The vital act of storytelling drives Casey Affleck’s “Company.” Knowing those stories and the people in them also passes on lessons learned involving grief, regret and forgiveness. The film premieres in competition at Venice.
“Company” stars Nick Nolte, Adelaide Clemens, Ben Mendelsohn, Scoot McNairy, Emily Alyn Lind, Caylee Cowan and Atticus Affleck. The film jumps between 1975, 1953 and 1903, connected by stories in each era. Much of the film involves just two actors in a shot, or one actor in a beautifully composed shot.
“When Casey sets up the camera, you know by the angles that he’s shooting from that it’s going to be much more intimate,” says Nolte.
Nolte’s Tom is an old man living alone. It’s winter, and he sees a young woman passed out on the snow outside his isolated cabin. He brings Alice (Cowan) in, warms her up and she tells him a story about a couple living in a cabin quite like his in 1903.
“It was the script, and it was so delicate,” Nolte says of what drew him to the project. “It had these silences and gaps, and the storytelling was obvious. I just found that intriguing. It wasn’t like any script that normally comes in. You know, it was one of those special ones.”
Nolte didn’t want to play Tom as necessarily a hermit, though, as we do discover his story as the film unspools. “I looked at him as somebody that wanted to not be with humanity in general. He was a reclusive, and he lived in isolation, and he’d probably be a trapper.”
Affleck’s direction is quite intentional, with each scene meticulously framed and lit, allowing stillness to permeate. Nolte’s expressive eyes and face do a lot of the work in each scene as Alice talks. “It was really about listening, just really listening to the story,” he says.
In the 1903 segment, Clemens and McNairy play a couple on an isolated farm, who, like Tom, find and rescue a young person from the snow. Caleb (Atticus Affleck) intrigues Rebecca (Clemens), as he brags about his world travels and personal philosophy with a familiar mix of confidence and insecurity — she’s wary, and his presence creates delicious tension.
“As I’ve gotten older, and I’ve worked more in the industry, I’ve started to learn the power of a two shot, and I’ve also started to learn that you need really skilled professionals to execute that in a powerful way,” she says. “You need an incredible cinematographer who we have on this film, Marcell Rév — everything was so beautiful.”
Clemens says that working with Casey is “what you dream of” because he is an Oscar-winning actor himself.
“Directors will often do a two shot, but then they’ll cover it as well. But if you have two actors who are in an environment where they’re supported, then you can have a really powerful scene, and you can see our whole bodies,” Clemens says of the framing, noting that she and her colleagues had to use their whole bodies. “We tell this whole story from the shins up. It wouldn’t be executed in the way it was if we didn’t have Casey trusting us.”
Clemens brought a “Buddha-like” demeanor and maternal depth and empathy to Rebecca, whereas Atticus Affleck had to leave everyone wondering about his truth. Clemens says that while he was well-prepared for the film, and “rehearsed intensely,” his performance was natural and “didn’t feel like a performance … He was amazing.”
Have some people in Hollywood figured out how to continue to spotlight Hollywood’s greats? “I’m 86, and real limited in the kind of roles I can play now, but I find that without the work, there just isn’t any reason to keep on going,” says Nolte, who has more projects on deck. “You know your creativity is tied into it, and as long as I’m physically capable, I encourage them to consider me. I haven’t thought about retiring.”
