A little inspiration
As I mentioned very briefly in my last post I am just back from Cannes.
My feelings about the place are pretty conflicted most of the time, but there is no doubt that it can be very inspiring.
It is not really suited to doing anything regarding short films but there is the Short Film Corner there where you can see literally thousands of shorts.
I recommend trying to see Love You More by Sam Taylor-Wood, a brilliant period piece but also something that really seems to echo the feelings I had as a teenager - if it's possible to go about exploration in a mopish fashion I guess that would sum it for me.
Also quite inspirational was a discussion between Jason Solomons (well worth listening to his Film Weekly podcast) and Mike Figgis. I found when I first started making films that it was greatly heartening to hear people you admire talk about problems you were experiencing and that you both came to the same solution or opinion completely independently. My feelings have changed a little since then.
I now feel a bit more confident that my own solutions to problems are just as valid as those of the people I admire and in fact it's probably better that they are different. I suppose that's just growing up but when you become aware of it as a maker of things, particularly in such a formal craft as filmmaking, there is a very real sense that you have made some kind of step.
That was what I took away from my time listening to Mike Figgis. I love a lot of his work and I loved listening to him speak. In the interview he spoke very much in anecdotal terms rather intellectual hypothesising, which can often become impenetrable and meaningless, but I didn't agree with everything he said. I don't know why that feels important at the moment but it does.
The long and the short of it is that I have come away from Cannes feeling that there are some slight but very important changes I need to make to our script. I'm not quite setting my stall out properly at the moment and that needs to be right.
If anyone would like to recommend some dark comedies please feel free to leave them in the comments. Cheers...
My feelings about the place are pretty conflicted most of the time, but there is no doubt that it can be very inspiring.
It is not really suited to doing anything regarding short films but there is the Short Film Corner there where you can see literally thousands of shorts.
I recommend trying to see Love You More by Sam Taylor-Wood, a brilliant period piece but also something that really seems to echo the feelings I had as a teenager - if it's possible to go about exploration in a mopish fashion I guess that would sum it for me.
Also quite inspirational was a discussion between Jason Solomons (well worth listening to his Film Weekly podcast) and Mike Figgis. I found when I first started making films that it was greatly heartening to hear people you admire talk about problems you were experiencing and that you both came to the same solution or opinion completely independently. My feelings have changed a little since then.
I now feel a bit more confident that my own solutions to problems are just as valid as those of the people I admire and in fact it's probably better that they are different. I suppose that's just growing up but when you become aware of it as a maker of things, particularly in such a formal craft as filmmaking, there is a very real sense that you have made some kind of step.
That was what I took away from my time listening to Mike Figgis. I love a lot of his work and I loved listening to him speak. In the interview he spoke very much in anecdotal terms rather intellectual hypothesising, which can often become impenetrable and meaningless, but I didn't agree with everything he said. I don't know why that feels important at the moment but it does.
The long and the short of it is that I have come away from Cannes feeling that there are some slight but very important changes I need to make to our script. I'm not quite setting my stall out properly at the moment and that needs to be right.
If anyone would like to recommend some dark comedies please feel free to leave them in the comments. Cheers...
re the other post: I like that room, slightly messy, slighly posh and a lovely hues of Luci heart red-nice.
I will be scorned for this but I will admit I've only seen a handful of Mr. Figgis' films, and even worse, I preferred Stormy Monday over Leaving Las Vegas (and Cold Creek Manor was such a err disappointment). As for dark comedies, well the only ones I would recommend you've surely seen, but everything by Joel Coen (and his brother) are flatout genius, as was Altman's MASH, and Monty Python and Beetlejuice are so hilarious, but somehow I'm thinking that is not what you're after. If I Love Luci is going to a dark comedy of sorts, and comes anywhere close to one of my fave films of all times-Harold and Maude- then you will have succeeded quite well.
Thanks for the update on Luci's progress Colin, appreciate it!
Hi Colin,
I'm glad to know your project is progressing!
And OMG Mike Figgis is one of my favourite filmmakers...
As for dark comedies, I support Sue. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen rule. Oh and Todd Solondz of course. And I would also recommend Mike Figgis's HOTEL, but I'm not sure you haven't seen it already... There's also Martin McDonach (I'm sure you're familiar with his works), he won Osar and he's always praised by the critics. I don't know if you like him, but the thing is that I don't like him at all. He's a great example of a huge success of a smart but talentless man. But since he's so successfull and what he does is dark comedy... and his knowledge of theory is great anyway (cause he IS very smart). And of course I really like Lars von Trier's sense of humour.. though it can be so dark sometimes that people might not understand that it has something to do with humour at all... and I really like
Jens Lien's Den Brysomme Mannen (The Bothersome Man, 2006).
Mary Harron's American Psycho
Oh btw I really like The Chumscrubber by Arie Posin (but it wasn't successfull unfortunately)
Teeth (2007) by Mitchell Lichtenstein was a very nice easy dark comedy.
And I'm sure it's not what you're looking for, but I LOVE the Black Adder series. It's the best modern (relatively modern) example of the pure dark humour to me and it's a very, say, warm dark humour, which is very hard to find these days...
And of cource there's a lot of TV stuff these days, which is dark and comic....
Well, I'm not sure I was helpful, but I'm glad to see you're back to blogging!