With a Little Help from Their Friends Kate Mossman on the Artists Whocoveredthebeatles

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

With a Little Help from Their Friends Kate Mossman on the Artists Whocoveredthebeatles Friday September 11 2009 ...with a little help from their friends Kate Mossman on the artists whocoveredtheBeatles ‘Men run the studios and live their own fantasies through them’ Meryl Streep skewers Hollywood sexism. By Tim Teeman THETIMESFridaySeptember112009 THETIMESFridaySeptember112009 66 times2 times2 67 RETNA PHOTOSHOT tion.” She’s the most nominated? “Yes, I’ve Worstjournalisticfauxpas lostit 13times!” Next, her voice features as Mrs Fox in Twomembers ofthepresssharethis We all respond Wes Anderson’s animated adaptation of award.Thefirst istheAmericanreporter Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr Fox, which whoassumedthatLourdes,abeautifully to instinct, and opens the Times BFI London Film Festival observed filmseton aCatholicpilgrimage, ‘‘ next month. “He’s very demanding,” wasaboutMadonna’sdaughter.Theother their inner boy Streep says of Anderson. “He hears every- istheAustraliantelevisionjournalistwho thing, even a quasi-breath. It’s almost like acquiredTildaSwinton’sfestivalaccredit- goes, ‘Yeah, I he’stasting,tasting, tasting . ‘Right, that’s ationpassandworeit forseveralhours wanna see enough salt’. It was more like working with untilsomebodypointedout themistake. a composer, like he was hearing music Bestuseofreptiles another GI Joe’ inside his head and you couldn’t hear it.” WernerHerzog’s BadLieutenant:Portof Later in the year she appears in a post- CallNewOrleansisa shambolicmessof a divorce comedy, It’s Complicated. The moviebutithasa coupleofmomentsof Norma Desmond role in the remake of madgenius.Themostmemorable ofthese Sunset Boulevard is still for the taking. iswhenNicCage,playingtheeponymous sadness for herself. Streep says, “There are “Ooh, yeeessss. It would be fun. But my rogue cop,startstohallucinate ascocaine big expectations a woman has for her life. friend Glenn [Close] really knocked it out psychosis kicksin. “Whatarethose All the script said was ‘I’m so happy’. I of the park with that on Broadway so I iguanasdoingonmycoffeetable?”he ’’thought,‘Let’sseehowhappysheis’.” think she’ll have first shot.” She smiles. “I barks.Despitebeingreassured thatthere Streep does this, endowing her charac- thinkwehavetobea little bitgenerousand areno lizardsin theroom, Cage’seyekeeps ters with quirks beyond the script. Some- spreadit around.I’vehadalotof work.” driftingtothetablewhere theiguanas times you cringe, most of the time the squat,implacableandprehistoric.Herzog Meryl-isms feel right, stealing scenes, add- treep disagrees that her wasgenerousin hispraiseforthereptiles, ing a layer, packing a punch. Streep said roles have become lighter. describingthemashisfavouritethingin that the movie was liberating because “the “Prada wasn’t fun to play; it thewholefilm. usual things actresses think about — how was like I had mercury in Bestredcarpetappearancebya they look, what they wear, their hair — my mouth. Before that I did controversial head of state were jettisoned. To look over and see the Mother Courage on stage, man she loved looking at her with adora- which in your wildest TheVenezuelanPresidentHugoChávez tion, compassion, understanding and dreams could not be wasin towntosupport OliverStone’s respect was great to her.” Streep says that Sdescribed ascomedy.Idon’t documentarySouthofthe Border,of which the critics may carp that no husband could have a production com- Chávezisthemainsubject. Theliberal be as supportive of his wife’s career, “but pany. I don’t have anybody directing my VeniceFilm Festival audienceembraced Paul had had a life before Julia, he had lost career, it just depends on what scripts thefilm enthusiastically anditsstar was a much-loved partner. They met when he come.IfIlikethemIdothem.” Hugo Chávez bathes in adulation on the Venice red carpet greetedon theLidobysupporterswaving was50andlookingforsomeonewonderful So,whatnext?