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00:00Clint reached out to me and it was like, oh, somebody knows that I'm obsessed with this book.
00:06I had been stalking him.
00:08Somebody's plugged into the frequency of my brain.
00:16Now, next up, we have Train Dreams, the new Netflix film adapted from Dennis Johnson's acclaimed novella.
00:24Set in the American West at the turn of the 20th century, Train Dreams tells the story of Robert Grenier, a railroad worker whose life is quietly shaped by love, loss and the passage of time.
00:39It's a haunting and deeply human portrait of solitude and memory, connection and the ways we find meaning.
00:47Please welcome to the stage some of the incredible talent behind this beautiful film.
00:52Co-writer and director, Clint Bentley.
00:59And starring in the lead role as Robert, please welcome the brilliant Joel Edgerton.
01:10And as Robert's beloved wife, Gladys, Felicity Jones.
01:14And please welcome the fabulous Kerry Condon, starring as Claire.
01:28And Grammy winning musician and member of the national composer, Bryce Dessner.
01:33So, Clint, let's start with you.
01:40You're no stranger to writing amazing screenplays.
01:43You and your filmmaking partner, Greg Cuida, were Oscar nominated for Sing Sing last year.
01:49And I just was curious about how this came to you as a project that you wanted to dig into putting on the screen.
01:56I mean, I know Dennis' novella was a real favorite of yours.
02:00He's your favorite writer.
02:02I believe you told me that.
02:03I hope I'm right.
02:04I love him very much.
02:05He's a great writer.
02:06Yeah, I was a big fan of his for a long time.
02:08This was actually the first book of his that I stumbled upon back when it came out.
02:14And then it just kind of like, I didn't think about it.
02:17I read all of his other work, but this novel, the novella just kind of stuck with me.
02:22And then there were some great producers at Kamala Films who had the rights to the book and were wanting to get it adapted.
02:30They saw my film Jockey and reached out.
02:33And reading it again and thinking about it as a movie, I just fell in love with it all over again and felt like it could be something very special.
02:42It was so poetic.
02:43It's so beautiful as a book.
02:44So in the clip, we heard Will Patton's amazing voiceover.
02:49Could you tell the story of how you came to choose him?
02:52Because it's a really great story about a road trip you took with Greg and what you listened to.
02:57Well, we were, yeah, when we were in the process of writing the book, Greg and I made a trip up to, it's set in Bonners Ferry up in the panhandle of Idaho.
03:05And so research was always a big part of how we've written our scripts.
03:09And it's hard to research something that happened in the early 1900s.
03:12But we went up to the area to see what was there, where the book is set, and where Dennis lived a long time.
03:19And on that trip, I had read the book like five times by that point trying to like get into it and figure it out.
03:27And we started listening to it on audiobook.
03:29The audiobook is narrated by Will Patton.
03:31And I just felt like I had never, hearing him read it, I felt like I'd never read it before.
03:36And I was hearing all these new things in it.
03:38And then so by the time we got to the end of the edit and it's like, okay, who do we find for the narrator now?
03:44I wanted this feeling that like you've got somebody, if you like stumbled into a bar in a logging town,
03:50and this guy at the bar starts like telling you the story of Robert Grenier after he's had a couple beers.
03:55Wanted to feel like that.
03:57And Will just felt perfect for it.
03:59And he was friends with Dennis Johnson in his life.
04:02Like it all just felt very, very special.
04:05That feels like a bit of kismet that they were friends too.
04:08And speaking of kismet, Joel, I bet you know what I'm going to ask you now.
04:12Because there is an amazing coincidence behind the reason you came to this project.
04:17Could you tell us that story?
04:18Well, it feels like a coincidence and it's kind of not.
04:22You know, that I had read the novella.
04:26It had been gifted to me by somebody who I think knew that I would like it.
04:32And I had read the book and inquired after the rights for it as a filmmaker.
04:38I think like Clint, I realised there was a really interesting movie inside of it.
04:47As challenging as it is to adapt, I think if anyone's read the novella,
04:50it doesn't immediately scream like, oh, this is like just adapted and there's a movie ready to go.
04:56It spans such a long period of time and the structure of it is complicated and so on.
05:03But I did sense that it would be a good idea.
05:06I found out the rights were taken and put the whole idea out of my mind.
05:12And then about, it was about four years ago, Clint reached out to me and it was like,
05:18oh, somebody knows that I'm obsessed with this book.
05:23I had been stalking him.
