Interview: Lisa See of ‘Snow Flower and the Secret Fan’

Posted on July 15, 2011 at 10:26 am

Lisa See is the author of literary novel and book club favorite Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, the story of a deep and loving but sometimes conflicted friendship between two women in 19th century China. She spoke to me about what inspired her about women’s relationships and about how the story had to change when it was adapted for the screen. The movie opens today in some cities and and expands over the next few weeks across the country.

First, tell me what you think of the movie based on your book.

I really enjoyed the process. Of course I was nervous the first time I saw it but I really loved the movie. The part that is very true to the book is absolutely true to the book. The readers who read it will recognize certain scenes and characters and certainly all the emotions I had included. And there’s a modern element that has been added. It was not a part of my original book but it is a parallel story of friendship that I think will make viewers think about their own friendships. There are these two stories of different aspects of friendship that I think are pretty powerful.

Any adaptation of a book to a movie is a big move from the internal to the external and the addition of the modern story was a way to do that. What do you think the modern-day friendship story added?

That story is a little different, more a story of sacrifice in friendship and the consequences of sacrifice. What I really liked about the modern story in comparison to the original story set in the past is that it takes place in Shanghai right now, today. This is one of the biggest, most important cities now on the planet but one many people don’t know about. They were able to film in certain places where you and I would never be able to get to. For example there’s a nightclub scene. The club is called Shelter because it is in an old bomb shelter underneath the city of Shanghai. I thought, that’s so cool, I just love that, and how the old parts of the city are being torn down as all this modern life is going on.

Sometimes with Chinese stories, it can seem so much about this past, like costume drama or kung fu. But this combines a little of both, not just in the past but a continuum that brings these people right up to the present. Certainly now China is a global economic superpower and it is interesting to see that and Shanghai in particular in a way that has not really been seen in a film before.

How did you get interested in the issue of foot-binding and the ancient notion of laotong, or “old sames” to describe the deep and sustaining friendship between women — and are those two connected?

I had reviewed a book for the LA Times on the history of foot-binding. And in that book there was a three or four-page mention of a secret language. And I thought, how could that exist and I didn’t know about it? How could it exist and we all didn’t know about it? So often you hear that in the past there were no women writers, no women historians, there were women but supposedly they didn’t do anything. But here was an example of something women had invented and used. They had kept a secret for a thousand years. I was completely obsessed. But as I was doing the book and as I was doing the research I knew that I could not really write about this language and the relationships these women had without including foot-binding. It was part of why this even came about. It was a combination of illiteracy in men’s writing and the isolation caused by foot-binding that caused these women to first invent the secret language and then use it. This allowed them in a sense to fly out of their rooms, reach across the fields and find other women with whom they could connect, and how important that is for all women, whether in the past or in the United States today. We all have a need for friends or a friend with whom we can connect.

Both the ancient and the modern story in the movie are about friends who were pretty much assigned to each other. That seems different from our American notion of finding our own friends based on shared interests and perspectives.

Aren’t you thrown together by circumstance when you become friends? You’re in the same kindergarten or dorm or you work together or your kids are in the same class? They’re real circumstances, not artificial, but that’s how you meet. I know it’s in the book but in the film as well, that whole cultivation of a friend. Maybe you’re supposed to be friends and maybe you’ve just met them and would like to be friends but what is interesting is how you cultivate someone to become a friend. It is a kind of a courting, I suppose.

These friendships in the movie are so close. Is it possible to have that kind of closeness without impinging on your other relationships — your romantic relationship, your family?

You will tell your best friend things that you wouldn’t tell your boyfriend or your husband or your mother or your children. That doesn’t impinge on those relationships. It’s just different, a different kind of intimacy. The downside of that closeness is that it can leave you open to betrayal — just like any relationship.

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Interview: Allen Zadoff

Posted on July 12, 2011 at 8:00 am

Thanks to Allen Zadoff, author of the terrific new book, My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies, for answering my questions!

The actors and techies don’t speak to each other in your book, but one character says that in her other school, they are on friendlier terms. What is the more typical relationship, and why?

There are a lot of variations on the theme. In my novel, techies and actors are at war. That’s definitely the extreme. In a perfect world, techies and actors work together as part of the same team. It’s synergistic and there’s mutual respect. Think about Spiderman on Broadway. The actors’ survival literally depended on the tech crew! In many theater programs, actors are required to do some tech work, and techies will do at least a little acting. It’s much easier to respect someone when you’ve walked a mile in his shoes, right? In the real world, my experience is that there’s often a divide between the two cultures. I’ve been on both sides of it as actor and as stage manager. There’s tension, even if it’s unspoken. In My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies, I took that tension and magnified it.

The perspective of a lighting tech, hidden from the audience and looking down on the show, is something like the perspective of a writer and his characters and story. How did your experiences as a tech help your observation skills and insights as a writer?

