August = Movie Lists!
Aug. 19th, 2006 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malsperanzaThe movie "Factotum" has just opened, and I am looking forward to seeing it. But it does bring up that perennial question of movies about writers: how to depict the Writer at Work in a way that is, er, cinematic. Many a good director has crashed and sunk on this iceberg. And that's partly due to the large number of movies about Writers at Work. Was discussing this the other day with friends--especially the subgenre of films about Writers Going Insane at Work.
They pointed out that about 50% of the movies on that topic are from Stephen King stories; King does seem to be obsessed with the idea, but only the heroism of Stanley Kubrick and the desperation of studio execs would make anyone imagine that it's cinematically compelling to show an author at a typewriter or laptop, typing. Yet movies about writers keep getting made.
And this is ironic because, of course, the books aren't exactly getting published at a great rate, which is one reason the writers go insane: the sheer accumulation of rejection letters is itself an iceberg.
So, kids, how many movies can you think of with scenes of the Writer at Work?
The Shining
Buncha other Stephen King movies, whose titles I forget
Barfly
Naked Lunch
Barton Fink
Amadeus
All the President's Men
There are lots of older ones too--movies from the 1950s & 1960s--but none comes to mind offhand. Feel free to add to the list.
How many of these depict the Great and Mysterious Act of Creation as a guy cackling or frowning at a keyboard while a montage of pages flies by, and/or words float and flicker above his head like ghosties? Although I like all these movies a lot (except Amadeus, which is dreck), the depiction of the guy at the keyboard is just not very satisfying, except on the one occasion when the keyboard turns into a giant cockaroach.
So, flist, a summer challenge: How would you depict the Writer at Work in a way that is cinematically compelling?
They pointed out that about 50% of the movies on that topic are from Stephen King stories; King does seem to be obsessed with the idea, but only the heroism of Stanley Kubrick and the desperation of studio execs would make anyone imagine that it's cinematically compelling to show an author at a typewriter or laptop, typing. Yet movies about writers keep getting made.
And this is ironic because, of course, the books aren't exactly getting published at a great rate, which is one reason the writers go insane: the sheer accumulation of rejection letters is itself an iceberg.
So, kids, how many movies can you think of with scenes of the Writer at Work?
The Shining
Buncha other Stephen King movies, whose titles I forget
Barfly
Naked Lunch
Barton Fink
Amadeus
All the President's Men
There are lots of older ones too--movies from the 1950s & 1960s--but none comes to mind offhand. Feel free to add to the list.
How many of these depict the Great and Mysterious Act of Creation as a guy cackling or frowning at a keyboard while a montage of pages flies by, and/or words float and flicker above his head like ghosties? Although I like all these movies a lot (except Amadeus, which is dreck), the depiction of the guy at the keyboard is just not very satisfying, except on the one occasion when the keyboard turns into a giant cockaroach.
So, flist, a summer challenge: How would you depict the Writer at Work in a way that is cinematically compelling?
