Shutter Island (film)

Shutter Island
Teaser poster
Directed by	Martin Scorsese
Written by	Novel: Dennis Lehane Screenplay: Laeta Kalogridis Steven Knight
Produced by	Martin Scorsese Brad Fischer Mike Medavoy Arnie Messer
Starring	Leonardo DiCaprio Mark Ruffalo Ben Kingsley Emily Mortimer Michelle Williams Jackie Earle Haley Max von Sydow
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Edited by	Thelma Schoonmaker
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	October 2, 2009
Country	United States
Language	English

Shutter Island is an upcoming American thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The film is based on the 2003 novel Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Production started in March 2008; Shutter Island is slated to be released on October 2, 2009.

Plot

In 1954, two U.S. marshals Teddy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) investigate the disappearance of a patient, Rachel, from a hospital for the criminally insane on an island in Massachusetts. They run into trouble when they read a note Rachel left ('Who is 67') and realize that there is another, unknown, prisoner on the island. However, they are deceived multiple times by everyone else on the island, a hurricane hits and an inmate riot traps them on the island. Soon, a cryptic warning tells them that there is no escape.

Production

Feature film rights to the 2003 novel Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane were first optioned to Columbia Pictures in 2003, but the rights lapsed back to the author. The author's representatives then sold the rights to the production company Phoenix Pictures, who hired screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis to script the novel for a film adaptation. The project was in development for a year. By October 2007, the project had developed into a co-production between the studios Columbia Pictures and Paramount Pictures. Director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who had worked together on three films, were both attracted to Shutter Island as their next collaboration. Locations like Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Nova Scotia were scouted. Production began on March 6, 2008.

Production took place in Taunton, Massachusetts to film World War II flashback scenes of DiCaprio's character, who served as an American soldier. Scorsese filmed the scenes in old industrial buildings in Taunton's Whittenton Mills Complex, which replicated the Dachau concentration camp. Extras portraying the Dachau Prisoners were called back to reshoot a scene in July, due to the film of one scene being damaged going through Logan Airport Security. Scenes were filmed at the old Medfield State Hospital in Medfield, Massachusetts. Peddocks Island was used as a setting for the story's island and East Point, in Nahant, Massachusetts for the lighthouse scenes. Filming ended on July 2, 2008.

Celina Murga's Account of Filming on the Set of "Shutter Island"

The Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative is a biennial mentorship program that seeks out willing members every two years and gives them the opportunity to be mentored by a veteran in their particular medium for an entire year. Celina Murga, a thirty-six year old Argentinean filmmaker was chosen by Martin Scorsese as a part of the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative, and the two were brought together as mentor and protege during the time Marty was filming Shutter Island.
The British film magazine, Total Film, commisioned Celina Murga to create an account of her experiences on set with Marty, to share with their readers. In her account Celina describes her first impressions of the script as "Kafka/Welles(The Trial)/Hitchcock/After Hours, set in the 50's, given a film noir adaptation". Scorsese mentions one of the influences of the film came from "The Trial", a 1962 film directed by Orson Welles adapted from the novel by Franz Kafka; he says references in the film to The Trial include: corridors, tunnels, claustrophobic ceilings, and angular lenses. Scorsese describes to Murga that he wanted to create an atmosphere that would be "unbearable for the character", one of Scorsese's themes that seem to be recurrent in many of his movies, the idea of subjectivity and a subjective reality, the conflict between how much of what people see is real and how much of it is imagined, as can be seen in many Robert De Niro roles as well as in the films Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, After Hours, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Age of Innocence, and The Departed. Murga recalls a conversation with Scorsese about dreams, nightmares, and hallucinations, the idea of being in a sense of reverie, Marty's idea was to film scenes dealing with these themes as directly as possible, as if they were real. It seems as if The Shining and Psycho influenced Scorsese's stylistic decisions in the making of the film, Murga recalls Marty telling her that a sense of ambiguity and alienation must be felt by the audience in some of the scenes, particularly to place you in the perspective of the main character (Teddy Daniels), and to bring you into the nightmare that his reality has become.

