Clean - Movie Blog

For Maggie Cheung, it's the process of making a movie that matters.

2006-06-22T10:26:00.000-04:00

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM

Although Cheung is much in demand in Asia and Europe, for the last 10 years, she's made it a point to occasionally stop being a movie actress and instead revert to her lazy old self, traveling the world.

"For myself, I travel for my own curiosity, seeing and meeting different cultures," she said. "Especially over the last 15 years, I've been traveling a lot. And I notice that as I experience other cultures, I learn more about my own Chinese people. All this travel, of course, helps develop me as an actress as well, understanding the overall nature of people more."

...Since [Wong Kar-Wai's "In the Mood for Love"], she's chosen her roles carefully because, as she explains it, "having a good time making films is just as important as having the final product well-received. I admit I'm a bit prejudiced, but it means a lot to me to enjoy the process of shooting movies. ... I'm happy to wait for the right script."

...While Cheung doesn't measure her work by how many accolades she's won, she admits the best-actress award for "Clean" was "a big encouragement. Sometimes, as an actor, you get recognized for what you feel may not be your best work, but with this role, it did feel reassuring -- so much so that if I'm asked by a film festival what movie of mine I'd like to see again, I would probably pick this one out of my résumé."

Read the entire article

Ebert & Roeper give Clean "Two Thumbs Up"!

2006-06-12T18:55:00.000-04:00

"It’s a complex, very successful portrayal of an addictive, selfish, volatile soul who knows she might be running out of chances at a decent life. The supporting cast as well is just excellent. Nolte is even better than excellent."
- Richard Roeper

"[Maggie Cheung]’s very inward. I mean, the quiet little voice in which she answers the interrogation of the policemen, or when she talks for the first time to Nick Nolte, after all of her trouble, shows a wounded private place, and it’s such a good performance and she does it in both English and she has some scenes where she speaks French, and in both of those languages, which are not her native languages, she is completely, emotionally right exactly on the right note."
- Roger Ebert

Listen to the review (mp3)

Visit Ebert & Roeper @ Movies.com

Clean Clip #2 Emily & Albrecht Speak

2006-05-15T19:25:00.000-04:00

Emily (Maggie Cheung) discusses her methadone intake over lunch with Albrecht (Nick Nolte)

Olivier Assayas added as one of Senses of Cinema's Great Directors series

2006-05-08T15:23:00.000-04:00

Joining other new "Great Directors" Francis Ford Coppola and Willi Forst, Olivier Assayas is added to the critical database of Great Directors by Senses of Cinema. Click to read the full article by Franck le Gac:

The “narrative of the second chance” which Clean gives shape to is but the latest manifestation of Assayas' interest in both allowing a degree of figurative and narrative uncertainty within his fictions and vesting a belief in the capacity of human beings to suspend existing ties (to family, community, nation, and more generally to a social and political order they can no longer sanction, from which they feel completely alienated) to gain a better sense of who they are, and perhaps form new associations on that basis. As I briefly hinted earlier, two events informed Assayas' newfound hope in individual, small-scale action even within a hostile environment (for him, the ideological petrification and the exhaustion of revolutionary energy throughout 1970s France). The first was the explosion of punk rock in Great Britain in 1976 and 1977, with its all-out attack on mores, propriety, professionalism, including on what rock music was supposed to be, and its principle that no future was better than a preordained one.

Clean clip: Maggie Cheung and Don McKellar

2006-05-08T11:56:00.000-04:00

Emily (Maggie Cheung) talks with Vernon (Don McKellar) while she is locked up in prision.