05:25Somebody's plugged into the frequency of my brain, you know.
05:27And I'm not a, I'm quite a cynical person.
05:31I'm not somebody that believes in that kind of thing, obviously.
05:33And it wasn't true.
05:34It's just happened that, but maybe it meant that I was connected to the story and felt like it suited me.
05:41And maybe somebody else did too, which is, I think, what Clint recognised.
05:47And interestingly enough, before I, when I first read the novella, I was not a father and not a husband.
05:55And then when Clint reached out to me, I was.
05:57My kids were about one and a half years old.
06:00And of course, because of so much of what happens in the story, I'm so much better suited for it now.
06:07It's far more terrifying for me, the things within it.
06:11And I therefore felt like I'd grown into a more suitable Robert than I was when I had imagined it before.
06:19You mentioned about how the novella doesn't immediately occur to you as something that you would put on screen.
06:27And it's, you know, down to Clint, that it works so perfectly in terms of, you know, the cinematography and Bryce's score and the way everything comes together is this beautiful lyrical piece.
06:41Can you talk about how you and Felicity work together to create this kind of amazing connection and we really feel like we know what's going on with them, even though they speak very little?
06:54It's extraordinary, really.
06:56Well, I will say just quickly about it that one of the reasons why it doesn't scream out like, you know, this needs to be a movie is this protagonist is somebody who is not necessarily at the kind of reins of the world.
07:11Life is not like overly active and it's a celebration of an ordinary life and it, and in Clint's hands, it becomes a heroic protagonist that finds the heroic nature or fabric of an otherwise ordinary life.
07:31And within an ordinary life and why it connects, I think, with audiences because of the universality of these things.
07:36And one of those things is falling in love, you know, despite what period you're looking at, I think it's something we all relate to, the finding of love, the building of a family and what happens if those things don't go, if they go away.
07:52And so one of the most important things is that the audience invests in our relationship and there's something, I think, you know, in Clint's writing and then in our relationship that is beautiful and romantic and yet clunky and there's tension in it.
08:10And it feels to me, from within it anyway, like a real relationship and that was because of our, you know, we'd had a desire to work together for a long time and it nearly happened before and then we finally got the chance.
08:25I think there was an excitement there, but I think we got to have such a great free time on set following the script, but also building moments together that weren't in the script.
08:36Felicity, can you talk a bit about how you worked with Joel together to find those moments that weren't necessarily in the script?
08:45Because it does feel so organic when you see them together.
08:48It's almost, they're barely saying anything, but they're saying everything.
08:52And I love the way that Gladys is so forward for a woman of her time too.
08:58Can you talk about that?
08:59Yeah, I mean, the film pivots from being this, from these, as you say, these really intimate moments, these really domestic moments, these silly little moments that everyone recognizes that you have in relationships.
09:16And then it, that is put into relief by the huge themes in the film, which, which is what I loved about it when I read the script was that it was asking, you know, ultimately, what is the point of why we're all here?
09:30What, you know, it's, it's, and finding out what that point is, is partly through when people die and grief and knowing things aren't going to last forever.
09:40And therefore, how does that affect how we behave in everyday life?
09:44And it's so rare to find a screenplay that can, can really, um, unpack that in a really emotional way.
09:53So, um, so our job was to just find all that kind of idiosyncrasy and to make sure that it felt really relatable, ultimately, and, and relaxed and easy.
10:07And that there was, um, and that you have to feel as soon as these two people meet that that's it, they're locked in, there's, there's, you know, destiny will, will take its path that, but that you totally, um, totally believe in the, in the compatibility and, and, and their love.
10:25And I think so much of that came from just, um, just, um, just an easy, relaxed, uh, atmosphere, uh, improvisation, playfulness, trying things out, um, and then some brilliant editing as well.
10:42That always, always helps.
10:45Um, did you do any research into that era or women of that era at all?
10:50Yeah, yeah, yeah, as you were, as you were asking, I mean, they were just kind of incredible, these courageous, um, homesteaders, really, you know, they, traveling from vast distances, you know, got to the east coast of America and then continued over to the west.
11:09So in that particular area, the people who lived there, you know, were so hardy, just absolutely, you know, invincible to survive the conditions they were under.
11:20And as you see in the film, you know, they're really struggling.
11:23It's a, it's a fight to get the money together to eat every day.
11:27And so what she has to do is use her resources.
11:32She's, she's near a river.
11:33So, you know, she's got to start fishing.
