Chicagoan Robert Zemeckis helms his first World War II drama

LOS ANGELES — While Robert Zemeckis has been known to long covet the chance to direct a film about World War II, the Oscar-winning filmmaker and Chicago South Side native stressed that making “Allied” was more about a different subject, on that had little to do with that global conflict.

“Very simply, the thing I loved about the story was the love story at the core of it,” Zemeckis said. “It was a romantic thriller, it’s the characters that were really interesting for me. I immediately was captured by them. I thought the writing by Steven Wright was great. The fact the story was set in World War II raised the stakes quite a bit in the way things get complicated in this movie. … It was a very dramatic time. I grew up watching World War II movies and World War II television shows. I think there was something about the scale of that conflict that is unbelievably dramatic and intriguing.”

“Yes, it was fun to dabble in this World War II movie — but the most important thing for me was the characters.”

Set in 1942, Brad Pitt plays a Canadian intelligence officer who secretly is airlifted into Morocco, to team up with a female French Resistance fighter (Marion Cotillard) to assassinate the Nazi ambassador in Casablanca. In the process, the couple — who pretend to be a married couple — actually fall in love and marry, when they are reunited in London. It is at that point the film takes a big turn — when the Pitt character is told his wife is a double-agent, working for the Germans. Discovering whether that is true is the essence of the film’s climactic ending.

Zemeckis noted that one of the movie’s big themes is the entire idea of trust — who you can trust, and why. He also explained why he always has been so fascinated with World War II, which ended some seven years before he was born.

“It was a very dramatic time. I grew up watching World War II movies and World War II television shows. I think there was something about the scale of that conflict that is unbelievably dramatic and intriguing.”

As for Pitt’s performance, Zemeckis expressed great admiration. “I was really excited about how he tackled this role. He does these amazing stretches as an actor and does things I’ve never seen him do before in a film. He delivers so emotionally.” In the movie, Pitt has to speak French, when led Zemeckis say with a laugh, “I think the hardest language to do in a movie is French, because even the French can’t agree on what sounds correct. But Brad really worked hard on it. His French is very plausible and well done in the film.”

“What made it doubly difficult for Brad was the fact he initially speaks French with a French-Canadian accent, but he is supposed to be playing a Parisian, and has to fool all these French people in Casablanca,” said Cotillard. “Brad worked so hard on that, but he got it done. I was so impressed with his diligence and dedication to getting it right,” said the Academy Award-winning actress.

Cotillard explained that she signed-on to star in “Allied” because when she read the script, “it made me want to see the movie when it was done. That’s always a big factor in my doing a project. If I want to see it, I figure a lot of other people will want to see it too. Yes, this is a very entertaining, exciting movie, but at the same time it’s a very deep, profound love story.”

Ad added plus for the actress was the fact she and Pitt play two individuals who have never met, but immediately have to pretend they are a happily married couple, to maintain their cover as spies.

“I could relate to that, because as actors — especially working in movies — you have to do that kind of thing professionally. That was something very relatable to me.”