Here's today's it's SO LA story. I was writing the Uzumaki post on my laptop while waiting for Sean at Korean school. One of the older kids sat by me and started reading what I was writing. Are you a director? he asked. Think about it—not what are you writing or what are you doing?
Yesterday, I finally figured out the heuristic that describes my orientation to film. It is this—
mixed genre + Japanese modernist film vocabulary + existentialist take on truth + low budget + narrative.
Here's how it works. Let's take the Superman film idea I wrote about the other day. Superman is a genre film. But I tend to like mixing genres so let's make it a Superman in the thirties, torch song, science fiction movie—deco Superman, living in the era of his origins. Superman, crystal radios, chanteuses, an era amazed to see Superman on the R-A-D-A-R.
Then we approach it like a Japanese modernist film. Odd angles. Straight on. The camera hardly moves. You never really see Superman save things. It's all implied. Superman exists more in poses than in action, a Superman whose power is conveyed in stillness.
Finally, we ground the film in some sort of existential truth: the relationship of pain to humanity. Superman is cut off from others because of his invulnerability. He doesn't truly understand what it means to be human. Next step: budget. We can't afford the rights for Superman. So we create our own character and design a simple costume. Use miniatures and small walk-through sets made of cardboard. The bad guy is a puppet. A musical number written by me. Some footage from the public domain. The emotion of the film is muted. But it is heavy on mood and there are one or two shock moments. Finally, narrative ties it all together—just enough to make the movie watchable.
And there you have it—an idea for a film. That is something I would really love to see. If any of you (all four of you) can think of an existing movie that fits this formula, let me know!
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