11:35She's, she's got to grow vegetables and, and you just, um, so much of a part of it was just the sheer, absolute, um, determination of these, of these people and the, and the fight for survival, ultimately.
11:51That's extraordinary.
11:53Kerry, um, now, uh, your characters, speaking to what Felicity just said about the importance of sort of living off the land.
12:03And the nature, your character creates this kind of bridge for Joel's character, Robert, where she helps him to understand his place in the world and, and how nature can be a kind of centering part of that.
12:18And you yourself have a farm.
12:20And I was really curious about how you connected to Claire and what she means to you.
12:25Um, that was the main reason I wanted to do the movie was the nature aspect of the movie, that nature is, is almost like another character in the movie.
12:35And there's a spiritual side to nature that like heals people.
12:41And, um, and yeah, I have a farm in Washington.
12:45We shot it in, in Washington, Pacific Northwest.
12:48So yeah, just, you know, it wasn't very far from where I have the farm.
12:54Um, and when we shot it to it, the sun was going down and, and it, and it felt very spiritual.
13:02And, you know, that time of the evening when the birds are chirping and, and I think when you're filming sort of outside and anything happens, it feels like it was meant to be, you know, cause it's captured.
13:12And we have it captured forever and that's never going to happen again.
13:15So all those things made it feel, um, beautiful.
13:21And I think it, you see, it's feels beautiful.
13:23The movie feels very spiritual.
13:25It's really moving.
13:27Even in happy moments, you're like moved to tears.
13:31So, yeah.
13:32And, and I, so I felt very similar to my character.
13:35I really love how the message she tries to give him ultimately it lands with him at the end, but I won't spoil it.
13:41Yeah, I didn't want to spoil it either.
13:43So, but it is so beautiful.
13:45So thank you, um, Bryce, I did want to ask you about scoring this movie because you had a little bit of an unusual process, um, in terms of how the score was built in tandem with Clint's process and you recorded, um, in a very specific location.
14:02Can you tell us about that?
14:04Yeah, thank you.
14:05Um, this is the fourth film we've worked on together with Clint.
14:11So, yes.
14:12Um, and so there's a, we have a long, um, including Sing Sing was the last one.
14:16Um, so there's a lot of trust and sort of understanding between us, uh, which is not always the case when you score a film.
14:23Usually writing music for films, it's one of the last things that happens.
14:27Sometimes, um, it can be a very quick and fraught process.
14:31This was the opposite where we were talking about this film for a long time before they shot it.
14:36Uh, I, you know, the book I knew well and, um, the script, you know, I had a lot of information, um, kind of building up to when Clint began shooting it.
14:47So I, I also chose this after having done some other projects, a lot of time, also film music, you end up kind of in a computer watching picture in, in, in, in, that's a beautiful process as well, because you can, you can dream a million things before you start working on a film.
15:00And ultimately the picture asks for the music.
15:03So you can do a million.
15:04I remember for the Revenant, which is in a way, something similar where it was set in the American West.
15:09I wrote like two hours of cello music before I saw a picture and none of it worked, you know?
15:14So this is a, an interesting process where I, I decided to kind of go into old recording studios, actual analog studios and play old pianos with ribbon RCA microphones.
15:24The main, you know, 75% of the score is recorded in Portland, Oregon with members of the Oregon symphony.
15:30Um, I was there on tour and had a week off and there's a beautiful studio there called Flora Flora, where a lot of, you know, classic REM records were made or some of the national records were recorded in there has, you know, tons of old analog gear.
15:43This is not the, typically the stuff that's being used on Hollywood scores these days.
15:48So there's an intimate kind of analog feeling in the music.
15:51And, um, and that really, I felt empowered to do it.
15:54So I recorded a bunch of probably 10 or 12 kind of primary themes for this film prior to seeing music, um, sorry, prior to seeing picture, I was being sent dailies and rushes by Clint.
16:06So I had, you know, an idea that it would work and that's what ended up really populating a lot of the film.
16:11And it was just a beautiful, again, I think I really relate to what Carrie said about nature and about, there's a lot of silence and space and just incredible performances from these actors.
16:19So to, to, to, you know, to be with them and to, you know, offer music to that as a real honor and, um, a great, you know, a great process for me.
16:30I feel like the music is its own character as, as we were saying.
16:33And, um, I just want to urge you all to see this film.
16:36It's so beautiful.
16:37It really stays with you.
16:39Congratulations to all of you.
16:41Thank you so much for being here to talk about train dreams.
16:44Thank you all very much.
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