In our fourth and final dispatch from Telluride, The Frame host John Horn interviews Ethan Hawke and musician Seymour Bernstein. Hawke directed the documentary, "Seymour: The Introduction," chronicling Bernstein's devotion to teaching students to love music and overcome creative pitfalls. Telluride also saw the premiere of "The Imitation Game," a film about the WWII British code breaker Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), which already has Oscar buzz. We spoke with the film's writer, Graham Moore, both before and after the first public screening of his first produced screenplay. And we also chatted with the film's Norwegian director, Morton Tyldum, debuting his first English-language feature.
Telluride: How stage fright inspired Ethan Hawke's documentary, 'Seymour: An Introduction'
Actor Ethan Hawke is still riding high from the critical and popular success of "Boyhood," the indie epic directed by Richard Linklater that's currently in theaters.
But at the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend, Hawke took the stage in support of a very different film: his documentary directorial debut, the thoughtful "Seymour: An Introduction."
The film focuses on the veteran piano teacher Seymour Bernstein, who was already teaching others by age 15. The musical prodigy parlayed his career as a performer and his experience performing for military personnel during the Korean War into a life dedicated to teaching others to love music.
In the doc, Hawke explains how he met Bernstein by chance at a dinner party in Manhattan and found his insights into creative pitfalls such as stage fright to be enlightening. Hawke decided to try his hand at documentary filmmaking as a way to spend more time with Bernstein, who he'd grown to idolize.
"My first thought was somebody should do this," Hawke told The Frame. "When you spend a couple weeks [asking], Who? Who?! You start going, Well, maybe I should...I also have come to the point in my life where I've realized that our life is who we spend time with."
The Frame team met up with Hawke and Bernstein at the Telluride Opera House to talk about how Hawke's own stage fright was a major motivator in his decision to direct the documentary.
Interview Highlights
Hawke on tackling stage fright and fear:
"I talked to [Seymour] about being nervous, and how it felt like a terrible secret to me. It felt like somebody who knows what they're doing wouldn't be as nervous as I am. He said this thing that I know he says to a lot of students, he said that you have a right to be nervous. That this is important.
"I [once] did a play with Tom Stoppard [and] told him what a wreck I was. I confessed to him, 'Look, if I blow this tonight, just know it's not because I want to. I'm just incredibly nervous.' He said, 'Of course you're nervous, this is important' ... And he said, 'Look, I know this might make you more nervous, but I'm here to tell you I've lived 72 years and it is important. Tonight is important.' It was very similar to what Seymour had said to me, acknowledging that it's OK to be nervous."
Bernstein on his first conversation with Hawke:
"Let me put it this way, it was electricity that coursed through the both of us. I don't know who started the conversation, but in no time at all it centered on stage fright. I boldly asked Ethan — of course I'm older than he is, so I think that added to my boldness — 'What form does your stage fright take?' And he said, 'I have the feeling I'm going to stop talking.' Which means a memory slip.
"I told him this story about a famous violinist, Michael Rabin. He was one of America's most brilliant violinists. Unfortunately, he died in his 30s, but at the height of his career his accompanist, Mitchell Andrews, whom I knew, told me that Michael Rabin had a phobia that he was going to drop his bow, and it started to affect his concerts. So one night he arranged with his accompanist that at a certain measure he was going to let go of his bow. And he did.
"The audience stopped breathing. Michael picked up his bow and he said to himself, What do you know? I'm still alive! And he played the piece from the beginning, got over his phobia."
Bernstein on why the documentary isn't just about the art of music:
"I mentioned the book 'Zen And The Art of Archery,' which is about archery, but not really. It's about all art. There are a lot of conclusions one can draw from one art form to another. What became very obvious to Ethan during our conversation is that what we were talking about had not to do with acting or playing the piano, but with our lives itself (sic). That was the important thing.
"If it only gets confined to your art form, it's very minimized, you see. But when you can direct the disciplines to your art form, to your everyday life, that's when it really has an import. This is what Ethan set about doing when he made the documentary. He said very clearly to me, 'My intention is especially to telegraph to young people how a passionate involvement in an art form can not only influence the art form, but more importantly influence your life.'"
Telluride: 'The Imitation Game' screenwriter and director make a splash
As the lights came on after the world premiere of "The Imitation Game" at the Telluride Film Festival, writer Graham Moore turned his head to an audience in tears.
The film is about the British mathematician Alan Turing, who worked to break the German Enigma Machine — the encryption device that the Germans used for all communication during WWII.
Described as the "forefather of the computer," Turing was later prosecuted for his homosexuality during the 1950s and was chemically castrated. He passed away a couple years later from cyanide poisoning and was briefly forgotten for his work.
The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing, and after its successful debut this past weekend it's getting considerable Oscar buzz. The Frame's John Horn interviewed Graham Moore at the Denver Airport on his way to the festival and talked with him after the screening of his first-ever produced screenplay.
Horn also got nice and cozy with Norwegian director Morten Tlydum as they talked about the film — his first English-language feature — in the Telluride Hotel's steam room.
Interview Highlights
Moore on why he wanted to write about Alan Turing:
"I had wanted to write about Alan Turing since I was probably 14, 15 years old. I've always been obsessed with him. I was not the coolest of kids. I was a huge computer nerd. I went to computer camp, I went to space camp. Alan Turing is this object of intense and passionate fascination because, among his claims, he arguably invented the computer. The way he broke the German enigma machine is that he and his compatriots built this machine that no one had ever built before, which is essentially the predecessor to the modern computer...I have always wanted to write about him."
Tyldum on why Turing's sexual orientation caused him to be forgotten:
"He was convicted for being gay and had to choose between prison and chemical castration — which is horrible in any way. It would be an injustice to anyone to be treated that way just because of their sexuality. But because of that, he was ridiculed. All his theories weren't taken that seriously and he became more or less forgotten."
Tyldum on the importance of being different:
"What drew me to the project is that it's a tribute to people who are different — who are thinking differently, who [don't] really fit into the norm, whose ideas are not like anybody's ideas — and I think that is so important. We as a society — we as a species — if we're going to move forward, we have to listen to those who think different — who are not seeing it in the same way as everyone else."
How writer Moore felt before and after the world premiere:
"When the movie started, I was pretty sure I was going to vomit. I was inches from it. I was gripping the seat and Nora [Grossman], our producer, was sitting next to me and she was holding my hand and saying, 'Calm down, calm down." Every time I heard a cough, I snapped my head [wondering], Why is someone coughing? Are they bored? Do they not like it? And then, as soon as the lights come up and you turn around and there's 600 sobbing people. It's like, Oh! Oh, it worked! Good!"
How has the 'Oscar buzz' affected Tyldum and his cast and crew?:
"People are seeing this as an award contender. I'm very honored by it and it's very flattering, but to be quite honest, it's not why we made this movie. This movie was just something that we all just felt the need to make and whatever comes of it would be a pleasant surprise."
Moore on what people in the industry expect about this film:
"Our movie was edited by a wonderful man named Billy Goldenberg, who won the Oscar for 'Argo.' Very early on, when I first met him, he was talking through the awards experiences he had had and the experiences he had in 'Argo,' and he had one rule: 'I don't want to hear the 'O' word. If you say the 'O' word in my office you are out. That was the rule in "Argo" and that is the rule here, too." You just can't [think about awards]. If your mind goes to it, it just screws with your head and you just need to focus on, like, watching the movie and enjoying the movie, making the movie everything that we wanted it to be."