April 05, 2005
Moriarty has his on-set report from The Fountain online at AICN, and it's the best glimpse at the film yet. Particularly tantalizing information include the contributions of macro-filmmaker Peter Parks; the description of Hugh Jackman's head cast; the producers explanation, by way of Kubrick, of the studio's dedication to Aronofsky's vision; and a hint at a contribution to the soundtrack from David Bowie, along with Bowie's original influence on the project (which makes me feel like I'm almost - but not quite - treading on Aronofsky's toes with Drift.) Anyway, it's a must-read.
I mentioned in the comments that I'd type up some of my notes for the workshop James and I gave last week (scrawled in my Strand journal en route to the festival). Here are two portions that I know actually made it into the panel (which was and remains a bit of a blur):
When one looks at art, the experience should be both reactionary and reflective - the reaction should give way to the reflection. What most mainstream movies do is function on a completely reactionary level - and the worst ones don't even offer that, providing instead a rather hypnotic (here my train of thought must have outpaced my pen, because the sentence abruptly ends, continuing with a new idea)...
In many ways, I hate the term art film; it is too exclusive, too separative. Film, after all, is inherently an art form. But it is one that has been marginalized by commercial concerns, so that we now have this term to celebrates the presence of what should be commonplace. It is important for both audiences and filmmakers to recognize the artistic nature of film - to embrace it- and to cultivate both a marketand a product that does not supercede integrity for commercialism.
Elsewhere on the page, I have several arrows pointing to brief explanation on the subjectivity of our ideas, the importance of films as a form entertainment, the value of critical thought, and lists of directors and films that should be sought out, viewed, and, above all, enjoyed. In the middle of the page, I've written the question: so why do you do it? But that's actually an idea for a line of dialogue for a screenplay.
And that's basically what we talked about for ninety minutes.
Posted by David Lowery at April 5, 2005 01:46 AM
Comments
y'know dave, i like you.
i think i'm far closer to you in sensibility and interests than i am to, say, matt [which isn't to say i don't like matt, its just we come from very different headspaces].
so yeah, you rule because i rule.
Posted by: stu willis at April 5, 2005 06:21 PM
Ruling's cool by me...
Posted by: Ghostboy at April 5, 2005 11:46 PM