{"id":37768,"date":"2005-09-15T05:00:53","date_gmt":"2005-09-15T09:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=37768"},"modified":"2016-01-31T22:38:26","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T03:38:26","slug":"the-thing-about-paul-reiser-and-peter-falk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2005\/09\/15\/the-thing-about-paul-reiser-and-peter-falk\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thing About Paul Reiser and Peter Falk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Paul Reiser is beaming.<\/p>\n

Standing at the front of a Philadelphia movie theater, writer\/comic\/actor Reiser is basking in the applause from a packed auditorium following a screening of the film The Thing About My Folks<\/strong>, which he has written and stars in. But the journey to get his script onto the screen was a difficult one, even with the clout of having created and starred in one of the most popular sitcoms of the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp until about two months ago, this film was seen only at my house, three people at a time,\u201d confesses a grateful-sounding Reiser as the applause dies down. \u201cThis is so much better and more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was one of those people,\u201d chimes in Resier\u2019s Folks co-star, Peter Falk, from Reiser\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s correct,\u201d deadpans Resier. \u201cIt was me, Peter and two complete strangers in my living room.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first night of a three week, 20 city promotional tour for the two actors, but Reiser and Falk already have an easy chemistry between them, having spent a majority of the film\u2019s compact 25-day shooting schedule together.<\/p>\n

Reiser stars as a harried New York writer whose life becomes even more complicated when his father Sam (Falk) announces that his wife and Ben\u2019s mother (Olympia Dukakis) has walked out after 47 years of marriage. While his sisters search for their mother, Ben and Sam take an impromptu road trip through upstate New York attempting to fish, taking in small-town baseball games, arguing and getting to really know each other as people beyond their normal father-son dynamic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis film has been a long time in the making,\u201d states Reiser. \u201cI had the idea for it years ago. I always wanted to write this thing, where Peter Falk would play my father. So I wrote it and sent it to Peter and he said \u2018Yes.\u2019 We went to every studio and we were turned down by every studio they have in Hollywood. Some people who didn\u2019t even have studios turned us down. They said, \u2018We\u2019re in textiles, but we\u2019re going to say \u201cno\u201d anyways.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Salvation came in the form of the new independent studio on the block, Picturehouse, who agreed to take on the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way, it was a blessing,\u201d says Reiser of his script\u2019s rejection by the major studios. \u201cDoing it independently means there\u2019s nobody to throw their two cents in saying, \u2018What if they got into a chase with some guys on a bad drug deal\u2019 or \u2018What if there was an exploding dog?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As is often the case with smaller, intimate, character-based stories, the question as to how autobiographical The Thing About My Folks<\/strong> is looms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a work of fiction based on actual Jews,\u201d states Reiser, with a chuckle. \u201cIt\u2019s very much my parents, but the story is made up. I recognize that dialogue, but legally I\u2019m covered.\u201d He also admits that his film character\u2019s three sisters may bare a passing resemblance to his own three sisters. \u201cI have three sisters and one of them was always saying \u2018Why am I the last one to know?\u2019 [like one of the sisters in the film]. And it was one of those nice things where when she saw the movie she couldn\u2019t really get mad at me because then she would have to acknowledge that that [character] was her.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Reiser states that another inspiration for the film came in the form of another film about two family members spending an appreciable amount of time together in a car.<\/p>\n

\u201cRain Man<\/strong> was a movie that I\u2019ve always loved,\u201d Reiser admits. \u201cI remember Barry Levinson talking about it and said that it had been to several directors beforehand and they said \u2018We don\u2019t know what to do with this, its just two guys in a car, talking.\u2019 And Barry said \u2018That\u2019s why this is good. You get me the car and two guys with something to talk about and that\u2019s enough.\u2019 I knew what I wanted and I knew Peter\u2019s voice, so it was easy, in that sense, to do. It\u2019s like a pressure box and things come out and things can come out in a car. It\u2019s a fun thing to write, two people in a car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing that he wanted Falk to play his father, Reiser was nervous that he might not be able to convince the actor to take the part.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my mind, it was so right for him,\u201d says Reiser. \u201cMy only concern was that I didn\u2019t frighten Peter with my intensity. And God bless him, he read it and called me that night and said \u2018I\u2019m on page 54 and I love this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI always get caught up in a story if it takes me places where I don\u2019t expect to go,\u201d adds Falk. \u201cThat\u2019s what this movie is. The fact that you laugh so much, you\u2019re not quiet prepared for that emotional explosion at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he had said no, I would have cried like a baby,\u201d Reiser adds.<\/p>\n

