Art School Confidential

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

Release Date: April 28, 2006

Cast: Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Anjelica Huston

Director: Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World)

Premise: Jerome goes off to art school convinced that he'll become a great artist. Instead, he comes to learn that he has undeveloped talent and watches the girl of his dreams fall in love with another artist. He is then inadvertently accused and arrested for being a murderer and thus becomes the celebrity artist he always dreamed of being.

[modage]

it looks very broad, like bad santa and less like ghost world.  which is leaning my thumb downward but i'll see it anyways.  the buzz from sundance wasnt great but it could be funny.

[snaporaz]

it looks very broad, like bad santa and less like ghost world.  which is leaning my thumb downward but i'll see it anyways.

my thoughts exactly.

[McfLy]

A solid rental. If not just to see the full scene of John Malkovich go to town on all the 'art' in the gallery.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer

[modage]

looks better, but i'm still teetering on the edge of 'rental' (or theatre) after that first preview and the pretty lukewarm response it's gotten so far.

[MacGuffin]

Dan Clowes Talks Confidential
The Oscar-nominated writer gabs about his upcoming film and explains his involvement with a future Raiders of the Lost Ark project.

Dan Clowes is more than just a cartoonist. Creator of the cult-fave comic book Eightball, Clowes is also an up-and-coming screenwriter. His first film with Terry Zwigoff, 2001's Ghost World, garnered Clowes an Oscar nomination. The duo has teamed up once again for Art School Confidential. Inspired by Clowes' experience in art school and the art world, Confidential takes a biting look at the collision of consumer culture and "art."

The film, which opens April 28, stars Bee Season's Max Minghella and sports a supporting cast of heavyweight actors, including John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi and Anjelica Huston.

We spoke with Clowes recently about his inspiration for the film, his experience at the Oscar's in 2002 and his next project, which involves Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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IGNFF: How much of Art School Confidential is autobiographical?

Dan Clowes: It's about as autobiographical as a dream is autobiographical. It's taking the elements of my emotional life and dealing with being an artist for the last 20 years and putting them in a dramatic context. These are things that I think about and I worry about and occupy my unconscious at all times. As far as the events actually happening, they're all bits and pieces of things that happened to me or happened to friends or stories I've heard. To some extent all of it is true, even the parts that don't seem true.

IGNFF: What's more full of s---, Hollywood or the art world?

Clowes: They each have their own version of that. Hollywood is very upfront about being a business. The mainstream of Hollywood makes no bones that they're trying to make money. They're trying to make the best films they can, that will also make a lot of money. The art world is a different thing. They are selling something different. The art world is closer to the world of fashion. They're trying to sell something that's not quantifiable. It's an attitude or a feeling that flatters the viewer -- the consumer -- in a certain way that's very different than the way a Hollywood film flatters the consumer.

IGNFF: Why take this short story from Eightball and expand it into a movie?

Clowes: It wasn't so much that I thought the story was such a great thing that should be turned into a movie, it was that the world of art school was something that really stuck with me. It was one of those formative experiences in my life I could never quite shake. I always had something to say about it. Whenever anybody wanted to talk about art school, I could talk endlessly about it. I realized I had a lot of feelings about it.

It's similar to any other college experience, except that when you go to law school, the guy with the highest grade and passes the Bar is the best in the class. In an art school it's very hard to tell who is the best. And what is the criteria for that performance? I found it both very frustrating and very interesting to participate in that and I thought it made for a good backdrop for a story.

IGNFF: Everyone in this film seems to have a dual nature, putting up one front, but having a different agenda at heart. Is that something you found prevalent in art school?

Clowes: Not so much in art school, as maybe in life in general. The characters in art school are what you think they are, ultimately, which is sort of the confounding mystery of the whole thing. In life, people tend to be fairly clear about what roles they try to fill and it's only through some kind of delusion that we believe otherwise.

IGNFF: Writing a film script, does it help at all to have the background as a cartoonist to write visually, or is the process so different that it actually hinders you?

Clowes: I think it is ultimately helpful, because writing a screenplay is thinking of a scene visually that you would describe, but that you are really telling the story through the actions and the dialogue of the characters. That's very much the way you have to think in terms of telling a story in a comic form. In a comic you have a certain leeway. You can change scenes in every panel if you want. In a movie, you have to be mindful that no budget is going to be able to deal with running around the globe at every whim of the writer. So, you have to simplify things to some extent in a film script. Overall I think it helps to think visually. I think a lot of prose writers come into it with a dependence on their ability to describe a scene and that's really useless when it comes to writing a film script.