My real observation skills come from being an overweight kid, a subject I wrote about in my first novel Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can’t Have. As a heavy kid, I was a loner and I spent a lot of time watching the world go by and fantasizing about what it would be like to join it. It made for a painful adolescence, but in hindsight, what better training to become a novelist? I drew on that experience as well as my theater background to create the characters in Life/Theater.

Adam and his best friend Reach have to renegotiate their relationship in the story. Is that an inevitable part of growing up?

I think when you’re a kid, relationships are on autopilot. (Wait, that’s true for a lot of adults, too!) You don’t examine the relationship; you just have it. Then something happens that shakes you up. Your friend falls in love. You have a fight. You lie. You get betrayed. Suddenly you wake up to the relationship, what it means in your life, and what you want from it. That moment of waking up could be called maturity.

What do you like about writing for a YA audience?

The YA audience is passionate in a way no other audience is. It’s not just the teens. It’s the librarians, the parents, the bloggers, the booksellers. They’re not YA readers. They’re YA fans and aficionados. I can’t think of a better audience with whom to share my books. I feel lucky to be a YA author.

What were the books and movies you most enjoyed as a teenager?

The films of John Hughes were very influential for me when I was a kid. “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, even Uncle Buck. (Oh, I miss John Candy.) Although I was a voluminous reader and could tell you all the novels I read and loved, these films were my YA. Funny, real, and heartbreaking. I try to capture those same dynamics in my novels.

You and Adam share initials — did any of the experiences in the book happen to you?

Here’s a little secret. I share initials with all my heroes. So I’ll just say this in response to your question. My first kiss happened in the theater. To everything else, I plead the Fifth.

Why did you choose “Midsummer Night’s Dream” for the play?

Actually, Midsummer chose me. It’s always mysterious where these things come from, and I was in the early stages of planning Life/Theater, trying out different plays, when Shakespeare popped into my head. I had the image of the lovers in Midsummer running through the forest in the dark, confused by shifting passions, shocked by sudden loss, unsure whether they were awake or dreaming. Those same themes were the ones I wanted to explore in the book. Here’s a little inside scoop for readers: Check out the chapter titles in the novel. Every one is a line (or phrase, or partial line) from Midsummer. I’ve used Shakespeare’s text in a very modern way, something like sampling in hip hop.

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Contest from Allen Zadoff of My Life in the Theater, and Other Tragedies

Posted on July 6, 2011 at 8:23 am

Allen Zadoff‘s terrific new book is My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies, about a high school theater techie (he works lights in a production of “Midsummer Night’s Dream”) who likes to stay behind the scenes until he meets a pretty transfer student who is suddenly put into one of the starring roles. It is funny, smart, and filled with authentic details and a lot of heart. You can win prizes for your own school theater group by uploading a picture of the book in a theatrical setting to the contest page. You might find yourself in the paperback edition! Stay tuned for an interview with Zadoff coming soon.

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Wonderstruck, a New Book by Brian Selznick

Posted on June 25, 2011 at 8:00 am

Award-winning author Brian Selznick has a trailer for his new book, Wonderstruck. His last book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret was an enthralling story inspired by the great George Melies that was told through alternating pictures and text. It is currently being filmed by Martin Scorcese. As you can see, in this book Selznick tells two different stories, one with pictures, one with words, and then brings them together. Can’t wait to see it.

http://vimeo.com/25236357

Many thanks to my friend Paul Zelinsky for bringing this to my attention.

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Interview: John Bengtson of Silent Visions, About Harold LLoyd

Posted on June 20, 2011 at 3:59 pm

John Bengston has tracked down the original locations for the three biggest comedy stars of the silent era. His books are a treasure trove for historians and film lovers, reminding us that these early films are not just masterpieces of comedy but also remarkable time capsules of early 20th century America. His Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd is a follow-up to his Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton and Silent Traces: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Charlie Chaplin. He is often able to show how particular locations appear over and over again — he even located both Harold Lloyd and Bruce Willis at the same place, seven decades apart. His blog about Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd is a treat. He was kind enough to answer my questions about Harold Lloyd and what he discovered in his research.

In his day, Harold Lloyd was as or more successful than Chaplin or Keaton. Why is he not as widely remembered today?

Harold Lloyd was immensely popular; as popular as Chaplin in many polls, and more prolific. As a result, Lloyd sold more tickets during the Golden Age of Comedy than any other comedian, and retired as one of Hollywood’s wealthiest men. Lloyd owned all of his films outright, and completely controlled their distribution. Lloyd was concerned about how his films would be received in later years, and did not want them shown cut up on television interrupted by beer commercials. So at a time when other silent comedians began enjoying a renaissance, Lloyd’s films were generally unavailable. The ironic consequence of Lloyd’s efforts to preserve his legacy was that it kept his films out of reach from a generation of film fans, breaking the chain of public recognition. For years then Lloyd’s films have not garnered the attention they deserved. Lloyd’s films are now available on DVD, and comedy fans unfamiliar with his work are in for a real treat.

