the Sundance Film Festival premiere of "Past Lives" was approaching, and star Greta Lee had just one question for director Celine Song: Would it be OK if we just didn't show the movie?
Ten months later, Lee thought back to that moment and laughed. "Yes, I admit that I did make that ridiculous and absurd request," she said. "I was very gently reminded that actually showing it was pretty much integral to the process of filmmaking."
Fortunately, Sundance did screen "Past Lives," a lovely and understated film in which Lee plays a playwright who left Korea at age 12 and now lives with her husband in New York City
she receives a visit from the childhood boyfriend she hasn't seen in decades.
An intimate gem that makes deft use of silences and glances, it's a film about feeling disconnected and a story in which good people try to do the right thing.
It's also delicate, which Lee said was one reason why she was so nervous about that first screening.
"I'm trying to accurately articulate what I was feeling," she said. "From my initial encounter with the script, this was something that felt sacred. It felt new, it felt challenging, yet full of dignity and grace.
"We felt like we were on a mission to do it in a way that felt true, and it was totally thrilling, but also terrifying once it was complete. You can never guarantee what kind of connection a movie might have with an audience. And I felt like it was ours to mess up."
The three actors at its center -- Lee as Nora, Teo Yoo as childhood boyfriend Hae Sung and John Magaro as Nora's American husband Arthur -- are all impeccable