In 2004, director Aaron Schneider won an Academy Award for his short film Two Soldiers, based on a William Faulkner story. In his other life Schneider pays the bills as an award winning cinematographer, having worked extensively in television and on films such as Titanic (Second Unit DOP) and Kiss the Girls (DOP).
Which is just as well. It took six years from winning his Oscar for this rising star to get his debut feature film Get Low into cinemas - an amusing little drama staring Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray, it was worth the wait.
The film is based on a ‘true’ tall tale, if you like, spun out of equal parts folk tale, fable and real-life legend about a mysterious Hermit called Felix Bush who threw himself a funeral while he was around to enjoy it. Set in Tennessee during the depression, Felix (Duvall) wants his funeral to be an opportunity to come clean about his past, and comes up with the idea to raffle his farm to get people interested. Helping Felix achieve all this are opportunistic funeral director Frank Quinn (Murray) and his young assistant Buddy (Lucas Black).
Schneider knew he wanted Get Low to be his debut feature, but he had no idea how hard it would be raise the relatively modest US$7.5 million required. Filming finally took place in Georgia in 2009, five years after Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacey had initially committed to the project.
As Scheider told the Chicago Tribune, even with Robert Duvall signed onto the picture getting the money took years. “Most of that time," Schneider said, "you're waiting for people to call you back. You get a lead, it might take a month and a half to determine it's not going anywhere. People love to leave you hanging. I think people can get hypnotised by the magic of the period in time in which they're talking about investing in a movie”.
Thankfully it all came together beautifully, aided in no small part by Murray joining the team. The combination of gentle humour and drama, along with the perfect casting, makes what is a relatively simple film a delight.
There’s nothing better than sitting down and watching a few old pro’s give a masterclass in what they do best. Definitely a highlight of the week, don’t miss Get Low, Saturday 26th November at 8.30pm.