5 Questions With: Filmmaker Doug Torres (Assistant Director of 12 Years a Slave and The Lost City of Z)
5 Questions With is a recurring feature where we sit down with a member of the film community to get their unique perspective. Here, we talk with filmmaker Doug Torres who has worked on films such as 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Lost City of Z (2016), and The Immigrant (2013) ahead of his visit for the Ambler Theater’s upcoming screening of The French Connection (1971), presented on 35mm as part of our Film 101 series.
What are some of the films that first sparked your interest in filmmaking and how do you think they inform your work now?
Growing up as a kid in the seventies with an older brother, I was definitely introduced to some movies earlier than I should’ve been, like Apocalypse Now (1979), The Deer Hunter (1978), The Godfather (1972), and Once Upon a Time in America (1984). All of these movies that we now look back on as classics were, for me, the movies that opened my eyes to what cinema could do, and the places that type of visual storytelling could take you to. This was especially true for Apocalypse Now and the Godfather series, also The Conversation (1974), and a little bit later for me were Raging Bull (1980) and Goodfellas (1990). A lot of these movies we consider iconic now, but at the time that wasn’t necessarily the case. These things take time and history to merit that type of definition, but at the time I would see those things and say “Wow, this is really amazing!”. Obviously I would group The French Connection in with them.
What I say all the time when I go to speak to kids at different schools or universities who want to become filmmakers is that, bottom line, what those movies taught me is that the single most important thing is story. Visual craziness makes no sense if you don’t have a compelling story, and the one thing that all these classic movies have in common is a version of storytelling that’s epic in it’s own way. That could mean it’s some type of take on a Greek tragedy or Shakespearean tale, but those movies all have this amazing storytelling, and that’s what I tell young kids today; if you want to become a filmmaker, never forget the power of telling a good story.
What specifically made you select The French Connection?
There are a couple of things that resonate with me in The French Connection. For one, the film is iconic for its depiction of New York City. Being a kid who grew up in New York, and seeing the film for the first time, it was amazing to weave through some of those locations that were shot in some of the seedier grimier parts of the city. In the late seventies and early eighties, New York wasn’t the Disneyland that it is now, it had that level of grit and edge to it that The French Connection so aptly put up on the screen, warts and all.
One of the most important things to me is that the “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) character stands out as one of the first examples I can remember where the protagonist of the movie is a total S.O.B. Gone were the days of wonderful studio filmmaking where the protagonist has to be this lovely good guy, who smiles, who everybody loves. Gene Hackman’s portrayal of Popeye Doyle presents an incredibly flawed, degenerate character, but he’s the lead of the movie. That’s something you hadn’t seen that much prior to that. He’s like Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark to the nth degree. If people watch Iron Man (2008) and think Tony Stark is flawed as a human being, they really gotta see Popeye Doyle.
The other thing that’s interesting to me is the idea of the now iconic car chase, it’s such an amazing example of creating parallel action within a chase sequence. Essentially, you have these two threads going on which evoke the absolute panic that’s going on within Popeye Doyle. He’s trying to track down this man riding on an elevated train from his car below, and this amazing tension is created. The fact that the stakes are raised so high because of how this sequence is shot, that’s what makes it so memorable. This was such a groundbreaking sequence at the time.
As someone well-acquainted with staging a scene, what’s going on in this film that particularly impresses you?
As I mentioned, the idea of the car chase is a big one. Any type of action sequence on the street takes so much time and care. There are so many legendary stories about how so much of that sequence was “stolen.” By that I mean shot without the proper permissions on the streets of New York underneath the elevated train path which is something that absolutely, positively, you could not get away with in this day and age. It was a little bit more of a society of outlaw filmmakers in those days; the proper agencies weren’t in place to monitor filmmakers as they are now. It’s amazing to see in that sequence how there are regular people on the street just kind of surprised at what’s happening as these cars are barreling through. It’s interesting because now you kind of have to sweep out all of the street corners, block it all off, make sure there are no pedestrians anywhere in sight. Everyone is liability crazy now, but back in those days it really didn’t matter.
The idea of mounting the camera rig on the nose of the car to give that point of view perspective of the car on the move, was I believe was one of the first example of that type of car rig being used. That perspective really puts you, as an audience member, in the chase. You’re at the ground level, going through the obstacles and you really feel that it’s you inside that car, which really helped ratchet up the tension in the sequence.
Who are your favorite active filmmakers at the moment and who should we keep our eye on?
Jeff Nichols, for one. People might already know about him, but I think he’s just a great storyteller. His last movie was Midnight Special (2016), and he’s also done Take Shelter (2011). He’s very old school in his approach, and very much dialed in to the storytelling aspect of making a movie. Another group that’s interesting are these young guys in New York called the Safdie brothers, that just did this movie called Good Time (2017) with Robert Pattinson last year. I know they’re also shooting a movie right now in New York called Uncut Gems. They’re an interesting duo that not a lot of people know about, unless you happened to see this little two million dollar movie. I just feel like they’re gonna kind of explode on the scene in the couple of years. They’ve got kind of their own original take on their process that’s very different than tried-and-true filmmakers in terms of how they work as a directing team, but they’re also very much writer-directors who are obsessed with storytelling.
Also, he’s by no means under the radar but I think what Ryan Coogler (Creed (2015), Fruitvale Station (2013), Black Panther (2018)) has done in his short career is pretty astonishing, and once again, all because of his storytelling. When I go and talk to kids I say “You know why Black Panther works so well? Because that’s Shakespearean storytelling. Here’s this story about a king who did his brother wrong, so the prince’s secret son has come back to avenge the throne. That’s a Shakespeare story!” What works in cinema in a lot of ways and what’s going to continue to work, is storytelling from people who understand the classics, and are able to tell really well-grounded stories.
What advice would you offer to aspiring filmmakers?
In this day and age, as opposed to years ago, there are so many avenues and venues to shoot something, to shoot a short, to shoot a micro-budget whatever and get it up for people to view. I think that if you’re really serious about becoming a filmmaker, you’ve got to write and shoot product, continually, perpetually. Every young filmmaker I look at who’s serious about the trade has five or six shorts under their belt, and is carrying around three or four full-length feature screenplays. If you don’t have that, then you’re not really serious about the trade. Your ability right now to shoot stuff has never been better in terms of it being so cheap and easy. It just requires some friends who believe in you, getting out there, and understanding which style of filmmaking you want to use for a certain type of story. I’m telling you, you just gotta do it, there’s no excuse not to. It used to be hard when we had to find someone who had a camera, shoot stuff on film, and take it to a lab. No matter what, you needed to have thousands of dollars of your own money, and now, that’s simply not the case. I say to anyone, if you’re really serious about being a filmmaker, shoot some product and show it.
The French Connection is presented on 35mm as part of our Film 101 series, and plays at the Ambler Theater on Thursday, October 25th at 7:30pm. This screening will be introduced, and followed by a discussion with Doug Torres. For more information on upcoming Film 101 screenings, and other discussions, you can view our lineup here.
