|
Sunday, October 12, 2003
Empire state
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||||||||||||||
 |
Also on this page: 'EMPIRE FALLS' - THE FILM | |||||||||||||||||
Catherine Rancourt has lived in Waterville for all of her 78 years and worked at the C.F. Hathaway shirt factory for 42. So it's safe to say she never expected Paul Newman to walk in her front door. But it happened. Last Monday. "I've got a real nice picture of him," said Rancourt, with a trace of a French accent. "It was funny to see him so gruffy looking, for the movie, with the white beard all straggly and the long hair. But you see those blue eyes and you know who it is." Newman paid Rancourt a visit Monday because location scouts for the HBO film "Empire Falls" had picked her Water Street home for a scene that takes place in a church rectory. It was a convenient choice, since they were filming at a church next door. Because the movie people redecorated a bit, Rancourt got new curtains and a new bedspread. And she'll get paid as well, though she doesn't know how much and she doesn't care. "I've been looking at movies all my life and now I've got them making one in my house," said Rancourt. This is the type of thing that's been happening all over Maine since filming for "Empire Falls" began Sept. 8. The film, based on Camden resident Richard Russo's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, has electrified Maine towns and the people who live there in a way that the handful of other major films shot here have not. The excitement will continue through the fall, as the film is scheduled to be shooting until at least Nov. 20. Russo says "Falls" basically tells a story of working people in a mill town. Specifically, Maine working people. And when filming is complete, their fingerprints will be all over it. For one thing, so many more local people are involved in this film then was the case with others shot here recently, such as "In the Bedroom" with Sissy Spacek, or "Message in a Bottle" with Kevin Costner. More than 2,600 locals are being used as extras, 650 of those for a big football game scene at Skowhegan Area High School. The football teams and bands from Skowhegan and Waterville high schools will be included in those scenes. And several Mainers have been plucked from obscurity and tossed into speaking roles, going toe to toe with major stars. "I was standing there with Ed Harris, Aidan Quinn and Paul Newman and thought 'Oh my God, I'm the only non-famous person in this room,' " said Tim Ryan, 38, of Freeport, who has about seven lines as the alcoholic Empire Grill worker Brian (Buster in the book.) "But they've all been great. Ed was very helpful in getting me to calm down and talk naturally. Aidan tells me about proper movie etiquette, about when to talk to the director and when not to. Things like that." Another difference is that this film is being shot in working-class, slightly worn and non-touristy places like Skowhegan, Waterville, Winslow and Norridgewock, where people are extremely excited to have Hollywood come to town. Most big films that come to Maine usually shoot on the picturesque coast, where seaside homeowners and summer people are not always happy to have the landscape taken over by camera crews. "In the Bedroom," for instance, was filmed around Camden while "Message in a Bottle" was made in New Harbor and on Popham Beach. "This is just something that never happens here, so of course it's exciting," said Pat Dickey, town manager in Skowhegan. "And the (film crew) has been encouraging people to come watch. My secretaries got to meet all the actors today. They've been encouraging things like that." That's been another big difference. Other movies made in Maine have closed off entire blocks or streets so crowds couldn't get near the filming. When the "Empire Falls" crew filmed some Martha's Vineyard scenes in Kennebunkport in mid-September, crowds of onlookers were politely asked to stand 50 or 100 feet away, and even to move when they might be in a shot. Harris, who plays the main character of Miles Roby, shook hands and chatted with fans on the way to shooting a scene in the tiny town of Norridgewock. Actor William Fichtner, who plays Empire Falls police officer Jimmy Minty, has been seen driving around with his real-life counterparts in Skowhegan and Waterville to get a feel for Maine police officers. Some of the teen actors in the film spent a day shadowing students at Waterville High School, for the same reason. Russo's novel is about life in a run-down Maine mill town where the main employer, a shirt factory, has closed. Newman, who starred in the film version of Russo's "Nobody's Fool," is one of the producers of the film. Russo was teaching writing at Colby College in Waterville when he wrote the book, and says he based the town of Empire Falls on a combination of several mill towns in central Maine, including Waterville and Skowhegan. Waterville, for instance, has a closed shirt factory (C.F. Hathaway) as does Empire Falls. The towns of Waterville and Skowhegan have the physical characteristics described in the book, from riverfront factories to old brick buildings downtown to turn-of-the-century housing. Still, Russo says there was no guarantee the filmmakers would pick Maine as the location. The production company, Falls Films Inc., considered Canada because it's so much cheaper to film there and Connecticut because it's close to