DVD - Edmond

Synopsis:
"You are not where you belong," says the fortuneteller, and Edmond (William H. Macy) begins his descent into a darkly funny yet horrifying modern urban hell in this compelling film, written by David Mamet and directed by Stuart Gordon.

The encounter with the fortuneteller has caused bland businessman Edmond to confront the emptiness of his life and marriage. His wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) complains that the maid broke a lamp, and this seems to be the last straw, prompting him to flee the safe boredom of his home for the vortex of the dark streets of the city.

The strangely liberating act of leaving his wife tilts Edmond into a free-fall that he mistakes for freedom, although he certainly now feels alive. Stumbling into a local bar, Edmond meets a man (Joe Mantegna ) who convinces him that sex is what he needs to solve his problems and points him in the right direction.

To Edmond’s surprise, hookers are expensive, the pimp (Lionel Mark Smith) he encounters is violent, and the guy running a three-card monte game on the street is a cheat. Still, he wanders the streets, encountering big-city night crawlers, until finally he is robbed and beaten and left bewildered. "We live in a fog, we live in a dream," he declares. Screeching racial hatred, Edmond finds a kind of peace in living in that moment.

Feeling freed, he goes home with a waitress, Glenna (Julia Stiles), but their riotous sex play leads to some very deep conversation. The two engage in a discussion about the meaning of race, death, life, and honesty. When the honesty topic is explored, Glenna refuses to engage, causing Edmond intense turmoil. He asks her, begs her, to rely on honesty, but instead pandemonium ensues.

As Edmond spirals on towards personal disintegration, his racism and homophobia emerges – and he freely expresses it. "Every fear hides a wish,” he discovers.

The encounter has caused Edmond to confront the emptiness of his life and marriage. His wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) complains that the maid broke a lamp, prompting him to flee the safe boredom of his home for the vortex of the dark streets of Los Angeles, tilting him into a free-fall that he mistakes for liberation, although he certainly now feels alive.

As Edmond spirals on towards personal disintegration, his racism and homophobia emerges – and he freely expresses it. "Every fear hides a wish,” he discovers.

The Story of EDMOND:
In the early eighties, director Stuart Gordon saw the original stage production of Mamet’s EDMOND and was knocked out by the play, and always thought it would make a great film. “It’s very cinematic and powerful,” says Gordon, “and I still think it’s his strongest work.” Some two decades later, Gordon was directing a film called KING OF THE ANTS, which was produced by Duffy Hecht and featured actor Lionel Mark Smith, a veteran Mamet player who had himself directed a stage version of EDMOND. Between the three men, after much conversation, the idea of finally bringing this compelling work of American theater to the screen was born, and the journey began.

Gordon knew of Mamet from his early days in Chicago, where Gordon had been the founder and creative director of the Organic Theater, and actually directed the world premiere of Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago. The Organic Theater was responsible for launching several notable careers, including that of Joe Mantegna, who plays a pivotal role in the movie version of EDMOND. “When I started working on it,” says Gordon, “I saw that there’s just so much richness there… It’s a very compact one act play.”

William H. Macy was the first person to be cast on the project. “It was the shortest conversation I’ve every had with Bill,” says Gordon. “I called him up and said ‘I want you to play Edmond’, and he said. ‘I’ve been waiting all my life to play that part.’ He never had played him, yet I can’t imagine anybody else doing that role.” Soon after, Julia Stiles was attached, and it was time to present the project to the studios. The team thought it was a slam dunk, but found themselves turned down repeatedly, hearing that the material was too dark, and perhaps too controversial.

Ultimately, First Independent Pictures decided to take the initial chance on what they saw to be an exciting opportunity. “We were the first ones to commit to making this challenging film,” says company President Gary Rubin. “This was a labor of love that has been in the works for quite a while, and some were a little scared of the material, but now that it’s done I think that people are going to be blown away.” Along with First Independent Pictures, several producers followed suit, joining the team that would eventually bring this master work to movie theaters throughout the world.

But that was no easy task. The shooting schedule alone was daunting, as there were nearly 30 locations in a relatively short period of time. “We got to one of our locations which was supposed to be the apartment where Edmond lived,” says Gordon, “and discovered that the night before they had put sealant on the floors, which is highly toxic, and when our art department went up there to dress it they came stumbling back, and had to go to the emergency room.” They knew there would be no shooting there that day, and had to scramble to rearrange the schedule to shoot a completely different scene. Within an hour, thanks in large part to line producer Michael Gallant, they were back on track when most other productions would have been forced to simply send everyone home for the day.

Not only was the crew remarkably flexible, but the cast was exceptionally so as well. “Because the actors came so prepared it went off extremely well,” says producer Hecht. “It’s a fantastic cast from top to bottom, and each one of them, I think because of the rehearsal process that had begun weeks before shooting, came extremely prepared, and we were able to make our schedule perfectly. A lot of productions would have taken several days to do what we did in a day.”

Not only was the cast prepared, but they proved to be a remarkably gifted ensemble. “I felt very blessed to be able to work with these actors,” says Gordon. “Every day was a revelation. Bill Macy set the tone for everybody. He was so prepared, so easy going, and always had a joke to lighten things up – and if it weren’t for that we might not have made it through. Everyone else in the cast was fantastic, too… not a weak link in the bunch.”

Perhaps producer Molly Hassell sums it up best. “EDMOND was a story refusing to be told,” she says, “and much like William H. Macy’s character, it was alive with strife. Nothing came easy, but it’s beautiful to look back on a struggle and understand the purpose.  When EDMOND was finished there was a true feeling of artistry and accomplishment. From Mamet’s words to Stuart’s execution to the awesome performance by Macy, a better film would have been difficult to create.”