Monday, November 19, 2007

No Country For Old Men

There has to be someone to tell the audience how to feel - all the other characters can be stoic or oblivious, but someone has to take the natural, expected reaction to whatever situation is onscreen. And that character has to know everything the audience knows.

Otherwise, you'll be left with, "I didn't know what to think about that."

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Munich

Munich taught me that characters can change for the worse - but they still have to have a "before" snapshot in Act I.

It also reminded me that the touch of death does not come at the beginning of the third act, but rather, at the beginning of the Dark Night of the Soul, just before the third act begins. That's a very crucial difference, and one I had been missing.

It put me in that "movie trance" very, very effectively - I think the reason was the super-slick Spielberg cinematography. There was always something to look at and appreciate, in the moment - something that few enough directors take into consideration these days.