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Amber Heard and Christopher Walken in "When I Live My Life Over Again." Photo by Ali Paige Goldstein.[/caption]
By Annette Hinkle
Those of us who live here year round know that the East End can be a visually stark and emotionally barren place in the winter. Naked trees, windswept dunes, deserted streets lined with “closed for the season” signs and summer homes shuttered against storms define our collective existence from October to April.
By its nature, this is a place that invites introspection, which may be why the East End is cinematic gold for filmmakers looking to give their characters time and space to reflect on where they are in their lives.
It’s as if off-season in the Hamptons has become a leading character all its own in the movies.
A beach house near Shinnecock Bay in Southampton is where screenwriter and director Robert Edwards chose to shoot most of his new film “When I Live My Life Over Again’ which screens this weekend as part of the “Views From Long Island” section at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
“When I Live My Life Over Again” stars Christopher Walken as Paul, a fading crooner and former romantic icon who is coming to terms with the realities of his life. The film is primarily set at the beach house where Paul, a narcissistic celebrity trying to stay relevant in a world that is quickly forgetting him, is hard at work on a comeback song.
For Mr. Edwards, off-season East End seemed like the ideal place to set Paul’s desperate attempt at a return to the limelight.
“I’ve spent some time out there,” explains Mr. Edwards. “When I started writing the film, it felt like the perfect centerpiece of the story. In retirement, it’s the sort of place where Paul might go. It has a unique culture and vibe of its own and the idea of going there in the off-season when it’s cold was appropriate for this story line.”
Of course, things heat up quickly when Jude (Amber Heard), Paul’s talented but misguided and self-destructive daughter shows up at the beach house. Jude is at the opposite spectrum of the career track and is trying to figure out how to begin her life in music. Recently evicted from her apartment in the city, she reluctantly heads out to her father’s place to figure out what’s next for her.
Complicating matters is the presence of Corinne (Kelli Garner), Jude’s workaholic sister who has no musical talent of her own but is fiercely dedicated to helping Paul revive his fading career.
“Of the two sisters, Jude inherited the talent and the problems,” explains Mr. Edwards. “She’s self destructive, like Paul, and she sees it in herself, but is not able to admit it.’
“In the sister dynamic, each thinks the other is the favorite,” he adds. “Corinne did everything right. She’s Type A, takes care of the family and the father, yet never gets the love her screwed up sister gets. And Jude feels Corinne is the perfect child who gets nothing but a bag of shit from dad.”
When asked where the initial idea for the screenplay came from, Mr. Edwards readily admits this story is not one rooted in any personal experience.
“They say ‘write what you know.’ I didn’t know this,” he admits. “It’s not a personal story, but I was interested in someone like Christopher Walken’s character of Paul.”
“In particular, I was thinking of Sinatra, an icon of romantic music,” adds Mr. Edwards. “People put on his records when they make out. But he was a perennially difficult guy and hard on the women in his life.”
Mr. Edwards wondered what it would be like to exist in the orbit of someone who is so famous and narcissistic. Though the film is set in the world of show business, he feels it offers a universal story of family dynamics with parents and children who are at different points in their life.
“If your whole image is tied up in being famous and having acclaim and you begin to lose that because time goes by, that must be tremendously difficult,” says Mr. Edwards.
To illustrate those difficulties, Mr. Edwards points to a scene in the film in which Paul and Jude settle in to sing a father/daughter duet together. It starts out as friendly and fun, but before long, Paul’s instincts kick in and he shifts from supportive father to competitive performer in order to keep Jude from outshining him. Therein lies the problematic dynamic between father and daughter who are so alike, yet so at odds with one another at the same time.
“As a selfless parent he wants his child to succeed and sees her talent,” says Mr. Edwards. “Then the egomaniacal artist is threatened by her. He won’t let himself be outdone.”
The chilly relationship between Paul and Jude was literally and figuratively heightened by the fact that Mr. Edwards and his crew spent five weeks shooting all over Southampton last March and April while living out of a hotel.
“It was freezing cold when we began the shoot and the performers were outside in weather that was harsh,” says Mr. Edwards. “It was good for the performance, but not for them.”
“I had not been out there in winter before,” he adds. “The fields are dead and the trees are bare. It’s a beautiful, ghostly place which was appropriate for the story. It sort of matches where Paul is in the autumn and winter of his career.”
Hmmm…sounds like something Sinatra might sing.
“When I Live My Life Over Again” screens at the Hamptons International Film Festival on Friday, October 9 at 1 p.m. at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The film also screens on Saturday, October 10 at 5 p.m. at the Sag Harbor Cinema. For tickets visit hamptonsfilmfest.org.
