FILM

An obsessive quest for authenticity ensured that director Debra Granik really got under the skin of ‘hillbilly’ culture in her acclaimed adaptation Daniel Woodrell’s thriller ‘Winter’s Bone’. Venue reports.

The Grand Jury Prize winner at this year’s Sundance Festival and already being talked up as a potential Oscar contender for its lead performance by relative newcomer Jennifer Lawrence, Debra Granik’s adaptation of Daniel’s Woodrell’s novel ‘Winter’s Bone’ is a gritty Ozark Mountain thriller about a 17-year-old girl attempting to track down her missing father. “I read ‘Winter’s Bone’ in one sitting,” says Granik of her enthusiasm for adapting the novel. “I had not done that with any book in a long time. I wanted to see how this girl, Ree, was going to survive. It felt like an old-fashioned type of tale, with a character I couldn’t help but root for, and with an atmosphere my mind was actively trying to conjure. It also felt fresh in that I do not often get a chance to imagine life like Ree’s, whose circumstances lie outside the confines of my own.”

Finding the right actress to play Ree was the main priority. Jennifer Lawrence’s Kentucky roots helped land her the role. “To my ear, she already had a beautiful way of pronouncing American English that seemed right for Ree,” explains Granik. “Though the script had some very foreign phrases for us, Jen was familiar with some of them, having heard similar phrasing growing up.”

The quest for authenticity continued with a visit to author Daniel Woodrell’s home in Southern Missouri. He accompanied Granik and producer Anne Rosellini on a preliminary location scout, while his wife arranged for them to meet singers, storytellers and folklorists steeped in Ozark culture, past and present. This experience left the director convinced that in order to move the project forward, they would need to hire a local guide to introduce them to the community. “We started by doing a search for a family living in a setting close to the one described in the book. We knew we had to find a family who would let us see their house, their clothes, their objects, their dinner, who would let us see them hunt, take care of their animals, and fix day-to-day problems as they arose. We ultimately found this family and neighbours who were willing to answer our questions. Also, by casting many roles with people from the area, we had people correcting dialect and watching our backs, making sure we didn’t go down any misguided paths”

This desire not to antagonise the locals led to Granik confronting many a stereotype. “Mountain regions have a history of outsiders representing them monolithically. The term ‘hillbilly’ is often used against hill culture, and usually doesn’t allow for much nuance. References to bootlegging and feuds come up pretty fast after the term hillbilly… You can’t go to an area with such an intense history and lore and not lock horns with symbols, cliches, stereotypes and sensitivities. And it’s an ongoing challenge to navigate to some form of storytelling that chips away at the stereotypes and adds new details to what’s gone before.

“‘Winter’s Bone’ depicts different aspects of Ree’s life; not just her survival skills, or her resolve, but very disturbing parts of her life as well. Like children in many other settings, Ree witnesses adults in her life who struggle with addiction. In any life with limited resources, the prevalence of destructive substances like meth, and what that does to families, the general climate of violence, deceit and callousness, is painful to discuss. Add to the challenge that moonshine and meth are gasoline on the bonfire of clichés depicting mountain culture.”

Minefields were encountered in the unlikeliest of places, such as soundtrack choices. “Thirty-five years after ‘Deliverance’, even a banjo can be a loaded symbol,” acknowledges Granik. “But through our trips down to Southern Missouri, banjos kept popping up in the most lyrical and alluring ways. Ultimately, the banjo found its way into the film, offering notes of hope and perseverance. I came to think of it as a fresh start for that image.”

'WINTER'S BONE' OPENED ON FRI 17 SEPT

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