New York Times on The Place Beyond the Pines

The New York Times have posted a great interview with Ryan Gosling and Derek Cianfrance about their second project together 'The Place Beyond the Pines'.  The New York Times reporter Dennis Lim interviewed Ryan and Derek at the  Waldorf-Astoria recently and has a great insight into their dynamic.

"legs up on a coffee table, evidently happy to reprise the bantering double act they honed while promoting the acclaimed 2010 indie drama “Blue Valentine.” Speaking of their second film together, “The Place Beyond the Pines,” opening Friday, they were not exactly finishing each other’s sentences — the voluble Mr. Cianfrance tends to finish his own — but had clearly settled into an established rhythm. Mr. Cianfrance (pronounced SEE-in-france), 39, spoke with earnest passion; Mr. Gosling, 32, mostly listened and smiled, contributing the occasional wry remark and arched eyebrow."

Read the interview here although be warned it does contain some spoilers to the plot.

There is also a great clip of Derek narrating the opening sequence of the film here

The article contrasts the approach used by Derek in directing Blue Valentine (Ryan and Derek's last collaboration and a must see movie) with The Place Beyond the Pines:

"On “Blue Valentine” Mr. Cianfrance had Mr. Gosling and Michelle Williams live together for a month in what would be their characters’ marital home. For “Pines” he again wanted to “put the actors in an aquarium of real life,” he said. They shot in police precincts and used actual tellers for bank robberies. Mr. Cianfrance modeled chase and getaway scenes after rough-and-tumble reality shows like “Cops.”

With “Blue Valentine,” Mr. Gosling said, “I feel like time was the star of that movie. It took 12 years for him to make, and that made it unique.” But on “Pines” “we didn’t have a lot of time,” he continued. “I thought we were rushing it, and we had to make snap decisions. But that became the essential ingredient. It was very different from ‘Blue’ but in the same way Derek found a way to make the process the key.”

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