“Sevenmoviesin twoand hugebannerssportinga messageof andreal andJuliawaswhohe found.” a half years,” she says quietly. “I’ve never welcome.However,afew dissenting Streepwasrecentlydescribedasanecono- worked this hard ever.” Is she exhausted? voicessuggested thatChávez’spresence mist’s dream: every project she has recently “Yes. I’m feeling like I need a break. This is Venice isn’t onthered carpetmighthavebeenan been associated with has generated big box not the most fun part,” she says indicating indicationthatStone’squestions weren’t office. “It’s hilarious,” she says, stroking her the hotel room. “The most fun part is mak- tough enough. chin. “I wish I could figure out a way to capi- ing the movies, the prospect of selling Bestcomebackbya disgraced taliseonthat. Ithinkit’saseriesofhappyco- threeinarowis . .harder.Sellinghasmore sinking shock! formerchildren’sentertainer incidences and also that there are more to do with wardrobe and shoes and clean- women in the hierarchy of movie-making ing upandbeing presentable.” RememberPaulReubens?Betterknown and movie-financing and they are more in- Has she ever considered giving up act- The Venice Film Festival is alive, asthecreepyman-child Pee-weeHerman, terested and less afraid of making movies ing? “No,” she says, snorting at the idea. Reubens wascast into theouterdarkness thatappealtootherwomen.” “But I do need enforced rest in my career. well and still throwing up acts of intheearlyNinetiesafterbeingcaught But this is a well-worn trend now. Hasn’t When each of my children was born I took masturbatinginapornographycinema in Hollywood woken up? “It’s always a shock a year off. It’s very nice to have time to live, happy lunacy, reports Wendy Ide Florida.His careerrehabilitationgetsa to the studio,” Streep says with real firm- gather experiences, watch other people.” seriousboostfromhisappearanceinLife Why don’t Hollywood’s men trust women? ness,“becausemenrunthestudiosandlive Sheoncetoldmethatsheeavesdroppedon DuringWartime,ToddSolondz’swidely hata their own fantasies through them. It’s conversations in restaurants, listened to turnaround. admiredquasi-sequeltohis1998hit, harder for a man to jump inside a woman accents, let them “marinate”.“Yes, I do it so Whilelast Happiness.Reubens isspoton astheghost character’s mind and imagine, ‘This could much, I can barely keep my ears on what Tim Teeman year’sVenice oftheunhinged formerboyfriendof Joy, ‘Women’s films’ make money but, Meryl Streep tells , macho executives can’t think female happen to me’ than it is for a woman to Don is saying. He tells me: ‘Don’t do that, filmfestival played byShirleyHenderson. imagine herself as a male character.” But it’ssoembarrassing’,”shelaughs. rumbledwith he hotel suite is so Woman, shawled on Lyme Regis Cobb, to a was navarin d’agneau. The boeuf bourgui- surely the profits count? “They see it and “I like observing behaviour and what Best-receivedfilm discontent blank — one empty zealous nun in Doubt, and a capricious gnon was a close second.” Did it improve they understand that there is a market and catches the eye, what makes us read each W Lourdeshasmetwithuniversalsupport about room, the other with hippy mother in Mamma Mia! In her latest Streep’s cooking? “The vote at home [hus- it will make them an enormous amount of other so closely. Ever since movies began anddeservedlyso—thefilmisexquisite, everythingfrom thelamentable standard a regal chair and a transformation she is Julia Child, the first bandof more than30 years, Don Gummer, money, but we all respond to instinct and we have read each other more closely.” She blendingasardonichumourwith ofthecompetitionfilmsto thelackof star sofa — Meryl Streep popular American TV cook, in Nora Eph- four children] is yes. I’ve learnt not to rush. it’s their inner boy that jumps up and goes: makes a frame to her face. “The pores. The compassionatehumanism.SylvieTestud powerto thepriceof asandwich,themood briefly considers my ron’sfilm Julie&Julia(seereview,page14). I’m snobby about the equipment. The pan ‘Yeah,IwannaseeanotherGIJoe’.” fashion for photography that goes into isoutstandingasthewheelchair-bound thisyearhas beenbuoyant. suggestion that we The film follows the real-life story of a does matter. I got my stove recalibrated to A recent article speculated that Streep Gordon Brown’s nostrils and tear ducts . MSsuffererwhoregainstheuseof her conduct the next half food blogger, Julie Powell, as she attempts correct the flames. I got my knives sharp- may be up for another Oscar nomination we see so deeply into each other, even as What’schanged?Thefestivalorganisers limbsafterapilgrimage. hour as a perform- to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s Mastering ened. I had to unlearn onion chopping. this