{"id":37756,"date":"2006-07-21T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2006-07-21T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=37756"},"modified":"2016-02-13T21:42:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T02:42:46","slug":"kevin-smith-from-clerks-to-cannes-and-back-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2006\/07\/21\/kevin-smith-from-clerks-to-cannes-and-back-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Smith: From Clerks To Cannes And Back Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cAll right, calm down,\u201d director Kevin Smith says to the crowd. \u201cIt\u2019s been done already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith is talking to the crowd in a sold out Red Bank, New Jersey theatre who has just seen a sneak preview of his new film Clerks 2<\/strong> and are giving him a standing ovation. What has \u201cbeen done already\u201d is the standing ovation he is receiving, with Smith referencing the highly publicized, eight-minute one he received at the Cannes Film Festival following the film\u2019s world premier.<\/p>\n

The New Jersey screening of Clerks 2<\/strong> is the final film of the day long Vulgarthon event, a mini film festival occasionally thrown by Smith to highlight his films as well as the work of his friends (You can read more Vulgarthon coverage here<\/a> and a review of Clerks II here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It is only a few days since Clerks 2<\/strong>\u2019s thunderous reception at Cannes and Smith seems to be still overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole time I was there [at Cannes], I was just like \u2018I want to go home,\u2019\u201d he tells the crowd. \u201cThen you start reading about screenings that were getting booed and I was like \u2018This was such a mistake.\u2019 Because if they booed [director Sophia Coppola\u2019s] Marie Antoinette<\/strong>, which is a movie about a French queen, they\u2019re going to boo the [crap] out of this picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The audience reaction was vocal, but turned out to be the opposite of what Smith expected, becoming one of the more publicized events of this year\u2019s festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarvey [Weinstein, head of Clerks 2<\/strong>\u2019s distributor Weinstein Pictures] had said to us, \u2018I\u2019ve been going to Cannes for twenty years and I have never seen a midnight show get an eight minute standing ovation At the end of a midnight movie, most people just clap and go home. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it in my life,\u2019\u201d Smith relates. \u201cSo people were going \u2018Eight minute standing ovation, that\u2019s phenomenal!\u2019 And then a few minutes later, people were like \u2018I\u2019ve never seen a TEN minute standing ovation before!\u2019 And at one point Harvey comes up to me and is like \u2018Are you kidding me? A FIFTEEN minute standing ovation?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Dude, it was eight minutes.\u2019 If we had let him go, he\u2019d be like \u2018It was a FOUR HOUR standing ovation!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a far different experience for Smith from the first time he attended the international film festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were in Cannes in `94 with Clerks there was nothing like that,\u201d Smith states. \u201cWe had just gotten in to the film business. Our movie had just been bought at Sundance a few months prior. I had never even been out of the country before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The intervening twelve years have been interesting ones for the indie film director. Smith followed up his critical success to his small film of two convenience store register jockeys fighting off the boredom of their jobs with another raunchy comedy Mallrats<\/strong> (1995). While Mallrats<\/strong> didn\u2019t set box office records or get the same critical praise, it would find a following on home video. The relationship comedy Chasing Amy<\/strong> (1997) earned much critical notice and boosted the careers of stars Ben Affleck and Jason Lee. His 1999 religious farce Dogma<\/strong> drew fire from conservative religious groups. In 2001, Smith delivered the raunchy comedy Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back<\/strong>, which headlined the two slacker characters (portrayed by Jason Mewes and Smith) who had appeared in all his films, uniting them into a self-contained cinematic world.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, his first foray outside of his Viewaskewneverse (so named for his production company View Askew), the dramedy Jersey Girl<\/strong>, found Smith caught up in the backlash against the film\u2019s stars\u2019 \u2013 Affleck and Jennifer Lopez \u2013 previous film, the flop Gigli<\/strong>. Although he had previously stated he had closed the door on more films set in his world of slackers and register jockeys, Smith surprised many when he announced a return to his roots as a film maker with the Clerks 2<\/strong> project last year.<\/p>\n

Following up on the lives of Clerks<\/strong>\u2019 Dante (Brian O\u2019Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) was something that Smith had in mind for a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally, when I was thinking about the whole concept of Clerks 2<\/strong>, there were certain elements that were in place as far back as 1998 when I was finishing off Dogma<\/strong>,\u201d Smith explains. \u201cI knew how the movie would open; I knew how the movie would end. One of the things I was originally going to set the film at a boardwalk on the last day of summer. But it became impractical to shoot on a boardwalk. The go-cart scene is a remnant that\u2019s been around as far back as the boardwalk idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the boardwalk idea was only one of several things that changed about the film from its inception to its completion. A change was made the movie\u2019s original title, Clerks 2: The Passion Of The Clerks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI dropped the Passion Of The Clerks<\/strong> when the announcement that we were doing a Clerks<\/strong> sequel and the general consensus was \u2018Yeah!\u2019 for another Clerks<\/strong> story and \u2018Boo!\u2019 for the subtitle,\u201d Smith states. \u201cAnd as we were making the movie, I was like \u2018This feels better than a joke title\u2019. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back<\/strong> totally works because it is a joke title for a joke movie. But this flick, to me, is just too good for a throw away joke title.\u201d<\/p>\n

