  Legendary Hollywood director and Canadian icon, Norman Jewison — seen here photographed at his Toronto office last week — turns 80 in July and has been creating a body of work in film and television for more than 56 years. (David Lucas, SUN)
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Still vigorous, still keen on the marvels of filmmaking, director Norman Jewison refuses to retire. But the acclaimed Hollywood veteran turns 80 in July. It is a time for reflection, for looking back over an exceptional body of work mined in a TV and film career spanning 56 years.
DVD is transforming that process into a stimulating experience for Jewison and for fans of his films.
“I think DVDs are the library,” Jewison tells the Toronto Sun. “They have become the place where films end up. And now, with digital, you can have almost a perfect projection of the film, which is pretty exciting.
“It’s in the proper format (if people buy widescreen films in widescreen editions). And that’s also exciting, even though it’s going to be shown on a smaller screen.”
The spark for this interview is Moonstruck, Jewison’s much-loved 1987 romantic comedy starring Cher, who was then at the peak of her screen game, and Nicolas Cage, when he was still the most eccentric actor around. Moonstruck arrives today in a new Deluxe Edition, loaded with extras.
We’re sitting in Jewison’s business office and pied-a-terre, two floors of a small brick building in the heart of downtown Toronto. Jewison made his career primarily in Los Angeles, where he still has a Malibu beach house. But he was born and raised in Toronto’s Beach community and returned to the region years ago, splitting his time between a gorgeous Caledon farm and his downtown digs.
Jewison always hoped that films had longevity. “The one aspect of filmmaking that always excited me from the very beginning was that films are forever. Like books, like music, they’re there forever, recorded somewhere, and they probably will endure.”
The challenge is, he says, endure in what format, in what condition? “They’re starting to treat some older films with a little respect,” Jewison says of the studios, who own most of the films he directed in Hollywood between 40 Pounds Of Trouble (1962) and his most recent big-screen, indie effort, The Statement (2003).
Not that he is delusional about why Hollywood is showing respect for Moonstruck, as one example. “They took great care with it simply because it was a popular film and their motivation is money. It always has been.
“On the other hand, it is very satisfying to the filmmaker to see one of my films preserved in the best format possible. And that DVD probably has a fairly long shelf life. It pleases me because, if they don’t make a wonderful DVD of your work, then that work will disappear somewhere in a million electrons or in a faded print.”
If DVDs marketing is the incentive, the awareness is also extraordinary for certain films, Jewison says. Twice recently he experienced unusual reactions to his work. One involved a Washington showing of his seminal race relations drama, In The Heat Of The Night (1967), the other an L.A. screening of his political satire The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966).
In both cases, Jewison fretted that the theatres would be empty and nobody would be interested in these old films. Wrong! Each was packed and the places jumped with energy. Jewison describes the L.A. experience with The Russians Are Coming:
“I’m nervous going into the theatre because I think there is going to be 100 people and we’re going to talk about a film that’s so old and everybody’s going to be old. I walk in and the theatre is packed. And I’m telling you I had never seen the film play like that. The film played better than it did when it was released. I mean, the laughs, the standing ovation! And I realized that, because of the Iraq War, because of the fear and the paranoia of Communism that the film tapped into, it works now because, again, America is paranoiac. The audience ate it up. I was amazed.”
But he also realized that the reaction to both In The Heat Of The Night and to The Russians Are Coming was generated by the digital age. “I’m telling you, it’s the DVDs!”
That makes it even more imperative that the extras enhance the experience of the films and set them in context, especially when social issues, or political satire, are involved, he says.
“I didn’t realize all these extras meant so much, until you start talking to people. It’s amazing. I get all kinds of letters from people who never saw the films when they first were out. And now they’re seeing them on DVD.”
Unlike some directors, Jewison enjoys sharing his films through his commentaries. “I was very nervous about it at first and I found it very awkward to sit and talk about my work. And they want you to keep talking to fill in all the spaces and you’re sitting there saying, ‘This is ridiculous!’
“But then, after I had done one or two, I started to enjoy it because I found, if I did no preparation, when I looked at the film I was back in the moment of making it. Then the wonder of the filmmaking overwhelms me.”