year; a source said that the our understanding seems shallower and haveworkedhard to address asmanyof T theconcernsaspossible,butkeytothetide Worstaudiencestamina ance art piece. I’ll theArtofFrenchCookingin365days,along- One wrong move and I would have lost a organisation had noted a dearth of strong shallower. To see deeply you have to look stand in the bathroom, she can sit on the side the parallel story of Child in the 1950s knuckleandwe likeourknuckles.” female roles. “Parts are rare,” Streep says, deeply and feel where you are. You can’t ofgoodwillon theLidoaretherich Everyfestival screeninglosesa few throne while I fire questions at her. We as she masters the cordon bleu cookery Child, Streep says, “was great entertain- “the amount of product is rare. It’s a large just pass through it quickly. Passing pickingsinthefestivalprogramme,both in audiencememberstoboredom,hungeror could lie on the floor. She giggles, tries to thatwasthefoundationofthebookandher ment. She was funny, but only intermitt- machine
Recommended publications
  • Friday 14 February 2020, London. BFI Southbank's TILDA SWINTON
    Friday 14 February 2020, London. BFI Southbank’s TILDA SWINTON season, programmed in partnership with the performer and filmmaker herself, will run from 1 – 18 March 2020, celebrating the extraordinary, convention-defying career of one of cinema’s finest and most deft chameleons. The BFI today announce that a number of Swinton’s closest collaborators will join her on stage during the season to speak about their work together including Wes Anderson (Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom), Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer, Okja), Sally Potter (Orlando) and Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir, Caprice). Also announced today is Tilda Swinton’s Film Equipment (28 February – 26 April) a free exhibit to accompany the season which has been curated in close collaboration with BFI and Swinton’s personal archive. Alongside a programme of feature film screenings, shorts and personal favourites, the season will include Tilda Swinton in Conversation with host Mark Kermode on 3 March, during which Swinton will look back on her wide- reaching career as a performer across independent and Hollywood cinema, as well as producer, director and general ally of maverick free spirits everywhere. On the same evening will be Tilda Swinton and Wes Anderson on stage: A Magical Tour of Cinema – a unique chance to hear from two of the most fervent disciples of the church of make believe, as Swinton and Anderson take to the BFI stage to discuss their many collaborations and their film passions. The event will offer a glimpse into their intimate partnership as the two long-time co-conspirators and voracious cinephiles select and explore personal favourite gems from throughout cinema’s history.
    [Show full text]
  • Falling in Love
    Falling In Love or all of the 1984 trappings, interesting to read them – it’s al- As occasionally happens, sev- Falling in Love is a throw- most as if they just did not want eral wonderful cues went un- Fback to 1940s and 1950s to give a great review because used in the film, most notably films like Brief Encounter and An they felt the film was beneath Grusin’s main title theme, which Affair to Remember, complete its stars – they begrudgingly was replaced with an already with two stars (Robert De Niro and halfheartedly say it’s good, existing Grusin piece, “Moun- and Meryl Streep), a meet-cute, damning it with faint praise. tain Dance” (tracked into the a budding romance no matter film several times). For this how hard the protagonists try to But because this kind of film world premiere release, we’re avoid it (both have settled into has basically gone the way of presenting Grusin’s entire routine marriages), and the ins the dodo bird, looked at now its score, including the original and outs and ups and downs of pleasures are many. At times main theme and all of the un- two people who are, yes, falling funny, at times rueful, at times used cues, exactly as he wrote in love. beautifully romantic, at times it, all transferred from the origi- sad, and at times painful, Falling nal session masters housed in De Niro had already done The in Love hits all the right notes the Paramount vault. Deer Hunter with Streep, and and weaves its spell quite effort- he’d also worked with direc- lessly.
