April 19, 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
Wow.
I’m beginning to feel more and more alienated from the pack this year.
First “Captain Phillips” disappointed me.
Then “12 Years a Slave” left me vaguely dissatisfied.
Now “All is Lost.”
I’m guessing Chandor was going for a Bressonian vibe.
But minus Bresson’s spirituality, it just felt like ascetic decadence.
I see the tweets are racking up on the “Oldboy” screening waiver. Egad, that thing is ridiculous.
(Actually, maybe they knew how ridiculous it is, and this is a weird, Elissa Greer publicity ploy?)
the fact that we just did roundtables for ‘the amazing spider man 2’ makes me realize just how past 2013 we are…
Armond White on “12 Years a Slave:”
“Depicting slavery as a horror show, McQueen has made the most unpleasant American movie since William Friedkin’s1973 The Exorcist. That’s right, 12 Years a Slave belongs to the torture porn genre with Hostel, The Human Centipede and the Saw franchise”
“Because 12 Years of Slave is such a repugnant experience, a sensible viewer might be reasonably suspicious about many of the atrocities shown–or at least scoff at the one-sided masochism”
You hear that Solomon Northup? Armond White scoffs at your masochistic wallowing. Your hysterical autobiography panders to neo racial-identity politics in a crass move to tap white guilt! You, sir, should be ashamed!
Really, the whole review seems like a dare. Armond seems to get battier the more he is marginalized. So far this fall, GRAVITY is “space junk,” BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR is an embarrasment, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is “twisted, corrupt, lamely directed and…offensively simplistic,” RUSH is a boring letdown, DALLAS BUYERS CLUB is clinically undercooked, etc
Armond needs to publish a slim pamphlet called, “Movies I Have Loved.”
And half of them would star Sandler.
(Though I share his affection for Jack and Jill)
Gee, not a lot of interest in things around these parts so I would like to ask the slightly more august among you…how did the Western go out? Did they simply stop making them and one day you realized you hadn’t seen one in quite some time? Because as far as I can tell About Time and Best Man Holiday were the only two romantic comedies released by majors this year. Did Gary Marshall’s one-two punch of Valentines Day and New Years Eve destroy the countries stomach for the genre? Most examples of the type have been groan-inducing for awhile but there is nothing inherently foul about the genre. The season could certainly use a Jerry Maguire or even a Music and Lyrics to charm things up.
Here comes John Carney’s CAN A SONG SAVE YOUR LIFE?
Captain Phillips and 12 Years a Slave are in my top ten this year.
As for 2013’s romantic comedies, I’d count Warm Bodies, Admission, The Big Wedding, Don Jon and Baggage Claim.
Song is through the Weinstein Company, and the rest are Summit, FOcus, Lionsgate and Searchlight. Searchlight also had Enough Said, but does this mean that from now any decent romcom is going to be shuffled over to the limited release pile with tiny media pushes? Columbia can bleed cash on sci-fi and action but can’t find 27 million to get Hatheway and some strapping young lad to make moony eyes at each other? Maybe if Paramount put together a comedy or two they could get their release slate into double digits.
Jonas Cuaron releases, online, “Aningaaq,” his short companion film that shows the other side of Sandra Bullock’s “Gravity” conversation. Beautifully done
http://screenrant.com/gravity-spinoff-short-film-aningaaq-online-oscars/
It’s also embedded on the moviecityindie.com page over there… http://moviecitynews.com/2013/11/jonas-cuarons-aningaaq-705-answers-who-sandra-bullocks-on-the-radio-with-in-gravity/
Westerns died from overexposure. I mean, we were a Western-obsessed society in the 50s when there were about nine million Western series on TV and big screen oaters of every budget. They stayed fairly popular through the 60s, but I think people just hit the wall at some point. Then the revisionist Westerns emerged in the 70s, but they weren’t much fun. In the meantime, new generations grew up without many relevant examples of the genre, and never developed an interest in it (probably because they were period pieces that didn’t seem cool). I think it’s a shame, because it’s a flexible genre that has produced a lot of great and darn good films.
I think it’s less likely that rom-coms will fade in a similar manner, if only because they’re contemporary and love is always going to be one of the great subjects for art and culture, whether high or low. Some of the tropes will have to go, though. The mindless adherence to formula has severely weakened it, and there are signs of audience fatigue with the raunchier versions of the genre, which had rejuvenated it commercially in recent years. We also need new stars who have romantic appeal and a willingness to exploit it. And it would also be nice if wit could make a comeback.
Yancy, I wonder if the willingness to exploit it aspect you mentioned is one of the driving reasons for the tapering off of the genre. After the cargo bin of money that Hitch made I would have thought Smith would make a romance every two or three years, Downey has more than enough charm to spare, and the best parts of his comeback films have been him sparing with Paltrow and McAdams (And I will admit to a softspot for Only You), and it would be nice if the oh so serious Dicaprio (I can’t tell you how happy I am that Wolf is a comedy) could take a page from a former Gatsby who managed to fit an Electric Horseman in between the somber All the President’s Men and Brubaker.
Perhaps there just aren’t the scripts out there to pull the attention of the big names, but as a grumpy old man in training I would like a little fun at the cinema without fireballs and CGI.
…and the “Oldboy” remake is actually pretty darn good.
hcat: Yeah, I think “serious” actors generally prefer to show their dramatic chops. They’d rather be prime-era De Niro than Cary Grant, except maybe to do a one-off rom-com to help show their supposed range. I’m guessing the only reason Matthew McConaughey did so many rom-coms is because that’s where the big money offers were once the first couple were hits.
