Crispin Glover's What is it?

Started by RegularKarate, January 18, 2005, 01:25:13 PM

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Quote from: bonanzataz on January 18, 2007, 01:36:10 AM
my friend just got this picture back to me. from the new york showing of "what is it?" two months ago.



he signed my platform shoes.

is the guy in your avatar related to you?  dead ringer
the one last hit that spent you...

hedwig

holy moly, that's buddy holly, buddy.

md

I just came back from a screening of What is it? at the Dryden Theater in Rochester, NY.  Crispin was on hand to not only do a Q and A, but also book readings from all 8? of his books. 

Initially he came off as a very eccentric guy, his books reminding me of Harmony Korines' A Crack Up at the Race Riots: kind of out there for the sake of being out there.  (pages with only one word on them...) Yet his Q and A was probably the most enjoyable part of the night.  He went very indepth about the filmmaking process and elaborated earnestly on every questions that was asked.  The way he spoke and the words he chose showed his true colors.  This guy is one of the most sincere and likable filmmakers I've met.  Very down to earth, seemingly because he has seen so many asshole LA producers?  (He didn't seem to have too many kind words regarding Robert Zemeckis) He could have been a complete asshole or to cool for school, but he really seemed to care which made the whole night - and his film - that much better.

His film...well its really really wierd.  I can't really praise it too much other than what he had to say about it afterward made alot more sense than the actual film itself.  He referenced Herzog, Fellini, Kurbrick and a 4th filmmaker who I can't seem to remember now, as the core inspirations of the film and that was when he said one of the more poignant comments of the night: he described corporately financed films as films that are so pandering on what is good and evil from an audiences perspective - even saying that Back to the Future, What a Wonderful Life and Jerry Maguire were morally wrong films, since they mask true love as a decievingly greedy agenda or neccesity. 

I hogged the Q and A asking 4 questions, mainly, what Christopher Vogler had to do with the film since he was credited as a story editor, was there A clockwork Orange influence, next film: digital or sticking with film, and finally, was he acting or on acid during the letterman interview.  The audience seemed kind of annoyed but fuck it.  He eloborated indepth for each of them, but in short, he is a big fan of Vogler and Campbell and the hero's journey/structure and used Vogler's script doctoring service at the time of writing; he described Kubrick as a  success filmmaker to make corporate (studio) films that didn't pander the audience in what was good and evil (referencing 2001 and ACO); said he's sticking with film and that What is it? cost him roughly 150-200k; and the last one, well, you'll never know. 

It was a good weekend, I went to Cleveland to see a premeiring of Inland Empire then came back just in time to see What is it? 

"look hard at what pleases you and even harder at what doesn't" ~ carolyn forche

The Red Vine

I went to the Q&A at the IFC Center in NYC a few weeks ago. The audience laughed and seemd to enjoy his goofy and strange behavior. It was a nice evening.

I'm not sure if I liked his movie. It's either a complex piece of art or self-indulgent garbage. I'm leaning towards the second category.
"No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.">