THESE IMAGES ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER AND NOT MEANT TO BE EXHAUSTIVE, BUT JUST THINGS THAT CATCH THE EYE & STIR THE HEART.
CATCH HER AT BAM IN NOVEMBER!!
THE ARTIST PAULA WILSON’S SHOW AT 55 WALKER
THE GREAT ACTOR KATI OUTINEN NOW AND THEN
ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL
I’m researching middle-aged romances in cinema. Unusual ones. Anti romantic comedy. I rewatched Fassbinder’s ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL this past weekend. First time I’ve seen it in maybe… 25 years? What a film! The story is so moving and the style a delight. I had forgotten the funny combination of naturalism and artifice in this movie. Time to rewatch ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS and FAR FROM HEAVEN.
LINDA MANZ
I remember being in a video store in the early 90s with a friend. I’m not sure if it was in Providence or Louisville, but I can vividly picture him being three steps in front of me, and I can see his profile as he turned to me excitedly and said, “I really think you’re going to like both these movies. They’re by the same director.” He was holding up VHS sleeves for BADLANDS and DAYS OF HEAVEN. He was right. I was transfixed by both those movies from the first second forward- and I still am today. They're dreamy, beautiful, funny, sad, romantic, mysterious, and inspiring. I could listen to Linda Manz’s voice in Days of Heaven while falling asleep. The sound of her young voice- the actual sound of it- as well as the way she phrases things- makes me feel comforted and hopeful- no matter what she’s describing. She’s like the best friend or sister you want there with you, along for the ride.
I LOVE THESE PAINTINGS BY KATE GOTTGENS
I find myself drawn to the ways that memory, mood, subjectivity, and interior/exterior space are represented in painting, and thinking about how those ways would or wouldn’t translate to filmmaking.
THANK YOU David Berman
NICHOLAS CAGE
I’m starting to think about the next projects, and I want one of them to be unnatural. Strawberry Shake is intimate, natural, minimal. And I learned so much about that type of storytelling and that type of world on film. And now I am curious to revisit stylization in some capacity. I’m not sure where this line of thought will lead, or even if it will definitely come to fruition, but besides the terror of being between projects there is also the joy of total freedom and total possibility that always exists between things. So Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Exhibit A, Nicholas Cage. This morning I stumbled upon an amazing interview with him that is in the New York Times today. Fun and thought-provoking, and oh— he loves Rhode Island? Say no more. I do love well-made darkness/horror, but I’ve been kind of terrified to watch his recent film Mandy. But I might need to start there, then backtrack.
YALITZA APARICIO
SHOPLIFTERS AND ROMA
Today I saw a double feature of Shoplifters at Lincoln Center and Roma at IFC. Both are wonderful, both made me cry. But Roma (image below) really blew me away. So happy I did not watch it on Netflix, but watched it on the big screen. Feeling pretty dreamy from it.
I’M GOING TO TAKE THIS IMAGE FROM CAROL RAMA INTO BATTLE WITH ME… AS WE MAKE STRAWBERRY SHAKE!!
LYNNE RAMSAY, THE ONE AND ONLY
BAM is doing a retrospective of the great Lynne Ramsay from April 2 - April 5... I found out about this late and missed getting tickets to LR's new movie You Were Never Really Here. BUT, I did get tickets to see Movern Callar and her short films… and I’m so excited to see these films on the big screen!
Most films, truthfully, I feel it's fine to see them on my relatively small TV. Of course, it's always just more fun to go out to the movies. Besides the big screen and surround sound, I'm interested in the mood of the other moviegoers, and I like looking over the concession stand selections, even if I rarely buy anything.
But still, with most movies I don't feel it's a crime to see them at home on my TV. I feel I'm getting the gist. But not with Lynne Ramsay.
PAINTINGS BY GRACE METZLER
@gracemetzler
THE GREAT ARGENTINIAN FILMMAKER LUCRECIA MARTEL…
came to the Pratt Film Department tonight. She is really brilliant, and humble, and it was REALLY inspiring to listen to her speak. Please see her films if you haven't!
MARLEE GRACE
Marlee Grace does improv dance and this book is about her dancing every day for a year. Today I'm going to an Improv for Artists class in the city led by Hollis. There's something really appealing to me about improv right now: instinctive, soft.
