佳片有约:《母与子》

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

And I'm Michele Norris.

A new film arrives in theaters in time for Mother's Day. It's called "Mother and Child," and through several parallel and sometimes intersecting stories, the film explores the joys and sorrows and strains of motherhood. What's surprising is that a story soaked in so much estrogen was written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia, a man. Garcia has a way of attracting all-star casts, and he's done it again.

But the stories revolve around one specific character played by Annette Bening. Her name is Karen. She got pregnant when she was 14 and gave up the baby at her mother's insistence. We meet her four decades later, when she's a brittle spinster, caring for her aging mother, working as a physical therapist and thinking constantly of the baby that she never knew.

(Soundbite of film, "Mother and Child")

(Soundbite of music)

Ms. ANNETTE BENING (Actor): (As Karen) I had a new dream a couple of days ago: I come home and try to get in, but my key breaks inside the lock. I look through the window and I can see you in my bed sleeping. I go in through the back door and walk up to you and smell your breath. It smells of another woman's breast milk, not mine.

NORRIS: That's Annette Bening, and she joins us now along with veteran director Rodrigo Garcia. Welcome to the program.

Ms. BENING: Thank you so much. Thanks for having us.

NORRIS: Annette Bening, what's it like for you all these months later to listen to Karen reading aloud with such yearning?

Ms. BENING: It makes my heart pound. It's almost like hearing a dream of the past. I guess I just - I sort of fell in love with this woman, Karen, that I played. And it kind of brings back memories, brings back memories of when we were making the picture and trying to find these little delicate moments that Rodrigo had written.

NORRIS: Rodrigo, how much rope did you give Annette Bening? Was Karen the sort of fully-formed character in your mind, very specific idea of how she would look and act and move and interact? Or did you essentially present the character and let Annette inhabit it as she would?

Mr. RODRIGO GARCIA (Director, "Mother and Child"): You know, I always think of the script as a contract. I think it's important to sit down with the actor and agree on the fundamental, you know, on the fundamentals of the script and the fundamentals of the story so that you avoid surprises like in the middle of the set, you know, disagreeing as to how the story should end, et cetera.

But beyond that, you know, I don't. I don't know how Karen moves and dresses and talks and how she holds herself. You know, I think that's what actors do. I think you don't want, as a director, to give so much direction that you squash creativity.

NORRIS: Annette, your character evolves quite a bit through the course of the film. She's so wounded by something that happened in the past, and she's really very prickly and almost kind of mean. And yet, she's totally vulnerable at the same time. What did you have to do to get inside her head?

Ms. BENING: When I read it initially, and as I discussed it with Rodrigo a little bit, I just felt that was so important that at the beginning of the story that you're watching a woman that's getting it wrong.

There's something in her that I felt like I'd seen a lot around me or we see around us all the time that we bump up against somebody in our lives whether they're at work, or maybe you see them in the grocery store or wherever but the person clearly has issues. And they don't handle - they're rude, they maybe don't handle the moment well. And one senses in that that there's something haunting the person, almost. I mean, that's a little bit strong of a word, but there's something preoccupying them. And this woman, Karen, I feel like she did - she has almost like a battle wound, a war wound from what happened to her as a child that she's still carrying around.

The good part for me and the necessary part, in a way, I think, in order to really fall in love with her, was she ends up in middle age finding a way to get over things and dump some of her baggage and find some peace.

NORRIS: Yeah, I have to say that I shook my head several times during this film, amazed that a man had so effectively tapped into the complexity of...

Mr. GARCIA: A man. You say that word, a man, like it's some rude word.

NORRIS: No, no, no, no, no, no. I have only love for the species.

(Soundbite of laughter)

NORRIS: But I really was surprised, though, that you got it.

Mr. GARCIA: You know, I'm just - I'm a junkie for this kind of behavior. I mean, I love, you know, so many things. I mean, a woman's face when she's shopping for shoes or seeing, you know, a woman's face when she looks up and the waiter is handsome. You know, that's just something that cannot be described.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GARCIA: All that stuff, and I'm also fascinated by the real finesse they have, you know, in reading social signals, you know, and reading each other. You know, I'll come back from a dinner with my wife and some friends and, you know, I come back in that masculine fog of mine and it was like, oh, that was fun. And my wife says to me, I don't think so. I think she's going to leave him.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GARCIA: I'm like, oh, okay. You know, that kind of stuff, just I love that kind of stuff.

NORRIS: It's wonderful to watch the dance, the very delicate dance between Karen and the character played by Jimmy Smits. He's clearly grooving on her.

(Soundbite of laughter)

NORRIS: He has an eye for her, and your character is just so tough on him. He finally works up the courage to ask her out for a cup of coffee.

(Soundbite of film, "Mother and Child")

Mr. JIMMY SMITS (Actor): (As Paco) What else would you like to know?

Ms. BENING: (As Karen) We don't have to interrogate each other. This is not a date.

Mr. SMITS: (As Paco) Interrogate's a harsh word.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. BENING: (As Karen) What's so funny?

Mr. SMITS: (As Paco) No, nothing. I just can't seem to say the right things around you, and I'm trying, believe me.

Ms. BENING: (As Karen) I'm not a difficult person.

Mr. SMITS: (As Paco) No, I don't mean that.

Ms. BENING: (As Karen) No, you're not comfortable with me.

Mr. SMITS: (As Paco) No, I am.

Ms. BENING: (As Karen) My words are too harsh for you.

Mr. SMITS: (As Paco) No, no, no.

Ms. BENING: I love her, and I feel like she's trying so hard as I think most of us do - trying so hard to connect but doesn't have the equipment. And I felt that was in the writing itself. So I loved doing that scene, and I could have gone on and done that for an entire I don't know, forever.

NORRIS: Was there some small thing that you did as an actor that was particularly special to you, that you're hoping - that's very subtle, that you're hoping that an audience might pick up? The way you reach for the box of Oreos or the way you hold your mother's necklace?

Mr. GARCIA: Don't say.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. BENING: Yeah, you know no, you know, it's a funny thing. I remember when I was in acting school, they did teach us a little bit about secrets and that as an actor, you want to have some secrets. You want to have some things that you're not saying to anyone. And, of course, it's only of use if it feeds you in the moment when you're trying to do something. But, you know, that is part of our job is to have our secrets.

Mr. GARCIA: I was saying to Annette don't say, don't say, because I think there has to be a part of the creative thing that should always be mysterious and should always be a secret of the artist. You know, one of the reasons I don't like to rehearse that much is because I want to - not just to encourage, you know, their own creativity but because it's fun for me to see something created by them and I don't know where it comes from.

I remember halfway through the shoot, I said to Annette, months from now, I'm going to call you and I think you should tell me what your way into Karen was. I want to know what you thought of her and, you know, all that stuff that I didn't know. And of course, now a year has gone by, and I see her, and I never ask, and I don't want to ask.

NORRIS: Here's your moment.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GARCIA: Well, no. In fact, at the beginning of the interview, you said to Annette: How did you work on this character? And honestly, I found that I was about to blush because the whole thing was just too personal. Do you know what I mean? It's like, oh, God, I hope she doesn't say that. I don't want to hear it right now. I don't want to be shown, you know, the little compartment where the rabbit is hidden just before you bring it of out the hat.

NORRIS: Rodrigo Garcia is the writer and director of the film "Mother and Child." The film stars Annette Bening."