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‘It Chapter Two’ | Anatomy of a Scene
The director Andy Muschietti discusses a sequence from his film featuring James McAvoy.
“I’m Andy Muschietti, director of ‘It Chapter Two.’ So this is the moment where all the Losers separate unwillingly. And this is the scene where we find Bill Denbrough— James McAvoy plays Bill Denbrough— just as after he recovered his bicycle, Silver. This is a great scene, because we summarize a little bit in this escalation from not being able to ride his bicycle to actually getting a grip on it and riding it like a champion. We sort of illustrate how the adult turns into the child again.” “Hi-ho, Silver! Away!” “And very soon he arrives to the house where he used to live and another memory hits. And it’s the memory of that infamous day where he sent Georgie away with a boat. That’s a scene that we took from the first movie. So the scene changes mood a little bit. The mood is now a little darker. We know what happened after that. But it’s a memory that has been pushed down and pushed down. But the intention with the scene is to like slowly lure the audience into this memory at the same time that it’s happening on the mind of the character. There’s a transition that you can see when McAvoy first arrives to the storm drain and looks at the storm drain. He drops the bike, and the drop of the bike takes us to the past.” “Billy, don’t leave!” “Hello?” “The scene continues. We see McAvoy talking to a Georgie there. I say ‘a Georgie,’ because at this point, we know that Georgie isn’t Georgie anymore. Georgie has been gone for a long time. But because Pennywise is playing with his feelings, he lures him into the illusion that Georgie is still there. Everything that is shot from the outside is location. It’s shot on the street. Everything that is from the inside out, when the camera is inside the storm drain, was shot on stage.” “Take my hand.” “Billy, please.” “I’ve got you. Come on!” “He’s coming!” “Take my hand!” “Billy!” “Come on! Take my hand!” “I wanted specifically to make this a visual effects shot. As a reference, we had some hands of small performers that we used as a reference. The whole swarming is divided in three shots, and it’s pretty creepy.” [LAUGHING] “I hate you! I hate you.”
By A.O. Scott
- It Chapter Two
- Directed by Andy Muschietti
- Horror
- R
- 2h 49m
The chatter from the Venice Film Festival last weekend was all about “The Joker.” Masterpiece or menace? You can decide for yourself after Oct. 4, when that movie opens, but if you need some killer-clown action in the meantime, you’re welcome to “It Chapter Two.”
Two years after the first “It” — and 27 years after the events depicted therein — the seven youngsters who faced down evil in the nightmare-ridden, postcard-pretty town of Derry, Me., reunite for another battle. Like a diabolical cicada, Pennywise the Clown — or rather the supernatural force whose principal avatar he is — has emerged from a period of dormancy, bringing his wheedling, lethal psychological manipulation to a new generation of victims.
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The first horror we witness in “Chapter Two” — a murderous hom*ophobic attack during a carnival — is something Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) exploits rather than perpetrates, and it serves as a reminder that the otherworldly cruelty he represents is not the only kind. Pennywise, who sometimes takes the form of a giant spider-like monster, and whose pouty moue can suddenly sprout rows of sharp, brownish fangs, both feeds and feeds upon ordinary human viciousness.
That connection between the banal and the cosmic — the two-way metaphorical street that makes Derry a kind of World Heritage Site for terror — is central to the imagination of Stephen King, whose book is the source of both chapters of “It” (and the earlier made-for-television version). The director, Andy Muschietti, and the screenwriter, Gary Dauberman, have taken some narrative liberties, but they remain true to some of King’s major ideas: about how innocence can be corrupted and preserved by knowledge; about the hidden pathways between the unconscious and the natural world; about the ethical power of friendship. King’s brief on-screen appearance (playing the curmudgeonly proprietor of an antique store) can be taken as a seal of approval.
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