HITCHCOCK
I'm not a huge Hitchcock fan- at least compared to some. Yes, there are amazing scenes in many of his movies, and yes some of them really get my heart racing. But besides the movies' obvious female trouble, I also love deep characters and imperfectness, so as much as I respect Hitchcock's place in film history and admire his talent, he's not one of my specific inspirations usually. But lately I've been rewatching some of his films and studying his use of the camera and it's really fun and eye-opening. Last night I watched Vertigo-- if you haven't seen it lately, just watch the opening film credit sequence alone-- AMAZING. Tonight I watched Psycho, and I'm thinking about Hitchcock's use of the point of view shot. At the beginning of the movie, he used it incredibly frequently with Marion, to show her POV. The interesting thing was what happened after Marion is murdered in the shower by "Norman's mother." There's a really long sequence where Norman finds Marion dead and is cleaning up the motel room, wrapping Marion's dead body in the shower curtain, dragging the body out to Marion's car, etc. And the POV shot is not used at all during this sequence, even though you think it might be-- for example, to get inside Norman's head as he looks at Marion's dead body and tries to clean up this terrible scene. But finally, at the very tail end of the scene, Hitchcock uses it once: he shows a close-up of Norman's face and then cuts to a POV shot of Marion's car as it sinks slowly into the swamp on the Bates Motel property. So Hitchcock doesn't choose to use the POV shot when Norman is feeling anxious and remorseful as he cleans up the room... he chooses to use it once Norman realizes he has successfully cleaned up the crime, the hint of a malevolent smile on his face as the car sinks into the dark bubbling swamp. Interesting, right?
FAT GIRL
I think the ending of Fat Girl (director Catherine Breillat) is the biggest punch in the face ending I've ever seen in a movie in my life. There must be another movie I'm forgetting that is in this category of surprise endings... but the pure emotional power of this ending was really visceral. At first I was furious and thought it ridiculous and manipulative (and I would've also thought it darkly funny if I hadn't been so mad). But I've since calmed down, and even though I still think the ending's ridiculous and manipulative, I am not unhappy the movie ended this way because it gives me a lot to think about. The first 95% of the movie is really what I'm interested in though, and I'll go back and watch it a second time.
PAINTING BY BATO DUGARZHAPOV
seen at Context New York art fair
Not sure if this is right, but when my eyes hit this painting, I thought it could be the color palette for my new short film Strawberry Shake.
WERNER HERZOG WAS AT PRATT THE PAST 2 DAYS FOR A VISIT
it was beyond inspirational, like the shove in the dark I’ve been needing. I've always been a big fan but have not kept up with all his recent documentaries and haven't seen the older films (which I adore) for a while. Going to go back and watch all my favorites, basically all the films before 1980. He is extremely funny and the way he uses words is so poetic. "You won't learn about the heart of man on the internet," he told the students. It was touching to see him engaging them.
SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN
Driving into work today, I heard the song Sunday Morning Coming Down sung by Johnny Cash. It was written by Kris Kristofferson, and I love the lyrics, but I love JC's performance of it ("And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert.")
There's something about how light and easy the music/vibe is compared with how dark and complex the lyrics are that is really surprising. It takes a person a minute to realize it's not just a jaunty country song, and then when you do realize it, you're in deep.
OTHER PEOPLE
Still below from the movie Other People. I just finished it and just stopped crying so I need to tell you upfront that it is sad.
But it's also amazing, and funny, and one of the most spot-on emotional journeys that I've gone on in quite a while in a movie. There isn't a false moment in this whole movie. Big respect to the writer/director Chris Kelly. Jesse Plemons, my crush from Friday Night Lights, is amazing, and Molly Shannon is amazing.
But you will cry. Just warning you.
PHOTOS BY AMANDA FIELD
IG: @theamandafield url: www.amandafield.com
The 3 below photos were taken by Amanda Field- I love them so much! Something about them is reminding me of my new short film idea, something about them feels like an emotional cousin, even if my film's photographic style ends up being something very different than these.
Making a film is like solving a mystery... you start off with just buried instincts and you unearth them. In the end, it's still mysterious, but also spoken.
ILLUSTRATION BY ALLEGRA LOCKSTADT
I really like these illustrations by artist/designer Allegra Lockstadt and often think about the fact that one thing 2-d visual art (drawings, paintings, etc,) does really well is to evoke emotional states or situations without limiting them or narrowing them down- which leaves a lot of room for the viewer to feel rather than analyze.