Not even the most charming leading man these days seems to want to “coast” on that charm. Even Cary Grant, great as he was, was often accused of just “playing himself,” as though it were an easy thing to be natural, funny and charming on screen. And if you’re looking for awards — well, Grant’s only two Oscar nods were for playing against the type he so brilliantly assayed in the majority of his roles. Being a modern rom-com star would be a pretty thankless task, I guess.
Actually, giving actors the benefit of the doubt, maybe they shy away from the genre because they DO realize how difficult it is to pull off a romantic comedy. If you don’t quite nail the charm, if the witty lines don’t roll comfortably off your tongue, you embarrass yourself. Who needs it? Much easier to stare soulfully into the distance or yell at somebody in righteous indignation.
hey guys – watch the Bale dp30 – Bale talks about his acting and stuff and DP actually does a good interview here. good enough to be on tv.
DP/30: Christian Bale – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl9NLWfbaiE
As much as I tend to avoid Armond White and as much as I respected (does anyone “love?”) 12 YEARS A SLAVE, he does raise some pretty interesting points. McQueen is very much a director and artist concerned with “the body politic” and the politics of the body. I found White’s comments about McQueen not really “caring” (or whatever the term he used) about Northrup nor the IRL guy in HUNGER interesting and, I think, pretty spot on.
I also thought several times throughout 12 YEARS A SLAVE much like I felt during PASSION OF THE CHRIST; that these were horror films or tests in how much brutality I could stand. And while that idea resonated with White as well, I agree that McQueen often “delights” in the degradation of people.
Where White and I differ is that all these things about McQueen make me respect him and his films even more. I think McQueen’s hesitance to embrace his “blackness” speaks to the fact that his artistic interests don’t lie in say, speaking out for embattled people. I didn’t even realize he was black until the SHAME press stuff hit.
I guess what I’m saying is, I think 12 YEARS A SLAVE is a major, major accomplishment but I’m not really sure it’s saying anything about slavery or oppression because I don’t think that’s McQueen’s MO. But I’m down with the explorations he does in his films, unlike White.
For how tragic the death of JFK was, it does bring some satisfaction to know that the folks who called for it must have gone to their own graves knowing it was a horrendous mistake because, like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kennedy became more powerful than they could possibly have imagined.
If he had died in bed from Schmidt’s syndrome, would anyone have much to say about him? Would he be remembered as nothing more than a reckless twit who brought the world to the brink of thermonuclear extinction for refusing to let the Russians reciprocate for those missiles we put in Turkey?
Instead, he became the symbol of an era, of lost innocence; a reformer like Lady Jane killed by those who refused to be reformed. Seeing his face on every TV at least once a year must have resulted in so much broken furniture, smashed TV screens, neighbors awakened by outbursts of profanity….
Heh heh heh.
Joe Kennedy, father of JFK, RFK, and Teddy … as producer on Queen Kelly fired the director von Stroheim at the bequest of his then mistress Gloria Swanson
Dallas Buyers Club and 12 Years a Precious bombed this weekend. DBC had a 66% drop in PTA and Precious had 40% drop this weekend….lol
“Dallas Buyers Club” — “Inspired by True Events”! Trajan!
“12 Years a Slave” — “The Extraordinary True Story”! Quote Whores! Trajan!
That sound you hear is the audience getting pistol-whipped.
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB is terrible. Great performances though.
@Don, I agree with you on McQueen’s obsession with the body and its role in the larger question of suffering (said the same thing in the SLAVE Dp/40) but I don’t think White is making that argument. My critique is that McQueen places Ejiofor as a chilly distance from a more nuanced portrayal of what’s on screen that creates a disconnect from what’s going around him, when Northup in his later years, actually initiated a good deal of suffering at the behest of his master…he was in it up to his neck, and was experiencing deep emotional anguish.
White doesn’t seem to realize that what’s appearing on screen actually happened and that Northup’s autobiography is even more horrifying than what we see, (for instance, Northup whips Patsey around 50 times before tossing the whip down, he becomes a semi-overseer in his last four years etc), it’s just not as clinically approached, as his writing is peppered with exclamation points and exortations, a sign of urgency that doesn’t fit the protagonist on film. But if he was being sadistic for sadism’s sake, why tone down what’s on the page?
@pj, A $4,000 per screen for DBC is far from a bomb in more than 600 theatres. Unless you think 98% of limited releases are bombs.
This is purely anecdotal, but every indieish film I have ever been to, even the more violent ones, have always been at least 60% older women. So when something as big and female skeweing as HG hits I would certainly expect it to take the wind out of everyone else’s sails. The per screens will stabalize with the holiday, Dallas will hit its 17 and 12 will clear 45 to 50 by the end of their runs.
Now someone tell me what this Christmas candle thing is and why are the hayseeds tossing good coin at it?
Solid points, EtG….and nails a reason why I can never fully take White seriously. He’s one of those “critics” who gets seemingly angry at source material and wishes the movie made was what HE (or, she) wanted ratehr than what the filmmaker chose.
I think Armond liked a video once that Nelly was in.
Right Don, he chooses which films to call out for being outlandish or unrealistic based on what he wants to see. I agreed with White on “Argo,” I thought it took liberties with history too far, but when he wants “Slave,” or “Captain Phillips” to take a different tone or direction, history can go screw itself. Re: Nelly, totally fits with White’s racial outlook…the rapper that’s built his later career on crossing over into genres whose fans traditionally disdain rap, and in doing so is a rebuke to white liberal notions of race and hip hop. Perfect.
@Hcat, Rick Santorum still has some followers out there. I just hope the minor success of “Christmas Candle” (compared to recent Christian fare) doesn’t dissuade him from hopping on board the 2016 Republican Clown Car Primary in favor of a movie-production career.