Archive for the 'Movies' Category

Down with Love starring Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger was recently shown on a local television station here in South Australia. The short review in the television guide attracted my attention. Here was another movie about writers; in fact, both of the main characters are writers.

McGregor plays the part of a popular journalist while Zellweger’s character is a popular writer for women. Set in the 1960s she writes a blockbuster pre-feminism book encouraging women to put career before love. This popularity makes her the target of journalist “Catch” Block (McGregor) who is determined to bring her down. Block is a compulsive womaniser and pursues her relentlessly, all in the cause of writing about her in a scathing way.

The movie contains very little about the process of writing nor comments much about the life of a writer. It focusses almost entirely on the relationship between the two main characters and the two supporting roles.

This is billed as a romantic comedy. I found it to be nothing but a pointless piece of fluff with a few mildly humourous moments. My wife enjoyed it and my daughter said it was hilarious, but I’m not about to rush out and buy the DVD for my collection.

A few days ago I watched the movie “Paris when it sizzles” starring William Holden and Audrey Hepburn. Amazing as it may seem, I cannot recall ever seeing this well known movie before. Why – I cannot explain. If I have seen it, it must have been a long time ago because it was like coming to a movie for the first time.

What a romp.

I haven’t laughed at a movie as much since first seeing “The Gods Must be Crazy.” (I still laugh every time I see that movie and its sequel.) The makers of this movie must have had a ball making it; how the actors kept straight faces using all those cliches that screen writers and directors love so much. Just about every type of movie gets the treatment; from horror through to romance and everything in between. The improbable plot is a tour de farce of moviedom.

Screenwriter:

William Holden plays the part of a screenwriter. He has had months to write the script of a new movie but has frittered away both his time and the advance he was paid. The script is due in two days. So, in desperation, he employs a secretary (and wannabe writer) played by Audrey Hepburn to help type the manuscript.

Unlikely plot:

Between them they concoct a series of preposterously unlikely plots. As the film cuts to each scene they think up, the pace increases until they are finally satisfied with the movie. It is interesting that the act of creating a story is shown vividly in this movie – more so than any other I can remember.

Storyboard Technique:

At the very beginning Holden paces around the room laying out sheet after sheet of paper, each sheet representing another scene, another twist in the story, another problem to be solved. Trouble is – he has absolutely nothing written or drawn on any of the sheets of paper. This storyboard technique is well used in movie production and is increasingly employed by writers.

In this method, the writer adds minimal text or draws quick sketches on each sheet, each piece of paper representing a scene, or chapter or other section of the story. In this way the writer can see a visual representation of the story line, possible problem areas and places where the plot deviates unnecessarily. It is a very valuable technique to use when helping children to write, and is also employed by illustrators of children’s picture books. These days, many authors use sticky labels instead of sheets of paper, rearranging them as they sort out their thoughts and plot ideas.

I recently watched the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” for the first time in many years. In fact, it has been so long since I last saw it, I’d forgotten most of the story line. It was like coming to an old friend and meeting for the first time – or something like that.

Until pointed out by my daughter, I did not realise that the character played by George Peppard was a writer. This seems somewhat incidental to the plot, however. We certainly hear very little about the writing process in the movie, and rarely see him actually writing. Early in the movie, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) observes that he does not even have a ribbon in his typewriter, so he mustn’t be much of a writer. When he does sit at his typewriter I was amused to see him using basically only two fingers. Some writer.

Still, despite the drawbacks, he does have some limited writing success, receiving a cheque for fifty dollars as part of the story. I guess he never felt the urge to take his writing seriously. His wealthy sponsor ensured he rarely had time for actual writing anyway.

Related articles:

• Movies about writers – includes a list of movies.
• Movies about writers: Iris – about the life of Iris Murdoch
• Movies about writers: Shakespeare in Love – about the life of Shakespeare
• Movies about writers: Finding Neverland – about the life of JM Barrie.

The recent movie Finding Neverland (released in 2004) starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet is a somewhat fictionalized version of a part of the life of British writer J.M. Barrie. The movie’s plot is focussed mainly on the friendship the author had with the children of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. It is a moving film about the author’s struggle to maintain his credibility as an author while his marriage is beginning to crumble. At the same time his friendship with the children and their ailing mother brings some lighter, happier moments to his life, and inspires him to write his classic story Peter Pan, the work for which he is best known.

The movie never really deals much with the process of writing except for several scenes where Barrie is shown in the park writing in a notebook. What is understated is Barrie’s ability to take real life situations and use these experiences to fantasize and dream. The young Freddie Highmore as Peter does a superb job as his character struggles to come to terms with the death of his father and his mother’s illness. He is Barrie’s inspiration for the character Peter Pan, the boy who never wanted to grow up.

I found it a strangely moving film. The pace is slow, the dialogue introspective and the atmosphere somewhat moody. It shows very well that, for many writers, their personal lives impact strongly on their writing lives. The oft quoted mantra by teachers of writing, “write what you know” is clearly illustrated through this film as Barrie draws on real life situations to inspire his writing. It also shows the power of dreaming and the potency of using one’s imagination, even in the face of tragedy.

Links: Finding Neverland – the official website, including the trailer.