About a mile from his college stomping grounds, director Josh Safdie came to Brookline and encouraged young film students to never take “no” for an answer and do everything they can to create.
The Coolidge Corner Theatre’s main moviehouse packed Friday night for an advance screening of Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” which is set to release Dec. 25. Starring Timothée Chalamet as the titular Marty Mauser, a shoe salesman in 1950s New York who will do anything to make it in the world of international table tennis, the film marks Safdie’s solo directorial debut.
Sean Hucknall and Roy Gentes, two seniors at Emerson College studying film, attended the screening at the Coolidge and said they enjoyed Safdie’s new film.
“I thought it was this really interesting take on an epic, and the way it interweaves storylines was amazingly edited,” Hucknall said.
Safdie and his brother, Benny, are Boston University alums known for critically acclaimed films including “Uncut Gems” and “Good Time.” Immediately following the screening was a Q&A between Safdie and Charles Merzbacher, his former film professor at BU.
Merzbacher said Safdie reached out to him to organize Friday’s screening and Q&A. He was the chair of BU’s Film and Television Department during Safdie’s time at the university, and he said Safdie approached him to be his adviser as he produced four films over one semester. Students typically spend a semester creating one to two films, Merzbacher said, but that didn’t stop Safdie from achieving his goal.
“He’s got this creative motor that doesn’t stop,” Merzbacher said. “His life is a creative act. I think every minute, even right now, he’s probably thinking of ideas or people he just met that could be turned into stories.”
Lauren De Geus, a junior at BU studying film and public relations who attended Friday’s screening, said she feels the Safdie brothers are a “source of pride for BU.” She added she admires Safdie’s determination to create as an undergraduate film student.
“Him being able to make four [films] and actually make it happen just shows incredible work ethic and the ability to keep going,” De Geus said.
During the Q&A, Safdie highlighted the elements of his life that made their way into “Marty Supreme.” Safdie has played table tennis since he was a kid, he said, and in 2018 his wife found a book by American table tennis champion Marty Reisman at a thrift store — which catalyzed Safdie’s 10-year journey bringing “Marty Supreme” to life.
He said he was inspired by the “misfits” of the American table tennis scene, who “believed in something that nobody believed in.”
“Their dream was a joke to people, and that hardened them, and it made them feel more urgent,” Safdie told Merzbacher. “Every day that passed that they couldn’t see that dream through was another day of embarrassment.”
Safdie said Chalamet was perfect for the role of Marty Mauser, and he wrote it for the actor. He told the story of when he first met Chalamet at a party, shortly after his film “Call Me By Your Name” came out, and unbeknownst to Safdie, Chalamet and his friend were “pretending to be on acid.”
“I saw a kid who had a very supreme vision of himself,” Safdie said. “He was ‘Timmy Supreme.’”
Students expressed admiration for Safdie’s persistence when making his student films. Many cited one story in which Safdie was at a red light and asked the driver stopped next to him if he could borrow his car for a film — to which the driver said yes.
Hucknall said this quality pervades through Safdie’s work, including in his films “The Pleasure of Being Robbed,” “Heaven Knows What” and “Good Time.”
“You get a sense of, someone could do it on the street, and it feels like I could make a film like that,” Hucknall said.
Gentes said he’s been “obsessed” with Safdie’s work since “Good Time” came out, and he has even “directly copied” Safdie’s cinematography style when making his own student films. Gentes said he and Hucknall have watched Safdie’s early shorts and student films, and they are inspired by his grit when pursuing projects.
“You have to have the determination to finish it,” Gentes said.
Merzbacher echoed Gentes’ takeaway, adding he wants film students at the screening to learn from Safdie’s persistence.
“He evinces this unstoppable confidence,” Merzbacher said. “Nothing will stop him from making things, and I think that’s very infectious … I hope that rubs off on people here.”
This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.