Houston Film Festival 2004
Jill, Susan and Elaine meet Jan Sardi and talk to him about Loves Brother, the 3 awards the film won and of course Adam.
This is a picture of Jill, Susan, Jan Sardi and Elaine after a showing of LOVE'S BROTHER at WorldFest - the Houston International Film & Video Festival.
Jill reports - We attended both the Sunday night and Monday night screenings. We would have sat through LB 12 hours straight if that opportunity had been made available to us! It was wonderful. So many close-ups of Adam, looking mighty fine. It was hard to pick only one 'money shot.'
Of course, there's more to him than good looks - this role was a step in the right direction. We're holding the awards that LB received on Monday for Best Cinematography (Andrew Lesnie) and Best Director (Jan Sardi). In the second picture, you can clearly see the gold Remi Grand Award for Best Feature that had been presented on Sunday. Remi is short for Frederick Remington, a sculptor who captured the magic of the west; their Remi is given to those who have captured the magic of cinema.
Susan has very kindly transcribed an Interview that the ladies did with Jan for the website. Click here to access a full copy of the interview.
LOVE'S BROTHER OBSERVATIONS (by Susan)
- According to Sardi, the film cost about $10 million Australian dollars to make, which is a fairly good to great budget for an independent film. (One of the films we saw at the festival, a sweet and witty film called Straight to You was made for only $150,000 Australian. It was shot digitally and the difference in the production values of both films was clearly evident.
- At one point Jan said he thought Love's Brother is about "destiny and the hand of God."
- When asked how long the shooting schedule was, Jan said "48 shooting days - about 8 weeks tops, including one week in Italy and the rest of the time in Australia."
- The film has some heavy-weight talent behind it. Jan Sardi was nominated for an Academy Award for screenwriting and also for the English BAFTA and the Writers Guild of America award for Shine and won the Australian AFI award, the equivalent of the Oscar for that screenplay. The score was written by Stephen Warbeck, who received the Academy Award for the music in Shakespeare in Love and the cinematographer, of course, was Andrew Lesnie, famous for his cinematography on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which also received the Oscar.
- When asked how Silvia De Santis, who plays Connie, came to be cast, Jan said that she is a well-known Italian actress in television and films but had never played any parts like the one she had in Love's Brother. He said her Italian heritage was perfect for playing Connie. And I think she was superb "she positively sparkled on screen".
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MORE OBSERVATIONS
- Jill and I noticed the name 'Peter Sardi' in the credits. We asked Jan if he was related, and it turns out that Peter is Jan's older brother who has worked with him in film before.
- When we asked Jan about specific effects in the film (for example, a particularly bright star in the night sky in several scenes) and whether or not Andrew Lesnie had 'caught' them just right - Jan smiled and with a twinkle in his eye said, 'magic!'
- Jan Sardi's grandfather emigrated from Italy in the late 1920s and while Jan grew up in Australia, some of his family members spoke only Italian in the home. He drew a lot from his own experience for the film. When I asked him if the brothers Angelo and Gino were autobiographical and whether or not he was one of them, he chuckled and said "no."
- If this hasn't been mentioned elsewhere on the site, Love's Brother won Best Feature, Best Director (congratulations, Jan!) and Best Cinematography at Worldfest in Houston. More than 150 films were shown, so that's quite an accomplishment. Well done, cast and crew!
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