14 April 2015 (Series 30:11) Bryan Singer, THE USUAL SUSPECTS (1995, 106 minutes)

(The online PDF versions of these handouts have color images with functioning urls. Go to http://csac.buffalo.edu/goldenrodhandouts.html ) Won two 1996 Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Kevin Spacey and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Christopher McQuarrie. Included in the American Film Institute’s ten best mystery films. Directed by Bryan Singer Written by Christopher McQuarrie Produced by Michael McDonnell and Bryan Singer Music by John Ottman Cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel Film Editing by John Ottman Casting by Francine Maisler Art Direction by David Lazan Set Decoration by Sara Andrews Costume Design by Louise Mingenbach Visual Effects by David B. Long Stephen Baldwin ... McManus Gabriel Byrne ... Keaton Benicio Del Toro ... Fenster Kevin Pollak ... Hockney Kevin Spacey ... Verbal Chazz Palminteri ... Dave Kujan Pete Postlethwaite ... Kobayashi Suzy Amis ... Edie Finneran Giancarlo Esposito ... Jack Baer Dan Hedaya ... Jeff Rabin Paul Bartel ... Smuggler Carl Bressler ... Saul Berg Phillipe Simon ... Fortier Jack Shearer ... Renault Christine Estabrook ... Dr. Plummer Clark Gregg ... Dr. Walters Morgan Hunter ... Arkosh Kovash

Bryan Singer (director) (b. Bryan Jay Singer, September 17, 1965 in New York City, New York) has been the producer or executive producer for 33 films or TV series. In addition, he directed 16 films and television shows: 2015 “Battle Creek” (TV Series), 2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2012 “Mockingbird Lane” (TV Movie), 2008 Valkyrie, 2007 “Football Wives” (TV Movie), 2006 Superman Returns, 2004 House M.D. (TV Series), 2003 X-Men 2, 2000 X-Men, 1998 Apt Pupil, 1995 The Usual Suspects, and 1993 Public Access. John Ottman (music and editor) (b. John Verl Ottman, July 6, 1964 in San Diego, California) composed music for 50 films and television shows, including 2016 X-Men: Apocalypse, 2015 “Battle Creek” (TV Series), 2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2013 Jack the Giant Slayer, 2009 Astro Boy, 2008 Valkyrie, 2006 Superman Returns, 2005 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, 2004 Cellular, 2003 X-Men 2, 2002 Brother's Keeper, 2002 Pumpkin, 2001

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Bubble Boy, 1998 Goodbye Lover, 1997 Incognito, 1996 The Cable Guy, 1995 The Antelope Chess Game, 1995 The Usual Suspects, and 1993 Public Access. He also edited 11 films, including 2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2013 Jack the Giant Slayer, 2008 Valkyrie, 2006 Superman Returns, 2003 X-Men 2, 2000 Urban Legends: Final Cut, 1998 Apt Pupil, 1995 The Usual Suspects, and 1993 Public Access. Newton Thomas Sigel (cinematographer) (b. 1955) was the cinematographer for 63 films and television shows, among them 2015 “Battle Creek” (TV Series), 2014 Seventh Son, 2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2013 Jack the Giant Slayer, 2010 The Conspirator, 2008 Valkyrie, 2007 Towelhead, 2006 Superman Returns, 2005 The Brothers Grimm, 2004 “House M.D.” (TV Series), 2003 X-Men 2, 2000 X-Men, 1999 Three Kings, 1999 Brokedown Palace, 1996 Foxfire, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1993 “Daybreak” (TV Movie), 1991 “Murder in High Places” (TV Movie), 1990 “Rock Hudson” (TV Movie), 1989 “Roe vs. Wade” (TV Movie), 1985 Latino, 1984 In Our Hands (Documentary), 1983 When the Mountains Tremble (Documentary), 1981 El Salvador: Another Vietnam (Documentary), and 1980 We Are the Guinea Pigs (Documentary).

Stephen Baldwin ... McManus (b. Stephen Andrew Baldwin, May 12, 1966 in Massapequa, Long Island, New York) has appeared in 94 films and television shows, some of which are 2015 No Panic, with a Hint of Hysteria, 2015 Scarlett, 2015 The UnMiracle, 2015 Magi, 2015 Balance (Short), 2014 Tapestry, 2015 The Networker, 2014 2047—Sights of Death, 2010 Let the Game Begin, 2008 Shark in Venice, 2006 The Genius Club, 2006 Midnight Clear, 2004 Target, 2003 Shelter Island, 2003 Firefight, 2002 “Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice” (Video), 2000 Mercy, 1999 Friends & Lovers, 1998 One Tough Cop, 1995 Under the Hula Moon, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1995 Fall Time, 1994 Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, 1994 8 Seconds, 1993 Bitter Harvest, 1989-1992 “The Young Riders” (TV Series, 67 episodes), 1989 Born on the Fourth of July, 1989 Casualties of War, 1989 Last Exit to Brooklyn, 1989 “China Beach” (TV Series), 1988 “Family Ties” (TV Series), and 1988 Homeboy.

