Iano Films™ News

I recently sat down with the director of "The Matter With Clark," Jonathan Rola. Rola ("Sons of Italy") will introduce and discuss his first full-length film, "The Matter With Clark," at the County Theater, 20 E. State St., in Doylestown, Pa. on Nov. 3, at 7 p.m.
In this part of the interview, we discuss the plot of the movie, how his grandparents and family inspired the tone of the movie, and how a good director can believe in humanity and still make good films.

David Rauch: First, could explain the story of your movie?

Jonathan Rola: The major thing about it is that it's a movie of forgiveness and sacrifice. The main character basically sacrifices his hopes and dreams in order to take care of his younger sister. So he sets his needs aside for that, and they basically move into their grandmother's house, and he gets a job, and he meets people along the way. The thing is that there is an accident that occurs and obviously this affects everyone, especially the people involved in the accident on the other side. Clark was involved on one side, and Jack Cooper on the other, basically a hit and run, and Cooper ends up stalking Clark, kind of defending him, getting a job where he works, and he becomes friends with him, they become close, and they go out. With the guilt Jack Cooper has, he turns himself in, and Clark finds out, and he's faced to either forgive him or not.

DR: How did you decide to do a script about this?

JR: My grandmother and grandparents, they have always sacrificed themselves to take care of their younger siblings, and that's a pretty old-school mentality where you step up when something happens to your mother or father. That's what I wanted to do here, to show that if something did happen to your younger sibling, it's your responsibility as the older brother to step up.

DR: Do you have any younger siblings?

JR: Yes, I have a younger sister. The sister in the movie is based off of her, so it was easy to write.

DR: Do you feel that the message you do deliver through the film is something an audience would benefit from?

JR: Yeah, I hope that the people walk out of the theater feeling positive and a bit optimistic, not having this thing where: "Yeah, that happened, and that's it."

DR: Like a Quentin Tarantino film.

JR: Yeah. You know I love Tarintino, but yeah, a positive message, not cheesy, but something that makes you feel good.

DR: Life affirming. There are a lot of movies made, especially, by good directors that are not affirming of human nature. Like, "In the end, humans treat each other badly, and that's it. I'm just making sure that you know that." So, in the end, do you have a deep belief that people are actually good?

JR: I do have hope in people, whether they're a criminal or whatever. There is some type of goodness in them, and that's kind of what I want to bring out. I'm really big on human behavior. The simplest things intrigue me, and that's kind of how the film is, very simple, subtle. The little everyday things in life I kind of draw myself to.

PART 2

David Rauch: What's an example, either from your own film or from films that you've seen, where you felt, "That's something really small that always happens but never gets into movies, but it's really, really important in life?"

Jonathan Rola: There are a lot of little moments in the film. I don't know if this is the right answer, but simply eating, and let's say you've done something that I was angry about, and you're explaining yourself to me, and there's no need to verbally say "I'm sorry" or "I forgive you," just move on. There's a scene in the movie where one of the characters is explaining himself why this occurred and how he's sorry, and Clark, all he does is just look at him for a bit and starts to eat. That shows, "You're okay."

DR: Because you're working in the language of film, which is visual for the most part, and you don't need to use dialogue to convey everything, how do you work with the camera to take speaking's place?

JR: That's a big part of Clark. There's not a lot of dialogue, and I went in this knowing there wouldn't be a lot of dialogue, just basically actions speak louder. The main thing in the film is that there is a lot of forgiveness without words, and I try to do that with every character in the film. A simple wave, or what I told you earlier about eating. Actually, there are a few scenes where I cut out the dialogue, where you see the characters speaking. You don't really need to know what they're saying, you know what's happening. Clark meets someone in the film and they end up liking each other, I had audio, and recently I cut it out. There was no need, you got the point. And I really recently cut it out because I'm starting to develop more, watch it more carefully, along wit lots of foreign films and French new-wave, and I'm actually writing now my next script, I'm starting to get a little experimental with all these things.

DR: Just to bring it up, sometimes when people say they disfavor dialogue, it's just because they aren't comfortable writing it. How comfortable do you feel writing dialogue?

JR: Dialogue comes very naturally to me, and the way I'm speaking now, I'm saying "like" one-thousand times [the interviewer has chosen to omit the um's and like's], and I put them in my dialogue. I actually write "ah..um..uhh" in my script. I think a lot about Broken Flowers, a film by Jim Jarmusch, and it was inspiration for this film. I watched that, and I was like, "Wow, that's awesome." So I kind of did "Clark" like that. There's not a lot of dialogue, though the next script is more dialogue driven, more about the characters.

