The Many Faces of Love
Feast of Love Movie Trailer. The filmmakers now turned to the next crucial step: creating Feast of Love’s ensemble cast of friends, lovers, family and neighbors. For Robert Benton, nothing could have been more key to the film’s creation. “I’m not necessarily a very good director,” he says with characteristic modesty, “but I’m really great at casting, and I’m really great at trusting the actors I cast.”
Gary Lucchesi adds: “I think for a director like Benton, casting is everything because once he gets to the set, he makes very subtle adjustments in performance. He doesn’t try to put a very strong hand on the actor and alter their performance drastically; he would rather hire the right actor to begin with. That’s much more who Benton is.”
The casting began with the very core of the story: Harry Stevenson, the town philosopher who doles out advice to all of the lovelorn and newly in love, while his own heart is aching. As they considered the roster of venerable actors who could play the role, one stood out early on.
Recalls Tom Rosenberg: “Once Harry was there on the page, it was Gary Lucchesi who said, ‘‘This is Morgan Freeman, this is who should play this role.’ And he was exactly right. Morgan is such a great actor that he was able to keep in mind, as Harry must, not just his role but everybody’s role in the film, and, along the way, he helped all the actors tremendously through his experience and generosity.”
Benton says of Freeman, “He’s astounding. He knows what can and cannot be acted, he knows how to be still and he knows how to listen, which are all the most invaluable parts of being an actor. You cannot act moral fiber, or a kind of stature – you either have it or you don’t. I don’t mean even as an actor, I mean as a human being, and he truly has that quality. That’s what makes him a brilliant choice for this role.”
When Morgan Freeman read the screenplay, he felt an immediate affinity with Harry and his role as the man who watches the constant ebb, flow and crash of love all around him. “I do often seem to be drawn to witness characters,” Freeman ponders. “I guess they sort of have the last say, as it were. But this is also quite different from any other film role I’ve done. The whole thing is about love, and as Harry, I’m right in the middle of it all, so it’s a complete departure on that level.”
Harry may be a pillar of the community, but his rock is his wife, Esther, with whom he is still deeply enamored. To play the role, Robert Benton saw an opportunity to work with one of his favorite actresses, Jane Alexander, whom he also directed in “Kramer Vs. Kramer.” She and Freeman had been seen together in two films previously, “Brubaker” and “Glory,” but never had scenes with one another until FEAST OF LOVE.
“I’ve always looked for a chance to work with Jane again,” says Benton. “She’s phenomenal. One of my favorite scenes in the film is between Morgan and Jane. It’s a scene about tenderness and love, and she is so amazing in that scene. She was absolutely there in the best sense of the word.”
For Alexander, the attraction lay in working with Benton again. “Anything he would ask me to do, I would jump at doing,” the actress says. “He was a wonderful writer on ‘Kramer Vs. Kramer,’ but he also showed that he had great subtlety with regard to acting, and now that’s only increased with these 28 years. He’s just really extraordinary. He’s very, very close to the actors when you’re working on the set. It’s just so great to have Benton right there, seeing and hearing every little nuance.”
Morgan Freeman was equally excited to finally have a chance to interact with Alexander on screen, especially in such intimate moments revealing the inner workings of something not often depicted on screen: a long, loving marriage. “She gives such perfect performances, that I said, ‘Oh my god, I finally get a chance, here she is!’” says Freeman.
The yang to Harry Stevenson’s yin is Bradley, the hopeless romantic who is also hopelessly inept at relationships. To capture both the humor and the humanity of Bradley, the filmmakers turned to none other than Greg Kinnear who began his career as a comedian but has grown into one of today’s most sought-after screen stars, with stand-out roles ranging from “As Good As It Gets” to “The Matador” to his recent turn as the outrageously optimistic patriarch of a profoundly dysfunctional family in the runaway indie hit “Little Miss Sunshine.”
“Greg’s perfect for Bradley, and we were very fortunate that he wanted to play the role,” says Rosenberg. Adds Benton: “Bradley is an extremely difficult character, and one of the things that Greg can do so well is simultaneously make you feel sympathy for a character and allow you to laugh at the same time. To combine both qualities is extremely rare. He’s such an amazing actor, I cannot tell you how much I have loved working with him.”
