Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I’m working on my own review for this film right now. I’ll say this... Charlie Kaufman is this year’s Babe Ruth, the guy who can seemingly do anything he sets his mind to, and George Clooney has more than done justice to this remarkable bit of writing.
For now, though, I’m going to hand you over to Truthgame, our line producer/English spy, who went to a special screening of the movie this morning with Clooney in attendance. Here’s what he has to say about what he saw...
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Wow
Who would have guessed? George Clooney has directed a remarkable film. He has transcended his pretty boy looks and his party boy reputation by directing a visually stunning, technically brilliant and massively entertaining film.
I’ve seen a lot of films recently… Some great like Adaptation and Far From Heaven and some disappointing like The Quiet American and About Schmidt. When it comes to personal taste there is no right or wrong… These are just films that for me didn’t yield returns on their potential. The Quiet American covered the intricate politics of 50’s Vietnam too simplistically and the casting was weak. Ultimately that film felt and looked dated and tired. (Rabbit Proof Fence on the other hand is by the same director and is powerful and important) About Schmidt was a dull movie with no real point and a central character that went nowhere and remained weak. This I would have no problem with but the director filled his film such eccentric characters that really belonged in a more or even less stylised film… Anyway I am sure a lot of you will like those films and that’s what makes films so fascinating as an art form and popular medium…
The Synopsis
The film tells the story of Chuck Berris… A guy who arrives in New York – is captivated by television and ends up a producer of some of Americas most notorious and successful shows. He is also an independently contracted member of the C.I.A - acting as assassin for them under the guise of filming around the world…
I will provide no spoilers here… In fact… Mori is writing a review as well… As a professional writer I will let him explain the film… I’ll just offer you some of my opinions…
My Opinion
Technically the film is outstanding… Renowned Director of Photography Tom Sigel (Three Kings & X Men) has created a stunning look. Shooting on reversal stock and having the luxury of a digital intermediate with grading coming from same guy who grades for Fincher… Here is a real example of a director allowing his director of photography space to work and create an appropriate look without having a studio or director panic and change things at final lab stage)
There is great cinagi between art department and camera. In one technically brilliant scene we have Chuck Barris getting an idea for a TV show in his apartment. The camera then moves into a close up of his eyes and when the camera pulls out – we are in an NBC office. I assumed there was some clever wipe or composite. Instead George at the Q+A revealed it was all done in one shot but the set is turned around – all while Sam is giving a monologue. This trick George said he learnt from John Frankenheimer. The shot is magnificent – not just now as I know how it was done – but because the shot works perfectly in the tone and style of the story… I was never distracted by the shot – it just complimented the action perfectly.
The film is well edited. It has all the hip styles we expect in movies today. Jump cuts, hard edits, freeze frames, title cards… it has it all. But what makes it work is and never appear to be trying to hard is that the whole thing fits together as a coherent style… The opposite of this is Joel Schumacher taking on 8mm (a great original script by Andrew Kevin Walker) and giving the film a dark look and thinking that will be OK and a Hollywood ending… Or how so many filmmakers use vigorous handheld cameras to show chases and fights ala Saving Private Ryan. Here the style all works because Clooney has the guts to follow through his vision… In the Q+A he talked of wanting to go too far rather than not far enough. Excellent words and most importantly a perfectly achieved result.
Often first time director’s get straddled with top flight DoP’s and Editors to guarantee the film some technical standards… What often happens is that these people just do that one thing that they are famous for and that becomes the signature of the film instead of the story… Here Clooney has harnessed the talents of a great crew to partner him with the story and after the Q+A I firmly believe he was at the heart of the vision on all level… both technically and artistically.
The script was written by flavour of the month Charlie Kaufman. Adapting a script (not unlike The Orchid Thief) he has created a fascinating film but I see it as a collaboration of a great team as opposed to a singular efforts. With Adaptation THIS close to getting my vote for Best Screenplay… Charlie Kaufman is now the most interesting writer in a very long time…
Julia Roberts gets an incredible role. Her arrival is straight out of some cold war novel and her looks are complimented with great costume and lighting. Her character is a total bitch with great dialogue and lovely end scene for her… (very un-Julia)
The film has great cameos and even the smallest roles get time to shine as actors. Brad Pitt and Matt Damon have a near perfect cameo that is genuinely funny but never detracts from the story – in fact it moves the story on! Rutger Haue gets a nice role as a german assassin and Drew Barrymore does some of her most accomplished acting yet. A scene where she confronts Chuck Barris in their home with another girl is played out perfectly with her delivery perfect and haunting without using screaming and shouting and all the other tricks actors use when trying to emote.
The star of this film is Sam Rockwell. The film starts with his own failings with women. We have several scenes in cinemas where EVERYONE is partnered up and kissing apart from Sam’s date, who appears revolted by him. Later on there is a payoff with Drew Barrymore where at another cinema everyone watches the film apart from Drew and Sam who seated in the middle of the audience are kissing. This is a turning point for Sams character and with his newfound success he goes off and philanders with other woman… contradicting Drew who starts out as a promiscuous girl who wants an open relationship. In fact you can dig deeper into every scene and find a polar opposite and contraction within. One could even suggest that the kiss in the cinema is actually a weakness of Chuck as the cinema in cosmopolitan New York is full of people focusing on the film unlike a provisional cinema where he couldn’t get a girl to kiss him…
Although the film covers 30 odd years of his life he hardly appears to age and Clooney at the Q+A said he doesn’t like prosthetics on an actor and rather as like Gary Cooper said “just act older.”
