EXTRA CRITICUM

Top 10 Movie Characters

Nathaniel R. over at the ever delightful Film Experience got tagged in a meme asking for a list of one's ten favorite movie characters, a daunting task but one that immediately had my wheels turning. With so many characters in so many films to choose from, how does one even begin to narrow it down to ten? What criteria does one use -- Outstanding performance? Excellent screenplay? Classic film? My ten characters are a mixed bag; what they all have in common is their persistent hold on my imagination, independent of the stories in which they appear and of the other characters that surround them in their films.

And Bette Davis, the queen of screen characterization, takes the first two positions on the list.

Two Days Left to see WE PEDAL UPHILL

MUST CLOSE THURSDAY (3/26) Click here for showtimes and here for more info and to watch trailer.

Praise from a Stranger on the Street

Yesterday afternoon, as I was turning to walk home after having greeted some friends of one of my producer's under the Cinema Village marquee, I heard a sound every filmmaker longs to hear. A man had just approached the box office window to announce: "One ticket for 'We Pedal Uphill,' please."

I would probably not have turned to look except that as I passed the window, he turned and tapped me on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but: Are you Roland Tec?"

"Grey Gardens"?

I was riding my bike, on my way to see Roland Tec’s We Pedal Uphill—which is moving and excellent, go see it—when a poster caught my eye. Grey Gardens! An HBO film? With Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange? Directed by Michael Sucsy?

I stared dumbfounded at that poster for about a minute, no shit.

What’s going on here?

Today a Critic Completely Understood What I Was Going For and I Am Grateful

Today's New York Times review of my film, We Pedal Uphill, feels like a gift. Jeannette Catsoulis was the first critic who seemed to actually understand what I was going for in making this film. Furthermore, she actually paid enough attention to notice some of the more subtle details others may have missed in their rush to judgment. So, today, I am grateful and feel very very lucky.

Every work of art is by definition flawed. Nothing we make is perfect. The fact that one person's opinion can mean the difference between a lasting life and a sudden death still strikes me as not only unfair but quite strange and perplexing. Today I was lucky enough to dodge the bullet of a slam in the Times. But these moments are ephemeral and the most we can hope to do is slow down just enough to actually let in a little joy.

Thank you, Ms. Catsoulis. Though I've never met you, you're now on my "happy/love" list. If you were on Facebook, I'd "friend" you in a heartbeat.

Irena's Vow

If you haven’t seen it already, try not to miss Irena’s Vow, still in previews at the Walter Kerr until March 29th, when it opens. Tovah Feltshuh is amazing in the role of a Polish Catholic woman who hid 12 Jews for 18 months during the war. There are so many colors in her profound performance and I can’t imagine how she could not win the Tony for it.  Thomas Ryan is great too and Sandi Carroll is wonderful in a small role played memorably and beautifully. If you’re thinking you don’t want to see another holocaust piece, dismiss the thought. This is a unique and inspiring piece of theatre. It’s an hour and a half with no intermission and it’s quite a ride.

A response to Jeremy's Play, Movie, TV Show Question

To my mind, there are certain sorts of stories that insist on being told in a certain medium. For example, most Hitchcock would be rather dull as a short story or as a play but in film, it's full of suspense. Why? Because the details of what is revealed and in what order and at what pace is controlled by the director.

When I wrote my play, Bodily Function, I knew it had to be a play because it was essentially about the way in which language can be used as a weapon, as a means of trapping someone. Whenever language, or the way we speak to one another is the focus of what I'm after, I'm drawn toward the stage.

Is it a Play, a Movie, or a TV Show?

When you have an idea for a story, and you’re trying to figure out if it should be a play or a movie, the conventional wisdom is that if you see it in your mind unfolding like life, it’s a movie, but if it’s more “theatrical” it’s a play. I once read an interview with Doug Wright where he was talking about the difference between QUILLS the play, and QUILLS the movie. He was talking about how in the movie they could basically “go to” (or recreate) these elaborate locations from far away places from centuries past. In the theatre of course, you can’t do that; the audience must use its’ imagination. But, Doug said, what he loved about theatre was that, in a very Brechtian way, you could simply hold up a sign that said “Poland 1804” and the audience would instantly go there and not question it. 

Look up... Look up! March 20 WE PEDAL UPHILL

Our very own E.C. author Andrew Altenburg snapped this tonight.
Needless to say, some of us are very excited about Friday, March 20, 2009.

A Kind of Perfection

I got the call when I was at the gym. My wife said, “It’s time.”

But I was at the gym. It was three weeks early. It couldn’t be time.

It was.

About 28 hours later, after events that could fill 5 other posts, my son, Henry, was born.  The hospital staff made me go home at midnight. Staggering up the steps to my apartment, I saw my latest Netflix orders. On top was Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny & Alexander.

Getting The Audience To Feel What The Characters Feel

I saw DISTRACTED by Lisa Loomer at Roundabout last night and I really enjoyed it. It’s essentially about a Mother dealing with the fact that her 9 year old son may have ADD. The play takes an intelligent, multi faceted, and balanced look at some of her choices in dealing with the issue. I loved that it didn’t preach to the audience. Instead, it said, “this is a tricky issue and different people will deal with it differently”. Oh, and it’s wildly theatrical and hilarious. 

Writing With A Partner

I’m a playwright. This means I spend many, many hours alone at my computer making  shit up about people who don’t exist. It’s oddly comforting to spend time with people solely spawned from your own imagination, but also a bit lonely. Often, when I’m writing, I long to be in the rehearsal room collaborating with actors though, in truth, often, when I’m directing and things get “tricky”, I long to be alone, at home, on my computer talking to made up people. I am a bit appalled that I just wrote a sentence with 8 commas. 

I recently decided to try and write something with Erin Quinn Purcell an actor/playwright whom I’ve directed many, many times and whose plays I have produced. But Erin is a writer who  often writes with other people. In fact, most of what she writes is with other people. So she’s used to this.

Opening Night!

Just a friendly reminder:  It’s OPENING NIGHT for On the Night of Anthony’s 30^th Birthday Party…Again…and I hope you have tickets for tonight or some future date.

I wrote the first draft of this play two years ago.  A particular moment in my life.  And it’s curious and strange feeling to see this play coming to life, it’s a little bit like looking back on my own history—it’s like a diary entry from its moment of first creation.

And because it takes a time to bring a play to the stage (through the rewrites, the readings, the development, the rehearsals, etc.) that moment of first creation gets further and further away, until…I don’t know….well, it feels curious and strange to see a play that WAS you that maybe NO LONGER you.

Why I Hate Artist Residencies and Love Mystery Science Theater 3000

Eden time over,
Freaking out in N.Y.C.
Tom Servo saves me.

Beauty & The Bridge

This winter, I had the opportunity to see both of The Bridge Project productions currently running in their last week at BAM. I so often miss these theatrical events in New York, either because of a lack of funds or I’m out of town working or just the business of life; so I am thrilled that I had the pleasure of seeing this collaboration of one cast of British and American actors performing two classics.