By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Dentler takes the stairs
SXSW PROGRAMMER MATT DENTLER HAS BEEN A MAJOR SUPPORTER OF JOE SWANBERG’S WORK and he’s interviewed the participants in the Chicago-based writer-director’s latest, Hannah Takes The Stairs, before its August 22 debut in New York via IFC First Take at the IFC Center. Dentler asked several bloggers to share the interviews, and Indie’s got an exchange with actor (and Guatemalan Handshake director) Todd Rohal. [There’s more at the film’s website.]
Writes Dentler: “On the eve of the theatrical debut of Joe Swanberg’s SXSW 2007 hit, I wanted to check in with each of the film’s principal collaborators. The film has been documented as a successful collaboration between acclaimed film artists from around the nation, each one offering their own trademark influence on the finished film.
DENTLER: How did you first get connected to Hannah Takes the Stairs?
ROHAL: I met Joe, Kevin, Kris and Tipper at the Independent Film Festival of Boston, where they, like most people at film festivals, assumed I was Mike Tully’s personal assistant because of the way I would stand just behind Mike Tully’s left shoulder and listen in on conversations. Adam Roffman, the director of IFFB, told me just before my screening that Joe had been saying that he really wanted to meet me. Much to his surprise, we had already been hanging out for three days. In his embarrassment he asked me to be in his new film, which was flattering, but far from made up for the pain that he caused me.
DENTLER: What do you remember most about the shoot in Chicago?
ROHAL: I slept on an air mattress next to Andrew Bujalski.
He would wake up in the morning and pull the plug on the end of the mattress, letting all of the air out while still laying on it. I loved seeing the sight of that every morning and think that there is no better way to get out of bed in the morning than to do that. You’re actually not getting out of bed, bed is getting out of you. I also remember everyone playing the Atari game Breakout way too much, and they were all amazingly good at it. I couldn’t get into it, but I did download the song “Breakout” by Swing Out Sister and played it while everyone was getting into that game. I don’t think I got any laughs for doing that, though. Kent Osborne’s late night penis trick performances became legendary for me. He is a national treasure.
DENTLER: How did the production process differ from your own other projects, or projects you’ve acted in before or since?
ROHAL: I make “movies,” Joe makes “films.” He reminds me of that every time I see him.
DENTLER: What are your thoughts on the issues of sex and relationships that come to the forefront of the film?
ROHAL: Sex seems like it’d be a fun time and I would someday like to try out a relationship, though both of them do seem a bit time consuming.
DENTLER: Ever been in a love triangle?
ROHAL: It wasn’t until my junior year of high school that I found out what a love triangle actually was…I thought it was the same thing as a three-way. So I wouldn’t rent movies that had mentions of love triangles in their synopsis for fear of getting caught bringing home a porno from Blockbuster. Which explains why I didn’t see “Days of Heaven until I was 17.
DENTLER: Did you ever work with “the stairs?” Any thoughts on why they didn’t make the cut?
ROHAL: “Some get the elevator, some get the shaft — Hannah Takes the Stairs” — a rejected tagline idea. [Matt Dentler.]