Montreal passes the Road test
Given Jack Kerouac’s Québécois roots, it was only fitting that Walter Salles use Montreal as a base for his adaptation of the beat writer’s classic 1957 novel On the Road. And though the aforementioned connection wasn’t intentional, it added a je ne sais quoi to the project, Salles explained.
“Our producers were French, so they were in a comfort zone in Montreal,” said the Brazilian director, during a sit-down chat during the Toronto International Film Festival in September. “But we also wanted a city where we could shoot in a calm, protected environment and try to search for the film we wanted to make. In this sense, I think (Montreal) was an ideal choice.”
Part of that need for peace and quiet was the casting of Twilight star Kristen Stewart as Marylou, and Kirsten Dunst as Camille. The film also stars Sam Riley as Kerouac’s alter-ego Sal Paradise, and Garrett Hedlund as incorrigible bad boy Dean Moriarty a.k.a. Neal Cassady.
Salles put his troops through an intense workshopping session in our city before shooting began.
“The prep was all done in Montreal,” he said. “We had a number of seminars for writers and members of the Cassady family or the daughter of Luanne Henderson — who inspires Marylou in the film — to talk to us. We also had a number of biographers come in.
“For three weeks, we watched documentaries on Kerouac, (Allen) Ginsburg and (William) Burroughs. We met with all these (family members and friends) who were truly generous to share with us their thoughts of who these people were and how they should be represented on screen.”
Montreal stood in for all things New York in the film, Salles noted. How à propos for our city to act as a backdrop for a film about bohemian, rebel youth finding itself in the void following the Second World War.
On the Road is a semiautobiographical tale that put Kerouac on the map and paved the way for the Beat Generation of poets, not to mention the wild abandon of the ’60s. In keeping with the spirit of the subject matter, Salles kept an open approach to his filmmaking.
“The book is about the necessity to invent a new future when that future is not offered to you,” he said. “It’s also about investigating all forms of freedom, whether it’s brought on by movement, entering uncharted territory or the possibility of sex and drugs as ways to expand your understanding of the world.
All of those quests are motivated by the desire to know more about who you are and who you can be. Montreal is a good starting point for that.”
Though we didn’t discuss our city’s illustrious indie rock scene, music plays a huge part in On the Road. A wild jazz soundtrack billows through the score, capturing the atmosphere of the times and the unpredictable energy of the characters at the story’s core.
Beyond providing a funky score, jazz offered a way to better understand Kerouac’s writing, Salles explained, and gave him insights on how to translate it to the big screen.
“When I read On the Road for the first time, I was very impacted by its content but also by the improvisational quality at its heart,” he said, “and how it was influenced by the esthetics of jazz and bebop. It was as if the typing machine was the extension of Kerouac’s body, in the same manner as a jazz instrument can be the extension of a jazz player.
“This calls for an improvisational style and a sensorial narrative; this is what we tried to bring to the film every single day. In this sense, the actors really became co-authors of the film. They were instigated to transcend what was on the page and bring something truly fresh and new to the scenes we were shooting.”
The film was a long time in the making.
Francis Ford Coppola acquired the rights in 1979. But there were many false starts before Salles was brought on board in 2005, after Coppola saw his adaptation of the Che Guevara road epic The Motorcycle Diaries. The 2008 financial crisis brought more delays, before funding was secured in 2010 from a combination of French and Brazilian producers.
Luckily for Salles, he was able to hang onto key components of his cast, including the skyrocketing Stewart.
“I think she brought an immense passion but also an intelligence to her role,” Salles said.
“She knew it really well before we even met, just after I saw Sean Penn’s Into the Wild. This was before the Twilight Saga had started.
“I said, ‘I really liked Penn’s film and you were wonderful in it. I’m considering the possibility of doing On the Road.’ And she said, ‘It’s one of the books I prefer; it’s on my bedside table. I would love to play Marylou one day.’ I said, ‘This is exactly what I’m talking about.’ ”
Stewart reveals a more carefree side of herself in the film, even appearing topless as she plunges into a racy sex scene with playful abandon. It was all par for the course, according to Salles.
“There was not a day where she didn’t ask me to try something different and go beyond the page. It was a great experience. And the fact that we were shooting Montreal helped a lot. We were not invaded by paparazzi or other things that are now very present in Kristen’s life.”