Vera Farmiga and Julie Taymor at the NYC premiere of “Higher Ground.” Photo by Dave Alloca/Starpix.
Oscar-nominee and all around lovely gal Vera Farmiga was the belle of the ball last night at the premiere of directorial debut “Higher Ground” in New York, which debuted at Sundance to pretty solid notices.
The buzz is mostly warranted. In it, Farmiga plays Corinne, a woman propelled into a small fundamentalist community where she finds meaning and stability following a horrific accident. The film’s pretty assured for a rookie effort and the subject matter is admirably ambitious. My only major complaint with the well-meaning picture is the episodic nature of the narrative. The story would make for a killer mini-series on HBO.
According to an interview she did with indieWIRE before dropping down in Park City, it was the lack of decent scripts that led Farmiga to taking up directing. “A year ago,” she said, “I was outside at my burn pile tending to the smoldering coals of autumn brush and scripts featuring pathetic excuses for female characterization when my manager Jon called and offered some sound advice: ‘Stop asking for permission.’ What a notion! Create my own opportunity.”
Wait, did she say burn pile? “Scripts accumulate!” she reasoned with me a few months back at a special screening of “La Dolce Vita,” hosted by her, Martin Scorsese and Emily Mortimer. “You can’t take them to the dump. I don’t have a shredder than can get rid of them. And you don’t want the scripts getting back onto the streets. You have to get rid of them somehow. I figured the way to be green about them is to fertilize. So the ashes can disperse.”
“Higher Ground” opens in limited release on August 26th, through Sony Pictures Classics.
Check out pictures from the “Higher Ground” premiere below:
The ladies from “Higher Ground”: Nina Arianda ,Donna Murphy,Vera Farmiga and Dagmara Dominczyk. Photo by Dave Alloca/Starpix.
“We Need To Talk About Kevin” star Ezra Miller. Photo by Dave Alloca/Starpix.
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