Thursday’s KVIFF Talk welcomed to the Congress Hall the author of 27 feature films, screenwriter, producer and director Barry Levinson, who will receive the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at the gala Closing Ceremony. The discussion turned, among others, on his Oscar-winning movie Rain Man.
"Thirty years have passed since the making of Rain Man, which we feel is an occasion for re-discovering the film. It has actually changed the expression of the current cinematography”, said British journalist Neil Young when opening the discussion. He further noted that Levinson was the fourth director to take over the project. “Sydney Pollack was struggling with the screenplay, so he asked me for comments. I recommended him for example to simplify the over-complex plot and concentrate on the two main characters. However, Sydney did not believe he could put the project through in such a form, so I took it over eventually”, explained Levinson.
Levinson largely improvised when shooting the road movie which followed Charlie’s long journey with his autistic brother, as the director set on the journey together with the crew and the two stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise without being backed by a film studio. “We had a general sense of direction, but otherwise we adjusted the screenplay as the journey unfolded”, concluded the director, whose son was born during the film’s shooting in Cincinnati. That his decision was right was confirmed by the international acclaim, the film being ranked among the best in movie charts in all countries where it was released.
