May 2, 2024
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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
Is this supposed to be entertaining?
Ladies and gents: your 2011 Oscar winner for Best Actor!
The only suspense will be whether he climbs over the seats to reach the podium like Roberto Benigni did at the 1998 Oscar ceremony.
You know, like him, don’t like him… but the Roberto B crap is really simplistic and a little xenophobic.
“really simplistic and a little xenophobic.”
Yeah, that won’t be tolerated here…HA HA HA…
Is not simplistic, it’s the real thing, Jean Dujardin doesn’t act at all, it’s just him being him in The Artist. People is getting to meet him now in the States, but in France everyone knows that he’s just a comedy actor with no range. In a year everyone will realized that gave the oscar to France’s Roberto Beningni.
Whatta shame, the other four nominated performances are really good and vastly superior
I like Dujardin and I liked “The Artist,” Dave.
I was simply making a point that–like with Benigni 13 years ago–Oscar voters have likely been so charmed by the guy (and his cute accent) on the Harvey-financed publicity campaign that they’ll likely hand him the trophy over a few more deserving nominees.
“xenophobic”?!?! I have no idea how you could have extrapolated that from such an innocuous comment.
(Would you have been less offended if I’d made a salacious, leering comment about wanting to BANG some underage actress?)
No, then you’d be flirting with greatness and genius.
Who cares if Dujardin is playing a variation of himself? That’s what a lot of beloved movie stars do.
GROSS. Who’s ever said THAT?
I don’t want to get dragged into shit talking the other nominees. Oldman and Bichir are clearly not the men they played in those movies and got lost in characters. But George and Brad? Really? We’re arguing transformation in those performances?
I love Spencer Tracy… but he played Spencer Tracy. Nothing wrong with that. But attacking JD for that is really odd.
And yes, when the only comparison is Roberto B, that would be national profiling.
I love this recurring sketch, one of the rare moments on SNL where they just have fun and are willing to be a little absurd. Dujardin deserves all the awards he has gotten and will continue to get (Oscar baby!).
Or just:
….maybe because Dujardin is the only actor since Roberto Benigni with a legitimate shot at winning a Best Actor Oscar?
And because both starred in high-profile Miramax/Weinstein “audience movies.”
And because both actors were (possibly) coerced by Harvey into laying on thickly accented schtick while making the publicity rounds so prospective voters might be be seduced by their seemingly exotic/old-fashioned romantic European style charm?
“National profiling”?!
Jesus.
Are people already forgetting that Dujardin does more than the charming, smiling, dancing shtick in THE ARTIST? To me, the film was as much drama as comedy, maybe moreso. I had problems with the movie, but not with him.
Spencer Tracy definitely had a persona that he worked in several of his films, but I wouldn’t say that his roles in THE POWER AND THE GLORY, CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, PAT AND MIKE and THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA were all just “Spencer Tracy.” But I agree, there’d be nothing wrong with it if ALL his roles were in that general low-key range he preferred, ’cause he could seem real on screen. No mean feat.
The only thing I regret about this skit is that it’s confirmation that DJ won’t actually be hosting SNL this year. I’d PAY to see that.
yes, jk, brad pitt’s performance was superior.
please.
How many endless posts have I read here, and on every other film site, about how brilliant comic performances – and brilliant film comedies – are always ignored by the Oscars? It’s one of the continuing complaints about nearly all film awards. But this year, when it looks as if a comedy performance approaching genius is about to win an Oscar, bloggers are behaving as if Mr DuJardin is a no talent hack who killed George Clooney’s dog. I voted for Brad Pitt for the SAG award but will not be unhappy if any of the five guys win. Particularly Mr. DuJardin.
I’ve been thinking about this and have to say that the logic behind David’s concern about xenophobia is–I think– this: the joke of comparing Dujardin with Benigni implies that by giving an Oscar to a comedic actor who is also, significantly, a (continental) European actor, the Academy risks indignity. I think it’s a fair concern.
He’s excellent in The Artist and I certainly don’t begrudge comic performances getting nominated… but if you’re stumping for Dujardin saying finally a comic performance get in there, (a.) yeah, it’s not more lightly comic with a lot of dramatic stuff than real comedy, and (b.) I feel like a similar performance from an American actor would not be the frontrunner in this category.
That’s where it seems like he has something in common with Beigni: a comic performance that only gets recognized because it has exoticized cache. I know The Artist isn’t even actually in French, but it does have an artsier veneer, I think, than it would otherwise (maybe this is part of why it gets so much recongition when, as someone pointed out in another thread, War Horse gets dismissed for many of the same qualities).
I do think it’s a little unfair to lump Benigni and Dujardin together as performers when they do pretty different things in their respective movies, but I see how a simialr instinct might lead to their wins (presuming it happens for Dujardin). And I do find sometimes movies get elevated because they’re in another language or come from some “other” place; anyone ever see Best Foreign Language Film nominee EVIL from a few years ago? A pretty laughably simplistic movie that would get no kind of awards recognition as a movie set in America.
If more foreign-language actors got nominated in general, the comparisons wouldn’t come so easily. But no, I wouldn’t consider it undignified for Dujardin to win any more than it was undignified for any number of good-but-maybe-not-deserving-for-that-particular-performance actors to win in the past.
