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Director's Commentary
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The Cleaning Lady is a comedy about missed opportunities and second chances.
Its core message is that we all make mistakes and some of those mistakes can
set us on the wrong path for life. But life has a funny way of being
unpredictable and surprising and sometimes we get second chances or "do overs".
And at that point the question becomes: if given the opportunity, are you a creature
of habit? Would you wind up making the same choices all over again or would you
start out on a new foot?
One of the reasons I wanted to make a story about a cleaning lady is that they
seem to have fewer choices in life but more temptations in front of them.
When I was younger, my sisters liked to watch shows like Dallas and
Dynasty but I could never really sympathize with the trials and
tribulations of the rich and powerful. I always found myself watching the
maids or the butlers in the background. If you've ever seen the 1978 remake of
Heaven Can Wait, there's a scene where Warren Beatty, playing a man who's
accidentally snatched from his life by some well-meaning angels and placed in a
billionaire's body, starts talking to the angels in his bedroom. Behind him is
a maid who momentarily thinks he's talking to her. She can't see the angels,
so she's surprised and smiles shyly before hurrying out the room. That small
moment has stayed in my head for decades, growing and evolving, always making
me wonder what that maid's life was about, what it must've been like to work
in a wealthy mansion all day long then go home to a poorer life. I wondered
if she ever thought about that one seemingly flirtatious moment.
The Cleaning Lady is a comedy based on those ponderings.
I had worked with my co-producer Nancy Phelps on two other films before
The Cleaning Lady and we were trying to find a way to shoot our movie
on an economical level. When people ask me how much the film costs,
I tend to be a little sly, mostly because I'd rather talk about all the
blood, sweat, tears, and wacky incidents that went into making the movie.
My answer is usually, "About as much as a down payment on a house."
I'll leave it up to you to decide whether that's a down payment on a house
in the San Francisco Bay Area or a down payment on a shack in Barrow, Alaska.
(Hint: you'd be surprised how much land costs in Barrow, Alaska).
Just before going into preproduction we saw two films: Christopher Nolan's
Following and Gary Winick's Tadpole. We based our entire
production strategy on those films. Most independent filmmakers I know tend
to make the same mistakes over and over again. They get a little bit of
some money and, like gamblers, spend it in a hurry, thinking the money
won't be around for very long. But Christopher Nolan took the opposite
approach with Following. He shot it as slowly as he could,
shooting only on the weekends, using the upcoming week to rehearse,
get his locations and props together and plan the next scene.
That strategy pays off in an amazing way. You get more bang for your
buck and you imbue your film with so much more quality than if you'd
rushed it along. As for Tadpole, the movie demonstrated that
the newly dawning digital technology could be used to great effect,
making an indepedent film look fun and playful and actually quite nice.
Needless to say, we devoured every article and interview we could
find on those films and used them as the models for our own.
I could go on and on about mise en scene and the high falutin' themes of
The Cleaning Lady but I'm sure you'll draw your own conclusions
after watching it. We had a lot of fun making it, even more fun editing it,
and hopefully it'll show up on the screen when you see it.
For the independent filmmakers out there...when I was making my
first feature I was looking for someone, anyone to answer my questions
and take some of the mystery out of the process, so if there are any
filmmakers there who ever want to chat, drop me a line, say hello,
and let's talk. And if you're making your first film, all the better.
Remember: the most important thing is to simply do it.
Make your mistakes, and make them well.
Curtis Lim
Director
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