    [Show full text]
  • Novel to Novel to Film: from Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway to Michael
    Rogers 1 Archived thesis/research paper/faculty publication from the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s NC DOCKS Institutional Repository: http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/unca/ Novel to Novel to Film: From Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway to Michael Cunningham’s and Daldry-Hare’s The Hours Senior Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For a Degree Bachelor of Arts with A Major in Literature at The University of North Carolina at Asheville Fall 2015 By Jacob Rogers ____________________ Thesis Director Dr. Kirk Boyle ____________________ Thesis Advisor Dr. Lorena Russell Rogers 2 All the famous novels of the world, with their well known characters, and their famous scenes, only asked, it seemed, to be put on the films. What could be easier and simpler? The cinema fell upon its prey with immense rapacity, and to this moment largely subsists upon the body of its unfortunate victim. But the results are disastrous to both. The alliance is unnatural. Eye and brain are torn asunder ruthlessly as they try vainly to work in couples. (Woolf, “The Movies and Reality”) Although adaptation’s detractors argue that “all the directorial Scheherezades of the world cannot add up to one Dostoevsky, it does seem to be more or less acceptable to adapt Romeo and Juliet into a respected high art form, like an opera or a ballet, but not to make it into a movie. If an adaptation is perceived as ‘lowering’ a story (according to some imagined hierarchy of medium or genre), response is likely to be negative...An adaptation is a derivation that is not derivative—a work that is second without being secondary.
    [Show full text]
  • Smoothing the Wrinkles Hollywood, “Successful Aging” and the New Visibility of Older Female Stars Josephine Dolan
    Template: Royal A, Font: , Date: 07/09/2013; 3B2 version: 9.1.406/W Unicode (May 24 2007) (APS_OT) Dir: //integrafs1/kcg/2-Pagination/TandF/GEN_RAPS/ApplicationFiles/9780415527699.3d 31 Smoothing the wrinkles Hollywood, “successful aging” and the new visibility of older female stars Josephine Dolan For decades, feminist scholarship has consistently critiqued the patriarchal underpinnings of Hollywood’s relationship with women, in terms of both its industrial practices and its representational systems. During its pioneering era, Hollywood was dominated by women who occupied every aspect of the filmmaking process, both off and on screen; but the consolidation of the studio system in the 1920s and 1930s served to reduce the scope of opportunities for women working in off-screen roles. Off screen, a pattern of gendered employment was effectively established, one that continues to confine women to so-called “feminine” crafts such as scriptwriting and costume. Celebrated exceptions like Ida Lupino, Dorothy Arzner, Norah Ephron, Nancy Meyers, and Katherine Bigelow have found various ways to succeed as producers and directors in Hollywood’s continuing male-dominated culture. More typically, as recently as 2011, “women comprised only 18% of directors, executive producers, cinematographers and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films” (Lauzen 2012: 1). At the same time, on-screen representations came to be increasingly predicated on a gendered star system that privileges hetero-masculine desires, and are dominated by historically specific discourses of idealized and fetishized feminine beauty that, in turn, severely limit the number and types of roles available to women. As far back as 1973 Molly Haskell observed that the elision of beauty and youth that underpins Hollywood casting impacted upon the professional longevity of female stars, who, at the first visible signs of aging, were deemed “too old or over-ripe for a part,” except as a marginalized mother or older sister.
