With the opening of his latest film, "Shall We Dance," director Peter Chelsom said he has come "full circle" from his first film, the romantic comedy "Hear My Song."
Chelsom most recently directed "Serendipity," another successful romantic comedy. Chelsom hopes "Shall We Dance?" will prove to be another success in this popular genre.
Chelsom was born in Blackpool, which is in the northern part of England. Dance, especially ballroom dancing, is a very big part of the culture, he said.
Blackpool is the kind of place where you were sent off to ballroom dance lessons at the age of 12, Chelsom said. Chelsom has always been a big fan of this type of dance. He believes ballroom dancing to be seductive and ridiculous at the same time.
"Shall We Dance?" was originally a Japanese film, "Dansu Wo Shimasho Ka," directed by Masayuki Suo. The film proved to be a great success among Japanese audiences. Chelsom, too, fell in love with the story, and for this reason the director was worried about remaking the acclaimed film.
At first Chelsom passed on the opportunity to direct the film. He lied to the studio by saying he had read the script and didn't like it.
"I just wanted them to go away," Chelsom said. "I didn't like the idea of a remake of a gem."
Years later however, Chelsom received the script again after the studio claimed it "reworked" it; yet another lie. Chelsom, this time, read it and said he thought it was much better.
"The fact was, it had always been good," Chelsom said while chuckling.
The writing process was challenging but workable, Chelsom said. First, the language of the script had to change; Chelsom considered this the easiest part. The culture surrounding the story also had to change drastically, as did the style of humor.
Audrey Wells, the writer, transformed the film very well to meet American culture, Chelsom said. In the Japanese version, the taboo in the story is ballroom dancing. This clearly would not work in an American setting. While the main character learns to dance in hopes of revamping his marriage in both films, Chelsom had to modify the taboo.
"Our taboo is that you could be Richard Gere, the man with everything, living that life, but there could be a certain shame involved in raising your hand and saying I'm not happy," Chelsom said. "In America more than anywhere in the world, it is possible to look so good on paper and to be living the dream and to be living ideally, but not necessarily a life." There were no big changes in the story, simply changes on emphasis, Chelsom explained. Chelsom put more emphasis on the marriage between Gere and co-star Susan Sarandon than Suo did between the characters in the Japanese version.
The end of the story is also slightly different, Chelsom added. This change was crucial, according to the director. The original ending would have, "in the mainstream American romantic comedy, been unforgivable," Chelsom explained.
Among other worries for Chelsom was where he would film. Originally, "Shall We Dance?" was to be filmed in Toronto, but because of the SARS breakout they were unable. The majority of the filming of the movie took place in Winnipeg, Canada. Only a week was spent filming in Chicago because of cost. One-third of the movie was spent filming on a set, the dance studio; according to Chelsom, this was a difficult task.
Another complex task was teaching the actors to dance. Richard Gere, despite his performance in "Chicago," is not a trained dancer. Gere trained for three hours a day for four months. Chelsom described the process as "boot camp for ballroom." The director never cheated in the film either. The audience never sees anyone else's feet or silhouettes during the dance numbers. Everything you see is real, according to Chelsom.
The dancing was obviously the most important part of the story, but for Chelsom it was the story. Chelsom created a few dance scenes not in the original movie. The director wanted to avoid stopping the story for a dance number. Instead, he made the dance tell part of the story.
"We must always look for ways in which the story continues through dance," Chelsom said. "Story is furthered much more by dance than 10 pages of dialogue."
Chelsom has created a superb film that mixes romance, comedy, and show business.
"It is not a 'huge' movie, but for the characters involved it's life-changing events," Chelsom explained. "[It's] a small world, but a huge world to those who inhabit it. They learn to dance, but learn so much more about themselves"