Gabriel Byrne ... Keaton (b. Gabriel James Byrne, May 12, 1950 in Dublin, Ireland) has appeared in 97 films and TV shows, including 2015 No Pay, Nudity, 2015 Nobody Wants the Night, 2014 Vampire Academy, 2013 “Vikings” (TV Series, 6 episodes), 2008-2010 “In Treatment” (TV Series, 106 episodes), 2005 Assault on Precinct 13, 2004 The Bridge of San Luis Rey, 2000 “Madigan Men” (TV Series, 12 episodes), 1999 End of Days, 1998 Enemy of the State, 1998 Pirates, 1997 Smilla's Feeling for Snow, 1996 Somebody Is Waiting, 1995 Dead Man, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1994 Little Women, 1994 Trial by Jury, 1993 A Dangerous Woman, 1993 Point of No Return, 1990 Shipwrecked, 1990 Miller's Crossing, 1989 A Soldier's Tale, 1987 Julia and Julia, 1986 Defense of the Realm, 1984 Reflections, 1983 The Keep, 1983 Hanna K., 1981 Excalibur, 1980 The Outsider, 1978 “Last of Summer” (TV Series). Benicio Del Toro ... Fenster (b. Benicio Monserrate Rafael Del Toro Sanchez, February 19, 1967 in San Germán, Puerto Rico) won the 2001 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Traffic (2000). He has appeared in 49 films and television shows, including 2015 Sicario, 2015 A Perfect Day, 2014 Escobar: Paradise Lost, 2013 Jimmy P., 2012 Savages, 2008 Che: Part One, 2008 Che: Part Two, 2005 Sin City, 2003 21 Grams, 2000 Traffic, 2000 Snatch, 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1996 The Fan, 1996 Basquiat, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1994 Swimming with Sharks, 1994 China Moon, 1993 Golden Balls, 1992 Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, 1991 The Indian Runner, 1989 Licence to Kill, and 1987 “Miami Vice” (TV Series). Kevin Pollak ... Hockney (b. Kevin Elliot Pollak, October 30, 1957 in San Francisco, California) has produced 7 films and television shows and has written 6, including 2015 Misery Loves Comedy (Documentary), 2009-2015 “Kevin Pollak's Chat Show” (TV Series, 212 episodes), 2012 Columbus Circle, 2010 “Kevin Pollak: The Littlest Suspect” (TV Movie). He has appeared in 118 films and television shows, among them 2015 The Night Is Young, 2014-2015 “Mom” (TV Series, 14 episodes), 2013 A Country Christmas, 2012 Columbus Circle, 2011 The Big Year, 2010 Cop Out, 2008 “Entourage” (TV Series), 2007-2008 “Shark” (TV Series, 8 episodes), 2005 Hostage, 2004 The Whole Ten Yards, 2001 3000 Miles to Graceland, 2000 Steal This Movie, 2000 The Whole Nine Yards, 1999 End of Days, 1999 The Sex Monster, 1998 Hoods, 1997 Truth or Consequences, N.M., 1995 Grumpier Old Men, 1995 Casino, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1995 Chameleon, 1994 Clean Slate, 1993 Grumpy Old Men, 1992 A Few Good Men, 1991 L.A. Story, 1990 Avalon, 1988-1989 “Coming of Age” (TV Series, 15 episodes), 1988 Willow, and 1984 Hot Flashes (TV Series). Kevin Spacey ... Verbal (b. Kevin Spacey Fowler, July 26, 1959 in South Orange, New Jersey) won 2 Academy Awards, the first in 1996 for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Usual Suspects (1995), and again in 2000 for Best Actor in a Leading Role for American Beauty (1999). He has appeared in 77 films and televisions shows, including 2013-2015 “House of Cards” (TV Series, 39 episodes), 2011 Inseparable, 2011 Horrible Bosses, 2010 Casino Jack, 2010 Father of Invention, 2009 The Men Who Stare at Goats, 2008 21, 2006 Superman Returns,

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2003 The United States of Leland, 2001 The Shipping News, 2000 Pay It Forward, 1999 American Beauty, 1998 The Negotiator, 1997 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 1997 L.A. Confidential, 1995 Se7en, 1995 Outbreak, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1994 Swimming with Sharks, 1994 The Ref, 1992 Consenting Adults, 1992 Glengarry Glen Ross, 1991 “Darrow” (TV Movie), 1990 Henry & June, 1989 See No Evil, Hear No Evil, 1988 Working Girl, 1988 “Wiseguy” (TV Series, 7 episodes, and 1986 Heartburn. He also produced 30 films and television shows.

Chazz Palminteri ... Dave Kujan (b. Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri, May 15, 1952 in New York City, New York) has appeared in 68 films and television shows, among them 2014 Henry & Me, 2010-2014 “Rizzoli & Isles” (TV Series, 6 episodes), 2014 “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (TV Series), 2012-2013 “Blue Bloods” (TV Series), 2013 Final Recourse, 2009 Once More with Feeling, 2006 Running Scared, 2005 One Last Ride, 2001 One Eyed King, 1999 Analyze This, 1998 A Night at the Roxbury, 1998 Scar City, 1996 Mulholland Falls, 1996 Diabolique, 1995 Jade, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1994 Bullets Over Broadway, 1993 A Bronx Tale, 1992 There Goes the Neighborhood, 1989 “Dallas” (TV Series), 1987 “Matlock” (TV Series), 1986 “Hill Street Blues” (TV Series), and 1984 Home Free All. Pete Postlethwaite ... Kobayashi (b. Peter William Postlethwaite, February 7, 1946 in Warrington, Cheshire, England—d. January 2, 2011 (age 64) in Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England) appeared in 99 films and television shows, some of which are 2011 Killing Bono, 2010 The Town, 2010 Inception, 2010 Clash of the Titans, 2006 The Omen, 2005 The Constant Gardener, 2004 Strange Bedfellows, 2001 The Shipping News, 2000 “The Sins” (TV Mini-Series, 7 episodes), 1998 Among Giants, 1997 Amistad, 1997 The Lost World: Jurassic Park, 1996 DragonHeart, 1996 James and the Giant Peach, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1993 In the Name of the Father, 1992 The Last of the Mohicans, 1992 Waterland, 1992 Alien³, 1990 Hamlet, 1988 Number 27, 1988 The Dressmaker, 1988 To Kill a Priest, 1979 “Horse in the House” (TV Series, 6 episodes), 1978 “Going Straight” (TV Series), and 1977 The Duellists.

