Jeff Gross Discusses Upcoming Movie on Astypalea Island, GR

We have seen his work visually transferred in cinema from the magnificent view of Roman Polanski. Jeff Gross appart from being a very good screenwriter and having a great personality, is going to direct the feature film “Island Time” in Greece. The script that he wrote takes place on the island of Astypalea where he spent 14 months in the early 80’s. Jeff, born and raised in the U.S. but living the past years in France, talked to us about the reasons why he loves Greece and why he thinks that the movie will shine light on the economic crisis. Also he talked to us about his important experience working with Roman Polanski.

Tell us a few words about your new script. What is the story?

“Island Time” is set in 1980, and is the story of Josef, a young American man who was left at the altar by the woman he was supposed to marry. He goes on their honeymoon alone, to Astypalea, hoping that she will come to her senses and join him. Heavy-hearted, he lands on Astypalea, and is immediately adopted by the people, many of whom loved nothing better than a good practical joke, there was constant laughter. 1980 was a time when Astypalea was still not quite part of the world economy, there were 1000 inhabitants, and when the ferry came once a week everyone came down to the port, it was the only entertainment. It was another time, there were only a few cars, and few old motorbikes on the island, and sometimes the seas were so high that the ferry didn’t even come for five weeks in a row, until there were no cigarettes left, and in the kafeneion, the men were ready to kill each other. Josef ends up spending nine months on the island, figuring out why his lover left him, recovering from heartbreak and learning to dance again, with the help of the lovely Dimitra, a fisherman’s daughter, and an archaeologist.

Are there any information available at this time, regarding who’s going to be the producer, the director and what actors will star in the film?

I am going to direct the film. The producer is Dimitris Anagnostou, and as for the actors, we don’t have any confirmation yet, so it is too early to reveal any names. We do however have a talented and strong Greek team in place already, with art director Giorgos Giorgiou, casting director Nikos Vasilakis,  assistant director Dimitris Apostolou, and music design by DNA. A foreign production with a Greek team. We are still looking for a bit of financing and there is a chance also of film tax credit we are exploring. So we expect to come up with the last bit of money from private investors.

The story of your script takes place in Astypalea. How did you decide your story to take place in this island?

I lived on Astypalea for 14 months from 1980-1982, mostly from September to June, off-season, when the rent on my house was cheap enough for me to afford. It was an amazing time, totally fascinating for me. I loved the nature, the feel of the island, the differences in the sea, the wind, the sky, the stars, the vegetation, the drama when the ferry came. I have never felt such a sense of being on the earth as I felt back then. As a tourist, a foreigner, you have a strange, incomplete view of the island, different levels of naiveté, which are revealed to you as time goes by, as your Greek gets better. And in the end, you know that you will NEVER really know the island, that there are too many secrets, too many hidden stories. There are five families on the island, and you learn that you are neighbors with the family that the four others don’t like, so some people start not liking you. Except that you went out fishing with Pandelis the fisherman, and he had the biggest barbounia catch of his life, so he thinks you are good luck, and your best friend is Yerasimos the deaf-mute, the strongest guy on the island, (and the one who taught you to speak Greek), so no one messes with you.

What are the things you like mostly about Greece?

I have been in Greece a number of times, but each time I go back, I tend to head to Astypalea as soon as possible. I still have many friends there, I used to play with the children, teach them to play basketball, or just joke around with them, and now they are all the people in power, they own tavernas, bars, they run the island. When I go to the island with my children, everywhere we go, someone buys them an ice cream. It’s very hard for me to even pay for a meal. In 1980, the tourists who came to the island were mainly interested in getting drunk as much as possible, and I was not that way. I liked to joke, to make people laugh, I was very determined not to be an ugly American, and I guess that generosity was appreciated. In this modern world, it is rare for us to have a sense of our impact, rare for us to see the traces of our passage. But that is what I have in Astypalea.

What is your opinion about the economic crisis that Greece is going through and what are the things you mostly hear about the Greek situation in France?

