August 19, 2004
I had some things to say about music I listened to and movies I saw. Then I decided I was tired, but then I changed my mind about that.
I went to a press screening of Mean Creek this morning (thumbs down) and since I was going to be seeing a screening of Finding Neverland later that night, I figured I'd just stay at the Angelika until then. I saw A Door In The Floor, which was okay, and then decided there wasn't anything left that I hadn't seen or felt like seeing, so I went to go get some coffee and listen to some music next door at the Virgin Megastore. They've got those headphones, you know, and I'll always listen to fifteen or thirty seconds of songs by artists who I haven't listened to before or have heard about or whatever. I saw this album at the end of the aisle and I'd heard good things about it so I put the headphones on and pressed play. The volume was all the way up and I don't know if it was my mood or what but it seemed the most incredible song, that first one on the album, and I just felt lifted up all over. I didn't know what to feel. I told myself that if the second track was as good as this first one, I'd buy the CD right then and there, even though I technically couldn't afford it, because life's too short to pass up things this good. That second track wasn't as good, though, and neither was the one after that. I listened all the way through the fourth song before deciding to be responsible. Maybe I'll buy it some other day. But that was some moment right there, with those headphones. I don't know what it was. I don't remember what the song really sounded like now; I don't even know if I care about the song; I just care about how it made me feel.
Anyway.
Finding Neverland primarily reminded me that Peter Pan will always get to me emotionally, whether its read aloud in E.T. or performed in this film or realized so magically in last year's adaptation. The movie itself was decent. Not Marc Forster's best. He was there, and I had my Monster's Ball DVD in case I felt like getting it autographed, but he was hounded afterwards by fans who seemed only to want to know what it was like to work with Johnny Depp and what Johnny Depp was like in person and whether Johnny Depp had any plans to direct his own film, etc. So I left. Forster had some good things to say about filmmaking, though.
Last night I watched Truffaut's Two English Girls and was very greatly impressed. It didn't have the sucker punch audacity of his first three masterpieces, but aside from that, it may just be my favorite of what I've seen of his oveure so far. It also seemed oddly familiar. It had a love triangle, a printing press, subtle eroticism, bloody bedsheets and a shot I was disappointed to learn was actually a composite shot, since the single element from it used in the trailer was so stunning that you could have sold me on the film with that alone. It was of a red haired woman, staring at the camera, tears streaming down her face, against a background of complete black. In the film, that black is gone and the girl is superimposed over another shot. Which is actually good for me, because it leaves the image in the trailer mostly open for me to 'pay homage to' at some point.
Posted by David Lowery at August 19, 2004 2:08 AM
Comments
Johnny Depp *has* directed his own movie: "The Brave" (1997).
Posted by: Matt at August 19, 2004 7:05 PM
Yeah, all of us 'serious' moviegoers were grumbling that to each other when that question was asked. If JMJ reads this, I'll request that he explain his strategy for dealing with such questions in his own Q&As.
Posted by: Ghostboy at August 19, 2004 8:06 PM
Well I'll tell ya' Matt. I'd politely ask them to go fuck themselves. At least in my mind. Then out loud I would ask if they are interested in learning about the artistic endeavors behind the making of the film. If not I would gracefully excuse them to leave as fast as they can to check out the latest edition of US Magazine or E Television for the freshest celebrity gossip.
Posted by: jmj at August 20, 2004 2:09 AM
Coincidentally, I've just finished reading Rosenbaum's "Movie Wars," a section of which discusses the trivial content of most Q&A sessions and press conferences at film festivals now adays [those at the festival in Brisbane, I'm happy to note, were very much full of "serious questions about cinema;" lucky me, I guess]. I remember thinking as I read, "If ever someone asks me what it was like to work with a particular actor on a film, I'm going to give them the opportunity to ask a serious question or leave."
I hope I get that opportunity, actually.
Posted by: Matt at August 20, 2004 8:20 AM