Johnson’s first feature, “Brick,” a high school mystery infused with the conventions of hard boiled detective fiction, earned a Special Jury prize for originality of vision from the Sundance Film Fest. With “The Brothers Bloom” Johnson puts his unique spin on another classic genre.
Among the films that captured Johnson’s prodigious imagination as a youngster were comedies like “The Sting” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” stories about professional charmers whose livelihood depends on staying one step ahead of everyone else. “I’ve always wanted to take a crack at that kind of comedic escapade,” he says. “I gradually developed a story about these two brothers and a woman they meet. Eventually it evolved into a film about storytelling and the way we use storytelling in our lives.”
Sweeping Canvas
The larger-than-life characters he created inspired Johnson to set the action against sweeping canvas that takes the protagonists to a number of exotic locales around the world. “It became a big adventure, traveling across Europe,” says Johnson.
Armchair Traveler’s Romanticism
“I didn’t really start traveling until a little later in life, so I have an armchair traveler’s romanticism about Europe, which I got out in this movie. We have steamer ships across the Atlantic and trains through the Hungarian mountainside and ports in Greece and gritty alleyways in St. Petersburg–all sorts of highly romanticized stuff that has much more to do with an American’s fantasy of Europe.”
Because “Brick” was well received, Johnson was able to skip one of the most grueling parts of the development process. “We never really pitched ‘The Brothers Bloom’ says Ram Bergman, producer on both pictures. “We really didn’t need to–we just said, “it’s about con men in adventure around the world. That was it. People read it, they loved “Brick,” or even if they didn’t love “Brick,” they appreciated Rian’s talent and they wanted to be in business with him.”
Being in Command
When he read Johnson’s first film, Bergman felt that he had found truly original talent. “But you don’t really know how talented somebody is until you actually work with them. From the first shot, he was in command and knew exactly what he wanted. It was the first movie where I said, ‘I don’t really need to be here. The director knows what he’s doing.’ The most amazing thing is he’s also the nicest guy in the world. That combination is a rare thing.”
“The Brothers Bloom” is a production of Endgame Films, the company behind such eclectic projects as Hotel Rwanda and I’m Not There. “We were lucky to be able to read Rian’s script early on and absolutely fell in love with it,” says James Stern, Endgame’s chief officer. “We immediately knew we wanted to do this. “What drew me to it is the way in which the movie ebbs and flows,” he adds. “You think it’s one thing and it turns into something else.
It has the ability to be both incredibly charming and funny and entertaining, and also to really be about something. The locations are wonderful and exotic, and feel like something from the old day–like Hitchcock. The characters, story and fabulous cast were really the primary impetus to want to do the film.”
Clarity of Characters
Wendy Japhet, president of production at Endgame, says although she reads many scripts in the course of her job, “The Brothers Bloom” stood out. “The intelligence of the writing, the uniqueness of the comedic voice and the thematic optimism blew me away,” she says. “Rian has great clarity about the characters, why they’re doing what they’re doing and what the journey means.
“The film has its own voice and its own world,” according to Japhet, whose executive producer credits include “The Italian Job” and Without a Paddle. “It’s got tremendous warmth and humor. I respond to movies that make you feel something and when I read the script, I laughed and I cried. I could envision this incredibly beautiful environment for these eccentric characters to exist in. I also could imagine my daughter really responding to the movie, because I think it has an unusual sort of female empowerment subtext to it that I personally really liked.”
Unique Vision
One of Bergman’s first decisions as producer was to rule out making “The Brothers Bloom” under the auspices ofa studio. “My role is to protect Rian’s vision,” he says. “And his vision is so unique that you really want to make sure he gets the freedom to achieve it. His first film worked because he was able to make his own movie. He did everything. He edited, he wrote it, he directed it, he had final cut. We made it independently so Rian could do what he really wanted to do and deliver a Rian Johnson movie.”
Japhet, who has worked within the studio system, says an indie company gives her the opportunity to work with filmmakers who have a point of view. “Rian is an example of the kind of filmmaker we really wanted to embrace and nurture and give opportunity to at Endgame,” she says. “And it just so happened that we were very lucky, timing-wise, and he had the script for his next film and we got our little mitts on it.”
Shooting in Eastern Europe
Shooting in multiple locations in Eastern Europe can take a toll on cast and crew, but according to James Stern, Bergman ran one of the calmest sets he had ever been on. “I love working with Ram,” he says. “Films are never easy and it’s a real tribute to Rian and Ram that this shoot went so smoothly. You do a lot of films before you find people at that level.”
For his directing debut, Johnson turned a mystery set in a Southern California high school into a classic film noir with hardboiled investigator and tough talking dames. With Brothers Bloom, the filmmaker again transcends genre by taking the comic adventures of a pair of modern fortune hunters into the realm of magical realism.
“We created our own world, because the movie operates almost entirely within the world that Stephen, the older brother, creates,” says the director. “It’s this magical world where everything’s a little bigger than life and Stephen very purposely adds levels of romanticism to it to draw in Penelope.
Johnson grew up making short films with his friends and family. “It’s how I got through adolescence,” he says. “On family vacations, my cousin Nathan, my brother Aaron and I would all get together and make a family movie. We would grab a video camera and spend the entire vacation monopolizing our little cousins’ time making them be the cast in this movie that we were making. We accumulated maybe a dozen of them over the years, because every family vacation we wasted making a movie.”
Grabbing a Camera
“Filmmaking has never been something I’ve approached from a professional perspective separate from the people around me and my life,” says Johnson. “It should always feel like you’re grabbing a camera and making a movie with your friends.
Making this one, which had a bigger budget than “Brick” and was shooting at all these locations, one of the main things I was worried about is would it still be able to have that feel.” In an effort to recreate that spontaneous atmosphere on the set, Johnson brought in some adopted family. “All the actors from “Brick,” who I love and are part of the family now, were able to be in the scene that introduces the brothers as adults. They play the cast from the brothers’ previous enterprise.”
Setting the Mood
Bergman describes the film’s hierarchy as a pyramid, with the director perched on top. “Rian sets the mood. People respect him because he’s original and he knows what he wants, which is a rare combination. For him it’s like there’s no difference between making Bloom, Brick or a movie with his family. He welcomes everyone’s input, but he makes the choices. He’s just a purely nice guy with no ego. I know I’ll be the happiest person in the world if I can make a movie with Rian every year or every two years, whenever he wants to make one.”
Johnson recognizes this as the largest endeavor he’s undertaken to date. “It’s a big, globetrotting adventure and the world is eccentric and funny, but there’s a lot of stuff in there. I’ve definitely gotten quite a lot out of the creation of it. I like that it ties everything together at the end, but not necessarily the way one would expect a con man movie to.”
Sense of Play
The film’s charm is in Stephen and Bloom’s ability to maintain the sense of humor and fun that defined their play as children, when they began to spin their fantastical tales. “I wanted to make a movie that is essentially very good-hearted,” the director says. “It’s about life being this grand story that you can tell. We can’t control what the world gives us, but we can control how we tell it back to ourselves, our story. And if you tell it well, and tell it as a beautiful worthwhile adventure, in a way that’s what you can make your life into.”
“We all get into this business to be able to do special things,” observes producer Stern. “This is a very special film. It’s Rian’s film. It doesn’t fit into some cookie-cutter and its brand of humor is not straight ahead. It’s got its own unique language. It’s a film that has real depth and heart, the kind of which people are going to talk about for years and years.”