Kinnear says he was drawn immediately to “the unexpectedness of the script.” He also found himself won over by Bradley’s invincible belief in romance. “The thing that I most value in Bradley Smith is just his unabashed hopeful spirit about love and about surviving,” says Kinnear. “He always tries to find inspiration in spite of everything collapsing around him.”
Starring as the two women who create havoc in Bradley’s life — Bradley’s about-to-beliberated wife, Kathryn, and Diana, the very different woman with whom he rebounds following the abrupt end of his first marriage – are two of today’s most popular and beautiful actresses: Selma Blair and Radha Mitchell.
Blair’s role is brief yet pivotal – but it was the overall story of FEAST OF LOVE that she couldn’t resist. “This was the most beautiful script I’ve ever read,” Blair comments. “And then with Robert Benton directing it, saying yes was just a given. I would have done anything to get to say a line in this movie, to get to watch this cast of people working together.”
As for the role of Kathryn, Blair notes that Kathryn leaves an indelible mark on Bradley that reverberates throughout his story. “Kathryn really does set up Bradley’s inability to listen and pay attention,” she observes. “Just when he thinks everything is going great, she lets him know that things are actually very different from what he sees.”
To play Kathryn’s antithesis, Diana, the icy beauty who sees love in purely pragmatic terms and claims not to believe in romance, the filmmakers chose Radha Mitchell, the Australian actress who has risen to the fore with roles in Woody Allen’s “Melinda and Melinda,” Marc Forster’s “Finding Neverland,” Tony Scott’s “Man on Fire” and the unusual love story “Mozart and the Whale.”
“Radha is a really fine actress whom we’ve been wanting to work with for quite some time. We suggested her to Benton and he got the DVD’s of the movies he hadn’t seen of hers, especially ‘Man on Fire’ and that just floored him,” recalls Rosenberg. “She was simply perfect for Diana — attractive, strong and very intelligent. She’s got a bit of that kind of Grace Kelly coolness to her.”
Meanwhile, the filmmakers began a major casting search to find a fresh face for the role of Chloe, who Rosenberg describes as no less than “the life force of the movie,” and who Benton says is “the most extraordinary character because she is life itself. She is enormously appealing because she is so pure and she faces both the force of tragedy and love head on.”
The filmmakers couldn’t have been more gratified with their choice of Alexa Davalos, a rising star of Greek descent who made her feature film debut in “The Chronicles of Riddick.”
Rosenberg says, “We saw a lot of people for the role because we knew from the start we were looking for an unknown or slightly known actress, but when Alexa read for us, we knew there was something very special there.”
Robert Benton was especially impressed with what Davalos brought to the role. “I’ve not seen talent like her in a long, long time,” he comments. “An enormous part of her work is with Morgan Freeman, and there’s really no bigger heavyweight than Morgan. And by God, she holds her own with him, I mean, they work together beautifully. This girl is just really astounding. They don’t get better than Alexa.”
For her part, Davalos quickly fell in love with Chloe. “She’s such a free spirit, which is what’s so beautiful about her. Chloe’s got this very knowing sense about her, and she has a way of finding the joy in everything,” she observes.
The opportunity to portray two very different kinds of love through one character was also a strong attraction for Davalos. “The love story between Chloe and Harry, which is the father-daughter sort of love story, is so rare and beautiful to see. To Chloe, Harry’s this beautiful man full of wisdom but also very aware of reality – he’s that person you can go to no matter what. She falls in love with him in a fatherly sense. And then obviously there’s also the love story between Oscar and Chloe, which is that first blush of completely reckless, abandoned love,” she says. “I feel really lucky to have had a chance to explore both through Chloe’s eyes.”
To play Chloe’s great love Oscar, it was Tom Rosenberg who recommended auditioning another rising young star, Toby Hemingway, who had just wrapped another Lakeshore film, “The Covenant.” Rosenberg says, “I had a feeling about him, but I didn’t want him to come in as my person, so I told him he had to win it. And he did. He just was great.”
Hemingway knew the role would be a fantastic challenge, but he was up for it. “Oscar is a bit of a lost soul,” he notes. “His mom left in about 8th grade, and his dad, played by Fred Ward, is an alcoholic and abuser who drove his mother away. Oscar’s already been in rehab, and I think he can’t really see anything bright to his future until Chloe comes in and then it’s truly like he’s reborn. What happens between them is one of those rare, perfect things, sort of like they’re made for each other.”
