Still in the Dark?

Holy crap!!!  Read THIS at Professor Lawrence Lessig’s blog.

This has screenplay quality – damn, could it make a movie?  Sheesh!

Amazing to me after all these years that Americans don’t vote for people with ethics, nor do they ask questions about things like conflicts of interest…

3:01:24 PM    comment []

Movies:  Lost in La Mancha

Hubby tried last evening to rent a movie we’d both enjoy.  Hey, it’s got Terry Gilliam and Johnny Depp, has to be good, right?

Yeah, it was, but it wasn’t a “movie”…it was a documentary about making a movie.  Or in this case, about NOT making a movie based on Cervantes’ Don Quixote.

This really was fascinating to watch; Terry Gilliam’s creative spirit struggles at work, trying to make a movie with insufficient financing and a highly diverse team of Europeans.   It’s incredible the number of things that went wrong from the time the cameras began to roll on the first day of production.  If I had not seen it for myself, I wouldn’t have believed it.  (Imagine shooting a beautifully lit scene in the desert, only find in mere moments that you’re in an arroyo during a down pour.  Disaster.)

In the end, Gilliam IS the Don himself, tilting at windmills and eventually forced to abandon his dreams of this movie and reckon with reality.  Will this movie ever be made?  Can it be made with the original cast?  Who can say?

Personally, I think Gilliam will have no choice but to look for more financing (probably here in the States, where the 32M that Gilliam had for this move was a drop in the bucket) and both a different lead and a different location.  He needed more money, but no amount of money will overcome the problems created by the choice of lead and location.

I do wonder whether this couldn’t be made in India – it might not be as authentic, but between the need for a hot desert location and the resourcefulness of Bollywood producers, I think Gilliam could pull it off there.

Definitely worth watching, although I’d wait until the rental rate was lower (it’s still a New Release at Blockbuster); it’s more educational than entertaining.  It occurred to me that Gilliam’s insurer tried to recoup monies by making this movie, or that Gilliam was trying to drum up interest for financing a second attempt.  Anybody out there know whether it was Gilliam or the insurer?

Hubby Movie Meter:  Hubby petered out; he found it interesting, but this wasn’t what he thought it was.  Oops.

1:37:47 PM    comment []

Blogglenecked

After reading all that blog content yesterday, I’m stoggered.  Nothing is coming up from the well this morning.

Is it that my Muse was spooked by the quality of writing?  Is she exhausted from the overload?

Hmm.  I suspect I will have to treat her kindly this morning, allow her a little more caffeine, maybe even indulge in a little sugar or really splurge and have some chocolate.  Maybe that will coax her out of the shadowy recesses where she's hiding today.

Maybe I’ll break down and watch a chick flick, too.  She usually likes that, perks her right up.

What about you?  What are you doing this Sunday morning to regenerate and feed your Muse?

11:22:14 AM    comment []