Wednesday, February 28, 2007
It must be film week.
Last night at the flat Mareike and I hosted a French film night. Her film of choice was L'Auberge Espagnole, about an economics student's Erasmus year in Barcelona. While I'm sure legions of European students out there on their year abroad will find much that resonates in the story of Xavier and his flatmates, in the end it was just another male American Pie-style comedy. The protagonist gets to have an affair with a MILF, shares a room with a lesbian hottie and... well, does a whole lot of philosophizing in between. Oh, and has Audrey Tatou for a girlfriend back in Paris. Sounds just like your typical student abroad.
We are all, how do you say, "living in a dream world". Non?
Anyhoo, it isn't French night until someone brings cheese. And wine. And dear god, there's now a ton of extra cheese and wine of all descriptions hanging round in our flat. It's a shame I'm on a diet this week. And next. And... all of Lent, actually. Oh well.
We are all, how do you say, "living in a dream world". Non?Labels: movies
Monday, February 26, 2007
Re-adaptation
FADE IN:
INT. AN APARTMENT IN CHESTER - NEARLY MIDNIGHT
CLOSE on a leather sofa as SHOEGAZER types into his laptop. We see the BLOGGER screen as he struggles to put words to the page.
SHOEGAZER flips to another tab, screencuts a piece of the movie poster for his blog. The action, instinctive, only takes seconds. He pauses, unsure what else to say. If there is anything else to say. He thinks about Van, her bemusement when she eventually reads this; unless of course she watches the film first.
The clock reads 11:33 PM. He decides this is enough. Yes. This is good enough.
INT. AN APARTMENT IN CHESTER - NEARLY MIDNIGHT
CLOSE on a leather sofa as SHOEGAZER types into his laptop. We see the BLOGGER screen as he struggles to put words to the page.
SHOEGAZER (v/o)
- I've just finished watching Charlie Kaufman's "Adaptation". I used to wonder what all the fuss was about, especially after seeing "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", and liking it but not being blown away. I suspected he was one of those American talents whom like minded film buffs preferred to the less accessible European writers and filmmakers.
The film opens as "Charlie Kaufman", the writer's alter ego, attempts to write an "un-Hollywood" adaptation of an unfilmable book, "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean, while his twin brother Donald rises to fame and fortune writing formulaic hack screenplays for major studios. Charlie commits the ultimate sin when, after several failed attempts, he decides to write himself into the story.
Charlie Kaufman, Susan Orlean and the book are all real, or at least, exist in real life. Twin Donald, however, is not. The movie is not about the book, but is about the process of writing a screenplay that tells about the process of writing a screenplay about the book. Confused yet?
SHOEGAZER flips to another tab, screencuts a piece of the movie poster for his blog. The action, instinctive, only takes seconds. He pauses, unsure what else to say. If there is anything else to say. He thinks about Van, her bemusement when she eventually reads this; unless of course she watches the film first.
SHOEGAZER (v/o)
- Watching this film, though, and I get the feeling that Charlie Kaufman knows about that feeling of incompleteness, the struggle to become rich and famous without prostituting yourself, the search for success without compromise. It permeates the first half of the movie, the one before Donald gets to lend a hand in "improving" the story. (Don't ask.)
This feeling, it's what I couldn't put into words, when Van and I had Sunday lunch and I kept staring out the window trying to lift my spirits. It was nothing to do with her, of course, and nothing to do with Sunday lunch. It was just that familiar feeling of slowly circling the drain, of watching time pass and life turn ordinary. I bet he felt the same way, once.
The clock reads 11:33 PM. He decides this is enough. Yes. This is good enough.
Labels: movies
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.