Like the girl in this illustration- you can get a sense of what she's feeling from the colors, the mark-making, and the design- and you can guess at a potential context- but it's much less strict than a photographic image.
There are ways in filmmaking to engender this same level of ambiguity, complexity, and suggestion, but the ways are different than in visual art, and less obvious. Film techniques like shallow depth of field in cinematography are perhaps the first things people think of along these lines, but I have been thinking about more personal, less obvious ways.
WRITER LUCIA BERLIN
Thanks Leigh Davis for the recommendation! I’m so happy to have discovered her.
FAR FROM THE NORM’S DANCE PERFORMANCE BLKDOG…
is legit one of the most incredible shows I’ve seen in my life. I saw it this week at the Joyce Theater in NYC, but they’re still on tour! Brilliant, cinematic, thought-provoking, chill-inducing, with so much raw talent and synergy. I’m so happy to know about this group!
RIP TO THE ONE AND ONLY…
GENA ROWLANDS. My favorite favorite. The first time I saw her performance in A Woman Under the Influence I was touched to the core. Her character Mabel is funny, joyful, sexy, goofy, creative, warm, fearless, and insane- all in the same minute. I’m so thankful we have her movies!
I FOUND THIS OLD JANE CAMPION QUOTE SAVED ON MY COMPUTER TODAY
“There are some things that are real, that you can see, that you can observe, like the moon, and grass and things. But for ideas to become real, they have to be played on your senses.”
I’VE SEEN LUCRECIA MARTEL'S THE HOLY GIRL BEFORE…
but somehow on this viewing today I am just so inspired. There’s a fairly classical story conveyed in this movie, but it’s slow to take flight, it’s told elliptically, and the framing, blocking, and sound deepen and complicate it. I adore this young actress (who plays the lead character) and wonder where she is now.
SEE THE SEA
It’s funny how you forget about certain movies, and then when you remember them, years later, you can’t believe you ever forgot them in the first place! Maybe movies like this live in our subconscious and affect our imaginations even though we think we’ve forgotten them. Yesterday in class, when we were talking about one of the student’s scripts, I was reminded of the Francois Ozon movie SEE THE SEA. I saw this in a movie theater in New York in the early 2000s and was blown away. I need to watch it again and see how much of what I remember is true.
FELLOW MISFIT, YOU KNOW I WOULDN’T ORDINARILY DIRECT YOU TO A TED TALK…
but this one by writer Lidia Yuknavitch might make you cry.
JENNIFER PACKER, BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN (BREONNA! BREONNA!), 2020
Artist Jennifer Packer has a solo exhibit at the Whitney Museum from Oct. 30, 2021 - Apr. 17, 2022. I’m really exited to see these paintings in person. Check out this video interview with her on the Whitney website where she talks about process and her ideas about painting/portraiture.
WENDY RED STAR
virtually visited the Pratt Fine Arts Department tonight. The work she presented was so beautiful and her talk very thoughtful. She spoke about her artistic collaboration with her daughter- they worked on projects together all around the country for a few years and then her daughter decided to ‘retire’ at 11 years old LOL. There was something about how much the two of them seemed to learn from each other, as well as how much they learned about their community’s history that was very inspiring.
THE FUTURE LIBRARY PROJECT
I can’t imagine a more perfect project than the Future Library project by Scottish artist Katie Paterson.
PAINTINGS BY REZA SHAFAHI
FILM STILL FROM MATI DIOP’S BRILLIANT FILM ATLANTICS
THIRD GIRL BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
LOVE THE COLORS IN THIS PAINTING BY WENTAO
OLD HABITS DIE HARD
I used to read compulsively as a kid. Many of my childhood memories involve being with my Mom running errands (I was her youngest), and just dropping down, on the floor in the corner of a store, to read. For many years, my love of film and the time I spend watching and making films eclipsed my fiction reading habit. But somehow this past winter, even though I was arguably busier than in years, I decided to read more fiction.
My first book as part of this new habit is My Name is Lucy Barton. Fittingly, my Mother gave it to me. She thought of it because she said I needed something good to read, but not hard to read. She was right- I really like this book. It’s perfect for bedtime as it’s lovely and resonant but not difficult or intimidating. Thanks Mom!