Suzy Amis ... Edie Finneran (b. Susan Elizabeth Amis, January 5, 1962 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) has appeared in 23 films and televisions shows, including 1998 Firestorm, 1997 Titanic, 1996 One Good Turn, 1996 Cadillac Ranch, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1994 Nadja, 1994 Blown Away, 1993 The Ballad of Little Jo, 1993 Watch It, 1990 Where the Heart Is, 1987 Plain Clothes, and 1985 Fandango. Dan Hedaya ... Jeff Rabin (b. July 24, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York) has appeared in 137 films and television shows, some of which are 2015 Black Dog, Red Dog, 2014 The Humbling, 2012 The Normals, 2006 The Good Student, 2005 Strangers with Candy, 2002 Quicksand, 2001 Mulholland Drive, 2000 Shaft, 1999 Dick, 1998 A Civil Action, 1998 A Night at the Roxbury, 1997 Alien: Resurrection, 1996 Marvin's Room, 1996 The First Wives Club, 1995 Nixon, 1995 Clueless, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1994 Maverick, 1993 Mr. Wonderful, 1993 Searching for Bobby Fischer, 1984-1993 “Cheers” (TV Series, 6 episodes), 1991 Doubles, 1990 Pacific Heights, 1987 “The Tortellis” (TV Series, 13 episodes), 1986 Running Scared, 1986 Wise Guys, 1984-1986 “Miami Vice” (TV Series), 1985 “The Twilight Zone” (TV Series), 1984 Blood Simple, 1984 Tightrope, 1984 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, 1983 The Hunger, 1982 I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can, 1981 True Confessions, 1979 The Seduction of Joe Tynan, 1976 “Kojak” (TV Series), 1976 The Passover Plot, 1975 “Ryan's Hope” (TV Series, 10 episodes), and 1970 Myra Breckinridge. Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito…Jack Baer (b. April 26, 1958) is a Danish-born American actor, director, and producer of African-Italian descent. He is best known for his portrayal of Gustavo "Gus" Fring on the AMC series Breaking Bad, for which he won the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama award at the 2012 Critics' Choice Television Awards and was nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award at the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards. He is well known for his roles in Spike Lee films such as Do the Right Thing, School Daze, and Mo' Better Blues. Other notable films include The Usual Suspects and King of New York. He has portrayed Sidney Glass/Magic Mirror on ABC's Once Upon a Time and Major Tom Neville in the NBC series Revolution. Paul Bartel ... Smuggler (b. August 6, 1938 in Brooklyn, New York—d. May 13, 2000 (age 61) in New York City, New York) appeared in 91 films and television shows, among them 2001 Perfect Fit, 2000 Hamlet, 1999 Zoo, 1998 “Chicago Hope” (TV Series), 1996 The Elevator, 1996 Basquiat, 1996 Escape from L.A., 1995 Number One Fan, 1995 Not Like Us, 1995 The Jerky Boys, 1995 The Usual Suspects, 1994 Twin Sitters, 1993 Grief, 1993 Posse, 1991 The Pope Must Diet, 1990 Far Out Man, 1989 Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, 1988 Caddyshack II, 1988 Shakedown, 1987 Amazon Women on the Moon, 1986 Killer Party, 1985 Into the Night, 1984 Not for Publication, 1983 Heart Like a Wheel, 1982 White Dog, 1982 Eating Raoul, 1981 Heartbeeps, 1979 Rock 'n' Roll High School, 1978 Piranha, 1977 Grand Theft Auto, 1976 Hollywood Boulevard, 1975 Death Race 2000, 1974 Big Bad Mama, and 1969 Utterly Without Redeeming Social Value.

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[from Wikipedia] Bryan Jay Singer (born September 17, 1965 is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He has produced or co-produced almost all of the films he has directed. He wrote and directed his first film in 1988 after graduating from university. His next film, Public Access (1993), was a co-winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. In the mid-1990s, Singer received critical acclaim for directing the neo-noir crime thriller The Usual Suspects (1995), which starred Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro and Kevin Spacey. He followed this with another thriller, Apt Pupil (1998), about a boy's fascination with a Nazi war criminal. In the 2000s, he became known for big budget superhero films such as X-Men (2000), for which Singer won the 2000 Saturn Award for Best Direction, its sequel X2 (2003), and Superman Returns (2006). He then directed the WW II historical thriller Valkyrie (2008), co-wrote/co-produced X-Men: First Class (2011) and directed the fantasy adventure film Jack the Giant Slayer (2013). In 2014, another X-Men film helmed by him was released, titled X-Men: Days of Future Past, and he will direct X-Men: Apocalypse, which is expected to be released in May 2016. He has directed and produced some television shows, including two episodes of House in 2004…. 1980s–1990s After graduating from university, Singer directed a short film in 1988 called Lion's Den involving a number of friends, including actor Ethan Hawke whom he knew from his childhood in New Jersey and editor John Ottman who he had met while working on a friend's short film. After a screening of Lion's Den, Singer was approached by someone who knew of a Japanese company that funded low-budget films. Singer wrote the concept for Public Access (1993) with high school friend Christopher