DR: Another aspect of your film is that it is indie-indie in the original sense of the word. People talk about indie films with five million dollars in financing, and that's not independent. What are the realities of working with the budget you have, and what was that budget?

JR: There wasn't a budget. There was a lot of saving and a lot of volunteers. I hope to have a budget for the next film. There has to be a budget, the whole point is to go higher, but there is a limit where you don't really need two million dollars. A couple years ago, I was asked to direct a movie in Italy, and that budget was high, and I had everything I needed, and that was fine, but I find that you don't really need that much money especially with artists that are willing to work. Nowadays, you don't really need that much. We didn't have a budget with "Clark", all volunteers, music, actors. Actually I found a lot of music on Myspace. There are a few bands from Doylestown.

DR: The idea of Myspace and these networking websites, would have you been able to do something like, "The Matter With Clark," without it? From pre-production to viewing, how does it affect your work?

JR: Myspace and the whole internet thing is huge. If it wasn't for that, I would be living in California, or I'd have to go up to people's doorstep and knock on their doors. It's all in the way you look at it. I've heard a lot of negative things about Myspace, but I just avoid all that. I dismiss all the negatives and head forward with the positives of Myspace. And I found most of the crew and everything from Myspace and the internet.

In this part of the interview, we discuss the limitations of guerilla film-making, how making a movie might substitute for drinking, and how to stay inspired in a Pennsylvania suburb.

David Rauch: So you say you have no budget, what does no budget means in comparison to things that need to be done in a movie?

Jonathan Rola: Obviously, the camera and the equipment cost, so we save for that. There were a lot of donations. A lot of people gave some money. Some of the insurance, we had to pay for. Like, if we shot somewhere, we needed insurance for that. To get permits, we need money for that too. But everything else was basically volunteer. People just volunteered. Some people volunteered their store, but we ran into problems with that too. Sometimes I can't have the shots I want, so sometimes, I'm very limited. When you go guerilla, you have to compromise. There's a lot of compromise when there's no budget.
That's why I want a budget next time. There's a lot of things I wanted, but I couldn't do. There are lots of things I wanted to show, but I couldn't get that angle. In some ways, budget is important.

DR: There's a film movement, Dogme, with proponents like Lars Van Trier, which concerns obstructions and how they're healthy, ie you have these constraints and you work through them. Is it a productive constraint in some way, to say, "Okay, no one else really wants me to make this movie, I'm going to make it, I'm going to love it, even if nobody else does?" Have you ever felt that way?

JR: I didn't really think about it. I didn't really care. I just wanted to do it. I truly believed in what I was doing. If you believe in something like that, you don't really think about anything else. You don't think about whether they're going to like it or not. I was just in this zone, where I just did it. People didn't understand some of the scenes, but I didn't care.

DR: That sentiment is the difference between people who talk about making films and the people who really make it, where there's that deep sense that, "What I'm doing matters." Where do you get that drive to take time away from relaxing? You could be getting drunk.

JR: I don't know. I don't see anything else other than this. I don't have any interest in anything else. I like going out, but I don't drink. I don't do any of that stuff. I'd rather be at home working on a project or writing something. It's kind of weird, but that's the way it is.

DR: Do your friends know you as the film guy? Is that how you're introduced?

JR: Sometimes. I ask them not to do that, but I have a close knit group of friends, most of them have known me for years.

DR: Some people thrive on competition. They thrive on the idea of becoming famous, continuing a tradition of cinema. Most people in California, they survive competing with others, but in Doylestown and Newtown, I could imagine, it's more a matter of internal motivation. Do you have friends who make film? How do you stay motivated?

JR: There are filmmakers who motivate me. Competition doesn't ever really enter my mind. I think that in real cinema, each filmmaker is different. It's like a classroom. Everyone's different. I don't find any reason to be competitive, everyone's different. I like watching other filmmakers.

DR: When you think about making a film, do you think about adding your two cents in to cinema along with Fellini, along with Bergman?

JR: Sure. I love Woody Allen, Bergman, and all that, and when I watch their films, I find that they're amazing. I'm not even close, but I appreciate their work. I aspire to be like that, a real filmmaker [aside] (they all have budgets).

DR: But they didn't have a budget in the beginning.

JR: We're all born the same way, without anything.