For the next few weeks, I'll be sharing my favorite works of art. These are not necessarily my answers to "What is the best movie/tv show/song ,etc.?" They merely represent some of my favorite pieces that, perhaps, have shaped me. Now, I share them with you.
Favorite Film:
2001: A Space Odyssey
If Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is the greatest narrative film of all time, then Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is the greatest non-linear film—which, to me, makes it a candidate for the greatest period. Adapted from Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “The Sentinel,” 2001 was a major leap forward in terms of special effects in the film industry, but it is so much more. When I first saw it, I remember crying for at least an hour after the ending. While some find it impenetrable or emotionless, I found it (to use a phrase by Kubrick’s widow) a compelling “agnostic prayer." 2001 was the first film that I felt was on par with the great poems, the great novels, the great works of visual art. Perhaps it even made cinema surpass all those forms.
Favorite Short Film:
Premonition Following an Evil Deed
While I think most would agree the 1995 experiment Lumiere and Company was a hit-and-miss effort, there are few that would argue that the finest piece included was David Lynch’s Premonition Following an Evil Deed, a near perfect melding of classical filmmaking style and his own unique imagination. Lumière and Company was a project in which contemporary filmmakers such as Spike Lee, Peter Greenaway, and Michael Haneke produced shorts with the camera invented by the Lumiere Brothers, who gave us some of the earliest films, including L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat. The projects had to be no longer than 52 seconds with no synchronized sound and shot in no more than three takes. Lynch’s film might as well be a condensation of his entire oeuvre—a frightening meditation on the distress of one of his many tragic heroines.
Favorite Animated Film:
Spirited Away
There are few movies that completely transport you to a different world. Animated films, while asking the most of us in terms of suspension of disbelief, achieve the goal of transportation more often than not. While I would be lying if I said Disney films weren’t my favorite animated motion pictures overall, I would also be lying if I denied this film the top spot. I’m not a undiscerning fan of Japanese animation, but when there are ones I like, they usually rival my favorite films—whether they be live action or animation. Spirited Away is a startling and beautiful film—one of the few pieces of art that takes its cue from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but top Carroll’s classic. There is nothing to do when watching the film—you just sit back in awe and allow it to work over you.
Favorite Screenplay:
Short Cuts
Screenplays are famously overlooked as significant works of art in themselves because they are sandcastles ready to be washed over on the beaches of the directors and the money-men. They are merely blueprints for what may or may not arise in the course of filmmaking. In this spirit, the most famous maker of films like sandcastles—Robert Altman—has to be singled out for his sprawling and majestic work with Frank Barhydt on adapting nine Raymond Carver stories and one poem for the film Short Cuts. A typical Altman film might completely side-step a screenplay or may change it with improvisation and behavioral reverie. In the case of Short Cuts, a screenplay was necessary to layer the mosaic of Southern California life and the terse-tongued broken souls who populate what is arguably Altman's finest film. After having made nearly one film a year from 1970 to 1992, Altman was more than prepared for the work. In its published form, Short Cuts is a marvel of technical craft and a great place to start reading for any budding scriptwriter.
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