McQuarrie, and fellow USC student Michael Feit Dougan wrote the first draft in ten days about a supposedly idyllic small town. Ottman again served as editor but this time also composed the score for the film. At the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, the film was named as co-winner of the Grand Jury Prize. While attending the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, Singer and McQuarrie began discussing an idea that McQuarrie had for a story where "five criminals meet in a police line-up". The film, The Usual Suspects, won a number of awards including the 1995 BAFTA Award for Best Film and Saturn Award for Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film. Writer McQuarrie won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay and the BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay, composer/editor Ottman won the BAFTA Award for Best Editing and the Saturn Award for Best Music and actor Kevin Spacey won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1998, Singer directed Apt Pupil from a screenplay written by Brandon Boyce, another of his friends. The story, adapted from a Stephen King novella of the same name (collected in the book Different Seasons), tells of a young boy who develops a morbid fascination with a Nazi war criminal. 2000s Singer was initially approached by 20th Century Fox to direct X-Men after directing The Usual Suspects, but not being a fan of comics and being unaware of the characters, Singer turned them down. However his friend, Tom DeSanto, a big fan of the comics and partner in his production company Bad Hat Harry Productions, eventually persuaded Singer to reconsider and, after reading the comics and becoming familiar with the characters, Singer signed on to direct. Rejecting all the scripts and storylines that were developed over a decade of failed production attempts, Singer developed the story for the film with DeSanto in a week and then worked on the script with writers Ed Solomon, Christopher McQuarrie, Joss Whedon, and finally David Hayter (who had started out as Singer's driver). Only Hayter received onscreen credit for writing the film. Singer won the 2000 Saturn Award for Best Direction for X-Men. In early 2001, Singer was planning to direct Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with Johnny Depp in the lead role, from Charlie Kaufman's script based on the Chuck Barris book of the same name. Financial troubles delayed production and Singer moved on. The film was later directed by George Clooney for Miramax Films with Sam Rockwell in the lead role. Singer has said that he was "very impressed" by Clooney's debut as a director, and the film itself. In late 2001, Singer was planning to help DeSanto produce a new Battlestar Galactica television series for Studios USA (now NBC Universal Television Studio) and the FOX network. Singer was scheduled to direct the mini-series which would have served as a backdoor pilot for a potential series. Speaking to Variety in February 2001, Singer said he was "confident that the Galactica brand is a sleeping giant. It was a show I watched during its initial run, from the pilot to the final episode. The essence and the brand name is quite potent in a climate where there's a great deficit of sci-fi programming." Despite his enthusiasm, production delays caused by the September 11, 2001 attacks meant Singer had to drop out due to his commitment to direct X-Men 2. FOX then lost interest in Galactica and Studios USA took the project to the Sci Fi Channel and a different production team. This resulted in the new Battlestar Galactica 2003 mini-series and 2004 television

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series, which ran until 2008. By August 2012 the script was being rewritten, with Singer explaining that "It will exist, I think, quite well between the Glen Larson and Ron Moore universes". In June 2002 filming began on X2 in Canada with Singer again directing, this time from a screenplay written by David Hayter, Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty. In 2004, X2 was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, but lost to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. In 2002, having learned that Singer was a lifelong Star Trek fan, Patrick Stewart arranged for Singer to visit the set of Star Trek Nemesis and appear in the finished film as a Starfleet officer on the bridge of the Enterprise. On November 16, 2004, a new medical drama debuted on FOX called House, with Singer attached as an executive producer. He also directed the pilot and the third episode, then appeared in a brief cameo as himself in the twelfth episode. In mid-2004, Singer was in negotiations to direct X-Men: The Last Stand for Fox. Fox and Singer could not meet an agreement and, after an extended détente, Singer was offered the chance to direct the new Superman film, which was ready to go. On July 19, 2004, Variety reported that Singer had signed on to direct Superman Returns for Warner Bros. In retaliation, Fox terminated their production deal with Bad Hat Harry Productions, Singer's production company. Superman Returns was filmed in Australia in 2005, and was released on June 28, 2006. Singer claims that though he had not read the comics, he had always admired and identified with the character, citing the fact that he and Superman are both orphans. He instead based Returns on his love of the 1978 film made by Richard Donner. Before embarking on the Superman sequel, Singer openly discussed helming a smaller project going back to the days of thrillers The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil. In late 2006, screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie presented to Singer a story that took place in World War II, Valkyrie. In the following months, the two collaborated on the project, an original thriller that would be a multi-character ensemble piece. In March 2007, the duo brought the project directly to United Artists partners Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise, who immediately agreed to finance the film. The script is based on the actual events of German generals plotting to assassinate Adolf Hitler during World War II. Singer invited Tom Cruise to take the lead role, which Cruise accepted. Filming began on July 19, 2007 in Berlin, and the movie was released on December 25, 2008. Upon finishing Valkyrie at the end of 2007, Singer was scheduled to jump directly into the upcoming Superman sequel, which was to begin filming around March 2008. Attending the 2007 Saturn Awards along with Superman Returns writers Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and producer Gil Adler, Singer stated that the story had been locked down, and the first draft would be completed near the end of 2007. Plans for the sequel included more action sequences, an alien villain, and Singer's promise to

