My next film

People are asking about my next film, and since a lot of stuff has already been leaked on aintitcool.com, I may as well fill in a few blank spots:

1: The rumors are true, Dakota Fanning will play the Innocent Sister.
We'll need state of the art aging technology, since Dakota is 12, and IS is about 33. But Dakota has stated to Celluloid Magazine: "I am confident that first class acting and a big helping of Suspension of Disbelief on the part of the audience will help us over this hurdle."

2: Bono has pledged to do a song for it.
He says he wants it to be a madrigal. Not an obvious choice for a space opera adventure, but we'll make it work.

3: It will be five hours long.
No intermissions. The audience today don't like being pampered. We'll only sell small drinks in the theatre bar.

4: It will be filmed on mini-DVD and Hi-8.
This will provide a nice contrast with the $40M effects budget.

5: Working title: "A Boy and His Dog".
Charles Schulz' estate has sued us, but we don't think they have a case. Harlan Ellison has not commented.

6: Taking a page from the success of Lord of the Rings (which admittedly I did not care for), we will release the DVD in six different versions, spaced out with two months between them.
The Christmas edition will have everybody in santa hats.

7: Neil Gaiman is working on the script.
I have said to him: "Neil, it is a space opera. No faeries, please!" But we'll see how it turns out.

8: Marlon Brando was supposed to play the hero's long dead father, but it turns out (ironically) that Brando himself is dead.
Our computer animation department is working on a digital version of him, but I want him in his later years, and they are having trouble finding enough pixels to render him.

MuzakDogs

An art video I made a while ago:MuzakDogs (4MB)

White/Red

I thought by now we could use another snow picture.
(One of those I took in March.)

Great weather

Today is finally cool and rainy here in North West England. I love it! Big sigh of relief.

I actually got airconditioning installed a couple of months ago here in the Stobblehouse mansion and business headquarters (aka my apartment). Talk about good timing.

French film

Mixed results so far with French films...

The Dinner of Idiots was very funny.

Innocence: Beautiful, weird, frightening, but ultimate plotless.

Manon Des Sources: Seemed like a good film, and all the actors were great. But... and here is where it all probably falls down: I don't have the patience. I get bored so easily.

L'argent (money), by many considered the final and greatest film by Robert Bresson, I just disliked intensely. Poorly acted, mediocre cinematography, and a downbeat story of escalating hopelessness (based on a Tolstoy story). Hark at Amazon's review, starting thusly: "Robert Bresson always claimed his films are about hope and redemption, but so many end in death or suicide that it's a struggle to reconcile the statement with his films." Yes indeed.

Regarding My Life To Live by Godard...

Anna Karina was just beautiful. (Danish too.)

And the pictures were very nice. Great tones, nice and avant-garde compositions.
The story though was like chinese water torture. People sitting around reading poetry or talking about their feeeeelings.

And one of my biggest pet peeves: the wonderful "high culture" misunderstanding that the way to be profound is to have the good guys die in the end, preferably for no good reason whatsoever. (Other examples: Chinatown and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.) (Not surprisingly all pretty much European productions.) That friggin ticks me off... what kind of message is that?

Alley parties

In a nearby backstreet I often walk through, I sometimes have seen used rubbers. And today this was on display. I wonder what goes on at night there?

Jennifer Beals

Jennifer Beals. Flashdance. The L Word. 43 years old. Oh man.

Euthanasia

As I suspected, once I mentioned euthanasia in a forum, discussion really took off. Not exactly an easy subject.

Apologizing

"It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them."
-- P. G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs (1914)

... There is some truth to this, for sure. And it is certainly possible to be too apologetic. And if one finds one needs to apologize really frequently, one has better look at what behavior patterns one needs to amend!

But: I find that an apology can be really handy in two conditions: One is when one honestly has f***ed up. Own up to it, and apologize. It really makes a difference to the person one has wronged.
And another is when one is locked in conflict with another person, and there is a lot of unclarity as to who is right and wrong. This can be a complex picture, and can further be obfuscated by high emotions. And I find occasionally that if you press on, you may ruin a friendship. So it can be better to just swallow your pride and think to yourself: I may be right here, but I am not sure, and ultimately it is not important, and just say: "You are right, I am sorry."

I admit none of these things are easy. We all have pride.
And of course it is important not to let people walk all over you.
Some things take a lot of judgement.

Ted Orland photography

I knew Ted Orland had written excellent books, but I'd never taken a closer look at his photos. I'm glad I did now. See for instance his wonderful pictures with the cheap plastic Holga camera.

Granny Weatherwax

In Terry Pratchett's book series DiscWorld, perhaps my favorite character is Esmarelda "Granny" Weatherwax, the oldest witch in Lancre, and the toughest and most powerful, and in some ways the wisest. She reminds me of myself: a heart that can seem like a rock, but really it is an unpolished diamond. :)

In the book Carpe Jugulum, one of the best, she says that evil is defined as "treating people like things".

... Which I think is very wise.
But perhaps it does not say everything about the matter. The "evilest" people certainly seem to treat people not only like things, but like things they hate!

But I do think that a central point in life, and re good and evil, is the innate desire to let everybody rule their own life, totally. Or the opposite, the wish to control people.

How widespread this is, despite most people being good, is shown in the fact that even in these enlightened times, children are still treated like slaves. (Or things.) They are not citizens under the law, and they don't have control over their own lives.

Jump back?

This always amuses me when I think of it:
Twenty years ago I was standing by a pedestrian crossing, waiting for a green light in a sleepy town in Florida. Next to me was a little old Florida woman with blue hair and inch-thick glasses.
On the opposite corner, 50 meters away, a car suddenly decided to take the corner at speed, on screeching tyres.
This was surprising in that quiet morning, so I exclaimed: "God damn!"
The little old lady apparently was a bit hard of hearing, for she looked up at me through her thick glasses and said in a slow, frail voice:
"Jump back?... Why!?... I'm on the sidewalk!... They don't come on the sidewalk!..."