IGNFF: What was your involvement in the film outside of writing the script?

Clowes: I was on set most of the time and I was involved in the hands-on creation of the world. A lot of the stuff in the script -- I would describe say Jonah's artwork or Jerome's artwork, but that was kind of nebulous as to what that is, so I wanted to have input as to what that was, because I had a certain visual idea of what their artwork would be... I just wound up sticking around and giving my often ignored advice on a daily basis.

IGNFF: When you and Terry Zwigoff were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Ghost World, did you attend the Oscars?

Clowes: It was apparently the only year where they did not show the screenwriters faces on the screen [when they read the nominations]... We went with the utter assurance that we would not win. Before the Oscars there are all these other awards -- the Golden Globes and the Writer's Guild and all that -- and we had lost every single one of them. We knew without much doubt that we were going to lose the thing, so we could [attend] with this kind of calmness. But, of course, there's some human instinct that takes over at the very last minute. As the envelope's being opened and all of a sudden it occurred to me that without a doubt we were going to win and I was just stricken with panic. I don't think I've ever been more terrified in my life. I was so happen to hear the words "Akiva Goldman."

IGNFF: What would you have said if you had won?

Clowes: I have no idea. I'm sure I would have said something really inarticulate and possibly career damaging. So I'm very glad it didn't happen.

IGNFF: Going to the Oscars, is that a more surreal experience than seeing an Enid doll on a store shelf?

Clowes: (Laughs) Um, yes, yes. I kind of got built up to the Enid doll. Seeing my own comic book on a comic shop shelf for the first time was quite a thrill, but by the time I got to the Enid doll I was hardened to seeing merchandise with my character's likeness on it. Being in a scenario like the Oscars and actually feeling part of it and then yet about feeling not part of it is something I can't describe.

IGNFF: Your next project, which is currently untitled, is about some kids who decided to remake Raiders of the Lost Ark shot for shot. Can you explain that a bit?

Clowes: It is based on a true story about these three kids in Mississippi who, right after Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981, they decided they were going to remake the entire film shot-for-shot -- these were eleven-year-olds -- with a giant two-piece Beta Cam. They spent their entire adolescence, until they were eighteen, painstakingly remaking the film. Including building a giant boulder out of fiberglass and dragging behind a car without any padding or any kind of protection -- just doing all the dangerous stunts in the film by themselves in real life. It's one of those stories that's got every elements that I look for. It's got these three really interesting characters with this dubious project that they're working on. The more I get into the project, the more I think what they did has great value. I think it's a great story.

IGNFF: So are you writing a very factual script, almost like a documentary or are you taking the concept of the what these kids did and creating a story out of that?

Clowes: I've spent a lot of time with the guys and I know the real story fairly well, but real life is so complicated it does not fit the confines of drama very well. You have to move things around and change things around, but I hope that I'm true to who these guys are and the emotional content of the story, because that's what interests me.

IGFF: Will Steve Buscemi show up in this film?

Clowes: I don't know if there's a part for him in this. This is all kids.

IGFF: He can play a kid. He has great range.

Clowes: (laughs) Maybe if there was some kid of CGI [kid] it would be great.

[pete]

IGNFF: So are you writing a very factual script, almost like a documentary or are you taking the concept of the what these kids did and creating a story out of that?

Clowes: I've spent a lot of time with the guys and I know the real story fairly well, but real life is so complicated it does not fit the confines of drama very well. You have to move things around and change things around, but I hope that I'm true to who these guys are and the emotional content of the story, because that's what interests me.

I saw that movie, the greatest cinematic experience ever, without a doubt.

[MacGuffin]

I first heard of Terry Zwigoff in the autobiographical stories of Harvey Pekar that were drawn by R. Crumb. I knew he was very into artwork, music and comic books. But I, like many others, didn't really get into him until he directed the documentary, Crumb, in the early 90's. Even though the brilliance of Zwigoff rolled off of that work we didn't get to see another film of his until the narrative Ghost World was released. That film was an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel. Both Clowes and Zwigoff were nominated for Best Screenplay by the Academy Awards and now they've teamed up again for Art School Confidential.

Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you surprised to find someone like Daniel Clowes that you connect with so well since he's 15 years younger than you?

Terry Zwigoff: It's hard for me to find anybody of any age that I connect with well. I had that experience with Robert Crumb. We bonded very quickly and became friends. I had the same experience with Dan. Both happened to be from the underground cartoonist background. I could tell from reading Dan's and Robert Crumb's comics that we'd hit it off. We have such strong ties to humor with a similar sensibility and worldview. You think that about a lot of people. When I met Woody Allen, I thought, "Oh yeah I'm going to hit it off with him." But that didn't happen. John Malkovich had a great Woody Allen story. Malkovich keeps to himself on set and is very quiet. He told me that he was doing Shadows and Fog with Woody. At some point during shooting an actor pestered the director for advice, he wanted Woody to give him advice or direction. I guess Woody Allen doesn't talk much to actors. Near the end of the film Woody Allen came up to Malkovich and went, "Are there any other actors like you?" and John said, "What do you mean? Good actors?" He said, "No, actors that don't bother the director and instead of just behave." He really wanted names. I sometimes ask actors the same question because I want to work with those people too. Steve Buscemi is one of those few actors who you always want to work with because he's so easy to work with and so helpful. A lot of actors are temperamental, very difficult and very skittish. That's why they're good actors, too sometimes. Weird breed, I guess.

DRE: Do you do well with actors?

Zwigoff: Sometimes yes and sometimes no. To quote Charles Crumb "Some people like me and some don't." Some actors feel very insecure and they want the director to be their daddy and their psychiatrist and their best friend and to bully them. You just have to take different approaches with them all. I'm not so good at some of the approaches. I like to be pretty honest and direct with the actors. If I don't know what the fuck is going on in the scene, I tell them, "Look, I'm lost" or something. They don't like to hear that.

DRE: They like everything to be perfect.

Zwigoff: They at least like you to have this front, which if you talk to any director alive, there are places in the film where they didn't have any idea what was going on. They just hope it works out. Sometimes I find myself in the situation where I like to draw upon the actor for help. I like to try to collaborate and come up with a solution. It's not always that apparent to me at the start of the scene. Even if it is, I try to keep that opinion to myself and see what they come up with themselves. It might be better than my idea.

DRE: Do you consider this the definitive cut of Art School Confidential?

Zwigoff: Yeah, it's pretty much what I wanted. We went through a number of cuts of the film, screened them and got feedback. It's tough because your first impulse as a director is that anything the audience laughs at, leave in. Anything that they don't laugh at, cut out. Dan Clowes' work has stuff in it that you only find funny or interesting after you think about it. In fact, a lot of films he works on seem to hold up a lot better over time. You can see it a second or third time and get something out of it that you didn't the first time. In the script for Bad Santa, there was so much stuff where it was obvious to me what the intention was, where the jokes were, how a line was supposed to be spoken. Dan's stuff is much more subtle, nuanced, enigmatic, much more esoteric.

DRE: Besides Daniel's involvement in your work, do you see yourself as an auteur?

Zwigoff: I don't subscribe to it as much as a lot of people. I think film is such a collaborative work. The writer has so much to do with the script then there's the director, the actors, the editor, the composer, the producers. As the director, you have the final say so that the individual vision that comes out of it is your responsibility. It's hard to say that I am the sole author of this work. Part of the thing I enjoy about is the collaboration and that's part of the thing I hate about it.

DRE: I was just talking to Daniel in there and he was saying how important the words that he wrote are to him. Is it difficult to cut Dan's work or is that just the way it has to be?

Zwigoff: On the set, I try to get them to say the lines correctly. I call on the script supervisor and it's part of their job to tell you, "Hey they missed a wordd. They substituted a word with this." To make sure you're aware of it. Sometimes they catch it, sometimes they don't. A lot of the time, they don't and you discover it in the editing room. Usually it's not a big deal but when it's a big deal, you notice it. In the editing room, it's hard. It was hard to have Dan come into editing, occasionally he'd stick his nose in. He says at times it's just a different thing that he had in mind that he would have done it differently than I would have done it. But he waits and he sees what I do and generally he's okay with it. I always try to have a big variety of performances. If we have time for improvisation I want to get a couple of takes of that as well.

DRE: Was there much improvisation in Art School Confidential?

