TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE Interview Series 1: MAN ON THE LEDGE's Joe Maggio
TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE INTERVIEW SERIES 1: MAN ON THE LEDGE's Joe Maggio.
Bitter Feast director Joe Maggio discusses the series' first episode, Man on the Ledge, starring Vincent D'Onofrio
In conjunction with the new podcast series TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, Vegas Outsider presents its own accompanying interview series for this new project from Glass Eye Pix, who have been recent frequent subjects from Larry Fessenden to Graham Reznick to Joe Maggio. If you are unaware of it, Tales is a throwback to the classic radio plays of yore but of course with Glass Eye’s own unique, horror-infused spin on it. In this first piece, Bitter Feast director Joe Maggio talks about his entry, Man on the Ledge which is the inaugural episode now available online.
Vegas Outsider: How were you approached to contribute to Tales From Beyond The Pale? Initial thoughts on the series concept itself as well as what you felt you could add to it?
Joe Maggio: I made a film (BITTER FEAST) in 2009 with Glass Eye Pix and had been in pretty close contact with Larry Fessenden because of this collaboration. Beyond that, Larry and I meet up semi-regularly to discuss whatever is going on in our lives and the world, and it was during one of these general get-togethers that he told me about his and Glenn McQuaid’s plan for a radio play series which would become TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE. Initially I was a little skeptical, only because it seemed so culturally counter-intuitive. If he’d suggested a series of webisodes or some sort of multi-platform interactive event I wouldn’t have blinked, but a radio play? Then, after a few minutes of Larry’s pitch, I must say the idea excited the storyteller in me.
As a filmmaker I’ve never had very much to work with in the way of financial resources. My whole career has been based on the philosophy of narrative economy and a kind of “less is more” ethos, so the challenge of telling a compelling story using only sound was an aspect of the project where I felt completely at home. What I think I’ve added in my approach is the same thing I hope I’ve added to Glass Eye’s film library with BITTER FEAST, and that is a story where the horror and dread stems from a tweaking of the unremarkable tidbits that comprise a seemingly unremarkable life and discovering the odd or extraordinary buried within.
VO: Once in, where did the story idea for Man on The Ledge come from & could you briefly discuss the story's setup?
JM: MAN ON THE LEDGE reflects several ideas I’ve always wanted to work with in my films, but for which I could never quite find a place. I’d seen a documentary a few years ago – I forget the name now, but it was essentially edited footage from a video camera that had been placed on the Golden Gate Bridge for one year, and which captured several suicides. You’d watch as these people, men and women of varying ages and ethnicities would stalk back and forth, peering over the edge, some talking to themselves, some clearly in agony, crying, screaming. I thought when I was watching that this moment – that decision between yes and no, life and death – would be worth exploring.
VO: One of your characters, William Coley, also appears in your film Bitter Feast, played in both instances by Larry Fessenden. What made you decide to bring that specific character into this tale besides the film?
JM: I loved the character of Bill Coley P.I., especially the way Larry played him in BITTER FEAST. He’s a character I’d always wanted to do more with and I’m playing with the idea of a graphic novel based on him. He’s a man who is incredibly intelligent, incredibly sensitive and perceptive, and it’s this that makes him the world’s greatest private investigator. But the very thing that makes him so good is also the source of his undoing. He feels too much for the world and his fellow man. He’s also a complete misanthrope who nevertheless understands that our only hope lies in mankind overcoming its base, animal tendencies.
This may sound paradoxical but I see it more as a tragedy. Coley’s predicament is that of a man with a fatal disease where the cure is the very thing that has made him ill in the first place. Mankind is all Coley or any of us has, but people constantly let him down and so he’s driven to drink and this gets him into trouble. I thought it would be fun if the events of MAN ON THE LEDGE could offer listeners some insight into how William Coley, NYPD, became Bill Coley P.I.
VO: How was it writing for a radio-themed project, having only voices to work with, unlike film, which allows you the luxury of visual imagery and sound. Did you find it liberating or constricting?
JM: I found it completely liberating. There is a paralysis that can set in when you have too many options. Two years ago, I made a film in a single night using multiple cameras and no script save a loosely conceived scenario which the actors used in imagining their characters. I hated the experience because there was just too much freedom. I need to work things out beforehand and, in a sense, limit the possibilities to just one thing. Eliminating the visuals, which means eliminating countless potential headaches, from wardrobe to production design and props and lighting and what kind of film stock or camera, ad infinitum, and just focusing on this single moment, this man teetering on the ledge, was wonderful.
VO: Additionally, what was the directorial process like in terms of gaining the performances you needed from essentially just voices? Were there any specific modulations or tones you wanted to be sure came across or did you prefer letting the actors do most of the legwork and allow them to mainly shape the performances?
JM: I cannot tell a lie. Aside from a few very minor tweaks, I let the actors do everything. We had a great cast – Vincent D’Onofrio, Larry Fessenden, Nick Damici, John Speradakos, Greg Amici... They came prepared and after a few takes I knew we had something really fine.
VO: What's interesting in the story before the final twist is the debate between Mr. Alba, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, and Coley regarding the nature of innocence and evil as evidenced by the Lee Harvey Oswald story Alba tells. Where did that idea come from within you as well as what is your own opinion on Alba's overall viewpoint?
JM: When I was a kid I saw the movie about Lee Harvey Oswald that Alba describes, and the detail he focuses on in my story - that moment before the JFK assassination with the Coca-Cola - is a detail I’ve thought about most of my adult life. But first a digression... I have for many years had this recurring nightmare in which I’ve committed some horrible crime, usually murder. The nightmare unfolds in that time before my misdeed is discovered. I am alone and I am overcome with this crushing sense of regret – not remorse for my crime – but regret that I will soon no longer be a free man who can enjoy a beer in a bar, or visit with my mother, or play in the park with my daughter. In short, I have done something irreversible and the freedom to perform the simplest act, like Lee Harvey Oswald having an ice cold Coke on a hot day, is forever lost.
This is what I am trying to zero in on in Alba’s Oswald story, that moment of innocence before he commits the despicable act which will change his life forever. Of course Alba, being mentally unbalanced, goes off on a seemingly innocuous tangent and in fact the whole story is just Alba toying with Coley, leading him down a series of intellectual corridors which lead nowhere. But Alba’s overall thesis - that human beings are essentially self-interested and even when we do something for someone else it’s only because we have found some advantage in it... I suppose I agree with this to a small degree, but with the caveat that, like William Coley, I also believe that our fellow man, as flawed as he may be, is all we have and so we have no choice but to have faith that somehow we can be better, that at some point we will transcend this state of self-interest and realize we’re all in it together and start taking care of each other.
A reference that I cut from the script has Coley talking about the myth of Sisyphus. Coley tells Alba that while our fellow man will always eventually let us down, we have no other choice but to believe the next time will be different and try again, pushing our rock up the hill, despite a lifetime of disappointments. “We must imagine Sisyphus happy” he tells Alba, echoing Albert Camus. But then I cut it all because I thought it sounded too high falutin. Talking about it here I realize it pretty much sums up the whole play in a few words and maybe I should have left it in.
To check out this episode and learn more about the overall series, go to www.talesfrombeyondthepale.com
