WHAT WOULD TOTO WATCH? » Danny Boyle

WWTW Interview: Aron Ralston, the inspiration behind ‘127 Hours’ – Part II

cftoto — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:01:49 +0000

Aron Ralston knows nothing can duplicate the sensation of being trapped in a canyon and taking extreme measures to free oneself, as he did seven years ago during a calamitous hiking trip in Utah.

But Ralston says watching “127 Hours,” the new film about his now legendary escape, is more than the next best thing.

“It’s as close as we can get to living it,” Ralston says of director Danny Boyle’s take on his battle against nature.

The film is more than a deeply moving experience for audiences, some of whom have gotten a mite too attached to James Franco’s performance as Ralston. It’s a project that touched Ralston in rather personal ways.

“It’s deepened relationships that were very close to me. They can understand and really feel what it was like to got though it. It‘s a layered blessing,” he says.

He singles out Franco for his performance in a film that strips away supporting characters and settings, leaving just a wedge of space in an intimidating canyon for an actor to explore.

“Franco captured the experience rather than capturing me, although he did do that as well,” he says.

Ralston worked with Franco to help the actor understand his mind frame at the time of the incident, letting him watch videos he shot of himself during his 127-hour struggle in 2003.

“He could see what it really was for me,” he says. “It comes from a human experience. I’m gonna die … what’s my life been about?”

It’s that internal struggle which gives “127 Hours” its beating heart.

But Ralston acknowledges the other side to his story, one where people watch a man putting himself in harm’s way for a few thrills.

“Why would we promote somebody who is reckless and impulsive and who endangered others? I’m a rescue volunteer. I understand it,” he says.

He’s changed quite a bit since his 2003 adventure, and the event helped him become the person he always wanted to be. As a younger man he sought out an escalating series of extreme activities, in part, “to prove I was an adequate person, that I was good enough,” he says. “I was walking the plank toward the inevitable end till I found out where the edge was.”

The change he sought didn’t happen the minute he returned home from his accident. Once he regained his physical strength he started implementing some of the lessons he learned in the canyon.

“It was something I was delaying,” he explains. Then, he met his future wife who told him she didn’t want to spend her life with someone “who was absent all the time.”

That cinched it.

“I wanted to be the guy that had this epiphany – it’s not what you do in life, it’s who you are and who you relate to,” he says.

(Photo: Top, right: Danny Boyle and Aron Ralston on the set of “127 Hours.” Photo Credit: Chuck Zlotnick. Bottom, left: James Franco on the set of “127 Hours.” Photo credit by Chuck Zlotnick)

What scares you in a horror film?

cftoto — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:46:41 +0000

Danny Boyle isn’t a horror director by trade, but he still knows how to scare us in a darkened theater.

The genre-jumping artist (“Trainspotting,” “Slumdog Millionaire”) delivered one of the best zombie films in recent memory – 2002’s “28 Days Later.”

Boyle told “The Reel Truth” author Reed Martin his philosophy for maximizing chills on screen:

“How do you scare people in a movie? Give me three ways. And I would tell them sound sound sound.”

Is he right?

And a ‘Slumdog’ shall lead them

cftoto — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:25:57 +0000

The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association has spoken – and it’s all good news for director Danny Boyle.

WAFCA selected Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” Best Film in its just-announced annual awards. The group, which I’m proud to say includes me as a member, delivered four awards in all to Boyle’s film.

The news will only help “Millionaire” as Oscar season approaches.

With no clear favorite so far, plus the likelihood that a populist film like “The Dark Knight” could alienate some voters, Boyle’s latest could be the prohibitive favorite come February.

Here’s the full list of WAFCA winners:

Best Film: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Director: Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler”)
Best Actress: Meryl Streep (“Doubt”)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (“The Dark Knight”)
Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt (“Rachel Getting Married“)
Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet (“Rachel Getting Married”)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Best Animated: “Wall?E”
Best Documentary: “Man on Wire”
Best Foreign Film: “Let the Right One In”
Best Ensemble: “Doubt”
Best Breakthrough: Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button/Paramount

SDFF Review: ‘Slumdog Millionaire’

cftoto — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:06:52 +0000

The Starz Denver Film Festival chose wisely in selecting “Slumdog Millionaire” to be its “Big Night” feature.

The film could be the one which catapults director Danny Boyle into the Oscar circle … at last.

He should have been here before, what with modern classics like “Trainspotting,” “Millions” and “28 Days Later” on his resume.

Still, the Oscar Gods are fickle, and sometimes it takes a while before they anoint a great director as worthy of those gleaming statuettes.

“Millionaire” may not be Boyle’s best film, but it captures the cultural zeitgeist in ways Academy voters will be hard pressed to ignore.

The film follows an Indian orphan named Jamal (played by various actors, but Dev Patel is the adult Jamal) who ends up on the Hindi version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

Jamal is in the hot seat in more ways than one. The show’s producers suspect he’s cheating en route to the game’s big prize, and he hopes his national exposure can reunite him with a long lost friend.

“Millionaire” is told in fragmented style, with the game show sequences serving as the connecting plot to a series of flashbacks. Young Jamal endured horrible poverty and the cruel separation from first his mother and then his brother and best girl friend.

How he survives – and becomes a symbol for his changing nation – is what makes “Slumdog” such a unique film experience.

It isn’t an imperfect one, despite the recent raves. The central love story is undernourished, to say the least, and the manipulative nature of the plot welcomes criticism from the cynic in all of us.

But Boyle is a master visualist, one with such a firm grip on his audience that we’ll follow him down any cinematic alley. He’s also unparalleled when it comes to bringing out the best from youthful performers (see “Millions” for all the proof you’ll ever need).

“Slumdog Millionaire” reflects the new Indian economy, a full-throttled engine which puts pressure on existing social systems. Jamal’s improbable run at the game show’s jackpot throws that tension into stark relief.

American audiences might not be familiar with the Bollywood film style, but “SM” offers the perfect introduction. The film’s musical number, which precedes the closing credits, is the most buoyant, beautiful five minutes of film you’ll see all year.

And you might just hear those musical strains again come Oscar night.