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"THE
CITY OF
LOST CHILDREN"
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Ron Perlman on his story book
role as 'One'
for the French film fantasists, Jeunet and Caro - by Dan Persons
It's a peculiar position we Americans hold in European films.
We seem to be portrayed less as fellow travellers in this journey
called life and more as forces of nature. Not such a bad position
to be in when you think about it: check such works as the "Waldorf
Salad" episode of Fawlty Towers, or the films of Tati - and
you'll see a vision of Yanks at once blunt, loud, and untamed, yet
also blessed with a basic integrity, a forthrightness that the filmmakers
tend to view as admirable. You may as well argue honestly with a hurricane,
the artists appear to be saying, as question an American on his indomitability.
An ambivalent attitude, to be sure, but not without its grace points.
It seems only logical, then, that when Jean-Pierre Jeunet and
Marc Caro, previously the directors of the apocalyptic Delicatessen,
and now helmers of the mordantly vivid fairytale, The City of Lost
Children, needed a lead actor who could portray an iron-willed
and innocent-souled street busker with an almost instinctual need
to protect the young foundling entrusted to his care, they looked
not to the wide palette of their own stock company, but to the corps
of Americans who have lately made a name for themselves in foreign
productions. The actor they ended up with was none other than Ron
Perlman, the guy who not only bolstered his genre credentials in such
productions as Jean-Jacques Annaud's Quest For Fire, and Guillermo
del Toro's Cronos, but who had previously won the love of millions
for the skill with which he blended poetry and brute force into his
portrayal of Beauty and the Beast's Vincent.
Asked what motivated him to participate in a knockabout fantasy
that has his character, known simply as One, battling electronics-assisted
Cyclops, Fagin-like Siamese twins, and an opium-addicted flea-circus
operator in his quest to rescue the infant orphan Denree from the
clutches of a dream-starved mad scientist, Perlman said, "I come
from a comedy background, and I know that when I saw Delicatessen
that it was the funniest film I had seen in years: real slapstick,
real visual humour. I'm pretty at home in that milieu. The way you
play comedy is as if it's the most serious thing going, so I never
felt that I had to make a major adjustment in style."
Where adjustments came was in the uniqueness of this transatlantic
partnership. "Usually when you're on a foreign location like that,"
Perlman noted, "you're with your peers, you're with people who
have been hired out of the same country as you. I was not only the
only American on the film, I was the only non-French person on the
whole movie. Although almost everybody except for Jeunet and Caro
spoke perfect English. I had no trouble communicating with the crew,
but I was constantly reminded that I was a stranger in a strange land.
It was helpful in forming the feelings that I needed to have to play
One."
So who is One? "He's more a physical presence than an intellectual
or verbal one, which is why they were able to use a non-French speaking
actor. He doesn't speak that much, and when he does speak, it's awkward
and with some sort of a foreign accent. Originally I thought the accent
should be as indeterminate as possible, but ultimately we decided
that it should be Russian. I think he started out in early drafts
as a sort of a savant, perhaps like a big kid. By the time we set
about filming the final draft, he seemed to have more intelligence.
There were still places where he looked very childish, but one of
the things that I suggested is that his childishness came more in
the form of him being out of place in this society, being a foreigner
and having values that were a throwback to some other, more innocent,
more gentle time and place. His desire to be left alone to raise his
little, adopted, three-year-old brother is so out of step with the
low price of humanity, and especially of children, in this particular
post-apocalyptic place, that that is what is equivalent to him being
a savant. It's more innocent with a sort of "Rain Man" quality."
One was not the only presence on the City set who stood
out for his uniqueness. As with their prior project, Jeunet and Caro
attacked the demands of production in a decidedly unorthodox manner.
"They have an interesting way of working," Perlman said. "Marc
Caro - who is more of a visual artist than Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who
is more of a bona-fide film director - is really responsible for everything
visual in the film. When you talk about their films, it's almost like
their putting oil paintings in every frame: they were experimenting
with a new film stock that shoots in one texture and then corrects
itself into another to give it a sort-of once-removed quality; the
sets, all the optical effects that are employed, that's all Caro's
domain. Jean-Pierre Jeunet really handles the on-set stuff, so it's
not like you're working with two directors. Although I defer to Caro
a lot - because I have a tremendous amount of respect for his eye
and his vision; I know how much of himself he poured into this production
- Jeunet is the one who's setting up the camera shots, directing the
actors, deciding what takes to print. He's more conventionally directing
the film."
How was Jeunet to work with? "He's very, very serious. It's
as reverential a set as I've ever worked on. Not that it's humourless,
but he knows that what he's working on is incredibly ambitious, he
knows that he's been developing it for eleven years of his life, so
he's pretty set on what he's looking for in each frame, and he's respectful
of the professionalism that you bring to it. But you'd better be bringing
some - otherwise, you're in trouble."
"Our relationship evolved. We started out total strangers
- he started out giving birth to this character and watching it evolve
over a number of different drafts. Finally relinquishing control to
me was not an easy thing. I came in with a couple of my own ideas.
I just like to share my ideas with people, and if you can use anything
that I see, you're welcome to it. It's not exactly 'tell me exactly
what it is you want me to do,' but I'm basically there to get it right
and as far as I'm concerned, right is how the director sees it, especially
directors as brilliant as (Jeunet and Caro). You don't get a chance
to work with people who are that smart that often. At the end of the
day I think they liked the take I had on the character, and it became
a very, very satisfying collaboration."
Part of that satisfaction may have come from the French approach
to production. While the City shoot, according to Perlman,
stretched over a generous six months, it appears few involved felt
the strain of the time span: "I've been on a lot tougher (productions),"
Perlman noted. "We shot this all in a studio… so this was not so
bad. The French schedule is very friendly: you're out at 10.30 am,
put on a little makeup, at 11.00 everyone sits down to lunch. There's
a bottle of wine on every table and a couple of big baguettes; you
eat a five-course proper meal, and sit around and laugh and have a
wonderful time. Then at about 12.30 you arrive on the set, you shoot
for about seven hours, and everybody goes home. American productions,
you show up at 6.00 am and go home at 10.00 at night and there's a
one hour break in between for lunch. So this was not arduous, but
it was highly concentrated. Five months of shooting and a month of
prep is a luxurious schedule."
Even without the generous amenities, Perlman conceded his good
fortune in landing so significant a role. "When you get a chance
to play somebody who's that pure and innocent, it's rare. I think
you know my career, how varied it is, how sometimes weird and kinky
it is. On two occasions, I got to play very beautiful, spiritual characters.
One was Vincent in Beauty and the Beast, and the other is One. I'm
a terrible judge of my own work. I don't know how well I pull these
things off; I can't really watch myself, especially as the character
of One, where I'm not hidden behind any sort of character makeup,
when it's just me. But I certainly am thrilled at the opportunity
to play that kind of guy, in a film of the character of Jeunet and
Caro's."
"A few years ago, I realised that the gods up there were taking
much better care of me than I could possibly do for myself. The kinds
of directors I've gotten to work for, the kinds of tripped-out concepts
of the films and TV shows I've been in, I take it as it comes, because
it's always more interesting than the way I dreamed it's going to
be. I try not to rule anything out. I've been happy that I've taken
that attitude; I feel very blessed that I've been asked to some parties
I've gotten to go to."
From the January issue of CINEFANTASTIQUE, 1995