Zwigoff: Absolutely. It depends on the actors. Some actors are really good at it. Malkovich was really terrific with it. You can never quite predict whom it's going to be good with and who it isn't. Certain directors like Christopher Guest manage to assemble the greatest actors in the world. I try to get whatever material I can for the editing room so I have choices. That's why it takes me a long time in the editing room. Oftentimes, my editor will sit there and cut me 26 versions of the same scenes with just subtle differences. I cannot sit there. By take 25 I've lost focus. Cut your three best versions and let me see those.

DRE: I told my wife when we were preparing for the wedding that I didn't want to see everything, I want to see the final three things.

Zwigoff: That's right. The editor is trying to be very deferential to the director but at a certain point, he has to just do it.

DRE: What's your opinion of modern art school?

Zwigoff: I don't know anything about it. My concern was to make sure that I gave a somewhat truthful representation of it on screen. I've never been to art school, which is tough as a documentary filmmaker, but then again I've never strangled anybody either. It's not like you have to do it to be able to shoot it in a scene. It helps to have people around you who you can fall back on, you can say, "Well, what do you think, is there something wrong here, with the overall picture?" Dan would say, "Well, that guy wouldn't be drawing with charcoal in this scene, everybody would have to draw in pencil" or whatever.

DRE: What the undercover cop was creating in Art School Confidential was basically outsider art, do you like artwork like that?

Zwigoff: I came across a few things that I bought from this place in Pasadena that uses artist therapy for mentally disturbed adults. All their stuff is for sale. There's a place similar to it in San Francisco, but all the hipsters have discovered it. So you can never find anything good there. People go in there everyday and grab the good things.

DRE: It's like that here in New York too.

Zwigoff: But this place was sort of an untapped gold mine. The art director went there and brought me photographs of a bunch of the paintings. I said, "Oh, man. That one looks like Henry Darger painted it. How much is that one?" "40 bucks." "Okay, got to have that." They have some interesting art there.

DRE: Your first films were documentaries. When you started doing narratives, was it that much of a shift for you?

Zwigoff: Yeah, it's a tough shift. There's some stuff that overlaps. Certain things you learn in the editing room, what you're going to need for cutaways, action shots, the mechanics of things that once they sink in and become second nature, your job gets a lot easier. Then you get to focus on things that are really important in directing and not that mechanical stuff like continuity and eyeline. That's stuff that the script supervisor can cover you for anyway. A lot of it is a whole other art form.

DRE: Have you become a much more relaxed filmmaker?

Zwigoff: Yeah, it gets easier as you get on. It also depends on the film, the situation, the actors, how much time you have to shoot, but in general I say that it gets easier as you go. Some directors' first film is amazing, but other directors like me, eh. But by the time I make my tenth film, I'd like to think I'll know what I'm doing.

DRE: I read an interview with you from internet where you said you feel like a failure and a fraud.

Zwigoff: I read some of that stuff on the internet and so much of it is so inaccurate, patently false and filled with half-truths. I was reading the trivia for Bad Santa on the IMDB and it said that Larry David was my first choice for the part played by Billy Bob [Thornton]. That's completely false. I love Larry David, I love Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But he was never at all a candidate for that. Then you can't get rid of them and they stick with you.

DRE: I just got the Crumb DVD, how was doing the commentary on that?

Zwigoff: It was really painful. To keep it fresh, I thought I wouldn't look at the film and that as the scenes came up I would just talk about them. I wound up doing this commentary where Roger Ebert led the discussion and any time something interesting did come into my head he would start to talk and ask me something else. Eventually I may do another commentary by myself. I wasn't quite prepared and I felt tongue-tied and inarticulate doing it. It certainly was not at the caliber of the stuff Peter Bogdanovich does where he's so eloquent on his DVDs. He's quite a speaker.

DRE: How do you look back on Crumb now?

Zwigoff: I always thought that was a good film. I never had any doubt, I was very confident even when it was being rejected. Every film festival we entered in rejected it.

DRE: What is the new documentary you are working on?

Zwigoff: It's called The Moe Family. It's mostly about Tau Moe. He was a Hawaiian singer who recorded in the late 20's. He made some records with his three uncles while on tour with a French woman promoter, Madame Riviere. They went to the Far East, stopped in Japan and recorded four songs for Columbia. They are all very rare records and very intense. They're as good as any great blues record you hear from the 20's. The guy was an intense singer and songwriter.

DRE: Did you make it before he passed away?