New York City, where so many film professionals are based. Russo, who lives in Camden now, plays down his role in getting the film made here. He said he asked the location people to look at Maine before deciding where to make the film, and he even drove them around in central Maine to see factories and main streets and downtowns. "I think Maine really sold itself. When we pulled into Skowhegan, the location scouts knew that was the place," said Russo. "They loved the quirkiness, that the streets weren't in a grid, that they followed the river. And they fell in love with places like Waterville and Winslow too." The Maine Film Office, based in Augusta, began working to bring "Empire Falls" here more than a year ago. Greg Gadberry, the assistant director, said his office scouted and photographed locations in towns such as Madison, North New Portland, Kingfield, Old Town and Guilford. They sent the photographs to Falls Films Inc., hoping to convince them that Maine was the right setting. The Maine Film Office tries to get films here because of the economic boost, as well as the tourism boost films often bring. Gadberry said his office often gets calls from tourists who saw a film made in Maine, and want to know where it was shot. And though Gadberry doesn't know yet how much the filmmakers will spend in Maine, he estimates that a film of this size could create an economic impact of about $250,000 a day. That includes money spent directly by the film company on local products and services, and money spent later by those local businesses. The film office estimated that "Message in a Bottle" generated a $16 million economic impact in the state, and Gadberry thinks this film will generate at least that much. The old mill town of Skowhegan is one of the centers of filming, since that's where the Empire Grill, run by main character Roby, is located. The filmmakers bought out Patrick's Pizza Joint on Water Street for three months, and have turned its façade and interior into the Empire Grill. An apartment across Water Street is being used for Roby's apartment. Some of the shooting has been on Water Street, so part of the downtown has been blocked off at times. Some merchants have complained about losing business those days, some saying they lost thousands of dollars in revenue. "We didn't anticipate the magnitude of the filming; it's taught us a lot about our traffic patterns," said Dickey, the Skowhegan town manager. "Now people know maybe to take a side street instead of driving right down (onto Water Street.)" When the film is shown, on HBO in 2005 and perhaps in theaters as well, Mainers will be on the lookout for themselves and people they know. Jim Wright, a well-known CMP lineman who does TV commercials about power lines ("No line is safe to touch. Evah.") will be an extra in a bar scene. Kaile Warren, who gained national fame for creating the catchy name Rent-A-Husband for his Portland-area handyman business, will play a contractor. Tony Takacs, a teenager who lives on a dairy farm in Albion, landed a role as a classmate of Roby's daughter, Tick. Carol Jowdry, a retired teacher from Augusta, spent five days as an extra, pretending to be a customer at the Empire Grill in Skowhegan. Like all the extras, she got $6.75 an hour. "It's something I'll treasure," Jowdry said of her experience. At Waterville High School, a key scene involving Tick Roby is being shot in an art class. Several students are involved as extras, and one, junior Ryan Cook, has become a general helper on the set. He sets up equipment, holds umbrellas over the actors heads, whatever needs to be done. Scott Phair, the principal of Waterville High, also helped arrange for many of his students to be involved in the big football game scene at Skowhegan High. That scene was supposed to be shot this week, but has been postponed to an unspecified date. Phair thinks it is a great learning opportunity for his students to be involved in a film, and he says he'll approve absences for students who take time off to be in a scene. When a parent asked him skeptically about approving such absences, Phair responded that this was "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." "Maybe if there was a movie being made in Waterville I'd have to rethink this," said Phair. "This is something unique, this is something they'll remember a long time." Phair says he's been impressed with how open and welcoming the crew has been when they come to the high school to film. The crew numbers at least 150 people overall, and about a third of those are from New England. Phair, who gets to say a few lines as a baseball coach in the film, also appreciates the attention to detail on the film. The crew tape-recorded an interview with him, for instance, so cast members could study his Maine dialect and patterns of speech. "Frankly, it's not what I expected, I envisioned people in fur coats coming in here telling us what to do," said Phair, a Waterville native. "But everyone's been down to earth." This doesn't surprise Russo. He says the cast and crew of the film are not only good at what they do, they understand the spirit of his Maine-based story. "The actors have really taken to the area and to the people," said Russo. "I think the (openness) goes along with the spirit of the book, it's not standoffish. It's a book about working people."
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:
|
||||||||||||||||||
