Roberta and Chris Hanley of MUSE Films.Remember the scene in “American Psycho” where Christian Bale dissected the greatness of Huey Lewis and the News as he bludgeoned his pal to death to the song “Hip to Be Square”? What about the picture of Christina Ricci, as the willing victim, perched on the lap of Vincent Gallo, playing the degenerate kidnapper you could empathize with in “Buffalo 66″? These indelible indie film moments and more were largely brought to you by Chris and Roberta Hanley of MUSE Films.
For 20 years, the Hanleys have optioned books, commissioned screenplays, and enlisted directors and other talent based on their skill rather than their bankability. “The Virgin Suicides,” Sofia Coppola’s directorial debut, was a MUSE project. So was “Freeway,” Matthew Bright’s 1996 film starring a then-aspiring young actress named Reese Witherspoon.
While their professional base is a Frank Gehry-designed house in Venice, Calif., this international couple often divide their time between homes in Kenya and England. This week, the Hanleys are at the Cannes Film Festival (having just arrived from location in Vienna) in support of several new projects, the highly anticipated Fernando Meirelles film, “360,” among them.
What are the key ingredients in a MUSE film?
A MUSE film must show some aspect of reality in a true way. It must be provocative. It can be subversive, and although that is not a necessary ingredient it often becomes that in our focus on showing real life in ways that perhaps a new point of view is achieved.
What do you and Roberta bring to the table in terms of world-view, culture, experience that make your projects interesting?
Roberta and I have always supported the professions of exploring life using the expression of defining oneself as an “artist”. We have always been influenced by literary authors having spent time with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Paul Bowles, John Ashbery, Ken Kesey…after studying literary works at university and also the films of Bergman, Fellini, Anotonioni, Louis Malle, Truffaut, alongside “Casablanca,” and “Star Wars.” In fact, I studied “Deep Throat” in the art department of Amherst College as a cultural phenomenon having its origin in art. And Roberta was always doing plays, video works, screenplays and directing…which she still does for the company today.
In NYC we worked with musicians, early video artists, and ran in the art world with Andy Warhol, whose filmmaking produced short black and white works with Gerard Malanga; as “Heat,” “Trash” and “Chelsea Girls” directed by Paul Morrissey sat beside films such as “Star Wars” as cultural contributions.
Evolving into film from 10 years of electronic music, nascent rap and rebel rock through my recording studio in NYC, with nights screening movies like “Grease II” with Andy Warhol, Roberta and I followed a path to Los Angeles to pursue combining literature, art and music in popular filmmaking. I continued meeting authors like Bret Easton Ellis (“American Psycho”), Jeff Eugenides (author of “The Virgin Suicides” who later went on to win the Pulitzer for “Middlesex”), A.M. Holmes, and top screenwriters in Roger Avary and Matthew Bright. This background led to the lineup of now over 32 produced movies, often having underlying literary works from which the films are derived.
How long have you been coming to Cannes?
I first came to Cannes in my 20s straight out of the music video world — it was May 1988. I know as I was with Chet Baker on the beach and (photographer) Bruce Weber who had a movie about a boxer in Cannes… and Chet had played live. Chet rolled out of a window in Amsterdam only a few days later.
Then in 1991, Roberta and I started to go again every year as we entered the film business full time as producers. So basically 20 years. We have always been closely associated with Cannes. Perhaps most for Hotel du Cap having to close the gates for the first time in 1997 as things started to get a bit out of hand.
How would you describe the festival experience – then and now?
Cannes is wild every year. I can only say its been a roller coaster ride every year, with some years at the top of the roller coaster, and some sliding off the top about to scream down.
What was the first film you brought to the festival and how was it received?
“Trees Lounge” was in the festival with Steve Buscemi’s directorial debut, and it was fantastic that we had our NYC group of actors in Cannes. Everyone was received with fanfare.
This year, which films are you representing?
This year the film we are following up with is Fernando Meirelle’s “360.” It’s not in the festival, as it’s wrapping photography on the 20th. It has Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Rachel Weisz, Ben Foster and other really cool serious actors. The screenwriter Peter Morgan wrote this screenplay, which interlaces personal stories of the forming and breaking and maintaining of emotional bonds between people in a grayish modernity of hotels, airports and interiors of Mercedes town cars… jails even. It takes place in Minneapolis, Paris, London, and Vienna.
Meirelles and Peter made it to Cannes last Saturday for a day to meet the various territorial distributors… you know, a party! Then jumped back on the plane to finish the shoot.
We have other films that are being promoted that are about to shoot such as Nick Cassavetes’s personal passion project “Yellow,” which is shooting in Oklahoma now. Then the Linda Lovelace story “Inferno,” with writer/director Matthew Wilder, which shoots in July with Matt Dillon as Chuck Traynor and Malin Akerman as Linda Lovelace. We are promoting other projects from literary works such as the Martin Amis novel “London Fields” and also Nick McDonell’s novel “Expensive Education.”
How does “360” reflect what you and Roberta believe in, in terms of filmmaking?
The “360” project is serious stuff. It was a director we really, really wanted to work with — we have wanted to do something with Fernando Meirelles since we saw 60 seconds of the (then) yet to be completed “City of God.” We had some drinks and kept in touch all these years and then KABOOM, “360” fell on our lap, and we went for it!
Will you be back at Cannes next year?
If the world is around next year, and it looks promising since its been going for a while, the Cannes tradition we have always been a part of we will be part of again. Let’s see how it goes until then… life is hard.