"go all Wrath of Khan on it". Production on the film was eventually cancelled, in favor of a reboot directed by Zack Snyder. In August 2009, Universal Pictures announced that Singer would direct and produce a big screen reimagining of the Battlestar Galactica television series of the late-1970s, which would not draw any material from the Syfy Channel reimagined series. On September 10, 2009, it was announced NBC has partnered with Bryan Singer and Bryan Fuller to adapt Augusten Burroughs's Sellevision into a series. The one-hour dramatic comedy, to be written by Fuller and directed by Singer, will focus on the inner workings of a fictional home shopping network, according to The Hollywood Reporter. At the premiere of James Cameron's Avatar on December 16, 2009, Singer confirmed that he would be directing Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) for Warner Bros., and that he had signed on to do X-Men: First Class, but conflicts between the two projects led to Singer

being only a producer and co-screenwriter on First Class, with Matthew Vaughn taking over directorial duties. 2010s In October 2012, it was announced that Singer would direct the next movie in the series, X-Men: Days of Future Past; Vaughn stayed on as a producer and screenwriter, and the film was released in May 2014. Singer produced the commercials for the ice cream

Magnum Gold, which featured Benicio del Toro.]In 2012, Singer was the executive producer alongside Jane Lynch of the short film, Ronny and I, directed by Guy Shalem that screened at Outfest and Cannes. Ronny and I was considered a "revolution" in filmmaking due to the fact that the film was shot entirely on a smart phone. Singer is directing another X-Men film entitled X-Men: Apocalypse that he is also producing and co-writing with Simon Kinberg, Dan Harris, and Michael Dougherty. Days of Future Past stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, and Evan Peters are re-teaming with Singer for Apocalypse. [from Wikipedia) The Usual Suspects is a 1995 German-American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie. It stars Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite and Kevin Spacey. The film follows the interrogation of Roger "Verbal" Kint, a small-time con man who is one of only two survivors of a massacre and fire on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles. He tells an interrogator a convoluted story about events that led him and his partners in crime to the boat, and about a mysterious mob boss known as Keyser Söze who commissioned their work. Using flashback and narration, Kint's story becomes increasingly complex. The film, shot on a $6 million budget, began as a title taken from a column in Spy magazine called "The Usual Suspects", after one of Claude Rains' most memorable lines in the classic film Casablanca. Singer thought it would make a

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good title for a film, the poster for which he and McQuarrie had developed as the first visual idea. The film was shown out of competition at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and then initially released in a few theaters. It received favorable reviews, and was eventually given a wider release. McQuarrie won an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) and Spacey won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. In time, it is remembered for one of the most definitive and popular plot twists of all cinematic history…. Origins Bryan Singer met Kevin Spacey at a party after a screening of the young filmmaker's first film, Public Access, at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. Spacey had been encouraged by a number of people he knew who had seen it, and was so impressed that he told Singer and McQuarrie that he wanted to be in whatever film they did next. Singer read a column in Spy magazine called "The Usual Suspects" after Claude Rains' line in Casablanca. Singer thought that it would be a good title for a film. When asked by a reporter at Sundance what their next film was about, McQuarrie replied, "I guess it's about a bunch of criminals who meet in a police line-up," which incidentally was the first visual idea that he and Singer had for the poster: "five guys who meet in a line-up," Singer remembers. The director also envisioned a tagline for the poster, "All of you can go to Hell." Singer then asked the question, "What would possibly bring these five felons together in one line-up?" McQuarrie revamped an idea from one of his own unpublished screenplays — the story of a man who murders his own family and walks away, disappearing from view. The writer mixed this with the idea of a team of criminals. Söze's character is based on the accounts of John List, a New Jersey accountant who murdered his family in 1971 and then disappeared for almost two decades, assuming a new identity before he was ultimately apprehended. McQuarrie based the name of Keyser Söze on one of his previous supervisors, Kayser Sume, at a Los Angeles law firm that he worked for, but decided to change the last name because he thought that his former boss would object to how it was used. He found the word söze in his roommate's English-to-Turkish dictionary, which translates as "talk too much." All the characters' names are taken from staff members of the law firm at the time of his employment. McQuarrie had also worked for a detective agency, and this influenced the depiction of criminals and law enforcement officials in the script. Singer described the film as Double Indemnity meets Rashomon, and said that it was made "so you can go back and see all sorts of things you didn't realize were there the first time. You can get it a second time in a way you never could have the first time around." He also compared the film's structure to

Citizen Kane (which also contained an interrogator and a subject who is telling a story) and the criminal caper The Anderson Tapes Pre-production McQuarrie wrote nine drafts of his screenplay over five months, until Singer felt that it was ready to shop around to the studios. None was interested except for a European financing company. McQuarrie and Singer had a difficult time getting the film made because of the non-linear story, the large amount of dialogue and the lack of cast attached to the project. Financiers wanted established stars, and offers for the small role of Redfoot (the L.A. fence who hooks up the five protagonists with Kobayashi) went out to Christopher Walken, Tommy Lee Jones, Jeff Bridges, Charlie Sheen, James Spader, Al Pacino and Johnny Cash. However, the European money allowed the film's producers to make offers to actors and assemble a cast. They

were only able to offer the actors salaries that were well below their usual pay, but they agreed because of the quality of McQuarrie's script and the chance to work with each other. That money fell through, however, and Singer used the script and the cast to attract PolyGram to pick up the film negative. About casting, Singer said, "You pick people not for what they are, but what you imagine they can turn into." To research his role, Spacey met doctors and experts on cerebral palsy and talked with Singer about how it would fit dramatically in the film. They decided that it would affect only one side of his body.

