A Life of Longing and Laforgue - at SF360.org
In honor of the big day today (the 150th Birthday of Jules Laforgue) the folks at the fabulous Bay Area Film site, SF360.org are running a piece that I wrote which is essentially the prologue to my new film project, Grandement Triste.
Here's an excerpt:
Here's an excerpt:
"A lifelong engagement which could even be said to supersede our commitments to friends, family, and lovers. That is how I would characterize our relationships with those certain special touchstone writers and artists whose work shapes our own sense of self, connects us via eloquent craft to the truths we hold most deeply.Please go read the rest HERE.
My verging on Talmudic analysis of Jules Laforgue has been just this kind of lifetime connection. He is always there. Anchor, compass point, North Star of my soul-searching and angst. Even if I have now outgrown some aspects of my original attachment to him, he remains a central muse and inspiration for me."
Comments
I finally saw The Kids are All Right.
I have very mixed feelings about this film, the least of which has to do with the lesbian fucking the MAN.
Like Laurel Canyon, this film suffered from characters written in only two dimensions. I think it is a matter of lazy storytelling that we don't know the characters of Nic and Jules the way we know the kids.
Though the actresses are great artist in their own right, they had absolutely no chemistry.They had about as much chemistry as Tom and Nicole did in Eyes Wide Shut.I would have chosen chemistry over verified and recognized actors.
Instead of Paul just asking them how they met, why doesn't he ask them when they knew they were gay.The answer to this question would have fleshed out the characters and given the later sex scenes some context.Or if you still want to give Jules sexuality mystery and fluidity, why doesn't he ask what made them fall in love. Again, this would have given us a chance to understand this couple. At the end of the film, I found myself pulling for the kids, especially Joni. I really didn't understand, because it wasn't written, why I should want this couple to remain together.
Missed opportunity- instead of having the dinner with the straight couple, why not a lesbian couple.This would have been the perfect opportunity to address the very real fears that lesbians have about anonymous donors and the implication and effects of children being raised w/o their biological fathers.
The lesbian sex scene:OMFG WTF vs the het sex scenes OMFG WTF?!?! Dude,I have no words really. The lesbians who made comments on your piece and Dorothy Snarker's piece are w/i their rights to both be agitated and pissed.To me, having you write that piece was akin to the Bush Administration having Colin Powell make that speech to the United Nations.
I like this film the way I like Go Fish.I really loved parts of it and applaud the film makers intent.It is the final execution that fall short.It is groundbreaking to the extent that:
it's not a coming out story
no one commits suicide
the lesbian doesn't go w/ the guy.
The Kids are All Right is a mainstream movie with lesbians as the main characters.It's a movie that tries to address the meaning of family and longterm relationships.I think some of the dialogue was great and film making was tight. The weaknesses are in the script.