USA/FILM LOCATIONS: MARTIN SCORSESE'S LATEST FILM RELEASE 'BRINGING OUT THE DEAD' PREMIERS IN NEW YORK

Record ID: 388672

  • Title: USA/FILM LOCATIONS: MARTIN SCORSESE'S LATEST FILM RELEASE 'BRINGING OUT THE DEAD' PREMIERS IN NEW YORK
  • Date: 19th September 1999
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 19) (RTV-ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE) (English) NICOLAS CAGE SAYING: "I went on an ambulance a few times for about three weeks. I was on a ambulance for two weeks in LA and I did some work with some paramedics to learn what the moves were and then I went on an ambulance in New York, and, yeah, I saw some things." REPORTER ASKS
  • Embargoed: 4th October 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA5MV4VP8GBZKXTY30PCCUEZQR4
  • Story Text: Returning from the North African locations of his last film, "Kundun," Martin Scorsese is back in his native New York for his latest effort, "Bringing Out the Dead," starring real life couple Nicolas Cage and Patricia Arquette.All three attended the film's World Premiere on Tuesday, October 19 in New York City.
    Although they've been married for several years now, this is the first time Cage and Arquette have acted opposite each other on the big screen.Both actors say it was challenging at first to leave their home life off the set, but after a few days of work, they got into a rhythm that worked for them throughout the shoot.
    For Scorsese, "Bringing Out the Dead" is a return to the gritty, intense realism of the streets of New York that he made so famous in such classic films as "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver" and "Goodfellas." But, in this film, instead of destroying things with violence, Scorsese's characters are facing violence head on and trying to do something constructive in the process.
    Cage plays ambulance paramedic Frank Pierce, an emergency health care specialist who drives the streets of New York all night five days a week seeking out and coming to the aid of the masses, from wicked drug dealers to innocent women like Mary Burke, the daughter of a heart attack victim who is played by Arquette.
    The film follows Frank over the course of fifty-six hours in his life, two days and three nights on the job, as he reaches the very brink of spiritual and physical collapse and redemption.
    To prepare for the role, Cage spent weeks riding with paramedics in both New York and Los Angeles, where he witnessed frightening incidents such as gang shootings, drug induced seizures and domestic violence.He walked away with a sense of the dedication and dark humour emergency medical technicians must have to survive on the job.
    Also in the film are John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore as Cage's EMT partners throughout the course of some very long nights.Latin music sensation Marc Anthony also makes his big screen acting debut as Noel, a homeless street person with a nasty drug habit and a fondness for elaborate suicide attempts.
    As technical advisor, Scorsese turned to ten year New York City EMT veteran Joe Connelly, who also wrote the novel on which this film is based.He calls the job the greatest in the world, but it can also be the worst.Scorsese also sees the jobs these men and women do as being extraordinary and constructive, not destructive.
    "Bringing Out the Dead" opens in theatres throughout the United States on Friday, October 22.
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