“Dignity. Always, dignity.” — Don Lockwood
“Make ’em laugh.” — Cosmo Brown
“If we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work ain’t been in vain for nothin’.” — Lina Lamont
Does anyone really believe that Dujardin will follow this up with a vanity pic like Pinocchio?
I still haven’t seen the Artist. It was in town for one week. Went to see it Saturday on date night, saw it was gone, saw The Vow instead.
I love the Jeunes de Paris skits. I also liked the Nicolas Cage & Nicolas Cage bit on Weekend Update. And Zooey Deschanel as Mary-Kate Olsen against Abby Elliott’s Zooey Deschanel.
For what it’s worth, I do think their is a certain automatic aura of respectability and/or perceived profundity that greets foreign language films. I can’t find the exact quote, but I remember an (I think) Entertainment Weekly interview with Robert Rodriguez where he talked about the critical reception of El Mariachi. Long story/short, he basically was amused that he had made what he felt was a cheap exploitation action film, but because it had subtitles, critics were finding all sorts of symbolism and deep meaning that wasn’t really there.
But conversely, I think there is a tendency to overlook/ignore sub-textual content in mainstream American pictures and then accuse them of being empty-headed FX-sizzle reels (whether you like them or not, the Transformers sequels are pretty unsubtle parables for why America was right to invade Iraq and why we should never ever leave). It’s like we (pundits/critics/etc) are predisposed to presume that all American mainstream films are absolutely brainless and pointless (the obvious politics of the Star Wars prequels, the angry feminism of Sucker Punch, the social/economic leanings of Unstoppable, etc) while falling over ourselves to find all kinds of deep meaning in foreign popcorn entertainment (yes, because The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was the first movie/TV show EVER to deal with the oppression of women, misogynistic sex criminals, the ability for the uber-rich to escape culpability and indulge in their baser instincts, etc).
Unlike Benigni, Dujardin didn’t Jerry Lewis his film.
He is a movie star and busy working actor in France, having done broad comedy, drama, action, and an improv series with his wife, another famous French actress.
Unlike Benigni, he is not a hyperactive cartoon… though his grasp of English is still iffy, some haven’t seen him express himself as he does in French in any of his appearances for The Artist.
It’s ironic that he’s up against Clooney, who he so resembles as a performer… a bit more tending to comedy. But if there’s an Ocean’s 14 (don’t hold your breath), I could easily see JD in it.
Does anyone really think that JD couldn’t handle the Clooney psrts in O Brother or Intolerable Cruelty? No diss to Clooney. Great work in both. But Benigni is such a dismissive comparison for Dujardin… pisses me off.
This skit was when I stopped watching.
If people want to read about some subtext in the Transformers movies, let me know. I’ve got some stuff.
I guess that’s a no lol.
I’d like to know what p.c. pipe Dave and his minions have been smoking.
If you read my original comment, you’ll see there was nothing remotely–I still can’t believe you used that word: it’s so frigging insane and inappropriate–xenophobic about it.
Quite a reach there, guys.
And as the resident Francophile of Hot Bloggers, I actually find your attempt to label me as some kind of jingoistic, foaming-at-the-mouth Ugly American insulting.
Of course the guys in the low slung jeans who can hardly string two words together will hate The Artist. I’d be nervous about my own taste in movies if they didn’t.
As a somewhat jaded BAFTA voter, sick to death with CGI, teen gross-out movies and sundry exploitative actioners aimed mostly at the teen market, The Artisst has come as a breath of much needed fresh air, with its joyous optimism and great dance sequences. It requires acting skill of a very high calibre to get the dramatic story across without dialogue, seemingly with such ease. Everyone involved is at the top of their game, and Jean Dujardin’s clever and witty performance as Valentin just boots all the tired old competition into has-been category by comparison.
The Artist well deserves its 7 BAFTAs, plus the numerous other awards. I am not the only voter/critic who has seen this film several times. Unheard of. By some strange alchemy, the absence of dialogue and being in black and white just adds to its allure.
Also, Ludovic Bource’s music gave the right ambience to every scene, or hinted at darker action to come. Bource’s score perfectly matches the mood of 1920s Hollywood, while being subtly updated orchestrally for modern audiences.
This beautiful music can be listened to for its own sake.
Lead Jean Dujardin is a famous and respected actor in France, well known for his spy spoofs. He may not speak good English, but it just demonstrates that if you are a consummate actor you don’t need words to communicate. And is the reason why this wonderful film has captured the hearts of audiences everywhere in Europe and the United Kingdom.
They’ll also love, and understand it in Timbuktoo.
Dujardin’s crash course in Hollywood-style tap dancing showed that he also had a latent talent for hoofing.
Let’s hope that he and his peppy film partner Berenice Bejo will do a turn at the Oscars, dressed of course in their 20s film outfits. Get the tash back Jean!
C’est formidable!
Thank God for Patsy, who delivered the most intelligent comment here. I loved “The Artist” and Jean Dujardin’s performance. How many movies of his have any of these assholes have seen? One? I’ve seen six: the two OSS 117 spy spoofs, (“Cairo, Nest of Spies” and “Lost In Rio”), Counter-Investigation, 99 Francs, Ca$h, and The Artist. He has everything it takes to be a leading man and does have range as an actor. Americans just hate the fact that other countries are capable of producing talent as good if not better than what we have in the U.S.