But first, in order to keep the simpler, streamlined title, Smith was going to have to convince Harvey Weinstein, an executive notorious for demanding and getting his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Weinstein Company was kind of like \u2018We need another title, because Clerks 2<\/strong> makes it sound like a sequel and people don\u2019t go to sequels\u2019 and I was like, \u2018Not for nothing, but it IS a sequel.\u2019\u201d Smith relates. \u201c\u2019And didn\u2019t you just release Scary Movie 4<\/strong>?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Even after the Weinstein Company suggested such subtitles as The Second Coming<\/strong> and Unwrapped<\/strong>, Smith remained adamant in keeping the title as it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rumor going around the internet was Clerks 2: Counter Terrorism<\/strong>,\u201d Smith adds, laughing. \u201cI think it\u2019s funny, but they were like \u2018You can\u2019t use \u201cterrorism\u201d in a title.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason it\u2019s called Clerks 2<\/strong>– anybody who saw Clerks<\/strong> and is interested, will come see it. If you didn\u2019t see Clerks<\/strong>, there\u2019s probably not a very good chance that you\u2019ll want to go see Clerks 2<\/strong>. No amount of subtitle trickery is going to change their mind. Unless it\u2019s Clerks 2: We Will Give You Money<\/strong>, then of course you\u2019ll see people going to be like \u2018I\u2019ve got to check this out\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Of course, returning to his roots meant returning to the suburban New Jersey convenience store where Smith worked as a register jockey by day while filming the first Clerks<\/strong> overnight when the store was closed. Smith has stayed in contact with the owners of the small strip of stores and has used the location again in both Chasing Amy<\/strong> and Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re great people and they\u2019ve let us shoot there ever since the first movie,\u201d Smith says. \u201cBut at the same time, they won\u2019t close the store. They keep their priorities straight and their priorities say \u2018[Screw] the Clerks<\/strong> boy, we sell milk.\u2019 So we\u2019ll be shooting during the day, I\u2019ll call \u2018Action!\u2019 and we\u2019re rolling through the scene and you pull back as some dude strolls across and says \u2018Give me a Slim Jim.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Such things don\u2019t seem to faze Smith; he certainly seems to be enjoying telling stories about the film\u2019s production to the crowd. In fact, Smith has gone on record stating that he doesn\u2019t wish to be responsible for the eight and nine digit budgets most Hollywood films seem to consume.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made the movie for five million bucks for a reason,\u201d Smith states. \u201cFive million bucks is a lot of money, especially compared to [the budget for] the first one. But when it comes to making movies, five million bucks is chump change, it\u2019s the catering bill on most flicks. But, the movie\u2019s done and paid for. They\u2019ve already sold it in so many foreign territories that it\u2019s already in profit. There\u2019s no pressure to make money at the box office. For me, the money issue was taken care of, it was more about I want to tell a story and I want to tell it my way.\u201d<\/p>\n

While budgetary reasons may not have hindered Smith\u2019s ability to tell the story he wanted to, some thing else might have- the film ratings board at the Motion Picture Association of America.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were sweating what the rating would be on the movie because we were afraid we would have to go hacking into the film,\u201d says Smith. \u201cBut we wound up getting an \u2018R\u2019 without having to cut a single thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

An \u2018R\u2019 rating is a bit of a surprise as the ratings board has been known to deal harshly with foul language and sexual content. While there is very little depicted sex, it is certainly discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tussled with them so many times in the past,\u201d Smith says of the ratings board. \u201cWe were given an NC-17 on Clerks<\/strong> and we went into the appeals process and got it overturned to an R without making a cut. On Jersey Girl<\/strong> they gave us an R rating, then we went into the appeals screening and got it overturned to a PG-13 without making any cuts. I think that maybe they were just \u2018Why go down this road?\u2019 I don\u2019t know why they did it. I didn\u2019t question it. I could care less. As long as they gave us an \u2018R\u2019, that means I don\u2019t have to go in there and defend it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAll right, calm down,\u201d director Kevin Smith says to the crowd. \u201cIt\u2019s been done already.\u201d Smith is talking to the crowd in a sold out Red Bank, New Jersey theatre who has just seen a [click for more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1695],"tags":[1993,50],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features","7":"tag-clerks-ii","8":"tag-kevin-smith"},"aioseo_notices":[],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37756"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=37756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}