Cinema Lessons
9 Dec
The site is coming right along– Becca has the vast majority of the content sorted out and looking a great deal better than I have a right to expect. The excerpts are settled, the descriptions of each project are satisfactory, and I can’t help but be excited about it all. I guess after five years writing (and doing very little else), it’s kind of fun to see it here in some coherent, presentable form.
Thank god for my uber awesome friends who have been to great pains to edit it all into shape, right?
On an unrelated note, I went to see No Country For Old Men last night. I’ve never read the book, but obviously I should get on that.
Everyone says you have to read to write, and I couldn’t agree more. I start feeling any creativity I might have in the first place start to drain away after a week without a good book. Even nonfiction, which I’ve been on a kick over lately since I went book shopping at the Lincoln Memorial like a weirdo, can do the trick. But I learn a ridiculous amount about storytelling every time I see a good movie too. I’m sure everyone discusses this and I’ve just not run across it, but it amazes me every time.
I’m a fan of the Coen Brothers anyhow—The Big Lebowski is definitely one of my all time favorites. I’m constantly in awe of their attention to the most nitpicky detail on the screen, and the authenticity and purpose of each action. The smallest thing can unravel an entire tapestry and let you see what’s behind it.
And now come the SPOILERS, so stop reading if you’ve not seen this movie and plan to any time soon. (I won’t ruin the story completely, don’t worry.)
BEGIN SPOILERS
Still here? Okay.
In this particular film, there’s a lot of violence, death, and blood. But they never show the important deaths. Sometimes you’ll see blood or a body afterward, but no character who has any major plot importance is actually shown getting a bullet in the head, in direct contrast to… well, pretty much everyone else in the film. In one particular case, no evidence of a particular killing is shown at all, which might make one wonder if it really happened at all.
The proof is in the subtlety. Every time this particular man kills someone, he’s extremely careful of his feet. After one, he takes his blood-soaked socks off before he moves on and searches for what it is he wants in the room. After another, he ever-so-carefully picks his feet up and places them on the bed to avoid a spreading puddle of blood. And after this one I speak of, the one of which we see or hear nothing directly, he walks outside and checks the soles of his boots.
Could I be wrong? Did he not murder this one? Oh yeah, clearly possible. But either way, it’s hard not to think that tiny detail was entirely intentional after they so carefully placed it throughout the film. And either way, it’s brilliant.
END SPOILERS
So that’s what I wanted to bring up. That, like the South Park kids, I learned something today. From the Coen Brothers.
-Katey
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Now playing: Gruff Rhys – Gwn Mi Wn / Yes, I Know
via FoxyTunes
Pains?
Granted, I didn’t read through or edit The Family, but I LOVE reading through Enoptromancy (I can’t spell…doo dah), and Oubliette. Not pains at all. More like my drug of choice.
Hayley you’re too kind, as ever. It’s so nice that we’re able to supply these addictions for each other and somehow not break the law… I’d better not say that too loudly or someone will pass a law against urban fantasy. Cause if it makes us happy, it must be immoral and wrong!
I’m not sure that “too kind” has EVER been the phrase of choice to describe me as, but…whatever floats your boat, I guess.
Dude, it probably is immoral and wrong. We’d better keep it down, or tomorrow at my staff meeting there’ll be a new clause in our contract with the state saying that employees can’t read/write urban fantasy.
The horror.
Oh god… right, that’s it then. It’s on the DL. (Haha I haven’t said that in forever!)
The abject (Lovecraftian) horror.
The Big Lebowski? Seriously??? I didn’t even make it through the thing, although Mark adored it. Maybe I’m weird. (Check that. I know I’m weird.)
I pick apart movies for learning bits, too – drives my family nuts.
Balaji doesn’t get the Big Lebowski either– he thinks it’s SO boring. But seriously, it’s like WAY up there for me.
The dude abides.