By Jill Lawless
VENICE, Italy (AP) --It's a rule of cinema that a movie about a boy and a horse will tug at the heartstrings.
Venice Film Festival entry "Lean on Pete" is no exception. Andrew Haigh's drama is about Charley, a lonely 15-year-old boy who befriends a tired old racehorse and sets out on a perilous journey across the American West.
The movie is set in a contemporary working-class America of motels, diners and grubby racetracks, but Haigh says it also has "almost a fable-esque element about it."
"Traditional folk tales are set in very bleak environments, often, but they have a slight beauty to them at the same time," Haigh told the Associated Press Friday as rain lashed Venice's beach-fringed Lido island.
"Lean on Pete," one of 21 films competing for festival's Golden Lion prize, is the first American movie by British director Haigh. His past two films focused on two young gay men who have a brief but intense relationship ("Weekend") and a long-married couple at a crisis point ("45 Years").
Haigh said all his films have been about "contemporary loneliness and absence," and "Lean on Pete" continues the theme.
Based on a novel by U.S. writer Willy Vlautin, it centers on Charley, who has spent his life moving from town to town with his loving but feckless father. In need of both money and affection, he winds up at the track helping a rackety horse trainer played by Steve Buscemi, and a kindly but steely jockey played by Chloe Sevigny.
Any hopes they will be a surrogate family are soon dashed, and Charley's isolation worsens. Soon the horse Lean on Pete is his only companion.
"He's such a good kid, but incredibly isolated and lonely," Haigh said. "Everyone disappoints him."
As Charley and his silent companion strike out from Oregon for Wyoming, the film is powered by a touching and understated central performance by 18-year-old Charlie Plummer.
"I think he just possesses something that so many other actors don't have, some kind of innate subtlety and sensitivity," Haigh said of Plummer, who is soon to appear as wealthy kidnap victim John Paul Getty III in Ridley Scott's "All the Money in the World."
"I think he has a way of finding some kind of truth in a scene that feels surprising."
The film takes an effectively understated approach to depicting the hardscrabble underside of American life, never overplaying the grittiness even as Charley's situation becomes more desperate.
"We were careful not to amp up the Americana of the story," Haigh said. "Because for those people who live there, it's just where they live. The same with the landscapes — we wanted to show those landscapes, show Charley within those landscapes, but not fetishize those landscapes."
The film's final major character presented his own challenges. Haigh said working with Starsky, the horse who played Pete, was "like working with a very small child."
"The horse was very well trained," he said "You work out in pre-production what you want the horse to do, whether you want it to lift its leg (and so on). It's all very precise.
"By the time you're shooting it kind of works all right, but it is still a horse. You can't make it do something it doesn't want to do."
Plummer, who spent several weeks building a bond with the horse before filming started, said acting alongside an animal was challenging but rewarding.
"I think the horse did a tremendous job in the film, and I think he gives a wonderful performance," he said.
Sinners and Saints Adds Apple Pie To Its Branded Menu
Bicoastal Sinners and Saints--the multidisciplinary studio overseen by managing director/executive producer Heather Heller, and partners/EPs Yann Henric and Thomas Carroll--has added Apple Pie Tabletop to its roster for branded content. Known for its food and beverage content creation, Apple Pie comprises the husband-and-wife team of director/DP Gene Dubin and director/art director Alisa Volodina. In addition to representation, the move expands Apple Pie’s production capabilities through the combination of its centrally located full-service studio in New York and a newly established mobile studio in Los Angeles. Apple Pie recently teamed with Sinners and Saints on a Wienerschnitzel project created by Innocean.
“We believe that our dual studio strategy positions us uniquely in the competitive landscape of food and beverage storytelling,” said Heller. “By blending the artistry of the New York studio with the flexibility of our Los Angeles location, we can tailor our productions to meet the unique demands of each project, regardless of geography.”
“Working with Sinners and Saints in the demanding field of tabletop was an absolute pleasure,” shared Apple Pie Tabletop in a joint statement. “Warm welcome, unwavering support and dedication--everything a director can ask for. The entire experience was both enjoyable and rewarding. We will not miss an opportunity to collaborate with them again.”
“The first thing you notice is that Apple Pie has beautiful work,” Heller observed. “Having worked with them, I can say that Gene and Alisa are extremely meticulous and detail-oriented; their combination of talent and agility appeals to agencies and clients.” Also appealing to Heller is Apple Pie Tabletop’s brisk international... Read More