Of Levy's projects this year, there can be
little doubt that A Mighty Wind will be the one that will be nearest and
dearest to his heart. His third collaboration with Christopher Guest
(their last two projects, Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, both
enjoyed critical success), A Mighty Wind is a "mockumentary"
which follows three folk groups as they reteam to perform a memorial
concert following the death of their one-time manager. Levy both
co-wrote and acted in the production and in it, he reunites with
long-time castmates Guest, Catherine O'Hara and Michael McKean, among
others. Surely, there can be nothing as satisfying as a production that
you can truly call your own.
The backstage world of folk music that forms the backdrop for A Mighty
Wind was an area that inspired both Levy and Guest. "We both have a
great deal of affection for the subject-matter" says Levy, "we
both did a little folk singing back in the 60's, we were pretty familiar
with the subject." In comparing this project with his last two
collaborations with Guest, Levy does note that there are similarities,
"We like to go for a subject...where it's really people who take
themselves maybe a tad too seriously in whatever it is, whether it's
folk singers or dog show owners or community theatre players. That seems
to be an area that's ripe for comedy."
Although there are similarities, Levy also notes that there are
differences between A Mighty Wind and his last two collaborations with
Guest. "It may have kind of a softer, more sentimental edge. I know
we venture into an area in this film that we didn't go to in the other
movies certainly with the storyline with me and Catherine...."
Moments later, however, when a leap is made suggesting that Levy could
be considered to be a "romantic lead" in this movie, he just
laughs.
Levy admits that, over time, it has become slightly easier for he and
Guest to develop their collaborative projects. As he notes, "It
kind of gets easier by the third one. You know you've got a cast here
and you just look for, 'What are we going to write for Fred', 'What are
we going to write for Michael Higgins', 'What would seem like a good
vehicle for this guy'. Chris and Michael McKean and Harry Shearer have
been doing the Folksmen for many years and, so, in this movie Chris
knew...his group was the Folksmen, they're doing the Folksmen - they've
got the group, they've got a lot of the songs already done and that's
their group. When we were coming up with the Mitch and Mickey
characters, I knew kind of early on that it was probably going to be
Catherine that was going to be Mickey...I knew definitely it had to be
Catherine, because I don't think that anybody else could really pull it
off."
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