SINGAPORE: Stars of new feature film "Paradise Road" speak to the press in Singapore

Record ID: 449849

  • Title: SINGAPORE: Stars of new feature film "Paradise Road" speak to the press in Singapore
  • Date: 4th May 1996
  • Summary: SINGAPORE (MAY 4, 1996) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF RAFFLES HOTEL ACTRESSES GLENN CLOSE, JULIANNA MARGULIES ARRIVING IN FORECOURT ACTRESS JENNIFER EHLE CLOSE, ACTRESSES CATE BLANCHETT AND ELIZABETH SPRIGGS CHATTING AND ADMIRING HOTEL DECOR ACTRESSES SEATED FOR PRESS CONFERENCE, CLOSE SAYING IT IS DEFINITELY A WOMAN'S FILM. YES IT'S THE STORY ABOUT ALL THE VARIOUS WOMEN. AND I CHOSE TO BE PART OF IT BECAUSE I WANTED TO BECAUSE I WANTED TO WORK WITH THIS GROUP OF WOMEN AND I BELIEVE IN THE STORY. IT IS A VERY POWERFUL STORY (ENGLISH) BLANCHETT SAYING FOR ME WHEN I FIRST READ THE SCRIPT AND HEARD THE MUSIC THAT IS WHAT DREW ME TO IT. BECAUSE I PERSONALLY HAVE VERY STRONG ATTACHMENTS TO CERTAIN PIECES OF MUSIC AND YOU HAVE INEXPLICABLE REACTIONS, EMOTIONAL RESPONSES TO MUSIC THAT I THINK AND I HOPE EVERY AUDIENCE MEMBER WILL. CERTAIN CLASSICAL PIECES EVOKE VERY STRONG RESPONSES AND I THINK THAT FOR MY CHARACTER IN PARTICULAR THAT DOESN'T REALLY HAVE A ROMANTIC STREAK, THE MUSIC AWAKENS A WHOLE OTHER POSSIBILITY OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT FOR HER. SHE IS SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN ON A FARM, BEEN INCREDIBLY PRACTICAL AND NOT BEEN EXPOSED TO WHAT SHE PERCEIVES TO BE THE ELITE HIGH CULTURE THAT MUSIC REPRESENTS.(ENGLISH) CLOSE SAYING WELL I'M ACTUALLY THE CONDUCTOR. I SING A FEW PHRASES BECAUSE I HAVE TO TEACH A LOT OF THE WOMEN WHO DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MUSIC. (CAN EVERYONE SING WHO WAS INVOLVED?) HISTORICALLY SPEAKING A LOT OF THEM WEREN'T PROFESSIONAL SINGERS, THERE WERE SOME WHO WERE VERY ACCOMPLISHED SINGERS. BUT WHOEVER DOESN'T HAVE AN ADEQUATE VOICE IN THE MOVIE WILL HAVE A TRACK. SO NO ONE SHOULD BE NERVOUS (ENGLISH) MARGULIES SAYING IT WAS A HARD AND WONDERFUL WEEK, I MEAN YOU CAN'T REALLY COMPARE. THE WEATHER ITSELF WAS SO TREMENDOUSLY HOT, MUGGY AND HUMID AND, BUT I HAVE HAD DAYS JUST LIKE THAT SHOOTING EXTERIORS FOR E.R. IN CHICAGO. SO YOU KNOW, BUT IT'S ALL AUTHENTIC AND BEAUTIFUL, IT'S A VERY DIFFERENT PLACE. IT'S LIKE COMPARING APPLES AND ORANGES (ENGLISH) MARGULIES SMILING (AUDIO OF CLOSE SAYING JULIANNA SAID TO US AT THE END OF THE FIRST WEEK I HAVE YET TO HAVE A GOOD HAIR DAY) (ENGLISH) SPRIGGS SAYING WELL IT CHANGES THEM ALL AND THAT IS THE TREMENDOUS THING, AND IT CHANGES MOST OF THEM FOR THE BETTER. MY CHARACTER FOR EXAMPLE IS A FRIGHTFULLY SNOBBISH BRITISH WOMAN, THE SORT OF WOMAN WHO WOULD BE HERE IN SINGAPORE PROBABLY HAVING SINGAPORE SLINGS BEFORE THE WAR. AND SHE'S HAD A FRIGHTFUL ROUND OF COCKTAIL PARTIES, BEING BUSY DOING NOTHING. AND SHE IS WHIPPED AWAY WITH HER LITTLE DOG INTO THE HORRENDOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, INTO THIS WAR CAMP. AND SHE IS THROWN AROUND AND EVENTUALLY SHE DOES SAY BEFORE SHE DIES THAT I REALLY HAVE ENJOYED IN A WAY BEING HERE IN THE CAMP BECAUSE IN SINGAPORE, I DID NOTHING (ENGLISH)
  • Embargoed: 19th May 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SINGAPORE
  • Country: Singapore
  • Reuters ID: LVA8M2N7V81JU7UWLZI5QIEXW668
  • Story Text: Actress Glenn Close and fellow stars gave a press conference at the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore on May 4 during a short break in filming for a new feature film "Paradise Road" directed by Australian film maker Bruce Beresford.
    The film depicts the true-life experiences of a group of women caught up in the turmoil of World War Two following the fall of Singapore to Japanese forces in 1942.
    The strong female cast includes the award winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Ehle, star of the BBC's (British Broadcasting Corporation) acclaimed mini-series "Pride and Prejudice", Julianna Margulies, star of American television's "E.R." and Elizabeth Spriggs, who played Mrs Jennings in Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility".
    Captured by Japanese forces following the sinking of the ship evacuating them from Singapore, the women form a "vocal orchestra" in an effort to maintain morale under the harsh conditions of camp life.
    Transcribing musical scores from memory the women perform complex classical pieces orchestrated for the human voice. Such is the power of the first performance the Japanese guards disobey orders to break up the gathering.
    Glenn Close, who plays English plantation owner's wife Adrienne Pargiter, emphasised that is was the power of the womens' story that drew her to the film. Adding that she wanted "to work with this group of women".
    Blanchett reiterated Close's point elaborating on the importance of music in the film.
    "My character (Australian nurse Susan McCarthy) in particular doesn't really have a romantic streak. The music awakens a whole other possibility of the human spirit for her".
    Close, applauded for her performances on Broadway in Sunset Boulevard, comforted her less musically accomplished co-stars, reminding them "whoever doesn't have an adequate voice in the movie will have a track!" "Paradise Road" is still in the early stages of production with only the first weeks of filming completed on location near Penang.
    Julianna Margulies, who plays American socialite Topsy Merritt, described conditions in the jungle as "hot, muggy and humid". The actresses had spent the previous weeks trudging through paddy-fields and mangroves barefoot.
    As Close pointed out conditions were hard, "Juliana said to us at the end of the first week 'I have yet to have a good hair day!'".
    On a more serious note Shakespearan veteran Spriggsdescribed the story as an uplifting and inspiring account of spoiled, pampered women learning to come to terms with intense hardship.
    Spriggs descibes her character, Mrs Roberts, as a "frightfully snobbish British woman" plucked from the social swirl of pre-war colonial luxury and plunged into a nightmare of hard labour in the work camp.
    But Mrs. Roberts says as she is dying "I really have enjoyed, in a way, being here in the camp as in Singapore I did nothing".
    The "Paradise Road" production moves to Northern Australia for a the final ten weeks filming. The film makers hope to return to Singapore for the world premiere by the end of 1996.
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