http://www.hour.ca/film/film.aspx?iIDArticle=6061
May 12th, 2005
House of D
Sincere apologies
Melora Koepke
Welcome to the House of Duchovny
David Duchovny's House of D is all about feelings, but critics
aren't feeling him. Why?
Last Friday, David Duchovny's big-screen debut as a writer/director
was released in Montreal, as it had been previously in New York
and some other places. Critics here and everywhere else, with few
exceptions, have torn House of D to bits with a carnivorous relish
reserved for only one thing: a Hollywood star who fails to pull
off their own project.
House of D is, admittedly, a risky prospect. It's a coming-of-age
story about 13-year-old Tom Warshaw growing up in 1970s Greenwich
Village, which is textured with Duchovny's own memories of growing
up in '70s NYC. Tom has a best friend, Pappass, a mentally
challenged janitor played by Robin Williams, and a crush on an
Upper West Side private-school girl. Téa Leoni, Duchovny's wife,
plays Tom's troubled mother, and Duchovny himself plays the narrator,
a grown-up Tom who lives in Paris with his overgrown soul patch and
a problematic marriage. The title House of D does not stand for
Duchovny, but for the women's detention centre that once stood on West
10th Street in the Village. In the film, young Tom goes to get advice
and life wisdom from an incarcerated woman played by Erykah Badu.
In Montreal filming French movie star Vincent Perez's The Secret
with Lili Taylor, Duchovny took time out at the Ritz last week
to fight the good fight.
Hour: So, um, House of D seems to inspire a virulent reaction in people.
David Duchovny: Yeah! I never would have thought so about this film,
I thought I would make a film that everybody would love.
I was surprised by it at first, but now I think I understand.
Hour: And?
Duchovny: Critics go to movies to think, audiences go to the
movies to feel. [Critics] think, 'House of D, House of Duchovny.'
They react to it as a vanity project.
Hour: And now it's coming out the same week as House of Wax...
Duchovny: I can only hope that people think they're seeing House
of Wax, so they'll wander in.
Hour: Seems like you're maybe just an easy mark. Everyone thinks
they know who you are, and you're not giving them what they expect.
Duchovny: It seems to me that critics should love movies,
and it seems like they really don't.
Hour: [Laughing] That's the worst cliché... I love movies.
Duchovny: Well you might be the exception. It seems like the critics
just want it to be something else... I think [House of D] is kind
of an intelligent movie, a lot of laughs. I wanted to make a movie
that had everything, stuff in all of life, everything I knew,
that's my big ambition. I find it a matter of pride when someone
gets offended by feeling. Can you imagine anything more absurd?
Hour: Well, one of the, um, glaring targets you're dealing
with is the Robin Williams-as-a-retarded-janitor thing.
You had to know that people would take aim at that.
Duchovny: I had no idea! What I thought was, 'Robin wants to make
my movie? Now it's going to get made!' Here's a guy who is loved
by millions of people, but for some reason... critics don't love him.
If A.O. Scott [The New York Times critic who openly ridiculed House
of D] was on a jury, he'd have to be excused. If you hate Robin
Williams, you have no business reviewing a Robin Williams movie.
Hour: You honestly think it's just the critics? We're people too,
you know.
Duchovny: I think people don't know what to make of him... he's
limitlessly talented. Kind of a freak in that way. Perhaps
people who have less life in them are offended by Robin.
Hour: So you're saying those of us who dislike Williams are suffering
from a dearth of imagination? Okay, maybe. I find it so weird that
L.A. is so insular; people within the industry don't really have any
idea who is and who isn't well regarded. It's sort of innocent,
in a weird way. Or deeply cynical. I can't figure out which.
Duchovny: Maybe we just have no idea. [Pauses]. How am I doing?
Am I hated, and I just don't know it?
Hour: No... you are universally loved for one thing, but, um,
haven't done enough stuff lately. To be judged. Now everyone
will think this movie is an autobiography, and judge you on that!
Duchovny: I know! They say it's freaky and Freudian that I cast Téa
as my mother... but she's not my mother. It's not me, it's not my
story... if it was a movie about a guy who was a kid and then grew up
to star in a science fiction series, then it would maybe be my story.
Hour: That would make an extremely interesting movie, actually.
Or maybe a novel. With all the interior pathos of what it is
like to be adored by millions for being someone they are not.
Duchovny: I could call it House of X. Then I could really get the
House of Wax people involved.
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