April 19, 2024
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Susu on: The Letters From Iwo Jima review
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20 Weeks To Oscar: Rush To Poor Judgment?
20 Weeks Extra: Could There Be One More Turn?
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
So, I have a question. When was the last time we had an Oscar Best Picture nominee that was not nominated by ANY of the four major guilds: PGA, SAG, DGA, and WGA?
That’s the battle that Letters of Iwo Jima is fighting right now. Which, I suppose, would make it all the sweeter if it managed to land a Picture or Director spot at the Oscars. But things are looking more and more unlikely for it, alas. Ditto United 93, but at least that got a WGA nod.
The Tom Stern omission is clear: his name doesn’t sound artsy enough. Look at these:
Guillermo Navarro
Caleb Deschanel
Vilmos Zsigmond
Rodrigo Prieto
Emmanuel Lubezki
Michael Ballhouse
Phillipe Rousselot
Phedon Papamichel
How could you NOT want to vote for these instead? By comparison, Tom Stern sounds like the guy that carries the light off the truck. Robert Richardson barely survives due to alliteration and the nice way it rolls off the tongue. The days of John Toll and John Seale are over.
and I know it’s “Ballhaus” can’t imagine how that happened.
What defines “adapted” for the WGA?
I gather BORAT is adapted because the character previously appeared on television.
Couldn’t THE QUEEN and UNITED 93 be considered adapted from headlines?
Anyway, my money’s on SUNSHINE and PRADA.
I never much cared for the look of Flags of our fathers, and while letters from iwo jima was interesting I’d have preferred a pure black and white. In either case, I think the excessive DI use in both films was looked down upon by the guild, in a sort of ‘how can you tell how good it is when its been changed so radically’ sort of rationalization. On the other hand the Million Dollar Baby snubbing is hard to understand–maybe it is that his name isn’t European enough.
I wish that ‘Peter Andrews’ were given a legitimate shot, Good German was the best shot film of the year, even if the movie wasn’t much of anything.
The Illusionist is one of the best looking films of the year. It won for my critics’ group and it was my #1 choice. No, Dick Pope didn’t do everyting in one 10-minute shot, but just getting that look and changing it halfway through… well deserving of a nom.
Pan’s Labyrinth among both groups is a shame… I wonder if Del Toro is a WGA member or if it’s the whole curse of being a writer/director.
Um, more likely that it’s a genre movie and skews a bit young. Unless you’re LOTRs, it’s tough. And Pan’s is no LOTRs.
Well, “In the Bedroom” and “Memento” were both ineligible for WGA nominations (something to do with the union, I forget why) so that’s why they were snubbed by the WGA that year yet nominated for an Oscar.
Totally agree that The Illusionist deserves this spot in the cinematography lineup. Would like to have seen Babel there in place of The Good Shepherd or Black Dahlia. Also The Departed and/or Volver.
Another guild, another dis for Eastwood. And another spot for Babel. I’m glad to see Dave adjusted his lists accordingly.
People were voting more for Zsigmond than for The Black Dahlia itself, which is well-shot but not really one of the year’s top 5.
Glad to see Lubezki, Richardson, and Dick Pope got in there. Would have liked to see Tom Stern or Matthew Libatique get some respect too, though, for the Eastwood movies or Inside Man/The Fountain, respectively.
I like the Peter Andrews reference and description. Very cute Dave.
-I like the Apocalypto nod, because for a film shot on video, it looked pretty darn good.
-COM I think will take it for Cinematography. Chivo is a widely, widely respected cat. The fact that he nor Roger Deakins has yet to win Gold is a shame.
Nice to see the cinematography nod for Apocalypto, which was beautiful to watch.
Gotta agree that Children of Men probably has this one sewn up. But stranger things have happened.
As for screenplay, Borat as Adapted? Very strange but nice.
Sorry to sound like a broken record, but while liking DAHLIA’s cinematography as a whole, I was put off by the desaturated color. Obviously that wasn’t a issue for the ASCers.
Yeah, how exactly is BORAT an “adapted” screenplay? I suppose one could say that it has the same premise as the TV show — Borat coming to America to make a cultural documentary — but that seems to be stretching it. Nominating it for Best Documentary would be less of a stretch, I think.
What put you off about the desaturation, Cadavra?
Borat is based in a character who previously appeared in a TV show (doing pretty much the same sort of thing he does in the film), I think the surprise is less the category placement and more the fact that WGA nominated a film that has very little script.
I’m glad that Black Dahlia got a cinematography nod. I’m still waiting for an explanation from Dave about why that movie is so apparently hidious.
On the DGA. so glad to see The Devil Wears Prada and United 93 on there. With a scripter nod, Devil and The Illusionist (which I haven’t seen, not released here yet) are looking good for Oscar nods. While I haven’t seen The Illusionist as I said, I expected The Prestige to get more guild action that it. Oh well, dems the breaks.
I think Children of men could get in for Adapted at the oscars. For whatever reason, the Academy didn’t nominate Patrick Marber for Closer and could easily happen again for Notes on a Scandal, especially if it’s seen as more of an actors showcase.
And I’ve been thinking for a long time that United 93 could make it into the shortlist for Oscar. I’m glad the writer’s guild appreciated all the painstaking research that went into it.
Jeff, I’ve talked about this before, but basically, I hate desaturated color. It looks ugly and phony, and screams, “The studio was too chickenshit to let me shoot this in black-and-white, so we had to use this hideous compromise.” It’s particularly galling with films set in the mid-20th Century, like DAHLIA or SKY CAPTAIN, where garish, three-strip-Technicolor-style color would be a more logical choice for evoking that era.
I understand but I don’t agree.
Especially in the case of Black Dahlia – I am not aware of any noir movies shot in Technicolor. The closest I can think of would be Rear Window/Vertigo/North by Northwest, and those are all only tenuously noir.
Leave Her To Heaven (1945) is a Technicolor noir. It would not surprise me if it’s the only “pure” noir that’s in color. “Tenuously noir” is a good way to describe those Hitchcock titles, especially in comparison with the black and white Rebecca and Shadow of a Doubt.
Wow, good job.