LOVE AND HUMAN REMAINS
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Fraser adapted Love and Human Remains from his provocative two-act play. The work, which he began at age 26, is loosely inspired by his own life. "People in their 20's are moving into adulthood. They start to really question the relationships they have, who they're having them with, and why," explains Fraser. "Dealing with those concerns in my own personal life, I was, in a way, letting go of my 20's."
The play premiered in Calgary in 1989. Over the next four years, it was staged in at least 20 cities in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States -- most notably at New York's Orpheum Theater, where it had a solid three month run in 1991. Time Magazine voted it one of the top 10 plays of the year, noting that the piece "stunningly blends punk popular appeal and poetic power." The play subsequently was staged in Germany, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand.
In the Spring of 1991, director Denys Arcand and his producer, Roger Frappier, saw a stage production of "Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love" in Montreal. According to Arcand, "The characters and situations were so modern, so 'now,' that I instantly wanted to do it." He was struck by Fraser's style. "It was not at all written like a traditional play. It was more like a fugue -- the action was happening in 20 places simultaneously."
Producer Frappier, a longtime collaborator of Arcand, agreed. "I felt that an adaptation of the play, retitled Love and Human Remains, was to the people of the 90's what The Decline of the American Empire was to the people of the 80's," remarks Frappier, who secured the rights to the film. Love and Human Remains marks Arcand's first film in English. Although his six previous feature films were in his native French, he wished to remain true to Fraser's material. And Frappier, who had always wanted to make a film in English, finally found the right material to do so.
Fraser was signed to write the screenplay, and thus began several months of collaboration with one of Canada's most respected filmmakers. Arcand travelled frequently from Montreal to Calgary to nuture Fraser through his first screenplay.
"Denys taught me how to write a film," says Fraser. "He literally took me through the process from step one to the end, based on his experience and ideas of what a film should be. In essence, the film isn't different from the play in terms of its meaning, and the plot line is true to the play's characters. With Denys, however, the characters became a little warmer and less cynical. He also pushed me to give more depth and prominence to the female roles -- they have much more dimension than in the original."
Recalls Arcand, "I indicated to Brad what I liked about his play, what I thought was cinematic, what the pitfalls were, what to emphasize, and what to eliminate."
Typical of ArcandŒs films, Love and Human Remains features a hot ensemble cast including Thomas Gibson, Ruth Marshall, Cameron Bancroft, Mia Kirshner, Joanne Vannicola, Matthew Ferguson, and Rick Roberts.
Part of the play's appeal to Arcand is that the seven characters are so representative of young people he knows. "I wanted very young actors lost in a sea of contradictions, of challenges, of menace. And yet, at the same time, they hold on to each other. It's basically the kind of ensemble film I do."
"This one is about the relationship between seven people who have different lives. All their lives connect or intermingle at some point. It's about their love affairs, sexuality, work, theater,TV, discos -- an endless list of things which happen in an anonymous North American city in the 90's," explains Arcand.
Casting was critical to Arcand. "To create an interesting tension between the material and the characters, Denys was searching for personable, warm, and charming actors from the middle class, as opposed to those with a hard-edge street quality," says casting director Deirdre Bowen. The search for a cast took Arcand on a scouting mission throughout Canada and the United States. Over a two month period, he saw more than 500 actors, mainly between the ages of 17 and 30.
In addition to finding actors with charisma, Arcand gave four out of seven cast member their first break into film. "Denys has the courage to work with new talent. He never goes the safe way, but rather goes the way of the story, That's creation, that's art. It's why his films are so unique and don't look like work that has been done many times before," says Frappier.
The combination of a unique script and the opportunity to work with Arcand was a draw for the actors, who concur with Mia Kirshner when she says, "What makes Denys so brilliant is that he realizes if he gives the actors enough freedom, he'll have enough freedom to direct. He refined and modified, but he didn't dictate." Adds Ruth Marshall, "Denys lets the actors act. He's open to ideas and fosters a very comfortable atmosphere on the set, and he has a sense of humour."
To Arcand, "It's so much fun to work with actors who are young and want to do things rather than those who say, 'I'll be in my trailer, call me when the shot is set up.'"
Says director of photography Paul Sarossy, "There were two visual strategies for the film. The first was to create an unrelenting urban context -- a concrete and asphalt world -- for the story to take place. We avoided all evidence of nature, like vegetation. The other strategy was a state of perpetual camera movement, an idea Denys had as a method of mirroring the constant state of unease that the characters have in relation to the world and each other.
"We filmed in a found environment -- concrete freeways, over- and underpasses -- lit by green and harsh industrial lighting indigenous to those areas." Sarossy augmented that style of lighting to convey the inherent menace of the city. "The urban menace is something not only consistent with modern city life, but it's specifically relevant to the plot of Love and Human Remains.
Also important to the plot was the spare but ominous music composed by John McCarthy. Denys wanted two elements: the first was Grunge Rock, and the second was very spacey New Age music," explains McCarthy. "This is a wild score. It's got a lot of attitude, not a typical movie score. We took many chances with it."
Frappier concludes, "People want to see films that touch them, and like any of Denys' films, this one is funny and light and, at the same time, dramatic and deep. Denys likes to work on all those levels. He did it with The Decline of the American Empire and Jesus of Montreal, and he's done the same with Love and Human Remains.