Rounding out the stellar cast of FEAST OF LOVE are Stana Katic as Jenny, the shortstop with whom Kathryn falls unexpectedly in love, and Billy Burke as David, the married man with whom Diana carries on a torrid affair, and who becomes an unlikely moral fulcrum in the story.
Sums up Morgan Freeman of the bond that was created between the entire cast: “When you get a great ensemble like this, and put that together with a really good script, the work becomes sort of a regenerative thing. It feeds itself. It gets easier and easier and more and more fun to do.”
The Landscape of Love
With their singular ensemble cast chosen, Benton, Rosenberg and Lucchesi, as well as producer Richard S. Wright and executive producer David Scott Rubin, now began the search for a shooting location, in which to unfold this reverie of longing, loss and life-affirming encounters with love. Although Charles Baxter’s book was set in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the filmmakers went off in search of a dynamic, smaller city with a neighborhood feel that would allow them to shoot on a budget within the U.S. When Tom Rosenberg read an article about the beauty and distinctive feel of Portland, Oregon, he had a feeling the up-and-coming Pacific Northwest city might be perfect.
“I talked to Richard Wright, and said ‘Find out what’s it like to shoot in Portland’ and he came back and said it is competitive. Then I took a trip there and really fell in love with the city,” recalls Rosenberg. “It’s a terrific place, surprising in lots of ways, very sophisticated, with very sensible, nice people.”
Adds Gary Lucchesi: “It is one of the most beautiful cities in America. Even though Portland has 800,000 people and has all the art and culture of a big city, as well as great restaurants and terrific coffee, it still has a quieter, calmer feeling. Our entire Los Angeles crew fell in love with Portland, too, and we now plan on doing more movies there.”
The production started in one of Portland’s hidden neighborhoods, the so-called Mississippi District surrounding Mississippi Ave. on the East side of the Willamette River, which is lined with local shops and plenty of foot traffic. Here, the popular Fresh Pot coffee house was transformed into Bradley’s “Jitters Coffee Shop,” for 2 weeks of filming. Later, the lush, green Mt. Tabor area in Southeast Portland with its beautiful older homes became the location for Harry’s and Bradley’s side-by-side residences; while world-renowned Reed College, set in a Portland residential neighborhood, served as Harry’s university, where he takes his late night strolls, as well as the location for the film’s football and baseball games.
Everyone on the film crew was impressed by the graciousness and enthusiasm of the Portland locals, while the locals in turn were amused to see the film crew actually resort to making rain in a city that usually provides more than its share of wet, cloudy days. Much as Portland provided a lovely atmosphere for the film, it was Robert Benton’s set that really made the entire cast and crew feel at home. “It’s like he’s throwing a cocktail party for the cast and crew in a way,” describes Greg Kinnear of the atmosphere.
Adds Alexa Davalos: “Robert Benton gives you all the freedom in the world to play and experiment and see what works. He’s incredibly supportive. And he has such vision that you just trust your instincts. I love him to death.”
In working with his crew — including cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau, who blends a touch of the dream-like into his otherwise realistic portrait of Portland’s neighborhood ambience, and production designer Missy Stewart, who carefully created the nuances of the many different houses and bedrooms in which the strands of the story unfold – Benton always emphasized bringing the universal nature of love to the fore.
Summarizes Benton: “My hope was always that this would be a picture that audiences young or old, whether they’re in New York or Los Angeles, Kansas City or Des Moines, all find enriching. I want them to feel some of what I felt when I read Charles Baxter’s novel, about what love is and what it isn’t, and what life is and what it isn’t. I always saw FEAST OF LOVE as referring to this life that’s set out for us with this enormous, complicated rich variety of love.”
Feast of Love (2007)
Directed by: Robert Benton
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, Jane Alexander, Alexa Davalos, Toby Hemingway, Selma Blair, Stana Katic, Billy Burke, Erika Marozsan
Screenplay by: Allison Burnett
Production Design by: Missy Stewart
Cinematography by: Kramer Morgenthau
Film Editing by: Andrew Mondshein
Costume Design by: Renee Ehrlich Kalfus
Set Decoration by: Kathy Lucas
Art Direction by: John Chichester
Music by: Stephen Trask
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, nudity and language.
Distributed by; Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Release Date: September 28, 2007
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