Like if someone is lost, he'll go and find them. He's one of those dogs that rescues people. SB: I have not seen that film for many many years.ĪKT: It has its 20th anniversary, that's why I was talking to him about that. Always kind of getting from one place to the other.ĪKT: So it's not actually that different from Whit Stillman's walking and talking and here the bikes. And reveal different things and learn different things about each other. And that's when you had those conversations. You go everywhere on your bike, with friends, with stuff you carry. And reveal different things and learn different things about each other."ĪKT: It's universal, childhoods take place on bikes.ĪKT: I could identify very much. Simon Baker on Pikelet (Samson Coulter) and Loonie (Ben Spence) on their bike rides: "You would just talk about stuff. Roughly it sort of spans for Pikelet - it is like 13 1/2 to about 17 by the end, 16, 17. I guess you see the kids grow up, really. I just wanted the production design tell that story. Basically I hate putting numbers on screens and saying it's 19 whatever. I noticed a plate in a car in your film, stating 1978. It's quite different, although the time frame is similar. SB: Look at you, you got a book of notes!ĪKT: These are for Whit Stillman, actually, whom I just interviewed.ĪKT: About The Last Days Of Disco. Like, is he stuck and drowned or is he.ĪKT: … alive, yes, and we don't even know who that is.ĪKT: The theme of fear and death is already there. More so to create this slight sense of foreboding in the opening sequence. Simon Baker: Yeah, it was sort of an interesting way to enter into a film. Simon Baker on Samson Coulter's character: "Roughly it sort of spans for Pikelet - it is like 13 1/2 to about 17 by the end, 16, 17." We are thinking: Is this two boys? Is it a boy and a girl? Is it a boy and a mermaid? Is it a merman? Who are they? It's a fantastic way to start this story. Simon Baker discerningly doesn't shy away from the tragic dimension we sense in Breath from the very first shot but for whose confirmation we have to wait until the final die is cast.Īnne-Katrin Titze: You must have put a lot of thought into the beginning and how you wanted to start with the swimming bodies. Much is communicated by a well-placed gesture, the choice of a cup, a nap on the veranda or a fishing trip declined only to later be accepted. This is a story of fathers and sons, friendships and betrayals, boredom and excitement, sea monsters and seduction, choosing who one wants to be like and the very different process of becoming it. Mr Pike (Richard Roxburgh) likes to pot plants, whereas Loonie's dad (Jacek Koman) has a cruel streak that puts him in an altogether more hazardous category. The boys are fascinated by Sando's world, as both see in him an alternative role model to their respective fathers. Sando (Baker), a surfing champion, lives in what could be described as an enchanted, slightly disheveled tree house for grownups with his girlfriend Eva (Elizabeth Debicki), a former professional skier, and their unwavering dog Rooster. Riding bikes on dusty roads, catching waves among presupposed sharks, and growing up to become a man - large universal truths peek out from underneath the realism in depicting the boys' lives. Baker's directing heart beats for authenticity. Two boys, Pikelet (Samson Coulter) and Loonie (Ben Spence) live in a small, spread out, Western Australian coastal community in the Seventies. Death and water in the old romantic tradition float together hand in hand. People who feel they have nothing to lose can make for dangerously captivating friends. Simon Baker is Sando with Loonie (Ben Spence) and Pikelet (Samson Coulter): "The sweater that I wear, the gray one? My mom knitted that! " Simon is also in Fabien Constant's Blue Night, starring Sarah Jessica Parker with Jacqueline Bisset, Renée Zellweger and Gus Birney.Įlizabeth Debicki (who was in Jean Genet's The Maids at Lincoln Center with Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert), Richard Roxburgh, Rachael Blake, and newcomers Samson Coulter and Ben Spence are directed by Simon Baker in his beautifully subtle film adaptation, co-written with Gerard Lee, of Tim Winton's novel Breath. When Simon joined us I told him that I had just come from an interview with Whit Stillman on the 20th anniversary of The Last Days Of Disco. The Mentalist star Simon Baker with Anne-Katrin Titze on the evolution of Tim Winton's Breath, adapted by Baker and Gerard Lee, to become his directorial debut: "I was given the novel by my producing parter Mark Johnson, seven or eight years ago now, just to sign on as a producer." Photo: Denise SinelovĪt the Crosby Street Hotel in SoHo before meeting with Simon Baker for a conversation on his film Breath, I was greeted by Pepper, his agent's lovely dog, who is also friendly with Ben Mendelsohn.
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