Hicks' Documentary Takes A Look Through Glass

The Age

Thursday November 13, 2008

Jim Schembri

IT'S a heartening measure of dedication when filmmakers are prepared to suffer for their art. In the case of Scott Hicks, his passion for his superb documentary, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts, nearly did his shoulder in.

Hicks lugged a Sony hi-def camera around for about two years chronicling the everyday thoughts and working methods of renowned composer Philip Glass and the strain wore his shoulder down so much it was still hurting during the publicity rounds for his Hollywood studio film No Reservations, which Glass also scored.

Now shooting The Boys Are Back in Town in his native South Australia, Hicks says the shoulder is "in remission" after several treatments. And that the pain was worth it.

"It was a film that I just had to make," Hicks says. "It's taken me right back to my roots as a filmmaker, which is not altogether a bad thing."

Indeed, before Hicks hit it big with such films as the Oscar-winning Shine, Snow Falling on Cedars and Hearts in Atlantis, he made documentaries, including the Emmy-winning Sharks of Steel. Shooting Glass, he says, felt liberating.

"It was actually very refreshing and invigorating to feel that I was making something exactly the way I wanted to do it," Hicks says. "I had nobody to answer to, I had no money to make it with other than what I had in my pocket, initially. To have that freedom was quite wonderful."

A confessed "Glass tragic" since hearing his score for the Godfrey Reggio film Koyaanisqatsi in the 1980s, Hicks fell into a friendship with the composer while making Cedars. He was then approached to direct a film to commemorate Glass' 70th birthday in 2007.

Hicks was eager to counter the enigma that has built around Glass. "I was a little nervous about meeting Philip," he says of his first encounter. "I thought, 'oh, he'll be intellectual and austere and aloof. But all those expectations were just exploded by the nature of the man. He was funny, he was warm, he was a wicked gossip, he was just fun to be with. I thought if I could show that to people I will have succeeded."

Before hiring a full film crew Hicks began shooting the documentary himself with only a sound recordist. He found Glass to be open, warm and intimate.

"But eventually when I did hire a film crew, things changed. I felt that Philip suddenly wasn't as accessible to me, so I abandoned that, threw the crew out the window and thought, 'I have to shoot it myself in order to get the intimacy I need'." Hence the shoulder.

It wasn't all smooth sailing, though. Because so much of the film looks at his personal life, Glass had the right to veto material about his family. This led to tension.

"I don't want to be a spoiler, but there is a big revelation in the film that was extremely difficult for Philip to come to terms with," says Hicks. "He did have a very complicated reaction to the film. He said, 'Look, I think you made a wonderful film. I just wish it wasn't about me!"'

Did Glass insist that anything be taken out? "No," says Hicks.

Then he adds: "We struggled over it for a while, to be honest. I was a little fearful that I was damaging a friendship that was very important to me, then out of the blue he called me and just said 'I think it's about time I stopped interfering in your film. You must finish it the way you see fit'.

"That was a very telling thing. It's emblematic of his nature and it was tremendously heartening because people can give the appearance of being humble and of good heart, but when the chips are down, self-interest often rules.

"That gesture actually spoke to the nature of the man that I knew."

© 2008 The Age

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