Sunday morning musings…
What do Nathaniel West’s 1939 novel, The Day of the Locust, the Hollywood sign, searching for fame and the fountain of youth in Los Angeles, riding the New York subways, tigers, hamburgers, and the movie Amour (http://www.sonyclassics.com/amour/) have to do with one another? Well, since it’s Oscar Sunday and since I love the movies I thought I would share a personal essay I published on my writing pages about these, among other, subjects.
BTW…last night I saw Searching for Sugar Man (http://www.sonyclassics.com/searchingforsugarman/), which I hope wins Best Documentary, but I digress. Here’s to great novelists. Here’s to the movies. Here’s to you all.
GM
February 24, 2013 at 5:31 pm
I see people getting exited about the Oscars, and I would like to remind them that if I’m not mistaking, the people who put on that show are the same people who push stuff like SOPA.
February 24, 2013 at 5:33 pm
Seriously George Kozi I don’t care about the people who put on that show. I care about the directors, writers, producers, set designers, best boys, make up artists, costume designers, and all of the other artists who have the courage to write, raise the money for and pull off some truly great films. My post is not about the ceremony, it’s about the talent. Actually, this post is not about the Oscars at all. It just happens to be Oscar Sunday and, because I respect the effort and talent that go into making films, it’s a good day to share my essay.
February 24, 2013 at 5:38 pm
I apologize It wasn’t my intention to derail the thread. Please delete my previous comment.
February 24, 2013 at 5:51 pm
Searching for Sugarman: +1
February 24, 2013 at 6:01 pm
Hi Denis Labelle! You saw it! He’s a rather incredible man, don’t you think? Other worldly I think. Unaffected by fame, youth, money. Just being a good man, a good father, a musician. I was glued to the television. I wish I had seen it on the big screen. I loved the cinematography at the beginning of the movie. I wonder if he’ll attend the Oscars?!
February 24, 2013 at 6:06 pm
Must Have Album(s) Rodriguez – Cold Fact
So much talent.
February 24, 2013 at 6:09 pm
I agree Denis Labelle I agree. It does ask the question: Why one individual artist clicks at any given moment and another does not. Or they do in another part of the world. I have always thought there is very much a universal energy about art and it is country specific often. So one art movement can take off in France or Africa, or Jazz can happen in the States (and its listening base has moved to Europe!). Endlessly fascinating to me.
February 24, 2013 at 6:14 pm
Giselle Minoli : IMHO, when it comes to Sugar Man, it was “political timing” (apartheid in SA + lyrics = sucess).
Same thing happened with ABBA in Australia: refreshing, uplifting vs the society/government at that time (and the rest was history).
February 24, 2013 at 6:17 pm
The thing that amazes me is glimpsing behind the silver screen and seeing the detials that make up the creative process.
What a best boy, follie artist and grips actually do. The whole storyboard process which can only be sustained with passion and love because I don’t see how else someone (director) could repeat for the upmteenth time to a bean counter why they should finance the movie and not cut the budget to within a cent of its life.
Technique and technology is important but it is only to the end that we are fully immersed and suspended in the film experience.
The films that influence and linger long after I’ve watched them are the ones I’ve enjoyed, escaped in, related to or have shaken me to my core.
I’m all for the talents and people that bring these to the silver screen.
February 24, 2013 at 6:18 pm
I had forgotten the ABBA thing Denis Labelle. Yes, political timing. But what’s extraordinary is the age range of people in SA who still know his lyrics. Maybe it isn’t so extraordinary Denis Labelle…I went to a Bob Dylan concert at Madison Square Garden years ago. Joni Mitchell opened for him and the audience was filled with grownup flower children with their children…and they were all signing along to the lyrics (the children), like Mitchell and Dyland were of their generation not their parents. But music does that…so does art…and so does literature.
February 24, 2013 at 6:22 pm
dawn ahukanna : I like what Chris Lang said in one of his post: how important it is to learn how dialogue is (well) written and story arcs, tension and pace are created.
Giselle Minoli : et voilà.
February 24, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Denis Labelle, agreed.
February 24, 2013 at 6:35 pm
I don’t know if either of you saw it, but perhaps the movie for which I have the most respect, that blew me away in terms of it’s imagination, inventiveness, the narration (that of its little girl star, Quvenzhané Wallis, who is nominated for Best Actress!), the story and plot line, the location, the theme…was Beasts of the Southern Wild. Quite possibly I think about that movie and The Life of Pi more than any others in terms of the commitment of the entire creative team. I mean, strictly speaking, who would ever have thought that a story like Beasts of the Southern Wild would ever make it to the big screen? I am in awe.
February 24, 2013 at 6:43 pm
Saw Life of Pi in 3D and was impressed despite the hype. Usually hype is inversely proportionally related to enjoying the film.
I haven’t seen the Beasts of the Southern Wilde yet. But have to see it with all the recommendations.
February 24, 2013 at 6:52 pm
I tend not to read reviews until after I’ve seen something dawn ahukanna. I do, however, read interviews with artists of every sort before their artistic endeavor is made public, because I like to know what’s going on. That is how I found out about The Sessions. I was not pleased that John Hawkes wasn’t nominated for Best Actor because he should have have. I don’t know about the inverse proportionality of the hype. I tend not to agree with box office receipts meaning a film is good though…
February 25, 2013 at 1:26 pm
Very pleased for the filmmakers of Searching for Sugar Man, and of course for Rodriguez, who I hope gets some recognition in this country for his musicianship. Pleased also for Ang Lee, who I have respected as a filmmaker ever since I saw Eat Drink Man Woman, and then The Ice Storm. When he segued from that kind of movie making to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it was one of those revelations about talent, that it isn’t confined to a genre or to a type, that it can be expansive and surprising. We see this in painting and other art forms, but I often think that in movies, through no fault of their own, directors and actors get stuck in certain genres. It seems to me that Ang Lee can do anything. The most gracious speech (IMHO) belonged to Daniel Day Lewis…and the most surprising and beautiful moment (for me) was Barbra Streisand paying homage to Mr. Hamlisch by singing Memories.