    [Show full text]
  • MERYL STREEP: on the COUCH Author Dr
    MERYL STREEP: ON THE COUCH Author Dr. Alma H. Bond 4095 Primrose Drive, Allentown, Pa 18104 [email protected] (717) 944-5195 (786) 301-4035 (cell) http://almabondauthor.com Skype Address: [email protected] Publisher Bruce L. Bortz Bancroft Press (one of the top ten independent book publishers in America since 1991) PO Box 65360 Baltimore, MD 21209 410-358-0658 410-627-0608 (cell) [email protected] www.bancroftpress.com Title Info Meryl Streep: On the Couch Alma H. Bond, Ph.D. Hardcover: 978-1-61088-499-0 Ebook: 978-1-61088-501-0 Length: 248 pages Pub Date: December 7, 2019 Celebrity Biography Distributor Baker & Taylor Publisher Services (the premier worldwide distributor of books, digital content, and entertainment products from approximately 25,000 suppliers to over 20,000 customers in 120 countries): 30 Amberwood Parkway Ashland, OH 44805. Publisher Info • Been a top-ten indie since its start in 1992 • Publishes 4-6 books a year • Distributed nationally by Baker & Taylor Publisher Services • Frontlist and backlist titles represented in Hollywood by APA (Agency for the Performing Arts) • Publishes almost all types of books, from memoirs to mysteries, young adult novels to history and biography • Bancroft books have received numerous starred reviews—four, in fact, for two 2018 summer books— and have won numerous awards • The Missing Kennedy, a NYT ebook bestseller, was on the cover of People Magazine when published in 2015 • Recent mystery (Her Kind of Case) received star reviews from all but one of trade review publications • Published the books of two Pulitzer Prize winners (Alice Steinbach, Stephen Hunter) 1 OVERVIEW Meryl Streep is a Hollywood icon, a political activist, a twenty-time Oscar-nominated actress, and a mystery.
    [Show full text]
  • Film London Jarman Award 2020 Film London Jarman Award 2020 Shortlisted Artists
    Film London Jarman Award 2020 Film London Jarman Award 2020 Shortlisted Artists Michelle Williams Gamaker Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings Jenn Nkiru Project Art Works Larissa Sansour Andrea Luka Zimmerman Jury About the Jarman Award Iwona Blazwick OBE The Film London Jarman Award Director, Whitechapel Gallery recognises and supports artists working with moving image Shaminder Nahal and celebrates the spirit of Commissioning Editor (Arts and experimentation, imagination and Factual), Channel 4 innovation in the work of UK-based artist filmmakers. The Award is Hetain Patel, Artist, winner of inspired by visionary filmmaker Jarman Award 2019 Derek Jarman, and is presented in partnership with the Whitechapel Tyrone Walker-Hebborn Gallery and Genesis Cinema. Director, Genesis Cinema The previous Jarman Award Andrea Lissoni winners are: Luke Fowler (2008), Artistic Director, Haus der Kunst Lindsay Seers (2009), Emily Wardill and Film London Board Member (2010), Anja Kirschner & David Panos (2011), James Richards Chaired by Film London Artists’ (2012), John Smith (2013), Ursula Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) Mayer (2014), Seamus Harahan (2015), Heather Phillipson (2016) Oreet Ashery (2017), Daria Martin (2018) and Hetain Patel (2019). Welcome Film London Jarman Award Patrons With the impact of COVID-19 being felt so deeply by artists This year we are delighted to announce an esteemed group of and exhibitors, we are more proud than ever to present this of artists, actors, screenwriters and musicians as the new Film year’s Jarman Award shortlist and help raise the profile of this London Jarman Award Patrons. important body of original work, that questions and articulates the world around us. We would like to congratulate all the shortlisted artists and thank our funders, Arts Council England, as well as returning partners Whitechapel Gallery and Genesis Cinema for all their vital support.
