ITALY: "ROAD TO PERDITION", SAM MENDES' GANGSTER MOVIE, IS IN THE RUNNING FOR THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL'S GOLDEN LION

Record ID: 393059

  • Title: ITALY: "ROAD TO PERDITION", SAM MENDES' GANGSTER MOVIE, IS IN THE RUNNING FOR THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL'S GOLDEN LION
  • Date: 31st August 2002
  • Summary: LIDO, VENICE, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 1, 2002) (REUTERS) MCU (English) MENDES TALKING ABOUT HOW PAUL NEWMAN AND TOM HANKS TREATED HIM AS A DIRECTOR SAYING: They actually were incredibly sensitive to it but the thing was, they are two gentlemen, they are two men who have no entourage, they don't behave like movie stars, they come to work you know, they're actors they're not stars
  • Embargoed: 15th September 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LIDO, VENICE, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAARM3HQCB3C2TJ02HJFFFE9OTO
  • Story Text: Many people thought all Sam Mendes' dreams had come true when the British director walked off with an Oscar for his first Hollywood film but his second movie is giving him just as many kicks. Mendes and one of the film's stars, Tom Hanks, brought the film to Venice this weekend where it is entered in the main competition at the 59th Mostra.
    "Road to Perdition", a gangster movie set in the Depression era Midwest, is in the running for the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion award but Mendes feels he has already been rewarded.
    "It was such a fantastic opportunity to direct a movie in a genre I just loved as a child," Mendes told Reuters Television after attending a gala screening of the film with lead actor Tom Hanks.
    "I thought 'I don't know when I'll get another chance to do a film like this on a scale like this, so I'm going to get on and enjoy it'," he added.
    The film is less gangland than a story about tough relationships between fathers and sons. Paul Newman plays Irish-Catholic don John Rooney, surrogate father to steely hitman Michael Sullivan, portrayed by Tom Hanks.
    Sullivan's two young boys idolise him but are unaware of his trade until the elder boy one night witnesses his father take part in a massacre. The relationship changes for ever and leads to more bloodshed.
    Both Mendes and Hanks admitted they were drawn to the film for the same reasons.
    'What touched me was the father/son story in the middle of it. I loved this very unsentimental story about a father who had in order to protect his child from the fact of what he did for a living, which was to kill people. He had basically ceased to have a relationship with him and through a tragic incident, he was forced on the road with this child who he doesn't know - a stranger and in a way was humanised or taught by his own child how to become a human being again and I thought that was a really beautiful story,' said Mendes.
    Hanks revealed that in order to portray his role, he drew on his own experiences as a father: It's not a reflection of my relationship with my own kids but I get it. I've got four kids, they're all very different and I have a different relationship with each one of them and they have different perspectives of me and you know look I go to bed sometimes at night and I think 'hey I did a good job today as a dad, I think they are going to bed happy, healthy and well adjusted and there's other nights I go to bed and I think 'what have I done today to screw up the lives of my kids?' - not every night but sometimes and I understand that,' he said.
    Mendes wiped the Hollywood awards board in 1999 with "American Beauty", picking up a Golden Globe, an Oscar and numerous industry prizes. Many reviews of "Road to Perdition"
    have been less favourable.
    Mendes, 37, is well aware the success of "American Beauty"
    will be hard to follow but is ready to roll with the punches.
    "When you've done one film and it's been a big success, the temptation is to cling to what you know and make another vague version of the same thing," Mendes said.
    "But I want to keep learning about making films, which is very difficult to do when you are being watched so closely.
    For me the attraction of 'Road to Perdition' was that it pulled me in a totally different direction," the tousle-haired director added.
    That approach echoes Mendes' work on the London stage, where he has won critical acclaim for productions from "The Blue Room", in which Nicole Kidman famously stripped naked, to Shakespeare's "Othello" which won him an Olivier award for best director.
    Despite his string of successes, Mendes was still star-struck when he turned up to the New York premiere of "Road to Perdition" and saw posters with Newman's name next to his.
    "I looked up and thought 'Oh my God! Paul Newman is in my film!'," Mendes laughed, glancing at a picture of the classic star of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting".
    "It sounds stupid but while you are filming, you are so focused on what you are doing, you can't stand back and think 'wow', but the crew did freeze the first day when he walked on set," Mendes grinned.
    Any nerves about working with Newman and Hanks, who both have directing experience, also melted in an instant.
    "They were incredibly sensitive but they are two gentlemen. They don't arrive with an entourage, they don't behave like movie stars or celebrities, they just come to work, and get on with being actors first."
    --
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