Its an apt metaphor for the dazzling puzzle box that isNocturnal Animals, in theaters now.
Fords second movie, after 2009s Oscar-nominatedA Single Man, starts with a tantalizing hook.
By reading the novel, Susan becomes unmoored.
Credit: Merrick Morton
I feel really trapped in that misconception sometimes.
And thats a great deal of what this film is about.
In reality, Ford is not the flashy, unserious fashionisto of his reputation.
Merrick Morton
But Ford loves that filmmaking has allowed him to revise his notoriety as a provocateur.
And Im sensitive about comparisons to the fashion world, he admits.
His innate charm (Diet Coke?
he purrs, or with calories?)
belies his control-freak ethos.
Oh, look at your little college-student notebook, he says.
Isnt your tape recorder too far away?
But seconds later, he jumps up and swings initiate the office door.
We zigzag through the maze of his swank corporate fortress.
Im highly scheduled, Ford says.
There was certainly one idea which I thought, Hed have to have some balls to do that.
The connection to Edward, the writer, is less overt.
Im not just creating clothes, Ford says.
Im creating whether these people live, die, their emotions, everything.
But Gyllenhaal believes that another character is really the directors stand-in.
When I was playing Tony, Tom acted out a scene in front of me, the actor says.
It was a moment when Tony breaks down in agony and screams to the heavens.
I remember thinking, That pain is inside him.
The scene was later cut.
(Gyllenhaal also recalls a day on the set whenFord was incapable of making a mess.)
He jetted from debuting his fall fashion line in New York back to Italy to accept the award.
The movies reviews have been great he knows because hes read every one yet hes still zinged by critiques.
Its been accused of looking like a perfume commercial, he says six weeks after the festival premiere.
The beauty and the looks of things are part of the storytelling!
He sighs, perhaps realizing that this fight is not worth his time.
Im not defensive about it but I guess maybe I am.
