An insightful fellow filmmaker made a comment, watching my
latest film (Endings) that got me
thinking. He said, quite simply,
that he felt this film was my most “personal.” In another forum, I reflected on this idea a little bit and
I wanted to expand those thoughts here.
In the context of some discussion of the “conflict” between
commercial films and “art” films, the thing that struck me wasn’t the
commercial or non-commercial nature of the film, but the degree to which any
production actually seemed “personal.”
In other words, in the film (or singing or performance) am I able to
sense that there is someone who cares, who understands what is driving this?
I think there are plenty of commercial films (okay, maybe
fewer than before) in which I can get a sense that someone cares. Typically they are not the most mass
market films. I think everyone was
having fun making Iron Man X, but it
doesn’t feel personal to me. Rabbit Hole did feel personal. Blue Valentine felt personal. Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter felt personal to me.
So if I accept my concept that this quality of being
personal - at least to some visible degree - is a distinguishing characteristic
of authentic art as distinct from “empty entertainment” then I need to think
about my options as a filmmaker. And,
like practically everything really important in filmmaking, I think it all
comes back to the story in that troublesome and odd form known at the
screenplay. Which is why I’m not
making a new film this summer - instead I’m devoting some of that same energy
to three writing projects. More
about those projects in the future and probably an open invitation to read and
comment on the scripts when they are ready.
Cheers.
