More Film Festivities
Nov. 3rd, 2004 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gervase_fenBack to Garden State briefly - Zach Braff related how he sent out the screenplay to prospective studios, or "a Cliffs Notes version of it. You have Cliffs Notes over here? I expect you actually read the books, don't you..."
He also sent out copies of his compilation soundtrack CD - most of the studio readers passed on the script, but asked to keep the CDs...
Natalie Portman was giggly and bubbly, and completely non-plussed by a question asking her about the World Series. "She lives in Europe! And we're both musical-theatre geeks", explained Zach.
I also went along to the Brad Bird masterclass ; the director of The Incredibles and the Iron Giant was interviewed by an enthusiastic, but non-expert, Phill Jupitus. Brad Bird was eloquent about how (during his time on the Simpsons) he thought the writers could be guilty of re-writing too often - "killing the joke after having done it 22 times, the 22nd time at 2 a.m."
And for the rest....
"The Second Floor Mystery" was one of the last films with it's sound recorded on to disk rather than optically onto the film negative ; it's taken a chance discovery at the Warner Bros. lot and about a dozen years of restoration work to put the sound back onto the picture. It's a fun crime caper romp, not too far removed from an Ernie Wise "play wot I wrote" - two star crossed lovers communicate by leaving more and more outre messages to each other in The Times personal column (the London Times, as cutaways to stock footage of the Strand emphasise). The plot ends up getting wilder and wilder, as they try to out-invent each other : there's a scene in exotic Africa, some espionage, some black shirted anarchists, and some dungeons. The dungeons belong to Leeds Hall, that well known gothic pile that Scotland Yard uses instead of ordinary police cells from time to time.
Some of the acting doesn't rise to the occasion, but as some of the story is pure invention anyway it's either quite post-modern or very lazy film production. Best of all, there's actually a scene where the pipe smoking man from Scotland Yard says to assembled throng - "And the murderer is somebody in this room.... " Was this already a cliche by 1930? I don't know, but it's very funny anyway.
The Festival Archivist had also programmed a supporting feature of 30's supplements - a Metrotone News from Hearst (not too far away from "News on the March!" in Citizen Kane), a Flip the Frog cartoon and, best of all, an impromptu, informal interview with Bela Lugosi. Looking a bit like Robert Stephens, Bela is clearly having a wonderful time teasing the Bridget Jones flapper girl sent to interview him:
30s BRIDGET : Do you believe in vampires?
BELA : Of course I do. I have three ex-wives.
Finally, I got the surprise film bang on - the wonderful oenophiliac road movie "Sideways", which is averaging, deservedly, about 90 over at www.metacritic.com.
He also sent out copies of his compilation soundtrack CD - most of the studio readers passed on the script, but asked to keep the CDs...
Natalie Portman was giggly and bubbly, and completely non-plussed by a question asking her about the World Series. "She lives in Europe! And we're both musical-theatre geeks", explained Zach.
I also went along to the Brad Bird masterclass ; the director of The Incredibles and the Iron Giant was interviewed by an enthusiastic, but non-expert, Phill Jupitus. Brad Bird was eloquent about how (during his time on the Simpsons) he thought the writers could be guilty of re-writing too often - "killing the joke after having done it 22 times, the 22nd time at 2 a.m."
And for the rest....
"The Second Floor Mystery" was one of the last films with it's sound recorded on to disk rather than optically onto the film negative ; it's taken a chance discovery at the Warner Bros. lot and about a dozen years of restoration work to put the sound back onto the picture. It's a fun crime caper romp, not too far removed from an Ernie Wise "play wot I wrote" - two star crossed lovers communicate by leaving more and more outre messages to each other in The Times personal column (the London Times, as cutaways to stock footage of the Strand emphasise). The plot ends up getting wilder and wilder, as they try to out-invent each other : there's a scene in exotic Africa, some espionage, some black shirted anarchists, and some dungeons. The dungeons belong to Leeds Hall, that well known gothic pile that Scotland Yard uses instead of ordinary police cells from time to time.
Some of the acting doesn't rise to the occasion, but as some of the story is pure invention anyway it's either quite post-modern or very lazy film production. Best of all, there's actually a scene where the pipe smoking man from Scotland Yard says to assembled throng - "And the murderer is somebody in this room.... " Was this already a cliche by 1930? I don't know, but it's very funny anyway.
The Festival Archivist had also programmed a supporting feature of 30's supplements - a Metrotone News from Hearst (not too far away from "News on the March!" in Citizen Kane), a Flip the Frog cartoon and, best of all, an impromptu, informal interview with Bela Lugosi. Looking a bit like Robert Stephens, Bela is clearly having a wonderful time teasing the Bridget Jones flapper girl sent to interview him:
30s BRIDGET : Do you believe in vampires?
BELA : Of course I do. I have three ex-wives.
Finally, I got the surprise film bang on - the wonderful oenophiliac road movie "Sideways", which is averaging, deservedly, about 90 over at www.metacritic.com.