According to Byrne, the cast bonded quickly during rehearsals. Del Toro worked with Alan Shaterian to develop Fenster's distinctive, almost unintelligible speech patterns. According to the actor, the source of his character's unusual speech patterns came from the realization that "the purpose of my character was to die." Del Toro told Singer, "It really doesn't matter what I say so I can go really far out with this and really make it uncomprehensible." Filming The budget was set at $5.5 million, and the film was shot in 35 days in Los Angeles, San Pedro and New York City. Spacey said that they shot the interrogation scenes with Palminteri over a span of five to six days. These scenes were also shot before the rest of the film. The police lineup scene ran into scheduling conflicts because the actors kept blowing their lines. Screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie would feed the actors questions off-camera and they improvised their lines. When Stephen Baldwin gave his answer, he made the other actors break character. Byrne remembers that they were often laughing between takes and "when they said, 'Action!', we'd barely be able to keep it together." Spacey also said that the hardest part was not laughing through takes, with Baldwin and Pollak being the worst culprits. Their goal was to get the usually serious Byrne to crack up. They spent all morning trying unsuccessfully to film the scene. At lunch a frustrated Singer angrily scolded the five

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actors, but when they resumed the cast continued to laugh through each take. Byrne remembers, "Finally, Bryan just used one of the takes where we couldn't stay serious." Singer and editor John Ottman used a combination of takes and kept the humor in to show the characters bonding with one another. While Del Toro told Singer how he was going to portray Fenster, he did not tell his cast members, and in their first scene together none of them understood what Del Toro was saying. Byrne confronted Singer and the director told him that for the lockup scene, "If you don't understand what he's saying maybe it's time we let the audience know that they don't need to know what he's saying." This led to the inclusion of Kevin Pollak's improvised line, "What did you say?" The stolen emeralds were real gemstones on loan for the movie. Singer spent an 18-hour day shooting the underground parking garage robbery. According to Byrne, by the next day Singer still did not have all of the footage that he wanted, and refused to stop filming in spite of the bonding company's threat to shut down the production. In the scene in which the crew meets Redfoot after the botched drug deal, Redfoot flicks his cigarette at McManus' face. The scene was originally to have Redfoot flick the cigarette at McManus's chest, but the actor missed and hit Baldwin's face by accident. Baldwin's reaction is genuine. Despite enclosed practical locations and a short shooting schedule, cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel "developed a way of shooting dialogue scenes with a combination of slow, creeping zooms and dolly moves that ended in tight close-ups," to add subtle energy to scenes. "This style combined dolly movement with "imperceptible zooms" so that you’d always have a sense of motion in a limited space." Post-production During the editing phase, Singer thought that they had completed the film two weeks early, but woke up one morning and realized that they needed that time to put together a sequence that convinced the audience that Dean Keaton was Söze — and then do the same for Verbal Kint because the film did not have "the punch that Chris had written so beautifully." According to Ottman, he assembled the footage as a montage but it still did not work until he added an overlapping voice-over montage featuring key dialogue from several characters and had it relate to the images. Early on, executives at Gramercy had problems pronouncing the name Keyser Söze and were worried that audiences would have the same problem. The studio decided to promote the character's name. Two weeks before the film debuted in theaters, "Who is Keyser Söze?" posters appeared at bus stops, and TV spots told people how to say the character's name. Despite these efforts, all the actors in the film consistently mispronounce his name as "Soze" instead of "Söze". Singer wanted the music for the boat heist to resemble Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. The ending's music was based on a k.d. lang song. Release

Gramercy ran a pre-release promotion and advertising campaign before The Usual Suspects opened in the summer of 1995. Word of mouth marketing was used to advertise the film, and buses and billboards were plastered with the simple question, "Who is Keyser Söze?" The film was shown out of competition at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and was well received by audiences and critics. The film was then given an exclusive run in Los Angeles, where it took a combined $83,513, and New York City, where it made $132,294 on three screens in its opening weekend. The film was then released in 42 theaters where it earned $645,363 on its opening weekend. It averaged a strong $4,181 per screen at 517 theaters and the following week added 300 locations. It

eventually made $23.3 million in North America. Reception The Usual Suspects has received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 88%, based on 68 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's consensus reads, "Expertly shot and edited, The Usual Suspects

gives the audience a simple plot and then piles on layers of deceit, twists, and violence before pulling out the rug from underneath." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 77 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". While embraced by most viewers and critics, the film was the subject of harsh derision by some. Roger Ebert, in a review for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film one and a half stars out of four, considering it confusing and uninteresting. He also included the film in his "most hated films" list. USA Today rated the film two and a half stars out of four, calling it "one of the most densely plotted mysteries in memory—though paradoxically, four-fifths of it is way too easy to predict." However, Rolling Stone praised Spacey, saying his "balls-out brilliant performance is Oscar bait all the way." In his review for The Washington Post, Hal Hinson wrote, "Ultimately, The Usual Suspects may be too clever for its own good. The twist at the end is a corker, but crucial questions remain unanswered. What's interesting, though, is how little this intrudes on our enjoyment. After the movie you're still trying to connect the dots and make it all fit—and these days, how often can we say that?" In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin praised the performances of the cast: "Mr. Singer has assembled a fine ensemble cast of actors who can parry such lines, and whose performances mesh effortlessly despite their exaggerated differences in demeanor ... Without the violence or obvious bravado of Reservoir Dogs, these performers still create strong and fascinatingly ambiguous characters." The Independent praised the film's ending: "The film's coup de grace is as elegant as it is unexpected. The whole movie plays back in your mind in perfect clarity—and turns out to be a completely different movie to the one you've been watching (rather better, in fact)." Accolades McQuarrie was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay and Kevin Spacey was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. They both won, and

