract. But it never came down to that. He’s a bright man with a lot of creative ideas. I did a lot of the financing. We overlapped many times and never got into who had control] over what. Cinema Canada: It wasa good working relationship ? Vivienne Leebosh: Yes. Cinema Canada: You touched on financing and I'd like to pursue it for a moment. How did you do with the sale of units ? Vivienne Leebosh: We didn’t sell out. Many films didn’t sell out last year. Cinema Canada: Is there an extended offering this year ? Vivienne Leebosh: Yes. Cinema Canada: Has thatclosed yet ? Vivienne Leebosh: No. It’s not very active. Nobody is buying anything this year. The brokers aren’t even selling. Cinema Canada: Like R.H. Thompson, Anne Cameron is someone else you've worked with all along. Did you plan to co-script with her from the Start, or did she jump in at some point down the road ? Ralph Thomas: I couldn't get started on Ticket early enough to get the script ready by the time Vivienne figured she needed it. So Anne came in and wrote the preliminary draft while I finished | what I was working on at the time. Cinema Canada: There seemed to be a change of tone about halfway into the film, when Rubinek launched into his comedy routine and started spouting one-liners at the camp. Did it also change at that point for you in the writing or shooting of it 2 Ralph Thomas : How about the conception of it ? In making a film, what you do is push everything to the point where you're not quite sure if it’s ridiculous or really worth it. But you always have to push, It’s easy to do something everybody else has done by developinga little Craft. All of us can turn out a copy of The Maltese Falcon. But in this film, I was dealing with two story lines : that of the central character, and that of the cavalry who are going to come and grab him. What you want in that situation is as much contrast as possible between him and his world, and the world of those people who are coming to get him. When I decided to go with a comedian as the second main character, that conditioned a lot of things from then on. The other thing I wanted was to make a kidnapping scene that didn’t look like Mission Impossible. I didn’t want it to have that look of the television professionals. That’s not how life is. -When we were in Paris, we met this guy who is editorial page editor of the International Herald Tribune. His daughter had been in the Unification Church, and when he kidnapped her, absolutely everything went wrong. It was a comedy of errors. He had to drive with her in the back seat of his car, handcuffed and gagged, for 24 hours non-stop to Chicago. He only had 60 dollars in his pockets so he couldn't afford to get z hotel room, and his ‘safe’ house was in Chicago. He had just enough money to cover gas. Eventually, he had to bum money from the strong-arm guys he had brought along. All the while, the state police, the FBI and the Unification Church — the Moonies — were chasing him. Twelve hundred miles ! She was deprogrammed one hour before the cops came through the door. That is not the kidnapping of a professional. If you were to shoot that, there would be people screaming and falling all over each other. I wanted to capture that feeling. Vivienne Leebosh: The other key thing here — and our research bears this out — is that the normal person is the easiest to brainwash. Comedy is mostly a defence mechanism. Someone unusual enough to have that comedic ‘other self — someone able to work with it — goes into the camp and knows what it is all about. Larry is able to do that, and it’s really important to his character. Ralph Thomas: We still wanted him to be vulnerable, which he is. He starts to succumb. The man witha much greater sense of humour~a very secure sense of humour — is Eric (Guy Boyd). He doesn’t need to parade it. It’s just there. When he looks at the world, it’s all funny. And it’s very -hard to convince somebody who looks at everything as if it's monstrously funny that he should sell flowers for a messiah, [also felt very strongly, on an intuitive level, that the film should have a sort of slapstick quality. I felt an audience would welcome a release after all the tension. Besides, the comedy is followed by the deprogramming segment, and that’s 23 hard and heavy minutes long. So I have to give the audience a bit of a rest. The other reason is that I thought it was an interesting counterpoint to the madness David (Nick Mancuso) was involved in. Cinema Canada: You’ve alluded to the Moonies. Is this film about them specifically ? Vivienne Leebosh: In fact, ourresearch covered a lot of different cults. There is no mention of Reverend Sun Myung Moon in our film, nor of any guru. We feel the subject is broader than that. Ralph Thomas: When you make a dramatic film, it’s obvious that the characters are invented — by the writer, the director and the actors. Line Strunk was invented by Anne Cameron, myself and R.H. Thompson. R.H. had a helluva lot to do with the way Linc slammed David back on the bed during the deprogramming. I hadn’t decided — nobody had decided-what kind of dramatic gesture we'd have at that point. It started with B.H. saying: ‘Maybe I'll burn a picture of father.’ When we started rehearsing, the idea of pushing David to the bed came. R.H. says it was Nick’s idea, and Nick attributes it to R.H. But there it is. For people to analyze the film and say ‘That's so-and-so and that’s so-and-so’ — well, I’m sorry to disappoint them, but it ain’t. 1 wouldn’t have the goddamn guts to go and hire an actor and say :‘Let’s do an absolutely perfect representation of John F. Kennedy.’ Portrayals of real people are invariably failures. Your viewer sees right through it. He will not suspend disbelief. He will suspend disbelief if I have, in all freedom, created a character who is as separate and different as his own life. That's what we've tried to do. When I shoot a scene, and those characters are in motion, I suspend disbelief. They become real to me. And when it’s really working well, all I'm worried about is making sure I get the camera in the right place to cover. Cinema Canada: Variety described Ticket as a ‘social thriller’; somebody else called it a ‘psychological thriller’. September 1981 -— Cinema Canada/25 a. eee