Lloyd famously did his own stunts (usually without any safety equipment) and one early accident severely damaged his right hand. How did he compensate in his stunts and how did he camouflage the injury on screen?

Lloyd performed numerous stunt climbing sequences throughout his career, even though he only had one complete hand. In a freak accident, Lloyd lost nearly half of his right hand posing for a gag publicity photo by pretending to light a cigarette with the sputtering fuse of a fake bomb. Inexplicably the property bomb contained a real charge that discharged moments after Harold lowered it away from his face. Although the accident was news at the time, Lloyd worked hard to preserve the illusion that he was not injured, wearing a tightly fitted glove over a prosthetic thumb and finger when filming. Lloyd also cleverly staged scenes to favor his left hand, filmed mirror reflections of his left hand as his “right,” and used hand doubles for certain closeups. When posing for news photos in public, Lloyd usually adopted a causal stance with his right hand in his pocket.

Can you explain a little bit about your research techniques? What were your resources for tracking down buildings that no longer exist? Do any records exist from the making of the films?

When I began this research 15 years ago, I had little choice but to visit Southern California libraries and photo archives in person. Today I make most of my discoveries sitting at my home computer, hundreds of miles from Los Angeles. With the Internet it is now possible to search vintage photo archives, highly detailed real estate atlases and fire insurance maps, 1920s newspapers and telephone directories, and even historic aerial photos online. Further, with Google Street View and Bing Map’s Bird’s Eye View, one can hop across town to see how these film locations look today, without having to fight traffic.

When attempting to solve a location, I start with obvious things like street signs and the names of business establishments in the background. Sometimes the street will have an unusual curve, or a staggered intersection. The angle of the sun usually tells you the direction of the street, and landmarks such as trolley tracks, parks, and churches provide other clues. My only clue for discovering the church Buster Keaton used in Seven Chances (1925) was noticing that it stood at the southeast corner of a “T” intersection, but armed with a few vintage maps that was sufficient. I am now so familiar with how Los Angeles appeared in the 1920s that I can identify many scenes that contain no outward clues at all.

What did Lloyd look for in selecting locations? Did he use any more than once?

Lloyd’s favorite place to film was at Third and Grand, atop Bunker Hill in Los Angeles, where he filmed scenes for seven different movies, all just one block from the top end of the Angels Flight funicular railway. This charming neighborhood was completely obliterated during the 1960s urban redevelopment movement, and is now populated with glass office towers. The section of Third Street on Bunker Hill was situated above the Third Street Tunnel. Since through traffic could use the tunnel instead, it was convenient to shut down Third Street above the tunnel for filming chases and stunts.

Did many appear in films by other performers as well? You compare Lloyd’s use of the boat in Coney Island to Keaton’s — how did that reflect their different styles and approaches?

Los Angeles and especially Hollywood were still relatively small cities at the time Harold Lloyd began his film career in 1915. Because at the time there were only a limited number of commercial districts, residential neighborhoods, train stations, public parks, and so forth to choose from, it was common for the great silent comedians to cross paths when filming, almost by necessity.

Chaplin and Keaton filmed frequently in the Skid Row and Chinatown parts of town, while Lloyd filmed extensively in the bustling financial and business districts of downtown Los Angeles. This makes sense, as Lloyd played more of a middle-class Everyman character.

Was there one location that was especially tough to track down? How did you finally find it?

I visited New York 25 years ago, but did not travel there to research the book. I was able to confirm dozens of vintage New York City locations appearing in Harold Lloyd’s 1928 feature Speedy by using the Internet to cross-check vintage maps and archival photos with contemporary views on Google Street View. But some street scenes eluded me until I realized they were not filmed in New York at all, but were filmed on Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles instead. Speedy has several sequences where the film jumps back and forth between scenes filmed in the two cities. We’re not supposed to notice this. To me it makes me appreciate the skill of Lloyd and his talented crew even more.

Do you have a favorite Lloyd film or stunt? Who was his best co-star?

It would be difficult for anyone to surpass Harold hanging from the hands of a skyscraper clock in Safety Last! (1923). That sequence was filmed using a special set built on the roof of a tall building. Yet in a continuous shot from an earlier film, Ask Father (1919), Harold actually climbs the first three floors of the former International Bank Building in downtown Los Angeles.

Which buildings in his films still exist for people to visit (or to show up in current films and television) today?

Harold used eight different buildings in the Historic Core of downtown Los Angeles to film his various stunt climbing movies, seven of which are still standing. But the greatest number of surviving building locations, by far, stands along Rampart Boulevard between 3rd Street and 6th Street in Los Angeles, where Lloyd filmed several elaborate stunt/chase sequences appearing in For Heaven’s Sake (1926). The street is lined with two dozen or more apartment blocks all built between 1924-1924, and which are nearly all still standing.

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