Norman Jewison takes the stage at film fest

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

To sum up the career of anyone who has worked for nearly half a century is a staggering task. To sum up the career of director Norman Jewison, whose filmic curriculum vitae stretches back to the 60s and encompasses seemingly every genre under the sun, is near impossible.
He has undisputedly left an indelible mark on the world of celluloid and silver screens with films such as “In the Heat of the Night,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”

“There are only a handful of directors that move from genre to genre with the grace and talent that Mr. Jewison has done,” festival director Roger Durling said. “He has triumphed in every genre and that is not an easy feat.”
As guest director of the Santa Barbara film festival, the 81-year-old stuck around for a conversation with film critic Leonard Maltin following a screening of his 1987 film “Moonstruck” yesterday evening. He had little trouble explaining his success.
“It’s part luck, part good timing.”
Luck got Jewison his first big break back in the early 60s. The Toronto-born director had spent much of the 50s in television, working with Harry Belafonte and Judy Garland in musical revues. After signing a contract with Universal, he kept getting fed comedy scripts, pumping out four by 1965.
“The problem was all of a sudden I was tagged as a comedy director,” he said. “After four comedies, I started to say, this is ridiculous. I’m not doing anything I want to do. I was like an indentured servant.”
Then luck hit. Universal forgot to send out his option letter, letting him slip out of the contract. Then he slipped into the role of director on the set of “The Cincinnati Kid” after Sam Peckinpah was fired.
“It was a wonderful opportunity for me to do a dramatic film,” he said.
The 1965 poker flick, starring Steve McQueen and Ann-Margret, is now considered by many to be one of the best films ever made about gambling.
He soon followed it up in 1967 with the racially charged “In the Heat of the Night,” one of a trio of films that focused on themes of racism and social injustice.
“Racism and the whole idea of tolerance and integration and so on has always fascinated me in America,” Jewison said. “Coming from Canada, it was an important subject for me to examine.”
Set in the Deep South, the film follows Virgil Tibbs, a black homicide detective from Philadelphia who returns to visit his mother in Mississippi. After a rich, white business owner is murdered, police arrest Tibbs, played by Sidney Poitier. When they discover his credentials, however, they release him and enlist his help in finding the true killer.
“I think the audience responded to the film … because it spoke to them,” Jewison said. “It spoke to their hearts and their minds.”
After a string of dramatic films, he abruptly switched gears and directed a series of musicals, including “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
“I’ve never been a genre filmmaker,” he said. “I’ve just sort of moved around.”
All that moving, along with decades in the industry, gave Jewison an opportunity to work with a slew of film greats.
In “The Thomas Crown Affair” and “The Cincinnati Kid,” he directed Steve McQueen, who he has described as one of the most difficult actors to work with.
“I believe he was a warlock,” Jewison said. “If it was a full moon, you couldn’t shoot. He’d take his motorbike out into the desert and you wouldn’t see him for three days. He was affected by the moon.”
In 1999, Jewison teamed up with Denzel Washington to create “The Hurricane,” the story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a black boxer wrongly convicted of murder who struggles to convince an insensitive society of his innocence.
“I think Denzel’s performance in ‘Hurricane’ was one of the great performances in film,” he said. “…That scene when he’s alone in solitary [confinement] in the middle of the film, that’s just remarkable.”
In the last film he directed, “The Statement” in 2003, Jewison spent time with Michael Caine, who he described as a delight to direct.
“He’s a consummate, consummate actor,” Jewison said. “Michael just likes to work. He never stops working. He’s one of those actors that, it just seems to be easy for him. He’s so well-prepared.”
Although nominated for seven Oscars and the 1999 recipient of the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Jewison said winning awards has never been what his work is about.
“Once it gets into competition, that’s the aspect I don’t like,” he said. “I don’t think films should have to compete with another because they are separate works of art.”
While he has a home in Toronto, Jewison spends plenty of time in California, at his Los Angeles office and Malibu home, toiling to create more works of art. He has two scripts, a romantic comedy and a political satire, ready to go — he just needs to find the financial backing.
But the director who has been around since the collapse of the studio system sees a changing landscape in the film industry.
“For the creative people, for the artists, the business has become much more difficult,” he said.
He described a view of Hollywood as dominated by multinational corporations concerned only with the bottom line and using marketing forces to cajole the public into buying tickets.
“When you sell out, when you go for the money and the box office, you stifle the creativity.”