Academy Award-nominated editor Saar Klein talks about the inspiration for his crime drama After the Fall - which was in the works for several years before becoming a reality on the big screen.
“We started writing this before the financial downfall – a couple of years before – and it takes so long to make an independent film, or any kind of film – that by the time we finished it,” Saar said about the movie’s main theme. “The idea wasn’t necessarily to do anything about the economic downturn, but more about a human story that could happen at any time in our history, in any society.”
The film explores the difficult decisions a man has to make to survive in today’s world, and Saar said. “The approach to how we told the story was a little bit different, it’s a little bit more mysterious,” he said, adding that plotline of a man getting involved in a completely secret life of crime to provide for his family is not as farfetched as many might think.
“Most of the people I spoke to said that if their wife or their husband just ran a bunch of checks and ran the household bankrupt, they would have no idea about it until it was too late.”
The character is a very traditional American character, almost from a different era, perhaps with a ‘50s kind of mentality. “It’s a concept that if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll be taken care of, you’ll have the house, the pool and the family,” he said. “And these days are long gone, but he’s still living in that black and white world, that simple American dream that’s deteriorated over the last 20 years.”
The lead character in the film is a man who in the beginning lives by a moral code that believes a person should treat others as they want to be treated, but is later forced to compromise his principles.
“He’s forced out of that code, and he thinks he’s going to struggle with that, but actually it empowers him with his wife, with his children, with people around him. And that’s the sort of dilemma that if you are aggressive in this society, you do succeed usually.”
Watch the full episode for more on After the Fall, as well as to hear Saar address his work as an editor and what he learned working with great film directors including Terrence Malick.
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