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(Untitled)

Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki

Story : Set in the artsy Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, (Untitled) tells the story of Adrian Jacobs (Goldberg), a difficult composer of equally difficult music whose sparsely attended performances involve musicians breaking glass and kicking metal buckets. In contrast, Adam’s brother, Josh (Bailey), is a commercially successful painter of vapid canvasses that corporate clients snap up by the dozen. But, Adrian’s luck appears set to change when Josh brings the stunning Madeleine (Shelton) to one of his concerts. Not only does she embrace his work and ask him to perform at her gallery, she invites him into her bed. As the two embark on a fiery affair, Adrian is introduced to a world of pretentious art collectors, dueling gallerists and eccentric artists, including Ray Barko (Vinnie Jones), whose bizarre creations include chandeliers of stuffed animals and dead cows draped with jewelry.

Opens October 23, 2009

Interview with Director Jonathan Parker

1) What element do you find most fascinating in the New York art scene?

(Jonathan Parker) Most fascinating is the atmosphere and attitude in the highest-end contemporary galleries.  You get the feeling that if someone cracked a smile, the walls would crumble.

2) You composed the music in your films a couple of times. How did you get to know this experimental music and how did you decide to use it in your film?

(Jonathan Parker) I played contemporary classical music as a percussionist throughout high school and college in the late 70s, and wrote songs and performed with a variety of unusual bands.  I have experience as a difficult new music composer.  A few years ago, Catherine di Napoli and I attended a new music performance in NY and a piece by David Lang was performed.  I knew David from when we were both at Stanford.  I loved the piece and decided to contact him.

3) How did you get to cast Adam Goldberg? I always thought he has really intense eyes.

(Jonathan Parker) Adam was someone we were interested in very early on.  He has intense eyes and intense pretty much everything else, too.

4) About Ray Barko played by Vinnie Jones, when a collector asks him about his influence in the art world, he mentions that "The past doesn't influence me." Don't you find that's something impossible to say as an artist in this current art world where so many art works are already displayed?

(Jonathan Parker) "The past doesn't influence me, I influence it" is a well-known quote attributed to de Kooning.

5) In the discussion for the experimental music, how can you tell the difference between music and noise? Noise is unwanted sound, but it could be noise for Beethoven's 5th symphony, if that's what you wanted to hear? How yourself differ those?

(Jonathan Parker) I'm not that theoretical.

6) Could you comment about Madeleine's character (played by Marley Shelton), how she's very supportive of different artists, but she's the most commercially gallerist and seems always to draw attention?

(Jonathan Parker) She understands she has to be, in the words of Mary Boone, "the girl out front selling the car."   One thing the art world and the film business have in common is the agents dress expensively.

7) As a flimmaker, how do you deal with idiotic criticism?

(Jonathan Parker) Depends if it's positive or negative.

8) Adrian mentioned "I began to write a music that doesn't connect to life in any way." Previously, Ray remarked, "The past doesn't influence me." Do you think having those two elements can make an artist be successful in the future?

(Jonathan Parker) As we say in the movie, that depends on how you define success.  Financial success is always possible.  More meaningful kinds of success would be very difficult.

9) Do you find that part of the corporate world destroys art, even in the film industry?

(Jonathan Parker) Corporations are simple creatures.  They are motivated by profits. They don't care whether they profit from good art or bad art.  It's up to the artists to make the art.  This goes for movies, too .  If the artworks in the galleries, or the movies in the theaters, seem silly or uninteresting, it may just be a fallow period for those art forms.

10) What did you take away as an artist by making this film?

(Jonathan Parker) I learned how much I love art.  I'm surprised that such a big part of my life was missing for so long.