Reviews for Clean's opening weekend in NYC

2006-04-28T13:41:00.000-04:00

Clean opens in New York this weekend. Here's what the reviewers have to say:

"Unlike the majority of recovery stories, in which sensationalism seesaws with gooey sentimental uplift, "Clean" shows just how hard it is to start life over in a lower key. Avoiding shortcuts and sugar-coated palliatives, it portrays Emily's acceptance of a more prosaic future as a torturous, quotidian process that moves in fits and starts. Although the screenplay doesn't go into pharmaceutical detail, she progresses from methadone, through illicitly obtained painkillers and marijuana toward relative stability and sobriety."
- Read the full New York Times review by Stephen Holden

"Be that as it mayóAssayas crafts a bitter, spot-on poison-pen sketch of the airless, stenchy subterranea of the fringe rock world, down to the bad hygiene and inveterate dream spinning, and Cheung stalks through the film's cellars, all-night diners, cretinous fashion strokes, and nimbus of cheap ideas with a guileless awkwardness, never fitting in and aware of being loathed."
- Read the full Village Voice review, Love in Vein: Maggie Cheung radiant as ever in addiction portrait by Michael Atkinson

"A superb effort by a first-rank director, and manna from heaven for Cheung fans."
- Read the full Premiere review by Glenn Kenny

"Cheung plays a musician trying to clean up her act for the sake of her kid and it features a few interesting rock cameos from bands like Metric and trip-hop pioneer Tricky. Nolte is surprisingly low-key in his performance and his chemistry with Cheung is really great, definitely worth seeing."
- Read the full Gothamist review by Karen Wilson

Coming Soon Interview's Olivier Assayas

2006-04-28T12:18:00.000-04:00

In ComingSoon.net's Exclusive interview with Olivier Assayas, the Clean director talks about working with ex-wife Maggie Cheung and discusses his career. He also reveals that he will be working with the director/star of another Palm film on his upcoming project Boarding Gate.

See Maggie Cheung discuss her start in acting and her role in CLEAN

2006-04-25T14:44:00.000-04:00

Maggie discussed the start of her acting career with Kent Jones of Film Society in July of 2005 at the Asia American International Film Festival

Stream the video
(Real Media)

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(Quicktime)

Total Time: 4:27

They also discussed Maggie's challenging role in CLEAN and how the film gave her the chance to reach a new level of acting prowess

Asian CineVision / Eugene Kuo

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(Real Media)

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(Quicktime)

Total Time: 4:36

Thanks to the Asia Society at www.asiasource.org for the interviews from the Asian American International Film Festival

The German/French television station ARTE interviewed Maggie Cheung at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival

Watch it here
Total Time: 6:20

Note: This interview is in German

Oh Maggie!

2006-04-19T15:37:00.000-04:00

From The New York Observer
April 19, 2006
by Rex Reed

Maggie Cheung, the beguiling veteran actress who collected critical raves like daffodils in the films of such formidable directors as Wong Kar Wai, Wayne Wang and Zhang Yimou, won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004 for Clean. Now that it’s finally opening commercially in the U.S., no need to ask why. Speaking French, Cantonese and fluent English, she catalogs every up and down on the carousel of a recovering drug addict with a mix of despair, pain, strength, realism and poignancy that is mesmerizing.

. . . Mr. Assayas wrote the elegant screenplay expressly for Ms. Cheung, and her transformation is riveting, her every move, statement and facial expression suffused with a fragile, complex grace. Her English is patrician and perfect, and she even performs her own musical numbers. Mr. Nolte is, in a word, endearing. Filmed in the scenic beauty of a Canadian fishing village as well as the bright lights of Paris, London and San Francisco, Clean is a stunning visual treat and a resounding testament to pragmatism and faith. Life-affirming without sentimentality, it’s an admirable accomplishment.

Read the full article

"Drugs are more complicated than most people think they are"

2006-04-17T18:17:00.000-04:00

In Clean, Emily (Maggie Chueng) and her son Jay (James Dennis) finally talk about drugs and the overdose that killed Jay's father.
*Thanks to Cindy for pointing out and transcribing this conversation from the film.

Emily: It was me who bought in the drugs that night. He took some, I took some. It’s the way that always between us. What’s the difference who bought them? Anything could have happened. It could be Lee losing me. And you know what? Drugs are more complicated than what most people think they are. Some people need them because they’re suffering. Because they don’t know how to do in the other way. Your Dad was like that, and me too.

