by Paul Fischer
Shining
Through
Scott Hicks/Snow Falling on Cedars Interview by Paul Fischer
Aussie filmmaker Scott Hicks came to international attention with 1996's Shine, his acclaimed Oscar-nominated feature about musical prodigy David Helfgott. With a resume that included a handful of TV-movies, a coming-of-age feature, a children's film and several TV documentaries, few might have thought he could craft such a mature, powerful study of a musician driven by his overbearing father and personal demons to the brink of madness and redeemed, in part, by love. But he pulled it off, launching both his own career and that of Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush. Now Hicks is back with his first Hollywood film, the exquisitely poetic masterpiece, Snow Falling on Cedars, a film that takes mainstream cinema to new and exciting directions. Paul Fischer spoke to Hicks about his latest film, and the movie that would ultimately change his life.
Scott Hicks is quietly contemplative, sitting in his quaint Sydney hotel room, on a whirlwind trip home to promote his first movie since his hugely successful Shine took the world by storm 3 years ago. There's a lot riding on Snow Falling on Cedars, the multi-textured screen version of the much-lauded novel. The whole world waited with baited breath for the director's announcement as to his follow-up film. It was to be a Hollywood studio film, and this time, he was to deal with a system with which the 46-year old was unfamiliar.
But as the quietly spoken director recalls, it was not as daunting as one would think. "In some ways it's more straightforward dealing with studio executives, than with development bureaucrats. I mean these people will live or die by their decisions, and you have to respect that. I think the thing that's wrong with OUR film bureaucracy in a way, is that people DON"T live or die by their decisions; they just float on, which can be very irksome." However, Hicks hastens to add, as a filmmaker, "you have to stamp the project with YOUR authority. Sure, they're signing the cheques and paying the money, but they HAVE hired you for a purpose, and that means that you'd better have a point of view or you're going to get squashed in the scheme of things, so you must fight and maintain that point of view."
For his US film debut, Hicks steered away from films he was offered, films that explored similar territory to that of Shine. "The first 30 or 40 scripts I was offered were to do with music, madness, child abuse, psychological breakdown; you name it. I said to my agent: Enough of those already. I don't NEED to male the life story of Paganini." He had read the novel Snow Falling on Cedars a number of years previously, thinking at the time it was way out of his reach. In the meantime, Universal Studios had acquired the screen rights and as Hicks recalls, "a coincidence of urges" ensued. "In many ways, I was the prime mover getting this film made, in the sense that I wanted to make this film and they owned the rights to the novel; THEY wanted to work with me, bang, that's a business opportunity for them in a way. And there's no doubt that in THEIR mind, it's about wanting to make money; they're not a charitable organization."
Hicks further believes that the timing for Snow Falling was ripe at a time when films such as Shine and The English Patient were commercial successes, and the studio believed "that there WAS an audience out there that is hungry for films like this, and WILL go and see them." Snow Falling on Cedars is set in 1951 on the fictional island of San Piedro, just north of Puget Sound. Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune), an American-born man of Japanese descent, is on trial for murder. In this small town, the Anglo and Japanese-American populations had long lived in relative harmony until Pearl Harbour dragged half the town's population into internment camps. Kazuo was a veteran of the war and served in the US military, but despite his ranking and valour, he is stigmatised as a "Jap" and faces long odds in the racially polarised town. Ethan Hawke plays Ishmael Chambers, the local reporter who may have evidence crucial to Kazuo's innocence. But Ishmael's past links him to Kazuo's wife Hatsue Miyamoto (Youki Koudo), whom he loved as a child in a forbidden romance. As the trial unfolds, and the outcome doesn't look good for Kazuo, Ishmael must decide to whether or not to intervene.
In adapting the acclaimed novel to the screen, Hicks "wanted to tell this extraordinary story with images, and that every image should advance the story and add to our sum total of the knowledge about the emotional life of these characters. To me, a lot of the emotion IN the film is carried in the image." At the same time, as visual a film this is, it's equally an emotive one, and Hicks hopes that audiences "will be truly drawn to the emotional landscape of these characters and the story." It took Hicks years to achieve the success he ultimately attained, and Shine itself was a film that took 10 years to finally get made.
Hicks was born and raised in South Australia and learned his craft as a production assistant and assistant director on several locally produced features. In 1981, he helmed his first full-length film, Freedom, a well directed, and rather sweet teenaged boy-meets-car story. Hicks' second feature, which he also scripted and produced, was the quality, but rarely seen, kid's film Sebastian and the Sparrow (1988), which depicted the growing friendship between a wealthy, somewhat sissified teen and a homeless runaway. Visually stunning, the film won high praise in Australia. By the mid-80s, Hicks had begun an association with the American cable network, The Discovery Channel, directing several acclaimed documentaries, including 1989's award-winning "The Great Wall of Iron", about the People's Liberation Army of China just before the Tianenman Square revolt. He co-wrote and directed the four-hour "Submarines: Sharks of Steel: The Hidden Threat" (The Discovery Channel, 1993), which earned him an Emmy Award. Other documentary credits include writing and directing "The Space Shuttle" (The Discovery Channel, 1994) and "The Ultimate Athlete: Pushing the Limit" (The Discovery Channel, 1996). Back home, Hicks worked on the TV miniseries "Finders Keepers" and the TV-movie "Call Me Mr. Brown", featuring the likes of Bill Hunter and John Polson.
But it was Shine that moved him to the ranks of A-list directors. Hicks first met David Helfgott around 1986 and scripted a draft of the story then. In 1992, screenwriter Jan Sardi teamed with Hicks to develop the project but finding the financing proved difficult, particularly after Hicks committed to using stage actor Geoffrey Rush in the leading role. After assembling a cadre of investors, Hicks brought his vision to the screen and received critical praise and several awards, including the Australian Film Institute Best Director Award and an Oscar nomination. Even now, looking back on the whole Shine experience, Hicks remains genuinely stunned by the success of the film that he battled so hard to get before the cameras. "It was a constantly expanding revelation and still amazes me. I still have people come up to me every week, who'll say: Oh you must be sick of hearing this, but I LOVED Shine, to which I respond, because I believe it, that I will NEVER get sick of hearing that. It's like I did something, which in a way will never be forgotten. Whatever else I do, Shine has acquired this kind of iconic status of its own, AS has Geoffrey Rush and Helfgott. It seems that something happened there that few people experience in their lifetime, and it's an undying thrill that happened to me."
Of course, that level of success can lead to a greater scrutiny by audiences and critics, of the next film, but Hicks isn't phased. "Sure that danger exists on the one hand, but on the other hand, the amazing privilege I now enjoy as a filmmaker, is that sense that people are paying attention already to Snow Falling, which is the legacy of Shine, and somehow the notion that whatever I do, in time to come, will always get that degree of attention in a way, by virtue of what Shine did. Snow Falling on Cedars CANNOT be the experience that Shine was, which after all was just a little discovery that grew out of nothing, while Snow is a big studio picture that comes with all the bells and whistles attached. Therefore, there will be those critics who will take issue with it because it isn't Shine." However, as big a studio film Snow Falling might be, it remains the personal kind of movie making that is beginning to define Hicks' artistry. "I really feel as though I've been allowed this incredible golden moment of being able to make an intensely personal film on a big studio budget, and I just hope it connects with the audience." Hicks remains cautious about his next project, except to admit it will be another studio film "and different yet again." Though he now lives in Hollywood, Hicks still calls "Adelaide home, but Hollywood is where the work is, and that's the reality of this profession."