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Afterlife >> Alan Rudolph's Afterglow brings Julie Christie back to public eye by MATTHEW HAYS
Very different things to different people, if the characters populating Afterglow are any indication. Nick Nolte and Julie Christie play an aging couple who have a deep dark secret about a long-lost daughter; Christie is a former B-movie actress and Nolte is a philandering plumber. She looks the other way as long as he doesn't get too involved with his affairs--but soon enough, his mind is on Lara Flynn Boyle, herself stuck in a stagnant marriage to uptight corporate type Johnny Lee Miller (Trainspotting). The foursome end up exchanging partners in a desperate effort to refresh their sense of intimacy. "Love is often about the past and the future," explains the director behind such films as Choose Me, Trouble in Mind and The Moderns. "I thought I'd make one about two couples stuck in different time zones: one lives in the past, one in the future, one in the present and one in a void." Rudolph is considered an actor's director, so much so that big names like Nolte line up to be in his films, despite their limited budgets. "I have nothing to offer, no money," says Rudolph. "I always tell them it's going to be a really good movie. And that it's going to be a really good time and when it's over they'll be sorry. That may sound arrogant, but it's true. I've never had trouble with an actor--never." Rudolph says he intended Afterglow to feel like an "unwashed soap opera," one which would "require the audience to think. My films exist somewhere between the screen and the front row. If my film's showing and there's no one in the audience then the screen will simply be blank. It really takes the audience to look inside themselves and visit those places." Despite entirely different acting backgrounds and approaches to character, Rudolph reports the four actors connected like form-fitting pieces of Lego, creating an unmatched ensemble. "I didn't know if I would ever get a group of actors together again, the way it was with Mrs. Parker. These four performances [in Afterglow] are earth-shaking. Nolte and Christie [who's been nominated for an Oscar for her role in Afterglow] just met the day before shooting started. But when you see them in the film, they're married. It seemed like they had so much history together... As far as I'm concerned, actors are the only real artists in the process." And Montreal audiences won't just be wowed by the performances; after shooting three films in the city, Afterglow is the first one in which Montreal sits in for Montreal. "This is, without a doubt, an amazing city. I'm hoping I do for Montreal what Woody Allen does for New York in his films." Afterglow opens Friday, Feb. 27
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"This is the most naked movie I've ever made," says Alan Rudolph, sitting down to talk about his latest, Afterglow. "This film is about love. I guess if I say that people will show up expecting nude bodies, but when I sat down to write it I was thinking: 'What does love actually mean?'"