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in his acceptance speech Spacey memorably said, "Well, whoever Keyser Söze is, I can tell you he's gonna get gloriously drunk tonight." The film was nominated as the best film at the 1996 British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA awards). McQuarrie won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, and John Ottman won the BAFTA Award for Best Editing. The film was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards — Best Supporting Actor for Benicio del Toro, Best Screenplay for Christopher McQuarrie and Best Cinematography for Newton Thomas Sigel. Both Del Toro and McQuarrie won in their categories. Bryan Singer won the Best Debut award at the 1st Empire Awards. The Usual Suspects was screened at the 1995 Seattle International Film Festival, where Bryan Singer was awarded Best Director and Kevin Spacey won for Best Actor. The Boston Society of Film Critics gave Spacey the Best Supporting Actor award for his work on the film. Spacey went on to win this award with the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review, which also gave the cast an ensemble acting award. Legacy On June 17, 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "AFI's 10 Top 10"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. The Usual Suspects was acknowledged as the tenth-best mystery film. Verbal Kint was voted the #48 villain in "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains" in June 2003. Entertainment Weekly cited the film as one of the "13 must-see heist movies".Empire ranked Keyser Söze #69 in their "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll.In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay #35 on its list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written.

From The Usual Suspects. Ernest Larsen. bfi Publishing, London, 2002.

Bryan Singer, who directed The Usual Suspects, prodded its scriptwriter Christopher McQuarrie to produce something like nine rewrites before he was satisfied that the story they’d developed was airtight. At the front of each version of the script, according to Singer, they ‘put a quote from “Sympathy for the Devil”: “Please allow me to introduce myself / I hope you guess my name. But what is bothering you / is the nature of my game.”’ In the scene that introduces the finished film just such a crucial guess is made. The rest of the film proceeds to spell out the nature of the game….

In The Usual Suspects, the elaborate play on absence, reference, and invisibility produces an increasingly dense atmosphere of pervasive menace. As a result, the name Keyser Söze seems to apply less to an actual person than to a force, thereby transforming the endlessly deferred answer to the plot question of the villain’s identity into the more disturbing question of what Keyser Söze represents….

When it opened in the United States in August 1995, The Usual Suspects was immediately and unsurprisingly bracketed with Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs—which, in turn, was compared to John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle and Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956). Both of these early 90 films directed by young men keenly aware of film history perform clever variations on the venerable genre of heist noir. For Singer, this parallel was an advantage. ‘The strategy,’ he has said, ‘was to regard it as a plus, not a minus—to make a film so different that after seeing it o one could even imagine comparing the story and the aesthetic, merely the set-up. Both films essentially begin in the violent aftermath of a big heist and then move both forward and backward in time, Reservoir Dogs unpredictably, The Usual Suspect, relentlessly…. One movie dismisses its central action while the other builds an elaborate architecture of mystery around it.

It’s suggestive that these two films become searches for a traitor hidden in the midst of a group of professional criminals. With enormous appetite both films portray a particularly narrow model of masculinity, and its codes of behaviour. As if it formed an invariable and universally accepted standard…. McQuarrie has been forthcoming about the ‘real-life’ sources of his interest in the heist film. McQuarrie and Singer, along with their editor/composer, John Ottman, functioned as just such a goal-oriented team—best friends since boyhood who shared a dream and worked together unstintingly to produce this film. The Usual Suspects turned out to be one such Big Score. However, Mcquarrie drew direct inspiration for his team of criminal workers from his own experience working as part of a team security force at a suburban New Jersey multiplex… McQuarrie describes the process by which he names his characters as if it took precedence over every other consideration, as if it created the condition in which he was able to write. And where do the names of the suspects and the other characters come from? They are nearly all inspired by the names of his co-workers in the legal firm in which he worked when he wrote the script…. The film’s target audience of young straight males raptly identified with this mirror image of nervy, violent, profane risk-takers who don’t take no shit from nobody nohow…. McQuarrie’s awareness of how such audiences react to criminal fantasies was immeasurably deepened y his own work experience at the Amboy multiplex. He has commented on his careful study of audience responses, honed in repeated daily showings of Hollywood films. The splashy simplicity of his character portraits is probably inspired by lessons learned during this workplace education in the consumption of entertainment. McQuarrie’s tactic of streamlining extends beyond his characters’ psychologies. It also pertains to how he smoothes away ethical considerations. For instance, the suspects’ Big Score, $91 million in drug money, is defined in advance as illicit

