Andy Garcias Role in Dead Again

Paramount Pictures

By  · Published on Jan 21st, 2021

Welcome to Commentary Commentary, where we sit and listen to filmmakers talk about their work, so share the near interesting parts. In this edition, Rob Hunter revisits Kenneth Branagh'due south Hollywood debut, Dead Over again!

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Kenneth Branagh's shift from indie Shakespeare champion to populist flick director has seen its ups and downs, but it started with one of the filmmaker'south most entertaining movies. Dead Again (1991) is a mystery/thriller unafraid to go big at times, and the throughline from beginning to end is fun, energetic, and stylish. The pic has finally come to Blu-ray — in Australia — and it'south well worth the import for fans. One of the extras is a commentary track by Branagh recorded dorsum in 2000, so nosotros gave it a mind to celebrate the motion-picture show'due south long overdue movement into HD media.

Go on reading to meet what I heard on the commentary for Dead Again.

Dead Again (1991)

Commentator: Kenneth Branagh (managing director, role player)

1. "We wanted to set upward the atmosphere of this flick immediately," he says which is why it opens with a "low grind" of a score during the opening credits before ramping up with those murder headlines. The goal was to set expectations early for an entertaining gothic mystery.

ii. One of the newspapers is dated December 10th, 1949, which is Branagh's birthday. "Lamentable for the in-joke."

3. He received an influx of scripts after the success of Henry V (1989), nearly of them historical epics, but when he read Scott Frank's screenplay aloud with his then-wife Emma Thompson they were both gripped from the opening onward.

4. While the black & white was in earlier versions of Frank's script the detail had been dropped by the time a version reached Branagh. They discovered through previews, though, that audiences were dislocated past the fourth dimension jumps — an effect that was stock-still past switching the flashbacks to blackness & white.

v. Roman Strauss' (Branagh) prisoner number, 25101415, is the date of the Battle of Agincourt — the famed boxing featuring Henry V. "We felt that this kind of motion-picture show was one in which you could allow yourself little moments like that."

vi. Grace (Thompson) awakening from her dream to a stormy dark features gothic touches in its visuals and score, and it's all office of Frank's enjoyment of "the vocabulary of this kind of picture."

7. People assumed — every bit did I — that the introduction of Mike Church (Branagh) parked on the incorrect side of the street was a picayune joke about Branagh being British, simply it was actually considering they wanted the shot to feature the skyscrapers in the background.

8. Mike is struggling to quit smoking, but Branagh was a non-smoker and was unable to assuredly portray the smoking scenes — he was so bad at them they ultimately had to exist cutting. "The pitiful, horrible truth is that one-time later I now do smoke." He hopes that this rewatch, in one case it reaches the gross scene with Grayness Davis (Andy Garcia) smoking through his neck, will convince him to quit.

9. The commentary was recorded in 2000, and he name drops Agatha Christie unaware that seventeen years subsequently he'll straight a pretty terrific adaptation of her Murder on the Orient Express.

10. The habitation playing the composer'southward mansion turned Christian orphanage is located in Pasadena, CA. They added the front gate and extra towers to maximize the gothic nature.

11. This was his first real go at a sustained American accent, and he would exit in Los Angeles to exercise it with strangers. No one seemed to notice or intendance.

12. Thompson had worked with Wayne Knight previously, then they insisted that he be cast here.

xiii. Frank cameos equally one of the cops in the elevator at the mental hospital.

14. He suspects the big issue that left a large number of other directors cold on the script was the introduction of hypnosis and by lives.

15. The flashback sequence with Roman and Margaret (Thompson) walking on the beach was filmed on a stretch of CA coast where Baywatch would be filmed years later. "Who knows, it may take been the very bodies that they saw here that gave them the idea for that show. I may be wrong, I'm non sure."

16. The shot of Cozy Carlisle (Robin Williams) looking at the couple after their grocery store conversation at 46:43 was a quick insert Branagh grabbed unsure if he'd use it. He told Williams "let'south but become a closeup of you lot looking a little scrap odd and then that we can go along to have your character as a possible candidate for the one who did it."

