Who loves being complained to by a movie character for an hour and a half? Apparently me. Woody Allen's Whatever Works (2009) is far from what is considered to be a part of his classics, while still somehow being the most enjoyable for me of the four films of his I've seen. Please wait until after you read this blog post to shoot me.
There is something ironically enlightening about experiencing the cynical world views of Boris (Larry David), and this is partly due to David's delivery of his monologues. I was not previously familiar with his acting, but I was amused on many occasions by his shameless undertones and physical expression to go with it. One of my favorite rants involved Boris' views on sending kids away to summer camp, concluding that they should be sent to a concentration camp for two weeks "so they would finally understand what the human race is capable of."
Boris is hopelessly determined on the hopelessness of the human race. He's loud, pathetic, and offensive-- yet charming. I feel like every extremist human being should have someone like Boris in their life. Who knows what the outcome will be? Even a couple of wacky religious nuts can make a complete *spoiler alert* 180 turn to being an openly gay man, and a woman living in a "menajahtwa."
Whatever works, right? Even if many of Boris' views and inspirations go against your own personal morals (with me many certainly do), you still can't help but love the comical truth in much of it.
It's fun to look back in time on the movies of our lives. It's almost a year ago that I began the following draft (in which I never published--until now), related to my recently completed short film First Snow (then called Last Snow).
Reading what was written back then about this script I first began work on in November of 2011, it's funny how Mary does end up facing more than I said she would. Accept the January 2012 blog post and the final film as two separate entities. First Snow was in a very early stage at that time, and Mary does indeed end up facing a bit more than trying to get past a guy and girl sucking face.
Also thinking back on the death of skier Sarah Burke (and about risk-taking in general), I realize what a big theme this is for me personally.
Sometimes the risks we take involve defeating the fear of revealing something personal to a world of people who would be in opposition to it. In one form or another we may face danger, and put our lives (or life as we know it) on the line. Sometimes we do it for our own lifestyle, or a dream, or for someone we love.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
While spending hours to myself in a coat room of my school's performing arts center, some time was spent thinking about this blog post.
Even before that, while watching the makings of the first snow of the year, I thought about the script to the short film I began writing last fall. It's called Last Snow and is about a girl who waits until the last moment possible to take a big personal risk. The risk involves protagonist Mary telling her friend Neve that she likes him regardless of what the outcome will be.
Most people with at least a small daredevil in their spirit would say this is a good decision so long as it's harmless. Well, at least no physical danger is involved; but what about emotional baggage? Could this type of thing lead to some kind of verbal ridicule that would make the accomplishment hardly worth it? Without giving too much away, Mary is not up against this type of battle at all, at least not with anyone else but herself; but what if she was? Would that be less or more risky than physical danger?
It kind of brings me back to my last post, about tragedy in movies vs. the news. Yesterday my dad insisted on driving me to work because he was worried about me driving on my own in the sort-of icy roads from the 2-inch snowfall yesterday morning. If I had gone and drove on my own anyway and gotten into an accident that caused me physical harm, would the idea alone that I chose to drive to work be my fault? I would have been doing something I had to do, with an ordinary intention after all.
The day before yesterday, something I heard from the TV news took me aback. They were talking about Canadian skier Sarah Burke and the recent accident that lead to her untimely death. In that little portion of the news that leads you into the commercial and lets you know what's coming up next, the newscaster questioned if Sarah had been "too brave" and "too bold." It disturbed me in a way to think that some might think it's possible to be to be "too" brave especially. Maybe it's too much to those who know the person, when it leads to a tragic loss such as this. Still, she was doing what she loved and wanted to do after all and who's to question what is going too far? Is it her fault? Is it anyone's fault?
Being missing in action is no fun. It's even worse when returning proves to be nothing special. The latter is for you to decide, but I can say I've had an excitingly laborious semester. I loved every second of it.
The untold story of my own personally cinematic semester has yet to be shared, however; a product of some of its dedication can be seen in my short film First Snow, also the winner of my college's fall film festival.
If you recall Taxi Driver (1976), a reflection of the Travis character (Robert DeNiro) involved him somewhat aspiring to finally get organized, or as he put it; "organiz-ized...one of these days".
I've been thinking about my own struggle to develop posts for this blog, screen-write, and perform other tasks that would improve my film work when I go back to school in the fall. I've realized that a lot of it has to do with the condition my room and "work environment" is in.
And so I've begun a new journey, to help mend this one. Call me impressive or pathetic; either way I've left an impact! Be sure to join. Photos and video diaries will follow. http://organiz-ized.blogspot.com/
Also, if you haven't already, be sure to watch and leave feedback for my latest completed student film Picture of Me featured below!
