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June 12, 2006
Shameless Podcast Tease: Toback, Jarecki Talk 'The Outsider'
The Reeler passed through Tribeca last week to have a word with filmmakers Nicholas Jarecki and James Toback (right), the latter of whom is the featured subject of the former's new documentary The Outsider (opening Friday at Cinema Village). The good news is that our chats will make up the latest Reeler podcast once--and here is the bad news--they are finally finished.
Meanwhile, I have compiled a few of the key moments you have to look forward to:
TOBACK ON HIS SPRAWLING WEB OF FRIENDS: "When you go through the basement into the abyss--which is what happened when I flipped out on LSD when I was 19--when you lose yourself, you know how absurd it is to put unnatural walls up between you and the rest of humanity or society. And think, 'Well, who is this person?' Or, 'Who is that person?' You have an ongoing awareness of the interconnectedness of humanity, and that you could connect just as easily with some stranger on the street in five seconds as someone you've know your whole life. You don't need the formailty of structural introduction and all that in order to move through life, because you've been stripped of your own illusions of self."
JARECKI ON DISCOVERING (AND SHARING) THE TOBACK COSMOPOLIS: "I certainly was not a part of that world when I started. I got sucked into it. I rememeber one of the first things I read was when Jim kept a diary--for a film journal called Projections--of a year of his life when he was trying to make Harvard Man. ... It was like, basically, he was walking down the street, and then he'd give a homeless guy a quarter, and then all of the sudden Woody Allen would walk around the corner and be like, 'Toback!' And then he'd grab a coffee and go home and Robert Downey Jr. would call. And I was like, 'Who the hell lives like this?' "
TOBACK ON NOT COMPROMISING: "It never occurred to me to second guess my own instincts, taste or judgment. And when I would watch friends of mine who were not only second-guessing themselves, but flipping on anything from a team they rooted for in sports to a movie they would see to a person they would like and then, all of the sudden, dislike because two friends of theirs disliked the person. It never, from the time I can remember, occurred to me to change my opinion because someone else thought I should, or someone told me to, or I knew that I was supposed to in some vague way."
TOBACK ON DIRECTING BOTH KLAUS AND NASTASSJA KINSKI: "I have to say, it was quite a trick of personality ... to connect with both of them when they were at such profound odds--more Nastassja aganst Klaus than vice versa. Klaus always wanted a sort of rapprochement, if only on his terms. Nastassja had a real rage towards him. In fact, I always told her that she should get close with him, becaue if he died, she would realize that it was too late and she would wish that she had. And I said, 'You should find a way of getting over what you're feeling and reconnect with him in some way, because the first thought you have after he dies will be "I wish I had." ' And the first time I saw her after he died, she said, 'You were wrong.' "
Of course, Toback's responses are even more stirring when they include sound of him consuming his lunch while he talks. Unfortunately, my software does not have a filter for "chewed food"--like I'd use it anyway. The keyword is "endearing," and if you don't believe me, come back later this week to hear for yourself. The tape does not lie.
(Photo: Green Room Films)
Posted by stvanairsdale at June 12, 2006 04:07 PM
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