MARLENE DUMAS
"Marlene Dumas is interested in emotions that are often represented in cinema but rarely in contemporary painting. In For Whom the Bell Tolls she used an image of Ingrid Bergman from the film of the same name to convey the experience of sorrow and mourning, through a variety of experimental painting techniques."
from the Tate's website re: the Marlene Dumas retrospective
HOW FICTION WORKS
Thanks to Mike Ryan for recommending this book to me. I got a lot out of it! It's about fiction, but it applies so well to fictional cinema. Not sure if I feel that way because I started out as a fiction writer or if everybody would feel that way. Regardless the book is really smart and thought-provoking without being too dense for casual reading.
MY FIRST MOVIE LUCY JANE
The inspiration today is maybe the below dress, or maybe just the idea of memory, and how powerful it is. I made the dress with Betsy McDonald in Providence, RI in 1993 for the short movie Lucy Jane. Lucy Jane was a collaboration between Betsy and I, and the first movie I ever tried to make. I had no idea how to make a movie-- but that didn't deter me.
At that time, it didn't deter us that we didn't know how to make a movie, play guitar, etc. We made things with our friends, we had fun making them, and they weren't for sale. Classic DIY spirit of the 90s.
The dress was worn by my sister Sue... in the scene that Sue wears this dress, she bumps into her dead best friend, whose name is Lucy Jane. We never finished this movie (of course). For years I regretted that. But now I just see it as a natural part of things. Still though, whenever I am reminded of Lucy Jane or see an image from it I get a very particular kind of feeling. Not just nostalgic-- but hopeful. And today randomly coming into contact with this image on the web was inspiring.
I'VE SPENT THE PAST MONTH IN RI AT THE RISD LIBRARY
doing research for Strawberry Shake. They have an incredible art photography collection. A huge thank you to them! The images below are some of the ones I found…
LEE FRIEDLANDER
SALLY MANN
VIVIAN MAIER
PAINTNGS BY VERA ILLIATOVA
currently up at Tibor de Nagy Gallery
LOVED MOONLIGHT
So pumped for this team that they won the Oscar for Best Picture!
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
from the Women’s March in DC!
TODAY I FINALLY MADE IT TO THE PIPILOTTI RIST EXHIBIT AT THE NEW MUSEUM…
The show's about to close and it was really crowded, so in true New York style, it was a little like going to a trance show in the middle of Times Square. I wish I'd had a longer more concentrated time with each piece. But what I saw/heard I really enjoyed. Maybe it's just in contrast to the current political landscape, but there was something so optimistic and soothing about it all. I was especially inspired by her latest work, a fragment of which is pictured below. Videos projected on multiple silk pieces hanging from the ceiling created a 3-D experience and seemed to mirror the fragmented, layered way the brain makes sense of experience.
THIS COLOR PINK…
is really killing me lately. How to infuse a mostly natural movie (in terms of plot, approach) with this kind of sensory intensity?
HOSPITALITY
Today I was flying home from Kansas City. I visited my friend Lyn Elliot there and played with her adorable son and we talked about filmmaking a fair bit. The plane ride was bumpy, but pleasant- I'd had fun but it was Sunday and I was glad to be going home.
I listened to some music-- particularly the band Hospitality-- over and over.
I don't know what it was- but there was something about the bumpy ride and the glow of the visit and the sound of the music that was really inspiring and I made a big leap forward on the new short film I'm working on
. Thanks Lyn! Thanks Hospitality! Thanks sky!
MIRA FROM THE BAND WHITE MAGIC
Always love sleepless girls and girls in long white dresses or nightgowns. Also love the 2D cartoon trees on the photographic background.
WHITE MAGIC AGAIN
RYDER MCNAIR
I found a whistle on my computer today from when composer Ryder McNair and I were trying out music ideas for my short film Pow Pow Pow. I love it so. In the end this particular piece wasn't used in the film, not because it's not beautiful, but because of some subtle tonal thing in relationship to the image that wasn’t totally working. I have been lucky to work with some really great composers/musicians (Ryder, Dean Parker, Will Oldham) and I still think that movie music is amongst the hardest elements of a narrative movie. In other areas of directing you might be able to say, "yes, the character's bedroom is decorated in pink," and point out the exact color. But music is so emotional and complex and mysterious that it's hard to talk about it like that. Still with game composers it's such an amazing, fun, and rewarding process.