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Emmanuel Benbihy Loves New York
Emmanuel Benbihy and Mira Nair
One of the most anticipated movies of the fall, New York, I Love You is made up of several short films revolving around the elusive concept of love. The movie is the second in a planned series called “Cities of Love"—the first being the 2006 international hit, Paris je ta’ime. Like Paris, New York brings together an eclectic, international group of moviemakers (the Hughes Brothers, Yvan Attal, Shunji Iwai, Shekhar Kapur) and actors (Natalie Portman, Ethan Hawke, Shia LaBeouf, Robin Wright Penn, Chris Cooper, Julie Christie, Irrfan Khan) for a collection of introspective tales about finding love in the city that never sleeps.
Just before the movie’s release on October 16, MM spoke with the series’ hands-on producer, Emmanuel Benbihy.
Kyle Rupprecht (MM): You are credited with devising the Cities of Love concept behind these anthology films. How did the idea initially come about? Did you always envision the concept as a series of films, or did the worldwide success of Paris, je t’aime prove this could be a viable franchise?
Emmanuel Benbihy (EB): I always envisioned an ongoing series of Cities of Love features. Paris, je t’aime didn’t follow the original concept though. It was basically an anthology of 18 individual segments tied together with beauty shots of the city. New York, I Love You went to a different level, and actually realized the original concept. We are exploring new models of narration for a “collective” film, with 11 segments and characters reappearing as “bridges” between episodes. The idea was to tie them together as components of a unified feature. In recent years, classic narrative styles have been questioned. The bonds of place and action have been shattered, points of view multiplied, chronology fragmented then interwoven, realities broken apart and reshaped into characters’ individual perceptions. Audiences have reacted strongly to this form of storytelling; Magnolia, Crash, Amores Perros’ Requiem for a Dream and others have been very successful.
MM: New York, I Love You, like Paris, je t’aime, gathers together an eclectic group of international moviemakers--from Fatih Akin to Wen Jiang to Mira Nair to Brett Ratner. How does the pre-production process work on an anthology like this? Do writers pitch you story ideas, and then directors come aboard, or do you seek out directors/screenwriters you think would be interesting for the film?
EB: It begins with the story or the idea generated by the director. We begin a project only when it is fully financed. That way we can approach the creative talent with a firm commitment and an extremely attractive opportunity for creative carte blanche. Once they have formulated a concept and they present it to us as a pitch, they have the freedom to bring in the writer, DP, editor and on-camera talent for their segments. The only prerequisites are that they work within the overall subject matter for the film: A love story.
We discuss the area of the city where it will take place, and we let them go to work. Of course, there are occasions when this creative freedom can lead to a problem. Sometimes a director will come up with a terrific segment which changes and evolves during the course of their production. Unfortunately, they don’t always work within the context of the film. Scarlett Johansson, for example, shot her film in black and white, and emphasized the element of fear that affects the characters’ love of the city. We had a similar situation with Andrei Zvyagintsev, another extraordinarily talented director. While these segments are great short films, we were unable to integrate them into the picture for our theatrical release, but they will definitely be part of the DVD. And, we are also exploring ways of making the film available on the Internet at some point in the future.
MM: The editing process on these films must be difficult, since you have to juggle 10 or more vignettes. How do you decide the order of the segments—from which comes first to which comes last?
EB: We planned a total of 11 vignettes for New York, I Love You, but we always knew their sequence could not be predetermined. All were shot on the same basic schedule over a quite intense period of approximately eight weeks, with two and sometimes three segments being produced simultaneously: While one director was shooting, others were prepping, casting, editing, etc. While we did have a general idea of how the film should play out, there was a tremendous amount of creative flexibility both in the formatting of the individual segments and in the final cut. We tried to avoid preconceived notions, and to make room for ideas that materialized like little surprise gifts. It wasn’t until all the segments were complete that we truly began the job of shaping them into a cohesive story.
MM: How spread out, in regards to location, was the post-production on this movie? I know you did some of it at Mega Playground in New York City. Why did you choose them as the post-production facility for the movie? What did it have to offer?
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