CHICAGO: If Hepatitis C Were Attacking Your Face Instead of Your Liver You'd Be Doing Something About It

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i saw a bunch of hartley movies that i got from netflix. i think it was amateur that i started with...loved that movie.

eric, would the guy sing? that could liven things up. maybe.

― JuliaA (JuliaA), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link

No, I don't think frame story is right. That would be like The Princess Bride or Tales from the Crypt (to name two extremely literary examples). This is sort of like a long-ass diversion story in the middle of an independent story. I feel like the Bronte sisters pull this kind of stunt in some of their books, but I'm rusty on my Victorian lit and can't remember specifically.

xpost - In Who's Afraid of VA Woolf, I'm locked in a room with four horrible people who are drunk and hilarious and awesome, so it's okay.

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm thinking of, like, Arabian Nights, Frankenstein, Canterbury Tales, even Usual Suspects, etc.

― JordanC (JordanC), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:49 (seventeen years ago) link

VA Woolf was an example of a GOOD movie.

― crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:51 (seventeen years ago) link

That was an xpost, yeah I thought so. I don't know if there's a different term for those. It reminds me of The Thin Man where five pages in the middle are randomly devoted to the Alferd Packer (cannibal) story.

Those Hal Hartley movies sound interesting, but if they're not on netflix then I will never see them. I put Amateur on my queue though.

― JordanC (JordanC), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:52 (seventeen years ago) link

It is called the interruptischmiddelstorien.

I wonder what it's called. Like the watch story in Pulp Fiction.

VA Woolf is the classic chamber drama.

Maybe he could sing, Julia. Maybe it'll be Nick Cave staring out an office window for 90 minutes.

― Eazy (Eazy), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Jackie Brown is Tarantino's best film. I will fight you so hard if you disagree.

Phonebooth had an interesting premise, poorly executed.

I have an interesting idea for a suspense film involving a portaledge and a multipitch aid climb on Baffin Island, called The Great and Secret Show.

― giboyojimbo (gbx), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:54 (seventeen years ago) link

I like the singing idea, but I think it should be long spans of one-sided telephone conversation, interrupted by several short songs that he sings directly to the camera. Or perhaps that someone else sings, commenting on the action (or lack thereof), like a Greek chorus.

― n/a (n/a), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:54 (seventeen years ago) link

That's beautiful, Nick. It'll be minutes and minutes of "Uh-huh. [Pause.] I know, I know [Pause.] Did you tell her that? [Pause.] Uh-huh. [Pause.] Uh-huh," and then he just turns to the camera and lets his heart out.

― Eazy (Eazy), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:56 (seventeen years ago) link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_within_a_story ?

It's like picture-within-a-picture.

― JordanC (JordanC), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:56 (seventeen years ago) link

So, Buffy, the Musical, basically? I could do this all day. (XP)

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Laurel will be the seen-it-all executive producer who wants results and a big b.o. opening weekend.

― Eazy (Eazy), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 21:58 (seventeen years ago) link

What I like about this movie is that we could realistically make it for free, if we borrowed a camera and snuck into an office building.

― n/a (n/a), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Do you like how I shifted this from the idea phase to the action phase?

― n/a (n/a), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:00 (seventeen years ago) link

ooooh, project!

― horseshoe (horseshoe), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:01 (seventeen years ago) link

i like projects

i am also a former filmmaker!

― giboyojimbo (gbx), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:01 (seventeen years ago) link

"Story within a story" seems to describe exactly what I'm talking about. I wish there was a snappier name for it, though.

xpost - I can get you into office buildings.

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:01 (seventeen years ago) link

What is a "mis en scene"?

― n/a (n/a), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Mise en abyme reminds me that I heard 2 guys talking at a coffee shop and one used the term "in medias res" in casual conversation to refer to a friend dropping in on him while he was in the middle of something.

― crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Ha ha: Mise en scène (IPA: [miz?s?n]) has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term," but that is not because of a lack of definitions. Rather, it's because the term has so many different meanings that there is little consensus about its definition. (per Wikipedia)

― n/a (n/a), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:04 (seventeen years ago) link

It'll be minutes and minutes of "Uh-huh. [Pause.] I know, I know [Pause.] Did you tell her that? [Pause.] Uh-huh. [Pause.] Uh-huh,"

I used to write playlets like this all the time.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:06 (seventeen years ago) link

somehow, that is hardly surprising

― giboyojimbo (gbx), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:06 (seventeen years ago) link

― giboyojimbo (gbx), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:07 (seventeen years ago) link

He and Chris P. collaborated on them.

― crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't know what Chris has to do with it, but let's just say I'm a fan of banality and realism in art.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:09 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm not even a fan of banality in LIFE, and I can experience that FOR FREE. ;)

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:09 (seventeen years ago) link

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:11 (seventeen years ago) link

mise en place

― danno martinez (danno martinez), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Chris gets off on all things others find bland. (He is hot for the guy who represents the PC in the Mac vs. PC commercials.)

― crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Jenny, I think the chamber movie for you and Jeff (made by some of my poker buddies) is Bug.

― Eazy (Eazy), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah yeah, Laurel, I've heard it all before. Trying to recall how I addressed that in my senior project. Something about the thrill of seeing life's banality replicated artificially. The uncanniness of it. I love good, real dialogue.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:12 (seventeen years ago) link

He prefers cuddling to an orgasm, a kind word to cuddling, and a pleasant Mona Lisa smile from across the room to all of them.

― crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Chris gets off on all things others find bland.

bland != banal

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:13 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost to Eric - While I don't think I'd want to be locked inside the room with those people, I would definitely want to look in the window and watch them.

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:13 (seventeen years ago) link

I love good, real dialogue.

But why does dialogue have to be banal to be real?

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:15 (seventeen years ago) link

"so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring" = no thx

― danno martinez (danno martinez), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:17 (seventeen years ago) link

It doesn't. But there's an element of banality in most conversations. Hardly anyone writes dialogue where people go "umm" or repeat themselves or step over each other's words, but this happens all the time, and I get a kick out of seeing it reproduced. Here I guess I'm talking about form rather than content, though.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I love this thread.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't find those 'yeah [pause] yeah' above banal, in part because of the recognizable rhythms (like John just said), and also because the effect, ideally, is like when you overhear something on the El and you have to make sense of it. It's writing that isn't for the benefit of the audience (as far as narrating the story) and ideally has the same what's-going-on-here? pleasure of eavesdropping.

― Eazy (Eazy), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:20 (seventeen years ago) link

This kind of sounds like improv to me.

― danno martinez (danno martinez), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link

I dunno, are most people not as interested in the aggressively ho-hum as I am? Am I the only one who asks new romantic partners to "tell me a boring story"?
-- Chris Piuma (chri...), February 25th, 2003.

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link

so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring

But when real-life banality is applied to art, it automatically becomes more interesting because a) we're not used to seeing banality in art: it becomes the exception rather than the rule, and b) art has the power to make the banal transcendent.

ideally has the same what's-going-on-here? pleasure of eavesdropping.

Bingo. There's an intimate, voyeuristic thrill to it. It feels visceral, somehow.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha.

This thread would be great to have read to you as a bedtime story
-- oops (buttch9...), February 26th, 2003.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oops is OTM.
-- Chris Piuma (chri...), February 27th, 2003.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, I see you already unearthed the Chris P. contributions to that thread. Nice work.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

But when you know it's art and artifice and not someone you're eavesdropping on (which I also enjoy, but not for the banality, more because something interesting than whatever I've got going on might happen), doesn't that undermine that voyeuristic thrill?

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Chris may be a deLillo character.

― JordanC (JordanC), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean, take this dialogue from the thread above (which I hadn't seen 'til now - fantastic) and add some context and stakes to it (someone's job is on the line, or 'me' slept with boss's wife), and it's great dialogue:

My boss: Did you have a good weekend?
Me: Yes, thanks. You?
My boss: Not bad.
Me: Do anything exciting?
My boss: No.

Me: Oh.

― Eazy (Eazy), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:25 (seventeen years ago) link

There's some term I learned in a poetry workshop about the mistake some writers make of writing something that is an example of what they meant to write ABOUT--like writing something boring when writing the dialogue of a boring person, or sounding stupid when writing about a stupid character.

Writing about something banal in a non-banal way would be interesting I guess. But I don't hold out much hope for the outcome.

― crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Hardly unearthed. That was the third or fourth post!

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Has anyone seen Dead & Breakfast? It's a zombie movie (w/Jeremy Sisto!) but it has the best modern use of the Greek chorus that I've seen (i.e. a dude singing funny country songs about the action who eventually gets turned into a zombie and continues singing between scenes until he gets killed by a chainsaw).

― JordanC (JordanC), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:27 (seventeen years ago) link

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