Sarah Polley's Trailers are Visual Poetry

Polley establishes characters with more depth and more fully realized backstory, and elicits more sympathy for them and their plight, even within the restrictions of a trailer, even without utilizing dialogue, than most directors manage to conjure up over the course of an entire movie.

Here are the trailers for 'Take This Waltz' and 'Away From Her'. Watching them is like going to the movies. It's visual poetry. It's almost unfair to other filmmakers.
















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Charming Trailer for Sarah Polley's 'Take This Waltz'

If you don't know the name Polley made an impressive directorial debut with the acclaimed 'Away From Her'.

The thing about this trailer (that I certainly wasn't expecting) is a heartfelt non-actorly vibe from all the crew. Not a stretch with someone like Michelle Williams but nice to see from Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman, who you just figure will have an edge, a sort of put-on.

I've been waiting for this since I first heard it was a go. Looks great.

















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Sarah Polley

Laura Winters at WP has a nice write-up on Sarah Polley, who sidestepped a traditional Hollywood acting career to work with directors that interested her like Michael Winterbottom and Wim Wenders. Her development shows -- her directorial debut 'Away From Her' has the polish of a long-time pro lenser. The technique in the still below of Julie Christie is impressive -- the character is in the right half of the frame and is looking to the right, which throws the frame out of balance and is a visual metaphor for the disorientation of memory loss -- more than you would expect from a young director's first film. Winters quotes Polley:

In the past, Polley was said to dislike interviews, so it's a welcome surprise to find her so open. "The press stuff...felt like a charade where I had to play some role so the journalist would have enough to write about. But now, having directed this movie, I've found my place within this process where I can be myself. I don't feel fraudulent talking about my film."

'Away From Her' is based on the short by the formidable Alice Munro, The Bear Came Over the Mountain. Story is about a woman whose memory is fading as Alzheimer's takes its toll -- but thematically, I believe, it's about what it is to be human.

That Polley was willing to tackle an adaptation of Munro, and could convince the reticent Julie Christie (pictured above) to do another movie speaks volumes for the future of this director. Here is Winters on Christie's involvement:

Christie is elusive in a literal sense, too. "I'm not, as Sarah put it so beautifully, the most ambitious of actresses," she says in Toronto during the festival, sitting on a sofa with her legs curled under her. "I could see that this was a wonderful script, but it was entering turf that wasn't perhaps where I wanted to be. So I resisted for a long time."

Finally, Christie underwent a change of heart and turned in a performance that has people already talking about an Oscar nomination.

'Away From Her' has received strong reviews from the Berlin, Toronto, and Sundance festivals, and is in limited release.

Away From Her

'Away From Her' is the directorial debut by Sarah Polley, and is shaping up to be one of the most interesting movies of the year. The previews I've seen promise a thoughtful story.

The movie, based on the writing of Alice Munro, is about a man who must put his wife in a nursing home. As Alzheimer's progressively diminishes her memory she forgets that the man is her husband, and starts a relationship with another patient at the home. Sarah Polley talks with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air.

The picture stars Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, and Olympia Dukakis. Dukakis, whose mother had Alzheimer's, talks with Scott Simon.