    [Show full text]
  • Set in Scotland a Film Fan's Odyssey
    Set in Scotland A Film Fan’s Odyssey visitscotland.com Cover Image: Daniel Craig as James Bond 007 in Skyfall, filmed in Glen Coe. Picture: United Archives/TopFoto This page: Eilean Donan Castle Contents 01 * >> Foreword 02-03 A Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire 04-07 B Argyll & The Isles 08-11 C Ayrshire & Arran 12-15 D Dumfries & Galloway 16-19 E Dundee & Angus 20-23 F Edinburgh & The Lothians 24-27 G Glasgow & The Clyde Valley 28-31 H The Highlands & Skye 32-35 I The Kingdom of Fife 36-39 J Orkney 40-43 K The Outer Hebrides 44-47 L Perthshire 48-51 M Scottish Borders 52-55 N Shetland 56-59 O Stirling, Loch Lomond, The Trossachs & Forth Valley 60-63 Hooray for Bollywood 64-65 Licensed to Thrill 66-67 Locations Guide 68-69 Set in Scotland Christopher Lambert in Highlander. Picture: Studiocanal 03 Foreword 03 >> In a 2015 online poll by USA Today, Scotland was voted the world’s Best Cinematic Destination. And it’s easy to see why. Films from all around the world have been shot in Scotland. Its rich array of film locations include ancient mountain ranges, mysterious stone circles, lush green glens, deep lochs, castles, stately homes, and vibrant cities complete with festivals, bustling streets and colourful night life. Little wonder the country has attracted filmmakers and cinemagoers since the movies began. This guide provides an introduction to just some of the many Scottish locations seen on the silver screen. The Inaccessible Pinnacle. Numerous Holy Grail to Stardust, The Dark Knight Scottish stars have twinkled in Hollywood’s Rises, Prometheus, Cloud Atlas, World firmament, from Sean Connery to War Z and Brave, various hidden gems Tilda Swinton and Ewan McGregor.
    [Show full text]
  • Hungary International Film Guide
    134 | HUNGARY INTERNATIONAL FILM GUIDE Hungary John Cunningham s hinted at in last year’s review, the Hungarian film industry has been Athrough some serious problems in the last twelve months or so. The Hungarian Parliament, where Viktor Orbán’s right wing FIDESZ party holds a 68 per cent majority, has drastically cut funding for the Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation, some sources stating that the cuts are as much as 80 per cent. This has resulted in many film projects being cancelled or, at best put on hold. Kornél Mundruzcó’s Tender Son – The Frankenstein Project The worst hit were those productions already underway when the news was announced and When the 42nd Hungarian Film Week finally it is rumoured that as many as forty produc- took place in May it was a much pared-down tions, at various stages of development, have affair with relatively few films on offer and of stalled and are unlikely to resume. Some pro- these only a handful were worthy of comment. ducers and backers have been left with large It was significant that two of the main films debts, which they are unable to repay. One of screened, Kornél Mundruzcó’s Tender Son – the casualties of this process was the annual The Frankenstein Project (Szelid teremetés Hungarian Film Week, usually held in late – a Frankenstein terv) and Ágnes Kocsis’s January/early February, which was postponed. Adrienn Pál (Pál Adrienn), had been released the previous year. The former walked off with Andy Vajna, the former Hollywood-based the Best Director award while the latter won producer of Rambo and The Terminator, has Best Film.
    [Show full text]
  • Bafta Los Angeles
    Sponsorship Opportunities BAFTA LOS ANGELES THE BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM AND TELEVISION ARTS SUPPORTS, DEVELOPS AND PROMOTES THE ART FORMS OF THE MOVING IMAGE BY IDENTIFYING AND REWARDING EXCELLENCE, INSPIRING PRACTITIONERS AND BENEFITING THE PUBLIC. As the only Anglo-American professional organization founded to promote and advance original work in film, television and interactive media, The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles serves as a link between the Hollywood and British production and entertainment business communities. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ A California non-profit public benefit corporation, BAFTA Los Angeles is a local organization with a global reach. As the L.A. branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, headquartered in London, we represent not only our 1,200 members, but the full 6,500 Academy members based in the United Kingdom, New York and Los Angeles. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Membership in the Academy is both highly sought after and highly exclusive – applicants must be proposed and seconded by existing Academy members and thus represent the very top professionals in their various fields; from award winning writers, actors and directors, to key managers, network and studio executives and agents. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ We host stellar parties and awards
    [Show full text]
  • Charlie Kaufman