17. Cast and coiffure members on Dead Once more told Branagh he was far more cheerful and fun to be effectually when he was playing Mike as opposed to when he was playing the brooding Roman.

xviii. The chat between Mike and Grace amid the Christmas lights was a reshoot captured a few months later on the picture had wrapped. Preview audiences weren't buying into the couple's romance, and so the scene was added to give the pair more personal time. "You tin can come across that in my face there'south a footling more than weight perhaps… something the makeup people weren't too pleased about." He was too out on his start ski trip in the days before the reshoots, and he caught hell from the producer and insurance people.

xix. A pair of talented stunt performers doubled for Branagh and Campbell Scott during role of their bridge fight, simply it was Branagh who "received the accident in the testicular area which was given to me live by Campbell Scott who was zealous to the point of inflicting bodily bodily damage."

20. He credits producers Lindsay Doran and Sydney Pollack with using their weight to support the casting of both himself and Thompson, two Brits who were yet to become big stars, in a Hollywood thriller.

21. They manifestly kept losing scissors on the ready and had to proceed bringing in replacements. Seems pretty obvious that Knight was the ane stealing them.

22. He attended some Dead Again screenings and recalls a deathly silence in theaters during the reveal that Mike was Margaret in his past life.

23. Doran suggested that the introduction of Grace's flat/studio should feature insert shots of the scissor sculptures and artwork, but Branagh said no. He eventually realized his mistake and blames his own stubbornness calculation "quite frankly the director was stupid not to have listened."

24. Frank added the scene with older Gray smoking through his neck pigsty after seeing someone do it in a restaurant.

25. The grapheme played past Derek Jacobi is named Franklyn Madison — as in "Frank mad son" — and that'due south something that non even Branagh noticed at get-go. "I didn't spot it at the fourth dimension, such is my piercing intelligence."

26. Non every filmmaker enjoys the preview process, but Branagh is a fan. Early previews "were disastrous" and led to some little with boosted scenes and third-act edits that helped keep the audition entranced and in sync.

27. Grace's flat was located at High Tower in the Hollywood Hills, simply while they filmed the exteriors there the apartment's interior is a set. They took photos from inside the real location and blew them up as translucent backdrops visible outside the set's windows.

28. Information technology's a very serious scene, but on the day of filming the end fight the three friends — Branagh, Thompson, and Jacobi — found it endlessly amusing to be continuing in that location, staring intently at each other, while one of them held a pair of bloody scissors.

29. The end shell with Franklyn leaping and landing on the large scissor sculpture — a jump that Jacobi had to be convinced was admittedly necessary — was to some "massively and campily over the top," just Branagh and friends found it entirely appropriate.

30. Dead Again's terminal shot is a fade from Roman and Margaret kissing to Mike and Grace kissing, and for the longest time, they had them lined up past actor — Thompson on the left and Branagh on the right. They ultimately flipped the negative on the second pair equally information technology actually makes the nearly sense keeping in line with the film's past lives narrative.

Best in Context-Gratis Commentary

"The script had been through a number of directors, let's put information technology that way."

"I had fun."

"Robin Williams, very complimentary with improvisation, and I tried feebly to go on upward with him."

"Some other terrible in-joke coming upwards I'm afraid, but I couldn't resist it."

"Used to love doing these scissor shots."

"He'due south a baddie, you meet."

"This is a skilful moment in a movie like this, I retrieve, he says immodestly."

"Oh hullo, that'll be the villain, correct on cue."

Final Thoughts

Dead Again remains a terrifically fun thriller that takes big swings in its story and way, and if you tin can get onboard its wavelength there'due south much amusement to be found. Branagh's commentary sees him honest near his shortcomings as a greenish director, but information technology also highlights the idea and effort that went into the production. Information technology'due south a good listen, and it's simply i of ii commentaries on the disc as another features Doran and Frank. This new Blu-ray is definitely worth a option up from fans.

Read more Commentary Commentary from the archives.

Related Topics: Commentary Commentary, Dead Once more, Kenneth Branagh

Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since before you were born, which is weird seeing as he's so damn immature. He'due south our Main Film Critic and Acquaintance Editor and lists 'Broadcast News' equally his favorite film of all time. Feel costless to say hi if you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.

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