Jay: Because you were weak.

Emily: No, your Dad wasn’t weak. And he did really some great work. But it wasn’t easy for him. You have to be very strong to do that. You should be proud of him.

Jay: Then how could he need drugs?

Emily: They give us some really good times, but afterwards you really have to pay the price. And it’s very high. Look at me, I’m still paying.

Jay: You are not on drugs any more.

Emily: I gave up, mainly for you.

Jay: Why for me?

Emily: ‘Coz otherwise I know I’ll never see you again

Here are a few personal stories of drugs and recovery that people have shared online.

"I've found this last diary difficult to write because I want so much for this to help other people who are dependent on drugs. But I also know in my heart that, whatever anyone says or does, the addict has to truly want recovery for themselves. Each of us has our own personal hell on earth. I had to reach mine before I found the strength to get out."
- Sarah's diary, Channel 4

"I never say never," said Molly as she took a drag off of her cigarette. "Would I go back? No, not now. Tomorrow? Maybe."
- Molly, The Easterner, Eastern Washington U.

"Using half-facts to justify continued addiction...Don’t twist sober wisdom to fit your denial and enabling."
- Ms Crankypants

Bloggers say...

2006-04-17T16:01:00.000-04:00

Reviews from bloggers:

"I love it. It's a drama, it's sad, and it's one of Maggie's best performances. And seeing as how she is the best actress who ever lived, that means something." - adgy

"She doesn't try to tone down her descent into Hell, to lie to him about her past. In this, the film is radically detached from Hollywood cinema and its procession of clearance sale emotions. Maggie Cheung portrays a heroine in precarious balance with surety, precision and seriousness" - Pel. Design

"...even if you're not trying to ditch heroin, you can relate to Emily's struggle to make a better life, to improve her station in the world. The film doesn't judge the character, or become moralizing about the drugs, it's something that happened and now she has to move on. So, great performances, interesting filmmaking, emotional engagement with the characters, you've got yourself a great film right there." - Patrick, Thoughts on Stuff

NYT says "Maggie Cheung Is Perfect for the Role. She's the Director's Ex."

2006-04-17T15:32:00.000-04:00

In the April 16th NYT, Charles Taylor examines the relationship between Clean's star, Maggie Cheung and its director Olivier Assayas.

Mr. Assayas said that he tries to cast actors who do not merely embody his characters. "Ultimately, what I am most interested in is what contradicts what I have written," he said, "because that's exactly where real life moves into the film." In that spirit, watching Ms. Cheung work, he said, "was miraculous.

"Both when we were making 'Irma Vep' and 'Clean,' it was like working with someone who has the energy, the conviction of someone who was making a film for the first time. It was the unique case of having someone who had so much experience, an incredible virtuosity, knowledge of the technique of acting, but at the same time is like a debutante, someone who is discovering the pleasure of acting for the first time."

To watch Ms. Cheung's performance is to see someone who, as Garbo did, uses the camera as though it were radio transmitter, trusting it to pick up the inchoate moods that move across her face.

Manohla Dargis on Clean...

2006-04-13T18:24:00.000-04:00

"Maggie Cheung has rarely looked so bad and hurt so good as in CLEAN, Olivier Assayas's film about a junkie struggling to kick. A tough look at addiction - its seductions, stratagems, and self-immolating logic - the film stars Cheung as the wife and would-be manager of a faded rock star. When her husband overdoses, she finds herself without money, friends, and facing a prison term. After parole, she hits the road, eventually landing in Paris, where she tries to rebuild her life inch by inch. Slowly, as Assayas peels away his protagonist's protective covering, revealing the all-too-human creature beneath the spit and poses, we understand that - as with many of his other films - CLEAN is a portrait of aching loneliness, of a radical disconnection."
- Manohla Dargis, from Film Comment

Premiere Magazine says Maggie Cheung is a Scene Stealer

2006-04-07T19:18:00.000-04:00

Premiere says, "Most actresses would consider the following to be bad career turns: passing on the chance to be a Bond girl, opting to not appear in X3, and being whacked from Memoirs of a Geisha when Steven Spielberg dropped out as the director. For Maggie Chueng, 41, however, these decisions have resulted in a more layered, nuanced career..." Cannes agreed.

