Abraham Polonsky: Interviews

Abraham Polonsky: Interview

133 Abraham Polonsky: Interview James Pasternak and F. William Howton / 1971 From The Image Maker, ed. Ron Henderson (Richmond, Va.: John Knox Press, 1971), 17–27. Question: Tell us about your new project? Polonsky: I have three. One of them is Childhood’s End by Arthur Clarke, which Universal bought for my company to make into a film. Another is an original screenplay by me called Sweet Land, which Universal bought for my company to do, and a third is one I haven’t sold to anyone yet, Mario the Magician by Thomas Mann. Question: You’ve been working on that property for quite a while now, haven’t you? Polonsky: I got it from Thomas Mann in 1950. He was living, in those days, in California. I’ve known his daughter for a long time, and I’d already directed Force of Evil. I got in touch with him and we had a discussion about my notions of directing it, which wasn’t to be exactly the way he wrote it. He gave me an option on it, and I went to Europe to try to set up the project, but was unable to raise any money for it. No one was really interested at that time. Question: Why? Polonsky: In 1950 everybody thought fascism was old hat. I think that was the real reason for it. In any event, when I was blacklisted, I had to drop it. So, the first thing I did, when I got to direct Willie Boy and had the project set up at Universal, was to get in touch with Erica Mann, and I got it back. But, of course, in all these years my notion of how it is to be done changed. Fundamentally, it’s the same discussion I had with Thomas Mann. It was at that time that Thomas Mann said to me that he thought fascism was coming to the United States and he advised me 134 abraham polonsky: inter views to leave the country. He said he was going to England, and did in fact go to Switzerland. He had just finished Faustus. I disagreed with him and didn’t come. Question: Is Mario your most immediate project? Polonsky: I think it is. My problem, of course, is to get it financed without telling them what I’m doing, which is very difficult to do. Question: Isn’t that easier to do, though, because you’re dealing with a classic? It has a kind a built-in acceptance for the studio mentality? Polonsky: Well, our studios are not impressed by Thomas Mann. Question: Yes, but it would make it easier for you, an impressive director , to bring in an impressive property. I’m trying to psych out the twisted psyche. . . . Polonsky: They don’t have a twisted psyche! Their psyche is extremely clear. There’s nothing twisted about studios: They know what business they’re in. They don’t understand what business they’re in, but they know what it is. I mean, they don’t know how to operate very well, because they have a tendency to make money in the way in which they are accustomed to making money, which is, to do again what has already been successful. Question: You mean to make a film of the film that was a film originally? Polonsky: It’s even worse than that! It’s to be immediately up to date with what has already gone out of fashion. It’s hard to escape that in the studios, because—to use your words—they’re trying to psych out the market. And when the market has changed radically, as it has in the last five or six years, I would imagine for them (it has been changing over the years) they keep insisting that that market still exists out there, even when they say, “no, it doesn’t really exist any more,” we’re going to adjust to it. So, now when they say they’re going to do youth films, and in a sense are like the people in Vogue magazine who have a youth consultant , that’s the youth market, this is what youth likes now, then they do youth films, whatever they think youth loves. “Youth” is, of course, a fiction —their youth, at least, is a fiction. Actually (they) would like to make pictures that appeal to the television market, that is to say, the widest possible market. They would like every film to...