TORONTO — Robert Redford’s directorial debut Ordinary People may have cleaned up at the Academy Awards three decades ago, but the wrenching family drama probably couldn’t get made today, says filmmaker Rodrigo Garcia.
“What studio would make Ordinary People right now?,” Garcia asked Sunday during a telephone interview to promote the upcoming DVD release of his introspective adoption film Mother and Child.
“It would be, like, a little Sundance movie ... I’m sure they wouldn’t even make (1975’s) Dog Day Afternoon (or 1983’s) Terms of Endearment ... I don’t even think a studio would make (1980’s) Raging Bull. Independently financed, maybe. But it’s very tough.”
These days, noted Garcia, movie studios are obsessed with capturing a younger audience that is largely interested in action films and comic book fare.
“The way the studios think right now, a movie like ’Ordinary People,’ it’s just a bummer movie about a family dealing with suicide.
“With the mentality right now it’s like: ‘Who’s going to want to see that?”’ said Garcia, 51.
With TV credits including In Treatment and Six Feet Under, Garcia has become known for his deft handling of small, intimate moments in intelligent adult fare.
“Mother and Child” presents intersecting storylines about three women: Karen (Annette Bening) is a mother haunted by a long-ago decision to give up her daughter for adoption; Elizabeth (Naomi Watts) is her grown-up daughter; and Lucy (Kerry Washington) is a baker who is desperate to adopt after learning she cannot have children.
The film received critical praise upon its theatrical release. Still, Garcia acknowledged the subject matter is a tough sell for movie-going audiences.
“Mother and Child ... for lack of a better term, is, I suppose, a drama for grown-ups. That’s a very hard group to mobilize. That’s not a group that goes easily to a movie theatre. That’s an age group — and by age group I will say anyone over 35 or 40 — who like to see movies how and when they want to,” he said.
“I hope it’ll have a life (on DVD). I’m sure there are people who just didn’t find the time to go. I hope.”
Garcia, the son of Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was speaking Sunday from Dublin, where he is poised to begin shooting the period piece Albert Nobbs. The film stars Glenn Close as a woman who dresses as a man in order to work in 1898 Dublin.
Close previously worked with Garcia on his 2005 film Nine Lives. Albert Nobbs also will reportedly reunite Garcia with actress Mia Wasikowska, who was a standout in the first season of In Treatment.
The HBO drama, which stars Gabriel Byrne, is notoriously gruelling to produce (each episode is a therapy session conducted by Byrne’s character, Paul Weston). Garcia said he had to had to move away from In Treatment after Season One in order to make Mother and Child.
“It’s a very tough show to run. ... It’s very simple production-wise, two people in a room, but from a writing point of view it’s very exhausting, it’s very draining.
“It’s 40 or 35 half-hour plays,” he said.
With the third season just wrapped, rabid In Treatment fans have already started wondering whether the show will be back. Although he was not directly involved with the latest batch of episodes, Garcia said a fourth season has not been ruled out.
“I think it’s still being discussed. I honestly don’t think anybody knows right now. The season just ended, I’m sure they’re regrouping ... I think they’re not sure right now,” he said.
Although at the moment he’s focused on Albert Nobbs, Garcia hasn’t left television work behind. The director says he likes the way TV allows for longer exploration of a subject.
In addition, he said, the small screen is where many introspective projects reminiscent of Ordinary People — which won the best-picture Oscar in 1981 — have migrated.
“TV has become (a) refuge for writers and directors and many actors who want to do grown-up subject matter,” said Garcia.
“TV used to be sort of the kiss of death for actors. And now actors go there to find some of their best work. I think in a way TV is keeping the adult drama alive because it’s so hard to do in a film now.”