PAPER Magazine interviews MAGGIE CHEUNG

2006-03-29T18:31:00.000-05:00

Hong Kong-Born Beauty Maggie Cheung Talks About CLEAN and her lovelorn career to PAPER MAGAZINE

About "Clean" by Olivier Assayas

2006-03-28T20:52:00.000-05:00

Can there be life after living through the chaos and excess of youth, or can we expect only reason and order? Can we come to terms with ourselves, or are we condemned to a life of mere survival, as shadows of our former selves?

Society tells us relentlessly to live for today, and offers instant gratification through the consumer goods that it puts at our disposal. Drugs are still the best way of achieving precisely that aim. They give us the peace that we ache for, and give satisfaction, just like medicines, which treat the symptoms and leave the disease untouched.

Yet, living in this eternal present day: that of youth, however extended, that of the unconscious, that of drugs, cannot last. One day, you wake up. Time comes calling.

Time comes calling for Emily, who has lived this adventure to its very edge. She has created nothing, she has never done anything other than to destroy herself, taking self-destructive pleasure in doing so.

She has dragged along with her all those who have been close to her. But one day, this flight: from the present that propels her forward must come to an end.

So then, what’s left? A devastated and and desolate landscape, the ruins of past and forgotten dreams. That same self whom we tried to escape from during all these years, sometimes for a lifetime. But the moment always comes when we have to come face to face with ourselves.

If Emily tries to escape, it’s surely because she doesn’t like herself, because her escape has been a journey, an adventure: because real life is somewhere else. But afterwards? When one comes back? What then? An unreal life?

Or, do we have a chance to reinvent ourselves? What if the only way forward is exactly this: our ability to draw on our own resources to choose between life and death, to be able to recognize and choose the tenuous path that links us to the living, and to ourselves, alive, constantly evolving.

Emily knows that she has to start all over again, that she has to rebuild herself in the most modest way, one step at a time.

Danger is always there, and discouragement too; but when you have nothing and no one, there is no other way.

Background from Olivier Assayas

2006-03-28T20:35:00.000-05:00

“Cinema is such a heavy machine. I try to have a lighter touch. It is something I’ve always been trying to find. I think that heaviness is the worst thing in the world and I try to take that weight out of my work. The lightness of touch is what Impressionist painters have and that’s really worth aiming at,” says writer/director Olivier Assayas during the filming of his feature, Clean.

“The screenplay is one of the steps that takes you to wherever the film is leading you,” Assayas continues. “I don’t believe in screenplays as some kind of literary work. The words are a starting point. I am more than happy when actors add whatever they feel. The ideas have to be simple and then they take life through the actors. The words become what they are because the actors lift them up. I rely on the actors and audiences do too. Audiences relate to a film through actors and when you make a film, you have to trust in the actors, believe in them. They are the flesh and blood and the life.”

“Clean started with writing a story and characters and then a screenplay. The story is fiction, but it goes back to the desire I’ve had to write something for Maggie Cheung. I wanted to construct a project around her where she is not a Chinese woman in a Western film or playing some archetype of a Chinese woman. In many ways, Maggie is more Western than Chinese and I wanted to create a character that any actress could play,” he explains.

“The character of Emily had been in my life for a while. It predates even writing Demonlover,” he recalls. The story was born one night in Acapulco. Assayas was jet-lagged, unable to sleep, and began jotting down a rough outline of the first act. That is when the character of Emily took shape, but it took a year and half for those notes to become an actual screenplay. “I dropped the idea until a couple of elements clicked together that made sense in a story. It’s not something I can force; it comes very naturally. I had written quite a bit, but I wanted to cut it down to leave the essentials. This needed to be a very simple story focusing on the emotions that related the characters to each other. I wanted to simplify it.”

Trailer

2006-03-23T16:40:00.000-05:00