Reiser and Falk make a potent screen combination, sharing breezy banter that comes off as very naturalistic. Falk is quick to point out that a majority of the dialogue, although sounding off the cuff, is performed as written in the script.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was very little improvisation,\u201d says Falk. \u201cThis man is a hell of a writer. He can write and it sounds like it was improvised but it wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThere were only two spots where we improvised,\u201d Resier clarifies. \u201cThe scene where we were fishing and I was explaining to him how to hook the bait. I know nothing about fishing, and I deliberately didn\u2019t even look anything up. I just said, \u2018The dumber I sound the better.\u2019 So, I had written some dopey lines with me trying to explain it to the other knuncklehead and before we shot it, Peter pulled me over and said, \u201cNow what do you mean here where it says the hook? Is that where- are you holding it? Where does the worm go?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Peter this is no worm, see what I\u2019m- the hole goes in the\u2026and you stick it in there.\u2019 The director just said \u2018Why don\u2019t we just shoot that? That\u2019s unbelievable. It\u2019s the dumbest thing I\u2019ve ever seen.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you notice, there\u2019s a shot of the two of us and then quickly, after Peter talks, we cut away because I couldn\u2019t keep a straight face,\u201d Reiser says.<\/p>\n

The second moment of improvisation came during the shooting of a scene in a small town pool hall. \u201cPeter\u2019s got the pool cue to the guy\u2019s throat, \u201cexplains Reiser, \u201cand he\u2019s saying \u2018You better apologize.\u2019. I had some line written for the guy like, \u2018Screw you,\u2019 but I just said \u2019Change it to whatever you want to say, say something offensive.\u2019 And the guy says \u201cEat s*** and die.\u2019 Peter had never heard that phrase before. The look on his face\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Falk chuckles at memory. \u201cThat was great moment,\u201d he deadpans.<\/p>\n

Reiser knows that a film that is a character-driven comedy is far from what has become standard fare at a majority of cineplexes. He does feel that there is an audience for The Truth About My Folks<\/strong>, it\u2019s just a matter of reaching that audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to really identify THE MARKET for this movie,\u201d admits Falk. \u201cYou can certainly look at it and go \u2018Well, people in their seventies are going to like this.\u2019 And that\u2019s fine, and there are plenty of them. But I\u2019ve said that\u2019s for my generation, people in their mid-40s and up, and that\u2019s fine. But we\u2019ve been finding that it\u2019s people in their 30s and 20s who are also responding to this movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about saying something is a comedy, that sounds like a challenge. As a stand-up, I used to think that stand-up comedy is the only art form that gets heckeled. Nobody ever yelled at Van Gogh, \u201cYou can\u2019t paint! You suck!\u2019 But there\u2019s something about comedy that makes people go, \u201cOh yeah, well show me if you\u2019re so funny.\u201d And at the same time I think if you tell people \u201cIt\u2019s a tearjerker, it\u2019ll move you,\u2019 there\u2019s a resistance. \u2018Don\u2019t tell me I\u2019ll cry, I\u2019ll tell you. \u2019 So you have to be careful. You can\u2019t give it away. It certainly is a comedy, but that\u2019s not what I think people walk out saying. They walk out feeling something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Reiser is beaming. Standing at the front of a Philadelphia movie theater, writer\/comic\/actor Reiser is basking in the applause from a packed auditorium following a screening of the film The Thing About My Folks, [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":[8138,8140,8139],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features","7":"tag-paul-reiser","8":"tag-peter-falk","9":"tag-the-thing-about-my-folks"},"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\/37768","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=37768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37768"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=37768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}