1.Prologue
I had the chance to interview director Bart Layton when he was in Japan promoting his first feature film, American Animals. American Animals is the true-crime story of four college students in the state of Kentucky who in 2003 attempted to steal a number of rare books from the Transylvania University library, including a copy of John James Audubon's The Birds of America worth close to $12 million.
2.American Animals is a Hybrid-style Crime Drama
The biggest strength of American Animals is its hybrid nature—the way Layton masterfully blends different styles and elements. Rather than being “based on a true story", the film is presented as “a true story". It is both a crime drama as well as a documentary; the bulk of the running time is taken up by a reenactment, interspersed with interviews with the actual perpetrators of the heist. Moreover, what struck me was how the film feels like the result of American, British, and Japanese influences.
The very idea of conceiving and going through with the robbery is certainly American in its audacity. The four protagonists, who naturally have no experience planning a robbery, watch Hollywood heist movies as homework. A scale model of the facility. Disguises. A getaway car. Layton told me that he had grown up watching Hollywood movies and was always fascinated with the bold scale of such crimes undertaken in America. In American Animals, he deliberately portrays the nervous tension in the air, the bustling and bumbling nature of how the plan comes together, and the unforeseen complications that throw a wrench in the works. He depicts sensational events with subjectivity and composure.
In terms of British influence, the film makes it clear that the perpetrators come from a comfortable socio-economic background, and asks why they would be driven to crime. Social class is a common focus of British TV and films; British crime films often depict a lower-class dreamer aspiring to a higher stratum of society. By showing the societal pressures that lead four well-off college students down a dark path, Layton draws attention to the dark side of the American dream and American society.
Lastly, the real-life perpetrators interviewed in the film often present conflicting accounts of the events surrounding the robbery in a way that evokes the Akutagawa Ryunosuke short story In a Grove. Truth blends with fiction, and the viewer is left unsure as to what actually happened. American Animals is not a cookie-cutter Hollywood tale of good and evil, but a tale that makes it a point to embrace the grayness intrinsic to human events and human memory. After the interview, I was left with the impression that the ambiguous nature of the storytelling in the film is part of the reason why Layton chose to come to Japan to promote the film. Japanese audiences live for that ambiguous gray area.
Taken together, American Animals can be characterized as a film that uses Japanese storytelling devices to tell an American crime story from a British vantage point.
3.Bart Layton Profile and Selected Filmography
Bart Layton (born 1975) is a British filmmaker. He was born to a theater director and sculptor, and aspired from a young age to become a filmmaker or painter. After graduating from university, he started working at a television production company. He made his directorial debut with the 2012 documentary The Imposter, and is making his feature directorial debut with American Animals.
The Imposter (2012)
This documentary film is about the 1997 case of French confidence trickster Frédéric Bourdin, who impersonated a teenage American boy who had gone missing several years earlier and manages to win the acceptance of many of the boy’s actual family members. Layton won a BAFTA at the British Academy Film Awards for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer.
American Animals
Layton’s first feature film is the true-crime retelling of a 2003 robbery that took place in the state of Kentucky. Four college students searching for meaning in their lives decide to steal a series of valuable books from a university library, including John James Audubon’s The Birds of America. The real-life perpetrators of the crime appear in the film, making it a hybrid documentary and crime drama.
4.My Wardrobe for the Interview
Charcoal gray double-breasted suit by GlobalStyle
White striped contrast collar shirt by Azabu Tailor
This is a white shirt with stripes about 2 mm wide, with semi-wide collar, French cuffs, and no front placket (no fold back down the center, along the buttons).
I ordered it expecting to pair it with a necktie—my standard interview attire—but I’d forgotten one important detail. Because most of the shirts I’d had made to measure were ordered with a no-tie look in mind (in other words, with the top button undone), I’d always requested them to be a little tight around the neck. As this shirt was made using those no-tie measurements, when the shirt was delivered I found that it was a struggle to button it all the way up—and when I succeeded it was noticeably tight. Ooph.
I’d gotten so used to the made-to-measure shirt ordering process that I started overlooking the details. I suppose the lesson is that whether it is for ordering a shirt or for work, it’s important to face a task with a certain amount of healthy tension.
Dotted necktie from Ralph Lauren Purple Label
Carbon gray cocks by Tabio
5.Epilogue: What Filmmaking is About
In my interview I asked Layton if he had any favorite English phrases. He responded that he found himself using the phrase “skin in the game" a lot in his interviews for American Animals. To have “skin in the game" means to have a personal stake (such as financial or emotional) in an outcome.
For example, the aimless college students in American Animals begin to find excitement and purpose as they make various preparations for a heist that they may or may not end up going through with. They are aware that committing a crime is tantamount to crossing a line that cannot be uncrossed, but by the time they actually find themselves in front of that line, they have “skin in the game"—in other words, they are in too deep, too emotionally invested. They find themselves compelled to go through with it.
Likewise, Layton himself has dedicated years of his life making American Animals. More than anyone, he has “skin in the game". As he explained to me in our interview, the idea for the film and the script came about after he began an extended correspondence with the real-life perpetrators of the robbery. In a manner of speaking, at some point along the line he reached a point of no return, where he was compelled to bring the film to fruition.
His decision to come to Japan to promote the film is also because he has “skin in the game". As director, he is personally invested in the film’s success, not just for him or the studio, but for the cast and crew as well.
Layton opined that the idiom may have its origins in gambling—in other words, literally putting your skin, or your life, on the line. Wikipedia puts forth the theory that billionaire investor Warren Buffet used the phrase to refer to his own investment in his initial fund.
I’ve often heard this idiom in the context of sports and sports betting. Sports fans are a passionate bunch anywhere in the world, but many Americans sports fans live and die with their teams, experiencing every win and loss on a personal level. It also speaks to the fact that Americans love to gamble. They are drawn to the idea that no matter how mundane your life may be, no matter the hardships and misfortune you’ve experienced, there is always a chance you could one day hit the jackpot. If that doesn’t sum up the American frontier spirit that drove people west, I don’t know what does. Meanwhile, the British love to bet on sports as well, and have a long history of doing so. In Japan, horse racing and pachinko are diversions of the working class, but in the U.K., horse racing and casinos have traditionally been leisure activities for the wealthy.
Right after American Animals premiered in the U.S., news outlets reported that Layton had been in talks to helm the new James Bond film. It was reported that Layton politely refused, saying that he didn’t think he was “ready for the pressure" and that he wanted to “come in at the beginning". Filmmaking is, of course, a massive gamble. I can’t begin to fathom the pressures involved, especially with a property as big as the James Bond franchise. But if American Animals is any indication, Layton has a talent and skill set suited not only for documentaries, but for crime thrillers as well. There may come a day when he has skin in the 007 game. Of course, what may come is “in a grove", so to speak.
