September 03, 2004
If you haven't picked up Medulla yet, then you're missing what is perhaps the grandest artistic achievement of the year thus far.
I went to see a screening of Roger Michell's Enduring Love today, and for the first hour or so I was like, "okay, so much for ever making Post." I was seriously getting upset; Michell seemed to be doing exactly what I wanted to be do with that particular script, and he was doing it so well; he even made prominent use of odd sculptures for symbolic effect. Then, towards the last act, it went in a completely different direction and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Still, it never ceases to be disconcerting to see what you thought were your ideas up on the big screen. It's like hearing someone else describe a dream you had.
Michell is starting to remind me of Michael Winterbottom; over the past few years he's directed a varied and increasingly impressive series of films, from Persuasion to Notting Hill (don't pretend you don't love it) to Changing Lanes to The Mother to this, which is the first film of his I've seen that I feel hasn't been a success but is so intriguing and mesmerizing for its first two thirds that I'd recommend it anyway. I can't wait to see what he does next.
The trailer for David Gordon Greene's Undertow (produced by Terrence Malick!) is now online. If you want to enjoy it, leave the volume off for all but the first ten seconds, and maybe the last ten as well, and just appreciate the look of it.
ELIZA My dad said the same thing, about looking younger. He said I wasn't growing fast enough. He said it was because I didn't have enough iron in my body and that's why you can see my veins through my skin.
I'm beginning to think that the fact that I keep coming up with endless variations on the same 30 page sequence in Rocketman (precisely where I was when I started Henry Lee) means that it's pointless. Actually, it's pointlessness is the point, but how pointless is too pointless? Oh well, at least the beginning and ending are all set. I could technically stop writing it at any time and be done with it.
I've come to really enjoy writing the descriptive passages in my screenplays; hopefully my personal style shines through in them, and hopefully it makes the scripts themselves more interesting to read. I've always liked the idea of publishing a script as a work of literature, with no cinematic intentions. Maybe a few illustrations, but otherwise nothing but words.
Posted by David Lowery at September 3, 2004 12:39 AM
Comments
"I've always liked the idea of publishing a script as a work of literature, with no cinematic intentions."
That's so very me...
Posted by: Matt at September 3, 2004 07:48 PM