Films – Page 3 – The Dilettante's Field Manual

Using Reversal?

I’m still thinking about last week’s excellent New Yorker article on screenwriter/directory Tony Gilroy. What sticks in my mind is the notion of “the reversal.” According to the article, this is a well-used film convention. I’ve never heard the term, but then I didn’t go to film school and I’ve never read any books onContinue reading “Using Reversal?”

Astrakan’s new film, An American Affair, opens this week in select cities

For more information: http://www.screenmediafilms.net/americanaffair/ OPENING FEBRUARY 27 New York City Landmark Sunshine 143 East Houston St. New York, NY (212) 330-8182 Washington, DC Landmark E Street 555 11th Street NW Washington, DC 20004 (202) 452-7672 OPENING MARCH 6 Los Angeles Laemmle Sunset 5 8000 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, 90046 323-848-3500 OPENING MARCH 13 Boston LandmarkContinue reading “Astrakan’s new film, An American Affair, opens this week in select cities”

Screenwriting Lab at Sundance now taking apps

The application for the Jan. 2010 Sundance Screenwriters Lab is now available online.

Blasphemy, hubris and naïveté

I’m mulling over a pair of films I watched this weekend, Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, which I saw all the way through for the first time, and Sean Penn’s version of the Krakauer book Into the Wild. Both were brilliant films for different reasons, and too much has been written about La Dolce Vita forContinue reading “Blasphemy, hubris and naïveté”

When to start

So I’m reading a book on economics and the fall of the Soviet Union last week and one line suddenly jumps out at me. In moments I’m recalling Boris Yeltsin standing on the tank talking about democracy. I still remember the feeling vividly. I’d been thinking of my childhood years in West Berlin and whatContinue reading “When to start”

Thoreau, iPhones and moving pictures

“We are the tools of our tools,” or so Henry David Thoreau famously said. It’s true. As a species, our single greatest flaw is our obsession with inanimate objects. How many folks died for the shiny yellow metal stuff? What about blood diamonds? How many newspapers did we deliver so we could buy that RedContinue reading “Thoreau, iPhones and moving pictures”

Food in film

I’m in the fog that creeps in after I finish a script, when you wonder what to do next. Of course rewriting is a good idea, but then it also makes sense to get a little distance. I guess I could clean the garage and change the oil before starting the second draft. But insteadContinue reading “Food in film”