“Thank God ‘Merci Docteur Rey’ is not autobiographical,” says Litvack via e-mail from France. “Although, much to my amusement it was once presented as a documentary film and I remember thinking: ‘What a crazy world it would be if my film were in fact a documentary.’ ”
He claims the idea “just came about” (although he was not specifically queried about a fondness for pot brownies):
“First, that a boy would witness the murder of his father. … Second that he’d cross paths with the crazy character played by Jane Birkin in the analyst’s office,” Litvack says. “ I wanted to make two different worlds, two different stories, collide, in that way.”
Still, for all the contemporary chaos unfolding on screen, Litvack says he learned “tons” from the masters of restraint, Merchant and Ivory.
“From Jim I learned how a director must behave on the set with his crew and actors; how he must constantly concentrate on what he wants and at the same time give everyone the impression that I’m all ears,” says Litvack. “Most important, I learned from Jim how to sift through the ideas and suggestions that people are always offering … to pick and choose what I need best to realize my vision – if that word doesn’t sound too pretentious.”
It becomes even more daunting when those suggestions are coming from a leading lady with two Academy Awards on the shelf or a supporting player who is a legend of stage and screen.
“I was able to unite such a great cast, I think, because I had a script they all liked and a prestigious producer. After that it was a question of persuading them to want to work with me,” says Litvack. “With some of them, like Jane Birkin, I was lucky because she was a friend beforehand. With Dianne, on the other hand, it was a little scarier because I’d never met her until she read my script.
“Vanessa was intimidating at first because of her reputation as the greatest living actress, but in fact she was terribly easy to work with. It was funny how she insisted on playing such a mean and imperious version of herself. I kept saying, ‘Vanessa, since you’re playing yourself, we can make you nicer’ and she answered in the third person: ‘Andy, Vanessa is not playing herself, she is playing a version of herself.’ I was so astounded to hear her talking about herself in the third person, like a character in a play – which I guess she is, in my movie.”
And then there’s that cameo from Jerry Hall with plenty of torch and twang.
“I’d met Jerry at a party with Mick Jagger. She was a real hoot,” says Litvack. “A year or so later I asked if she’d mind doing a cameo and she agreed.
“The best anecdote from the shoot concerns the day we were shooting with Dianne, Jane and Vanessa. There were lots of Russian political refugees on the set that day – both Jane and Vanessa are big on humanitarian causes (and rightfully so) and perhaps on some level they were, very nicely, trying to outdo each other. Then all of a sudden Jerry Hall arrived, bedecked in jewels for her costume fitting (she was shooting the next day). To see all these actresses, their respective refugees, and then this Texan in diamonds was like a scene from a Fellini movie.”
Perhaps the most notable aspect of “Merci Docteur Rey” is that the cast dominates discussion rather than the gay content.
“I sure hope it’s a turn of tide for coming-out stories, which I feel once served their purpose, but now are anachronistic,” says Litvack, who is gay. “These days, with TV shows like ‘Queer Eye’ and ‘Will & Grace,’ coming-out movies are like disease of the week movies … vestiges from the ’70s we must get beyond, maybe like Elizabeth McGovern and Lindsay Wagner.
“I like the idea that mainstream cinema is now presenting gay characters matter-of-factly. It’s a fait accompli – they fit in among the other characters. This doesn’t mean that I’m in any way against movies with all gay characters or movies that explore more hardcore themes, but I personally feel that most subversive gay cinema is that which straight people watch and accept without batting an eye (OK, they can bat their eyes a little) – it’s better to lure them in than to exclude them.”