“I met Val while editing a Harmony Korine comedy short [‘The lotus community workshop’]”, explains Leo Scott, co-director of ‘Val’, the documentary about Val Kilmer that Filmin opens (also in theaters) on Friday, the 20th. “I remember I sent him an email to tell him how much I liked his work on that little movie. And he answered me in thirty seconds,” he says.
What started as a brief virtual dialogue ended in a close relationship: Scott collaborated with Kilmer documenting the preparation of the Mark Twain play that it had been the actor’s dream for a long time; he also helped with the film version of it, Cinema Twain, digitizing material from an audiovisual autobiographical archive with something of the impossible Holy Grail.
Kubrick Auditions
Kilmer had been recording his life since he was a child. and, at the same time, he had not bothered much until then to go over what was recorded. He kept in boxes until 800 hours of material in the most diverse formats, from 16mm to VHS and current digital: home movies, video diary pages, carefully recorded video auditions for Kubrick and Scorsese, etc. With his career semitruncated by the throat cancer Diagnosed in 2014 (since her radiation and chemotherapy, Val speaks through a tracheostomy tube), she now had more time to look back.
iconic character
Ting Poo, co-director of Val, was the one who pushed Scott to propose that trip to the interpreter. “It was essential to do something with the material. It’s very rare that someone so iconic has been filming their whole life,” she stresses. In the style of ‘Listen to me Marlon’, the documentary that told the story of Brando through private audios of the myth, ‘Val’ is the story of Val Kilmer told by himself.
“Brando’s documentary was beautiful. Most of all, because it was his voice that carried you through the film. He was a big influence because from the beginning we knew that Val – or Val’s voice – would be at the helm,” says Poo. . His voice, or rather, his words, actually recited by Jack Kilmer, the actor’s son (actor). “It was our only option in this regard. We did not have a plan B,” says the co-director.
“It’s very rare that someone so iconic has been filming their whole life,” says Poo, co-director of ‘Val’
Thanks to the documentary, you can get to know the most unknown Kilmer first-hand: the one who recorded ‘remakes’ of classic titles with his brothers and already made an effort as a teenager to be the best possible theater actor.
This stage of his life is marked by the loss: His little brother Wesley, an aspiring director, died at the age of 15 after suffering an epileptic seizure in a hot tub. “I didn’t know much about all this. And it’s something that, as a viewer, you connect with right away. We all have complicated family histories. I was also unaware of his great interest in theater from a very young age: he was a real nerd!” explains Poo .
At the 17, Kilmer became the youngest person to be accepted into the theater division of the prestigious Juilliard School.. “He’s a full-fledged Shakespearean actor. I had heard stories about Kilmer’s obsession with Hamlet and taking the book to parties and all that. I thought they were legends, but this movie proves it to be true,” says Scott, the other co-director of ‘Val’.
Later, Hollywood knocked on his door, first for the rave ‘Top secret!’, soon after for one of his most popular roles: the warmongering perfectionist Iceman from ‘Top gun’, for whose sequel he returns in a brief but apparently emotional contribution. Jim Morrison from ‘The Doors’ would also arrive and, of course, the Batman from ‘Batman forever’, a role that he only wanted to do once after his paralyzing experience with the batman suit. He opted for the 1997 film version of ‘El Santo’, the planned beginning of a franchise that he never was.
Another of his biggest disappointments was ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’, legendarily troubled filming project; in Val we see (or, more importantly, hear) him take on replacement director John Frankenheimer. ‘There were like ten hours of footage from this impossible shoot,” reveals Scott. ‘It’s all very surreal. About a hundred extras walking around trying to figure out what exactly they’re shooting. You can feel the tension,” adds Poo.
No rivalry with Cruise
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For the most personal part, ‘Val’ is also a reflection of his happy marriage to British actress Joanne Whalley., with whom he established a relationship on the set of ‘Willow’. They had two children: Mercedes, who lives next door to her father, door to door, and the aforementioned Jack. Even in the hypothetically more tense or difficult moments, the film exudes love, empathy, the desire to make peace with life and the world.
Although it opens with footage of the badass cast of ‘Top Gun’ making fun of Tom Cruise, Kilmer makes it clear that he hits it off with his former co-star. “It was important for him to clarify that. He thinks of him as a friend,” Poo ditches.