The Place Beyond The Pines
Cianfrance was inspired to write The Place Beyond the Pines based on his experiences as a father. Coccio and Marder, who shared similar interests in film and media, helped write the script. Cianfrance envisioned the main themes to be about fathers and sons, masculine identity and legacy. The film reunites Cianfrance and Gosling, who had previously worked together in 2010's Blue Valentine. The role of Luke was written for Gosling, as he expressed an interest in playing a bank robber. Filming took place in Schenectady, New York, during the summer of 2011.
The Place Beyond the Pines
Luke begins working part-time for mechanic Robin Van Der Hook. He asks him for more work, but he cannot offer it, legitimately. Robin reveals his past as a bank robber and suggests they should commit several robberies together. Luke accepts the offer as he lets him stay in a caravan next to his place. They commit several robberies; Luke robs the bank at gunpoint, uses his motorcycle to get away, and quickly rides it into an inconspicuous Luton van, driven by Robin.
Principal photography began in the summer of 2011, lasted for 47 days and took place in Schenectady, New York. Filming locations included real places, including banks, police stations, a hospital, high school and town fair. Cianfrance said it was important real places were used for "sense of place and truth".[8] While filming in these places, the extras were also real: bank tellers, police officers, hospital patients and staff, and students. Some of the cast, including Cooper and Ray Liotta, spent time with real police officers in Schenectady to learn about their roles.[11] The production went smoothly except for when Hurricane Irene struck the city which flooded the equipment trucks. The crew took a canoe to the truck and rescued the film footage that was left behind, and continued filming the next day.[8]
Cianfrance considered the cast to be collaborators, and encouraged them to improvise some of their dialogue to make it "alive" and "true".[8] Remarking on his directing style, he said "I'm not a dictator on set, I don't force my actors to do things. I allow a democracy of ideas on set".[10] He also demanded utmost commitment from the cast and crew, despite them not staying in luxury hotels or big trailers, and filming in places with bee hives and mosquito infestations.[8] Gosling learned to ride a motorcycle for filming the action scenes, and trained with stuntman Rick Miller for two months.[13] Gosling performed many of his own stunts; in one robbery scene, he rode in heavy traffic whilst being pursued by police, which required 22 takes to perfect.[14][13] He also gained 40 pounds (18 kg) of muscle and worked with designer Ben Shields to design tattoos for his character's body.[10]
Q: What is the significance of the imagery of the trees, and why exactly are they pines?Derek Cianfrance: Let's start with the title - the Iroquois translation of Schenectady is "the place beyond the pines." Schenectady is where my wife grew up. So I have been going up there for a decade visiting her family, and it's such an interesting place. There are different tribes in a contemporary city. It has a rich history and it's definitely in the midst of the economic struggle. My co-writer, Ben Coccio, who grew up there, describes it as a smaller version of Detroit. Ben came up with the title of the movie, and I loved it because it has a literal meaning - there is a clearing that characters visit on-screen - and other, more metaphorical meanings; it's where you can find your demons, or your destiny, or both.
We shot the film in Schenectady for 47 days, which was a long time given our budget. Because of my training in documentary film, it was important to me to shoot in real places - I felt strongly that it could only be made in Schenectady - and to surround the actors with real people as much as possible to give the film that sense of place and truth. So we shot in live locations: a functioning police station with Schenectady police officers, a working hospital with nurses and patients in the next room, an active fair with 500 people who we were counting on not to look into the camera lens, real banks with real bank tellers and bank managers who had been robbed before, and a high school with actual students. This was all to lend authenticity to the moments we were capturing. I asked everyone everywhere - cops, bank tellers, doctors, judges - to make sure that the scenes we were doing were true. And if I was told that they weren't, then I would rewrite scenes on the spot until we were being honest.
We end the movie with another young man on another motorbike, racing to avoid his fate, blissfully unaware the path he has chosen is most likely to take him to the very place he wants to avoid. It is a final shot of heartbreaking perfection.
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is gloomy and depressing. From the moment we glimpse Gosling's chiseled abs as he prepares to perform what we expect to be some momentous feat on his motorcycle -- only to realize that he is but a circus act, literally jailed in a steel globe -- we know we're in for a gut-punch of a movie. Its tale of misplaced fatherhood and wrongs-made-wronger will leave audiences with little hope and much cynicism. It's not an easy movie to watch. But it's powerful, and co-writer-director Derek Cianfrance has a knack for setting the mood (in this case, dreary and hopeless). And his scenes build up the tension so well that you're bound to feel uncomfortable.
I don't want to spoil the movie by telling you too much about what happens, but there is a falling out between the partners. At some point Handsome Lukegets too ambitious, and his tweaked out buddy cuts up the DR-Z in order to keep the police off their trail. This leads Luke to start riding a Honda XR. There are quite a few dramatic motorcycle chases, with the police hot on the trail, and Luke using the off-road abilities of the bike to hop curbs and go places a cruiser can't. That's all slightly ruined by a sound designer who cut together sounds from some 2-strokes, some sport bikes, and some of the actual sounds of a 4-stroke dirt bike.
The evocative title is the literal meaning (in Iroquois) of "Schenectady," where the movie takes place. It begins with a long tracking shot of Ryan Gosling, as Luke, who does motorcycle stunts at a traveling carnival. It's interesting to think about that shot after the film is over: He walks across an open lot into a tent where people are cheering, and he puts on his motorcycle helmet. The actual movie is so different from the story that that shot promises that it virtually qualifies as a statement about life. People think they're in the midst of one story, but they're often in something else entirely.
That's because that nighttime ride is necessary to set up the film's final act -- and the film's big emotional payoff. You'll likely figure out its big secret two minutes after it's started, but there are other issues for it to resolve, as Cianfrance moves beyond the conventionality of the second act and gets onto the big ideas that you suspect all along are in store.
On the surface a crime narrative with social realism characteristics, The Place Beyond the Pines delivers an unexpected narrative structure where the viewer is invited to link together various characters, motifs and narrative threads beyond the obvious connections. While it is still a rewarding film on face value, The Place Beyond the Pines offers additional pleasures for viewers keen to delve further. The final segment of the film does disappoint when it moves away from morality and identity to instead focus on the role of the father and fate, but it is nevertheless an overall bold and intriguing film. 041b061a72