Zwigoff: I shot all the footage before he died. I just haven't had the money or the time to edit it. It's been sitting around for about eight years.

DRE: Are you still into collecting things?

Zwigoff: Less now than I used to be. I still collect records, but I'm not quite as driven to do it. I'm very happy with the records I have. I have plenty. It seems like the price of records is so insane these days that if I do have any money, I'd rather buy a piece of furniture or a piece of artwork. You can always get CDs. It's not quite the same experience but it's close. That's something that is reflected by the ending to Art School Confidential where he's separated by that pane of glass from that kiss. You're there but not quite.

DRE: How was it having such a big mainstream hit with Bad Santa?

Zwigoff: I liked the film but I liked my version better. I thought my film was much more moving and just as funny if not funnier. When I got that script, I could see it was going to be a big hit if it was marketed in a certain way. First thing you need to have a chance of making a successful commercial film is a concept you can get across in a ten second TV ad. With Bad Santa you can do that. With Art School Confidential or Ghost World, it's sort of tough. I do remember one of the Weinsteins telling me that if Miramax had released Ghost World, they could have cut a trailer for that thing and made 50 million dollars. I don't doubt it.

DRE: How long ago did you do your directors cut of Bad Santa?

Zwigoff: I did it when it became clear that they were going to go with a different cut for the theatrical version. I asked Bob Weinstein if he would preserve my cut, and at least put it on DVD and he agreed to do it. In fact they put up a lot of money to do it right. But then they sold their company to Disney, so Disney owns it now. I went to them and asked if they would put it out and they kindly agreed to do so.

DRE: Did you see Badder Santa?

Zwigoff: I did. It's uneven. All the scenes in there didn't quite work out for me. It works on a certain level where there are scenes in there I like and other scenes I don't like. The whole thing doesn't quite have this consistency to it. My cut is a character study of Billy's character. It generally makes his character arc and his relationship with that boy much more truthful and ultimately much more human. The audiences in the test screening wanted Santa to be nicer to the little boy. But that wouldn't make any sense. I always thought of Billy's character as a W.C. Fields character. He has to put up with this pest. Eventually when Billy has affection for him, it is earned. Therefore it just seems more truthful and more emotional to me.

DRE: I know you've known Harvey Pekar a long time, what'd you think of American Splendor?

Zwigoff: It was a good film. But I thought the guy that played Robert Crumb acted really bad. That was the only weakness I really saw in that film. There were moments I liked more than others, but I say that about most films.

DRE: Are you writing the next thing you're doing?

Zwigoff: Yeah, Jerry Stahl and I are writing an adaptation of Laurent Graff's book Happy Days for Johnny Depp.

DRE: Had you known of Jerry before?

Zwigoff: Yeah, he came up and introduced himself to me at the Ghost World premiere years ago. I really liked him. He really sincerely loved Crumb and Ghost World. I spent a long time talking to him and we kept in touch over the years. He sent me the things he was working on like the novels Perv: a Love Story and Plainclothes Naked. Then just recently I was reading Permanent Midnight on a plane and it was such a great book. I called him up and left this long message on his answering machine last night to that effect. I realized I left him a backhanded insult of a compliment. "It was so much better than your other books." [laughs]

DRE: How did you and Jerry come together to do the adaptation?

Zwigoff: Johnny and I share the same agent. She called one day and said, "Johnny wants to meet with you about this book. He wants you to turn it into a film for him." I don't consider myself a writer but I liked the book though I knew it would be a tough one to adapt. I said that I would meet with him but that I wasn't sure if I wanted to write it. I really liked him at the meeting, which surprised me; I don't like most celebrities or movie stars. I told him my concerns and he said, "Well, have you ever heard of this writer, Jerry Stahl." Since then we've been doing it through phone and email since he lives in LA and I live in San Francisco.

DRE: Have you ever heard of SuicideGirls?

Zwigoff: I have heard of SuicideGirls. Is it a website?

DRE: It's like Playboy for punks.

Zwigoff: Playboy for punks, really? Is it done by only women?

DRE: Mostly women.

Zwigoff: It's got nudity on it?

DRE: Yeah, beautiful girls.

Zwigoff: I'll check it out. I've heard of it but I'd just get lost in it. I would end up wasting all day puttering around on the internet.

DRE: They're softcore pictures.

Zwigoff: Now you've lost me.

