Making The Climb was an uphill battle
It opened ‘us up creatively to ideas we wouldn’t have found otherwise’
Film festival interviews are odd in so many ways. In recent years, publicists have often required journalists to “hold” interviews until the film in question opens in theatres. And usually that’s a simple request to fulfill – just mention casually in the article that the conversation took place back at last year’s Toronto or Cannes festival or whenever, and otherwise it all sounds quite current.
Not so for The Climb. Here’s co- writer and co- star Kyle Marvin talking about the experience of seeing the film at TIFF: “The Scotiabank 2 was incredible. We were up on that huge screen, the sound system dialled in. Walking in and watching just the beginning, I was like: Whoa! This is a movie!”
Co- star and director Michael Angelo Covino chimes in: “That’s the real environment to see it in. Seeing it in the multiplex like that with perfect image and sound, I was like: This is the only way I’d want to watch this.”
The Climb had its world premiere at Cannes in May 2019 and played Toronto that September. By the time it ran at Sundance the following January, rumours of an approaching pandemic were swirling. Subsequent interviews played out over news of cruise ships quarantined with sick passengers. On March 6, The Climb played what would be its last live festival screening, in Portland. A planned theatrical release for March 20 was pushed to July, then October, now November.
My chat with Marvin and Covino took in none of that. But one thing that did come through in talking with the filmmakers was the notion of working through whatever challenges came their way.
Take the very long takes that make up most of the film. The Climb, about two long- time friends who are also cycling enthusiasts, is based on the pair’s eightminute short of the same name from 2018, which plays out in one long take.
“It added additional challenges that didn’t need to be there,” says Covino. “But what that did was open us up creatively to ideas we wouldn’t have found otherwise. That was the rewarding thing. When you put limitations on yourself creatively, you’re forced to find solutions that you wouldn’t find if you had all the tools available to you.”
Case in point: A lovely long shot that manages to transition from autumn into winter without a cut. “We probably wouldn’t have found that transition from Thanksgiving into Christmas if we weren’t saying, well how do we not cut here?”
Marvin says the challenge created its own atmosphere on the set – tense but also exciting. “It brought a really interesting focus to the crew and the cast because everyone was aware from the outset of the day that if every person didn’t give their best all the time we might not have eight minutes of our movie. If seven minutes into a scene an actor flubbed their line, that’s it. So I think it brought a really interesting energy and focus that helped us.”
And did that ever happen? Marvin chuckles.
“Ninety- eight percent of the time, seven minutes in, someone would do something wrong. The camera would go one way and there’d be a guy with a bounce board (for lighting) standing in the frame. And we’d be like: Can we rotoscope that out? I don’t think we can.”
Preparation became their watchword. “We spent an entire day for each of the scenes with full crew, full camera, all actors rehearsing. We would do the work of the scene and then toward the end of the day start shooting. And then I would give Mike and the team a time to review the footage at night and dial it in, and the next day we would just be up shooting. Much like a play.”
The two filmmakers met more than a decade ago in New York and have since been working together on various projects. Like Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in The Trip movies, their characters are larger-than-life versions of themselves, though thankfully with none of the infidelities and fistfights that drive the plot. But they insist The Climb is much more than a buddy picture.
“We really molded all the characters and character arcs off friendships we had,” says Marvin. “Not just male friendships. And now, coming out the other side, because we’re men and we’re actors in the thing, it’s sort of been pushed through the funnel of male friendship. But I think our point from the beginning was just friendship – a more universal understanding of that.”
Covino adds that their own friendship survived the artistic process. “I think we came out the other side closer,” he says. “This was a way more concentrated experience. But we’re still talking to each other.”
If they weren’t, he adds, that would have come through in the interview. “We’re not that good actors,” he says. “We can’t fake it that well.”