Onset, shooting exteriors on a cliff, Celina Murga recalls a conversation between Scorsese and his collaborators on the idea of rhythm within the film, and the notion of how to capture the specific action within a certain shot. Murga remembers Scorsese referring to internal rhythm (the composition of a shot), and, external rhythm (the editing of shots, and the placement of a frame in relation to its preceding frame and its succeding frame); Murga mentions Marty thinking thoroughly of rhythm, and the overall importance of rhythm in his films.

A funny little thing Celina Murga describes about Scorsese's way of directing is how intensely he focuses on the exact spot of the rim of the frame on which his characters aim their glance towards, Scorsese mentions that the exact spot in which a character has his glance cast towards may substantially change the relationship between the character and the spectator, sometimes he has to adjust the difference of this glance by millimeters.

Another conversation that Murga has with Marty is about costume, and Marty's idea that a costume is a "pure character", crucial to a character as an element of characterization and leaving a subconscious imprint of a character's essence in the spectator's mind. Immediately after this conversation Celina recalls Travis' jacket, the tunics in The Last Temptation of Christ, and Rupert Pumpkin's suit in The King of Comedy. Celina Murga gives a clear example of this in her account: for example, Ben Kingsley's character in Shutter Island, Dr. Crawley, smokes a pipe, which apparently suits him, because in some scenes of the film it seems as if though he is covered by a cloud of smoke, hiding something, with an aura of malice and mystery.

When filming the final scene, Marty spent ours rehearsing it beforehand with Ben Kingsley and Leonardo DiCaprio, when the shooting started Marty would begin to conduct them, as he watched through the video assistant, anticipating the actors' movements with a gesture. It should be known that when making a film, in theory at least, every action should be on purpose, every movement deliberate. Another day of filming Marty relates to Celina about the importance he places on the relationship between acting and editing, the way an actor plays during a particular frame in relation to the one before and the one after it. The editing room is the place where all of the different shots are assembled and ultimately make sense in relation to the other shots- and a few days later, Marty confides in Celina that, he prefers the editing room, as opposed to shooting. Marty says that in every shot within a scene he asks for something different from each of his actors, a different tone, and doing so he can have a variety of shots to choose from, each with a subtle difference, and with each of these different shots, in the editing room, Marty can choose exactly which of these go best with the shot that immediately precedes it and the shot that immediatley succeeds it in relation to the story, to capture the essence of a certain scene. On set one day, filming a scene with very little dialogue, Marty stresses the importance of body language, and the weight of every action, movement, and gesture made by an actor and the meaning behind the actor's body language. Further into her account Murga discusses Marty's independance, and his penchant for the transcendent and the epic, one of the most beautiful aspects of the human condition.

Cast

• Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Teddy Daniels, a U.S. marshal investigating the disappearance.
• Mark Ruffalo portrays Chuck Aule, a U.S. marshal who is Teddy's partner. Before Ruffalo was cast, Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese also considered casting Robert Downey, Jr. or Josh Brolin for the role.
• Ben Kingsley portrays the hospital's chief physician.
• Michelle Williams portrays Dolores Chanal, Daniels' wife.
• Emily Mortimer portrays Rachel Solando, the escaped patient.
• Max von Sydow portrays Dr. Jeremiah Naehring, one of the hospital's physicians.
• Jackie Earle Haley portrays George Noyce, one of the inmates.
• Patricia Clarkson in an unidentified role.

Release

The film is scheduled to be released by Paramount Pictures on October 9, 2009 in the United States and Canada. Spanish distributor Manga Films will distribute the film after winning a bidding war that reportedly reached the $6 million to $8 million range.

External links

• Shutter Island at IMDb
• Shutter Island at AllMovie
• Shutter Island Trailer
• Celina Murga Account