The film doesn’t address the most burning question I had. Is Chuck Barris telling the truth. The film offers no answer- just presents the story from Chuck Barris autobiography. This may irritate some people but I found it easy to accept the premise. There are many clues throughout the film. George Clooney’s character of a CIA office is always alone. He never interacts with any other characters who are NOT CIA agents. This is very similar to Beautiful Mind but also Fight Club – where Tyler Durden functioned in his own “space.” The whole CIA training is too far fetched but is so entertaining it is easy to just go along for the ride.
When Chuck Barris questions George Clooney to why he was chosen he simply answers – “you fit the profile” … A few scenes later Barris is in East Germany at the height of the cold war and is captured by the secret police. We then cut to a real life person who says “Chuck used to disappear for a week or so every now and then.” It’s a great storytelling tool by Clooney. In other scenes Clooney’s CIA agent even offers TV show ideas to a desperate Chuck Barris – of course with a CIA angle attached… Clooney’s CIA agent I view as some alter ego for Barris – who is struck with success but still struggling with the problems of his character. This I can easily justify as how times have we all spend a lottery winning or thought about how we would have handled some incident in our lives with a better outcome… It all stems from the same place…
And the end… The final scene is a killer. Hilarious, dark and twisted. A near perfect final scene with a classic final monologue that will be remembered and quoted for years to come.
The Q+A
George Clooney and Sam Rockwell were present for 30 minutes of fascinating dialogue and perspective. I always fin it harder to remember the words the Q+A’s than the movies themselves… So here are a few details I do remember
The first and most important thing that George said was that he hates possessionery credits… “A Film By” – he hates. He acknowledges filmmaking is a group effort of hundreds of people and so claim total responsibility is to ignore the skill and effort of his team. Words like this endear directors to cast and crew alike and this audience was no exception…
With the exception of a few lines the film had no post sync dialogue (looping) as George said he hated the feeling of post synced lines and wanted as much sound as possible to be real. Edward Tise – the Sound Mixer (veteran of Three Kings and several Kubrick films among a great credit list did a fine job – although we will never know how many extra takes were needed to achieve the sound quality he wanted)
He said he brought the film in under budget and ahead of schedule – part of his strategy to bother no one retain creative control
George also said he had little or no interference from Miramax as Chicago and Gangs of New York were keeping the company busy while they were shooting. He said he gave dailies or rushes as we call them in England to the studio every day and got hardly any feedback – which is a relief to most film makers as too many studio execs justify their salaries by adding opinions add times like this where they are not qualified or in tune with the film set to be any use to the film crew.
He said Stephen Soderbergh said that George’s three favourite shots would be cut. And George admitted that 2 of them were – although one of them – we don’t know which is still in the movie. He said these shots we so fantastical and accomplished but they took the audience out of the movie and drew unnecessary attention to the shots instead of the film.
George storyboarded the entire film… all 980 some frames – In fact the storyboard artist, J Todd Anderson who works regularly with the Coen Brothers was hired to play “Stud – Game Show Contestant” a character who steals one of the film funniest scenes… No spoilers but Brad Pitt and Matt Damon get one of the best cameos EVER!
George talked about a 2 ½ hour early cut that was cut down… while still retaining story and pacing… (this is very common with most films)
Both Sam and George refused to imply whether they believed Chuck was telling the truth. This is good PR as the filmmakers offer no controversy and remain neutral to the real life characters… They do not betray the tone of the film.
George talked about the golden era in cinema 1965 – 1975 as a time where Mike Nichols, Kubrick and he mentioned films like All The Presidents Men, Klute, Harold and Maude reflected a time where film makers made intelligent adult film that asked more questions than they answered and found an audience with the public.
George talked about keeping the budget below $30m – an invisible line he said where film like his can be made and still appear viable to distributors and financiers.
George mentioned that Steve Soderbergh has just given his a script that Steve thinks might make a good second movie for George the director…
George came across as very confident, very funny and a real film lover and mentioning so many films that are no revered among film lovers really endeared him to the audience.
Sam Rockwell was very smart. He knew the attention of the audience would be on George so he didn’t try and compete… Sam answered the few questions well – most were about his contact with the real Chuck Berris who apparently visited the set 5 – 6 times but never when Sam was filming The Gong Show! George gave him a lot of reverence and shared many good anecdotes about Sam and the film…
I had a very enjoyable morning and well worth the 10.30am Sunday morning start time. Seeing such a magnificent film and an entertaining and articulate Q+A has resulted in this film running to the top of my years best… I hope the film receives award nominations and even a few awards that it deserves…
Keep on seeing them – even when they’re bad…
Truthgame
Real quick, I just want to add that this is one of those films where you see someone come into their own and really become a major leading actor. Sam Rockwell is... he’s just... oh, man... just you wait and see...
"Moriarty" out.