I’m obviously sad about the economic crisis in Greece. I’m not a big reader of newspapers, I like to make my own conclusions based on empirical observation, that’s already hard enough as a means to come to the truth, to avoid illusion. (This is one of the themes of the film.) So French opinion about the crisis? French people are always grumbling and unhappy, they say that the Greeks will have to stop being so corrupt, to get their house in order. They also say that France is in trouble potentially too, that this is a warning. As for myself, I just hope that our film can contribute in some way to helping the situation, that it is an ecstatic enough experience so that people will want to come to Greece.

How was the experience working with Roman Polanski in the screenwriting team for Frantic and Bitter Moon? Could you tell us a few things about how he is as a person?

Working with Roman Polanski was fantastic. He’s a strange man, but VERY bright, and we had many moments of pure creation which were just amazing. Most people in the film industry have huge egos, and they think they are creative when they are not. With Polanski, it was never about whose joke got into the script, it was always a question of pushing ourselves to make the very best story, and it didn’t matter whose idea ended up in the script, as long as we could both agree that it was the best idea. I’d make a joke, he’d make it better, I’d make it even better, and he would make it better again, and we would know we found the one which would be in the movie. It was always a very exciting collaboration. He was a perfectionist, and I was a perfectionist, we had perfectly open dialogue. What could be better?

What is your opinion regarding Polanski’s recent arrest and the criticizing he has gone through because of the sexual abuse case that is still going on for many years?

Clearly Polanski made a mistake back then. But the arrest in Switzerland smells very bad to me, an absurd  political maneuver by an ambitious District Attorney. His victim doesn’t want to press charges, so who does it benefit? Polanski is a very private man in many ways, so even though I’ve written three scripts with him, which is a very intimate experience, I can’t say that I know him well enough to judge. But I believe that if there were an absolute scale of justice, a judgment from heaven, Polanski would be judged overwhelmingly favorably. The amount of good he has done on earth, his generosity of spirit, the countless numbers of people he has helped, (and I’m not even talking about his films) these would weigh heavily on the side of good. This man has suffered enough in his life for ten people, this situation is totally scandalous.

How did you decide to become a screenwriter?

When I was young I tried to be a football player (podospheristis), but it was only to give myself time and experience to become a novelist. I liked Henry Miller, and one of the reasons I went to Astypalea was Miller’s book, “The Colossus of Maroussi.” But since I was from Los Angeles, I had also written a few screenplays with friends, nothing brilliant in retrospect, but I was at least familiar with the form. So when Polanski called me, out of the blue, to help on “Frantic” I was ready to go. I had been living in Paris for four years by then, and was very literally a starving artist. It was the first well-paying job I had ever gotten, and I was actually eating lunch every day. It was heaven.

What are the things that inspire you when you are writing a script?

Writing a script, for me, is a process of finding something true. Of discovering something that people know, but have never managed to articulate for themselves. A film is an emotional journey, with an ending which takes people into a state in the end which opens their eyes, or transforms their lives. Whether it is comedy, or tragedy, that is what I try to make happen. My inspiration comes often from real life, bits of dialogue I hear in passing, characters I observe, stories that capture the beauty and horror of the human experience, that bring us somehow to ecstasy again.

What are the things you like doing when you don’t write?

Writing is a full-time job. I am writing 24 hours a day. Often I walk around with a voice recorder so as not to miss a single idea, a single bit of dialogue. This said, I still do a lot of sport, I play tennis five times a week, physical activity as a means of balancing the mental activity. I love to sit in cafes and watch the world go by, with a notebook in front of me, and I also watch films. As a football player, I also am crazy about football. I watch most of the matches. And since I lived in Brazil as a child, I root for Brazil!

Tell us about your future projects.

I have many other projects, both as a writer and as a director. Projects set in Paris, in Moscow, in Africa. Hopefully “Island Time” will be shooting soon in Greece.