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| Going into Ernest’sworld |
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| Written by By Abby Anderson -Argonaut | ||||||
| Friday, 09 September 2005 | ||||||
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While listening to the video clip simulating Earnest Hemingway’s
suicide in the rough cut of “Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea,” Susan
Beegel and a friend discovered a mistake. In the cut, a rifle’s shot
was used. In reality, it was a shotgun that ended Hemingway’s
life. “There are all kinds of things you don’t think about as a writer when you’re making a film,” Beegel said. “Like sounds, sight and when you cut from one thing to another. It implies or doesn’t imply something.” Checking for accuracy in even the smallest details, such as the type of pencil Hemingway used in 1920s Paris, made Beegel an important addition to the making of the 90-minute documentary. An affiliate faculty member at the University of Idaho and editor of “The Hemingway Review,” Beegel recently served as a scholar-consultant for the documentary by telephone and e-mail to answer questions about the author. Beegel had to hunt down details so specific, she found herself searching an online pencil museum for the Paris case. Beegel was worried “some French pencil historian was going to be coming after us.” The documentary will air Sept. 14 on the PBS American Masters series. Viewers should check local TV listings for the time. The film, which was written and directed by DeWitt Sage, cost about $750,000 to make and was funded by the French government and a grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities. While most questions were answered before the screenplay was finished, the rough cut of the film did have some glitches. Beegel describes her experience as “playing hardball with people who really know a lot about Hemingway.” While her full-time job working as an editor keeps her occupied with individual tasks, her work on the film allowed her to be part of a team. “If you’re a writer or editor, it’s fun to work with a group of people on a project,” she said. “It’s really a big team. Just being part of that team was fun.” Instead of the film being “a narrative that tells you every second what to think,” DeWitt used quotations from Hemingway’s letters, diaries and journals, and from people who knew him. Before beginning filming, the Academy Award-winning director visited Beegel at her Idaho home. “I learned a lot about how he works,” she said. “He does a lot of reading and talks to a lot of experts in the area about ideas. Dewitt would have his own very strong opinions about what he wanted to do.” The idea for the film began after Hemingway’s son saw DeWitt’s film about F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of Hemingway’s former friends, and loved it. The Hemingway estate granted unprecedented access to quote directly from Hemingway’s letters and novels on one condition: DeWitt would have to make the film. “Dewitt found himself in a love-hate relationship with Hemingway and found himself wanting to know more about him,” Beegel said. “The estate is very particular. The Hemingway family recognized what a great documentarian DeWitt was.” Because Beegel spent the majority of her college years within the walls of a library, Hemingway’s stories became her passport to travel and adventure. “To me, a writer like him who traveled all around the whole world, it just was so appealing that there was another kind of a literary life,” she said. Beegel spends her time not only reading the works of the must-read authors of the 20th century, but, as a Hemingway scholar, also often attends conferences in the locations that Hemingway wrote about, such as Spain, Paris and Africa. “It’s much better than studying Emily Dickenson, who never left her house,” she said. When Beegel went on her first excursion to Africa after reading Hemingway’s novel “Green Hills of Africa,” the land didn’t seem foreign. “When you get to the actual place, you’ve actually already been there,” she said. “He made me think in ways other authors never did.” Beegel admitted there was one difficulty in making the documentary. “There are more biographies about Hemingway than you’ve had hot lunches,” Beegel said. “Hemingway saved every single thing he wrote and his mother saved everything since his birth. … The bad news is, it’s a lot of information.” An online discussion of the film, sponsored by The Washington Post, will be from 10-11 a.m. Sept. 15. Individuals wanting to participate in the chat should go to washingtonpost.com and scroll down to the “Live Online” section. Beegel and Hemingway’s daughter-in-law, Valerie, will both participate in the discussion.  Add as favorites (17) | Views: 685
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