After months of hard work, my short film is complete for the past 2 weeks. A shortened version that was featured at my college's film festival can be viewed at the link below.
With an artist like me, it was bound to get to the point where I had to let go. Creating a work such as a short film often involves me needing to distance myself at the right time. And here is my distant friend. I know I will visit it often and look upon what was accomplished, and more importantly what was learned as a stepping stone for my future filmmaking.
Look out for some of my cinematic reactions throughout the rest of the month. Today I watched both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable's final performance in The Misfits (1961), and watching the talk of the town, The Avengers, is on my agenda for tomorrow!
It's sad how many weeks it's been since I've abandoned a post I started that was a thematic argument similar to my previous one. I'll probably have to abandon it for some more time now, then revive it with a new twist! On top of that, I long ago began a Taxi Driver/Hugo "look" at some of director Martin Scorsese's work. Ah, bear with me. On my list of "to-do's" is also to finally WATCH the new The Amazing Spider-Man trailer, then state my thoughts (not predictable at all). The suspense is killing me.
I'm enjoying my spring semester at college. It's both exciting and frightening at the same time to embrace just what I'm expecting from myself with my upcoming short film called Picture of Me. It's what I'd like to call a half screwball, half dark comedy that will be finished by May. Being a production student, I don't know what I'd do without turning to my favorites for both inspiration and calamity.
Sydney Pollack's 1982 masterpiece, Tootsie, definitely inspired the tone of Picture of Me. No, mine is not a cross-dressing or hidden identity story per se, but it is to be as absolutely wacky and crooked as the story will allow.
I'm not going to ruin Tootsie for anyone, but seriously, if it meets the criteria for a movie you'd typically like, what are you waiting for?!
Instead, after watching it for the umpteenth time last week, I have to mention how much the little things really add so much to this film.
One thing is the placement of items in the set dressing. For example, in almost all the scenes in Julie's apartment (Jessica Lange) there are things lying around in the background that say a lot about an otherwise not thoroughly-explained character. In one shot, I noticed a black & white photo on the wall which appears to be a picture of her father's country home which we see when it's visited much later in the film. I love that; it adds so much to character study.
Another scene is in Michael/Dorothy's (Dustin Hoffman) apartment where a bra is randomly lying over the headboard of the bed. In the context of the scene I found it hilarious to spot out. It's one of those things that has no point to the action of the scene necessarily, but at the same time adds so much to what is going on in the character's lives. In this case, Dorothy is going through a crisis of sorts with this new self-discovery and that bra just lying around in a way introduces a new sense of comfort.
Marry this movie. And let's see if I can post at least once per week.
I got stuck asking myself today why I dismiss the news when something disastrous happens. Now, by disastrous I don't necessarily mean a major world event such as 9/11 or last year's earthquake in Japan. I mean events more like the freak accidents that happen for a reason other than intent or natural disaster. I mean the ones that happen and when seen on the news, people think they can avoid that event from happening to them by that very knowledge. Scary enough, some people think they can stop horrible things from happening through avoidance of that specific cause.
I knew I'd hear more about the recent ship disaster that occurred in Italy because of my dad's obsession with watching the news and reporting to me and my mom how "things happen" and that "things" aren't safe. I guarantee that while watching this report it came to my dad's mind that he wouldn't get aboard a boat or let me or my mom do so, or at least not without a speech. The last time I got on a plane my dad basically drilled into my head that I might die. That was a lovely thought for an otherwise fearless flyer to adopt.
The scary truth is, though, that my dad is right. I might die. It's those very reports that I hate watching, reading, or even remotely hearing about that prove that anything can happen at any given time. The point my dad is missing is that most of them are beyond personal control. Nobody got aboard that ship in Italy thinking they were going to face what they ended up facing. The ones who died probably never imagined they'd reached their last day. It's not that I don't like seeing the truth, although I did debate this idea for a while. It's that I know my human nature is going to hear about these unfortunate events and think for a second that I can stop them from happening to me. That's silly and selfish, and removes the over all truth from perspective. It becomes less about the victims, and more about us. I don't know about everyone else, but I already have enough things in my life that make me fight for "survival." I don't think I need to watch the news for that.
I don't for a moment want to forget that people suffer all around me every day. I just don't like the way it's presented to me most of the time. Maybe I haven't explored enough sources, but I know that my personal way of responding to the world is through art. I hear about the bad things going on in real life, but it never sounds like anything "new." It sounds like repetition. It sounds like noise. I enjoy cinema because bad movie or good movie, most of the time they get it. They understand that we can't live every day thinking we have complete control over our fate. After all, the whole story and outcome have already been planned, shot, and finalized.
In many ways, artists have many of the secrets because they explore the world and look at it beyond the exterior layer of events while too many people are fooled by it.
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