She's an actress, a singer, an Academy Award winner, and now Anne Hathaway can add producer to her growing list of credits. Her producing debut (a family affair as husband Adam Schulman is a co-producer) Song One is a heartfelt, indie drama about family, relationships, and just how much music affects our lives.
And if producing for the first time wasn't enough of a challenge, she also chose a writer/director making her feature film debut. Hathaway previously met Katie Barker-Froyland when she worked as an assistant director on Hathaway's hit film The Devil Wears Prada (2006). But it was another director Jonathan Demme, who brought them together. During the Q & A that followed the screening at The Museum of the Moving Image, Hathaway revealed that her role as Kym in Demme's Rachel Getting Married ranks as her favorite. Knowing that Hathaway was looking for something to produce, he sent her Barker-Froyland's script and the actress felt such a connection to the main character that she ended up playing the role as well. [More...]
In the film, Hathaway plays Franny, an anthropologist that is called away from her research in Morocco when her younger brother, an aspiring musician, falls into a coma after being hit by a taxi. Franny returns home to New York to be with her mother. The mother is played by a wonderful Mary Steenburgen. Hathaway said that her fellow Oscar winner was so committed to playing the part that she temporarily relocated to New York so she could appear in the film, as the budget was too small not to hire local actors. Hathaway's anthropologist, usually studying the culture of foreign tribes, delves into the life of her own brother and the indie music scene that he was immersed in. Along the way she finds herself unexpectedly forming a close relationship with her brother's musical hero, James Forester (British actor/musician Johnny Flynn).
Though not a traditional musical in the sense that the characters randomly start singing about their feelings, the film very much has woven the concept of confessional songs and storytelling into the fabric of the film. Alongside the fictional James, are real-life singer/songwriter likes Sharon Van Etten and The Felice Brothers performing their actual songs in real New York concert venues like Bowery Ballroom and Pete's Candy Store. All of the songs James sings were written by Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice. The duo are friends with Hathaway - who even appeared in Lewis' music video this summer in drag - and excel at conveying emotion story and mood through songs. (Highly recommended: Jenny Lewis' album Rabbit Fur Coat.) They wrote the song "Little Yellow Dress" for the film the night that they met with Barker-Froyland about the project.
Because the songs are so important to James' character, I asked why they hadn't chosen an actor to write the songs as well. But Johnny Flynn confessed that he preferred having the songs already part of the text of the script, as he was able to analyze and discover the character more readily.
Barker-Froyland, Hathaway, & Flynn (photo courtesy of Jose Solís)
Fans of Hathaway's singing may be disappointed to learn that she only hesitantly sings a few times in character in the film. But hopefully we won't have to wait too long for another musical project from the star. The Film Experience's own Jose asked her about the long-in-the-works Judy Garland movie that she has been attached to since 2009. Hathaway assured us that the movie is very much still in the conversation and a script is still in development. She mentioned a scene from Garland's Meet Me in St. Louis that she just saw that evening as part of the museum's collection, certainly a happy coincidence. And she confessed that Garland "haunts me". Whenever that project gets off the ground, Hathaway is sure to put as much heart and devotion as she did into the sweetly moving Song One.
Song One is playing in New York & LA and is also available right now on iTunes and On Demand. The film's soundtrack is also available.