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and tainted. This helpfully codes the ill-fated shipboard heist as justifiable. Kobayashi not only blackmails them into the assault, he describes it in advance as suicidal. Similarly, the two smaller preparatory criminal schemes the suspects undertake more enthusiastically are morally coded in advance as not-really-hurting-anybody-who-doesn’t-deserve-it. The first scam, the hijacking of New York’s Finest Taxi Service, actually performs a public service by unmasking police corruption. Verbal’s voiceover crows about the fifty-two cops who end up busted, thanks to the suspects good deed. In effect, since the usual suspects are interested only in stealing from other criminals, they redefine crime as something that bad guys only do to other bad guys. Who but a bore or a stickler would think of such acts as actual theft? The script’s ethical hedges allow the suspects to register as inoffensively or interestingly criminal, properly uncomplicated and unambiguous objects of fantasy, who, it is true, might at worst be a mite trigger-happy…. McQuarrie’s reductive excision of both psychological and moral conflicts among the suspects effectively streamlines the narrative to a series of violent confrontations with opposing teams: the cops who pick them up in the first place, the crooked cops who run New York’s Finest Taxi Service, Redfoot’s belligerent pack, the drug dealers ambushed in the parking lot, the thick-necked thugs protecting Kobayashi and finally the double team of Hungarian mobsters and Argentine sailors in the film’s climax. In cleansing the narrative, McQuarrie is able to concentrate on the same attractions that have made professional team sports the primary passional pursuit of young men in the United States. What matters in each confrontation is sticking together, fearlessly acting out one’s assigned role., and unalloyed aggression in the pursuit of winning. The usual suspects move with the precision of a SWAT team, even though there are no scenes in which they plan or coordinate their actions. The social order the film depicts abnegates the role of the individual (with the significant and conditioning exception of the evil mastermind). Instead, the script depicts a world ruled by brawling gangs out to steal each others’ treasure…. Singer has said that he was primarily interested in portraying the implications of misplaced perception. ‘Perception, the difference between what you believe and what really is, is the central theme.’ However, the film-makers almost invariably think through and visualize the perceptual deceptions necessary to mystery narrative in terms specific to male identity. For instance, early on, before Verbal’s first flashback in the San Pedro police station, Kujan hands him a lighter. Try as he might, Verbal can’t get the lighter open with his good right hand. Finally, Kujan lights his cigarette. McQuarrie adds that Singer added this compelling bit of business on set. The act subtly

feminises Verbal and physically encapsulates the apparent balance of power between the two men. In the film’s first scene, the unidentifiable Keyser Soze, using only his left hand, effortlessly light a cigarette before murdering Keaton. Those contrasted images—a physically adept and a physically inadequate man both using lighters—block us from imagining that the two men could actually be one and the same. This narrative manipulation (or deception) is underwritten by the fact that the style in which a man lights a cigarette is coded to excess as a key performance of masculinity in film. At the same time, for most audiences and many critics the unreliable narrator, played with fully imagined detail by Kevin Spacey, was key to the film’s most intense pleasure: the moment when the ‘weakest’ character is revealed to be the ‘strongest’. As he walks out of the police station, the gimp Verbal Kint, having been forced by his adversary, Dave Kujan, to tell the story of the brief rise and sudden fall of the usual suspects, becomes the mastermind personification of evil, Keyser Söze, (Verbal’s lame leg, we now realize, is the mundane equivalent to Stan’s cloven hoof, his widow’s peak Satan’s customary coiffure. Singer attributes this ‘geeky’ haircut to

Spacey’s inspiration.) Left behind—as a sketch of the evil one’s face emerges from the fax machine just a moment too late—is the audio recording of the story he’d deliberately hobbled with who knew how many lies and inventions. Technology is either too little or too late to fulfill its supposedly objective role in assessing guilt. The contrast between the two men, the criminal and the cop, had not in the end been about the truth of the story. Ira Nayman points out that ‘a

conversation between two police officers confirms’ what Verbal her told the police about the first heist. ‘This objective corroboration…validates it for the audience.’ The script cannily salts the unreliable narration with early moments of reliability. In the end, we never discover the exact truth but we do find out which of the two men controlled access to that truth. We do see who wins the power struggle. Verbals’ escape destabilizes the police control of the narrative. Out on the street, Verbal’s perverse transformation from cripple to commander embodies his creative twisting of truth and falsehood. His palsied body regains its true shape in the dark triumph of illegitimacy. Sitting in the darkened multiplex, the audience takes illicit pleasure in Verbal’s escape from the machine of the law…. The film is concerned to depict Söze’s criminality as relentlessly brutal and multinational. Singer and McQuarrie globalise the theme of invisible domination that shadows and mocks the visible domination of law. The film is replete with references, characters and plot elements from several continents. …It ends with a repetition of Verbal’s line that ‘The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he

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didn’t exist.’ The last shot is a flashback to Verbal in the police station, his fingers to his lips: ‘And poof, he’s gone.’ This final appeal returns the film to the issue of invisibility with which it began. You can take it lightly—as a magic trick. Or you could say that the film is issuing a warning about a new invisible Satan abroad in the land. The mystery surrounding Kaeyser Söze’s identity turns out to be co-extensive with the mystery of who controls the narrative: we realize that the narration has been unreliable exactly at the point when we discover who Söze is. The strategy of unreliability turns out to be linked to the mythic figure of the trickster, who gleefully uses disguise, lying and the dirtiest of tricks to get control. The

unmasked Söze has demonstrated that the varied configurations or principles of order that have been at stake throughout the movie—the law, the team, masculinity, the family, storytelling itself—have been found wanting, limiting, false or inhibiting. An interplay between a complex disjunctive soundtrack which replays the film as a tissue of lies is accompanied by the only chase scene in the film: the law fails to arrest the criminal just as our chase after narrative coherence proves to be an arresting failure. What’s left is the unapologetic, unalloyed triumph of evil, if evil is synonymous with the principle of disorder, or with the impossibility of identification.

Only three more in the Spring 2015 Buffalo Film Seminars

Apr 21 Bela Tarr, Werkmeister Harmonies, 2000 Apr 28 Sylvain Chomet, The Triplets of Belleville, 2003

May 5 Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men, 2007

CONTACTS:

...email Diane Christian: engdc@buffalo.edu …email Bruce Jackson bjackson@buffalo.edu

...for the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: http://buffalofilmseminars.com ...to subscribe to the weekly email informational notes, send an email to addto list@buffalofilmseminars.com

....for cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/ The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the Market Arcade Film & Arts Center

and State University of New York at Buffalo with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News