Sondra Locke, best known as Clint Eastwood`s estranged lover, may be losing that tag-line in favor of a reputation as a solid commercial filmmaker, thanks to her latest film, a female-centered cop picture called ”Impulse.”
”I got into directing because I needed to establish an identity apart from my work with Clint,” said Locke while in Chicago recently to promote her movie, which is playing locally. ”I did six films with him but I wasn`t getting any work apart from him.”
Yet by living with Eastwood, a prolific director, Locke was able to learn the director`s craft. ”I don`t think I learned any specific style from him. He`s more of a streamlined director, always interested in moving the story along. I prefer taking my time with the odd camera angle or detail within a scene. But I do owe Clint for giving me the chance to study the entire way in which a production is brought together-from rewriting the script to casting to editing. It was the best education anyone could get.”
Locke, still a blonde will-o-the-wisp at age 40, burst on the movie world 22 years ago with her Oscar-nominated debut performance as a young woman who befriends a deaf-mute in ”The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” But acting, she said, was not her first love. ”I never had an acting lesson. From my earliest days as an actress, I had always been drawn to learning the director`s job.” ”Impulse,” however, is not her first directing assignment. Three years ago, she directed ”Ratboy,” an off-beat drama about an exploitative woman
(played by Locke herself) who stumbles across a deformed boy and uses him to get a movie deal for herself. ”It was a little fable about what is beauty and what isn`t,” Locke said.
”Ratboy” was financed and released by Warner Bros., Eastwood`s distributor as well, but virtually no one saw it, and Locke was dismissed by many as a dilettante hanger-on. However, ”Godfather” producer Albert Ruddy didn`t think that way, and he called Locke when he came across the script of
”Impulse.”
”I like suspense films,” Locke said, ”and so I read it, thought it needed some character development, but once that was done, I agreed to direct.” ”Impulse” tells the story of a female narcotics detective (Theresa Russell) who moonlights for the vice department, masquerading as a hooker.
After one tough assignment, she unwinds at a bar and is approached by a sleazeball offering money for sex. She agrees for reasons she doesn`t completely understand and soon winds up as a murder suspect when her would-be lover is murdered by a mobster.
”Impulse” is distinguished by the amount of character development given to Russell`s character, who is portrayed as a beleagured soul, short on money and long on ex-lovers. Her mistake is seen as a reasonable reaction to emotional exhaustion.
And Locke directs the action picture with a refreshing amount of quiet, even in scenes of great tension. ”I think that most films have too much music in them; it overwhelms an audience.” Locke also was able to give her color movie a black-and-white film noir look, as if it had been made for the Warner Bros. of 50 years ago.
”Most movies are too brightly lit,” she said. ”I think that may come from a lot of directors having watched too much TV.”
As for the details of Russell`s character, Locke said, ”When it came to designing her apartment, most of the people I worked with didn`t know how to decorate a working woman`s home. Typically, they make it too splendid, something she could never afford. I wanted this to be more of a crash pad, and it was my idea to give her fish as a pet because that`s about the depth of a relationship she could handle at this point in her frazzled life.”
Locke herself became frazzled during the making of the film, she said, after Eastwood announced his breakup with her. ”It couldn`t have come at a tougher time,” she said. ”But I threw myself into my work.”
”Impulse” has opened to a moderate box-office response. ”Originally, Warner Bros. thought the film would appeal to a mostly blue-collar audience,” Locke said. ”But it`s been doing better in more upscale theaters, so they have revised their ad policy.” Based on some strong critical notices as well, Locke is now negotiating to direct another film, ”a suspense-based love story about a stripper in Las Vegas who is forced into hiding and protected by a detective.”
And her acting career? ”I`m not eager to act again,” she said. ”it`s so uninteresting compared with directing. If you love the craft of filmmaking as much as I do, it`s hard to go back to acting after you`ve tasted the high of directing.
”I love attending to all the details. I like thinking about what color tie a detective would wear. I like working on camera moves. In `Impulse,” I wanted to use a camera that creeps a lot. And I like working with actors. I think I know what they`re going through.”
”Theresa Russell was a pleasure to direct,” Locke said. ”Her husband, Nick Roeg, apparently is quite tough when he directs her, and so she said she found it easy to work with me. She was open to any suggestion. That`s the way actors typically are at the beginning of their careers. Then, oddly enough, the bigger they get, the more insecure they get as they try to hang on to their audience. But Theresa was a complete pro; she didn`t even question me in the sex scene.”
Naturally, Locke is viewed as an expert on the subject of women directors. ”Right now, the biggest problem facing a woman director is getting the chance to do a good script. When the studios find a good script, they naturally want to give it to the top rank of directors, which is a male club. Women directors need to get that kind of respect.
”Some people thought I`d fall apart during the production when the problems with Clint developed. They expect that sort of thing to exhaust a woman. It was nice to surprise people. I`ve been told that `Impulse` looks like it cost twice its $8.5 million production cost. And I`ve been told that you can`t tell my picture was directed by a woman, which I know is meant as a compliment, even though it could be viewed as insulting.
”In other words,” said Sondra Locke, ”we`ve still got a long way to go but I`m getting my chance.”