    7+(3+,/2623+<2) &+$5/,(.$8)0$1 Edited by David LaRocca THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY LaRocca Kaufman book.indb 3 12/15/2010 8:45:12 AM &+$5/,(.$8)0$16&5((1:5,7(5 K. L. Evans Does the !lm Adaptation, written by Charlie Kaufman and featuring a protagonist named Charlie Kaufman, chronicle Charlie Kaufman’s actual experience? Is it memoir? Undoubtedly the predicament that so overtaxes the character Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage), his great e"ort to fashion meditative journalism into a feature !lm, is analogous to the di#cult, unpleasant, and embarrassing situation the real Charlie Kaufman !nds himself in. Before it becomes the stu" of his !ction, Kaufman has in fact been hired to adapt for the screen Susan Orlean’s !e Orchid !ief, and in his imaginative rendering of this event a writer’s false starts, his confusion about the nature of his project, are truthfully depicted. In evidence, too, is something of Kaufman’s own morti!cation about his professional position or standing—hagrin deeper than that occasioned by obligation, by his having accepted an advance for work he said he could do.1 For Kaufman, taking on the orchid script means confronting a problem bigger than the task at hand. If he is going to continue to exist as a Hollywood screenwriter, if he’s going to survive or remain relevant in the economically driven moviemaking “industry,” he must show why imaginative writing (even—or especially—in !lms, where the temptation to think otherwise is great) doesn’t merely re$ect or transcribe Reality—why a writer is someone who keeps his audience in the a"ecting atmosphere of an event whose reference is not !xed.2 Kaufman is charged, or feels charged, with making viewers formally aware of the puz- zling character of !ction.
    [Show full text]
  • Psychology and Adaptation: the Work of Jerome Bruner
    LINGUACULTURE 1, 2014 PSYCHOLOGY AND ADAPTATION: THE WORK OF JEROME BRUNER LAURENCE R AW Baúkent University, Ankara, Turkey Abstract This article offers a view as to why Jerome Bruner should become an important figure in future constructions of adaptation theory. It will be divided into three sections. In the first, I discuss in more detail his notions of transformation, paying particular attention to the ways in which we redefine ourselves to cope with different situations (as I did while visiting two specific museums in Vienna and Samos). The second will examine Bruner’s belief in the power of narrative or storytelling as ways to impose order on the uncertainties of life (as well as one’s expectations from it) that renders everyone authors of their own adaptations. In the final section I suggest that the capacity for “making stories” (Bruner’s term) assumes equal importance in psychological terms as it does for the screenwriter or adapter: all of us construct narratives through a process of individual distillation of experiences and information, and subsequently refine them through group interaction. Through this process we understand more about ourselves and our relationship to the world around us. I elaborate this notion through a brief case-study of Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay for the film Adaptation (2002). Keywords: psychology, adaptation, collaboration, storytelling To date most work on adaptation has focused on the film-media studies- literature paradigm. Even though we have moved away from hackneyed questions of fidelity towards intertextuality and/or the ways the adaptive act is shaped by industrial and other cultural concerns, there is still a reluctance to acknowledge other constructions of adaptation.
    [Show full text]
  • From Novel to Film
    FROM NOVEL TO FILM AUTHOR MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM ON THE HOURS I may be the only living American novelist who is entirely happy with what Hollywood has done to his novel. I naturally feel slightly embarrassed about that. I worry that if I were a more substantial person, I’d be outraged. And yet, they did a remarkable job. I felt good about the movie from the beginning, when Scott Rudin told me that David Hare was interested in writing the screenplay. I find that, unlike many novelists, I don’t feel much allegiance to the "sacred text". A novel, any novel, I write is neither more nor less than the best I could do right then with those characters and situations. Five or more years later, I’d surely write the book differently. If I’m fortunate enough to find that someone gifted and intelligent, "someone I respect", wants to turn my story into a movie or an opera or a situation comedy, the only sensible response is to turn it over and see where he or she will take the story, and to hope that I’ll be surprised. I wouldn’t want an entirely faithful adaptation. What would be the fun of that? Before David started writing, I spent a day with him and Stephen Daldry, the director, in London. We talked for hours about the characters’ lives outside the scope of the book: How did Clarissa and Sally meet? Had Richard been an AIDS activist? If Laura were to truly consider taking her own life, what means would she use? Then, armed with that information, David went to work, very much on his own.
    [Show full text]