[MacGuffin]

"Art School" offers movie antidote for "M:i III"

Take heart, art house movie fans: Big bad Tom Cruise and his Hollywood thriller "Mission: Impossible III" is not the only film in theaters on Friday.

Small-time director Terry Zwigoff, whose low-budget films have won fans with quirky tales about people living on the edge of mainstream America, sees his comedy "Art School Confidential" open this week too.

For people interested in art -- and not just movies, but painting, drawing and sculpting -- Zwigoff's dark and humorous "Art School" offers a wry take on artistic ambition.

The story of an aspiring painter and art-school student is far from that Hollywood action flick with a muscle-flexing hero played by Cruise who saves the world.

Zwigoff's history as a musician, collector and director might lead fans to think "Art School" is based on his life. But he told Reuters it comes from the mind of writer Daniel Clowes, whose comic book "Ghost World" he made into a movie in 2001.

"I did relate to it on the level of a filmmaker," Zwigoff said. "I run into other filmmakers who have very successful careers -- mostly based on the art of self-promotion."

Anyone following the media hype over "M:i III" knows Cruise is atop the Hollywood heap in the art of promoting a film.

Zwigoff, 57, feels more comfortable at home in San Francisco, away from movie crowds. He favors corduroy jeans and cardigan sweaters. His hair seems perpetually mussed. He talks in a low voice and favors tales of life's little oddities.

On the list of Zwigoff's personal ironies is the fact that he has little interest in comics, despite the fact that his breakthrough 1994 documentary "Crumb" centered on comic book writer and artist Robert Crumb and "Ghost World" and "Art School" are based on work by comic book writer Clowes.

COMIC CONFIDENTIAL

Zwigoff did say, however, that transferring the comic flare of Crumb and Clowes to movie screens is made easier because all three share the same sense of aesthetics and humor.

"Art School" follows high school geek Jerome Platz who longs to be a great painter like Picasso. But when Platz goes to college -- the top-notch Strathmore Institute -- he finds the competition tough and the creative egos supercharged.

He encounters boastful teachers, braggart students, art groupies and a serial killer. To win the heart of his girl, Jerome develops a creative style outside the mainstream, and as any artist will say, life on the edge is a life well-lived.

Laughing at all the high-minded, art talk? Well, keep in mind that one of Zwigoff's talents is to tell stories with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.

"The whole film, to me, was a playful meditation about art," he said, about the movie.

Zwigoff has become increasingly successful at telling stories about art and outsiders over the years. "Crumb" earned him numerous awards from critics groups. "Ghost World," which tells how two fringe dwellers become friends, earned him and Clowes an Oscar nomination for screenwriting.

In 2003, his "Bad Santa" starring Billy Bob Thornton as a man who dresses as Santa to rob stores at Christmas was his big box office hit with global ticket sales of $76 million.

But success has yet to go to Zwigoff's head, he said.

Zwigoff does not consider himself a big Hollywood director. He saves that distinction for Michael Bay ("Pearl Harbor") and Steven Spielberg, and he refuses to make a movie in which a big-name box office draw, such as Cruise, is foisted upon him or has greater influence in making a movie than the director.

"I cannot force myself to do that, not because I have any integrity necessarily or arrogance about it. I just wouldn't know how to direct a person who is wrong for a role," he said.

"I don't have that many years left, he added. "The films I want to make, I really want to be passionate about."

[MacGuffin]

Interview: Terry Zwigoff
A chat with the director of Art School Confidential and Bad Santa.

IGN FilmForce recently attended a roundtable interview with director Terry Zwigoff (Bad Santa, Ghost World) whose latest movie, Art School Confidential, opens today.

Art School Confidential stars Max Minghella, John Malkovich and Ethan Suplee. It follows a young student (Minghella) at a pretentious art school and his quest to become the next Picasso (not just as an artist but as a womanizer as well).

Q: Tell us about how you became involved with Art School Confidential. What attracted you to it?

Terry Zwigoff: Well, I did Ghost World with the same people. I had such a pleasant experience working with them and wanted to work with them all again. Dan [Clowes, the writer] and I always sort of talked about doing another film together but, after Ghost World, I went off to do Bad Santa. We were originally planning to write this together and we said, "What are we going to do next?" And he had this idea for Art School. I said, "Why don't we start with the ending first because endings are so difficult in films?" If you get something too downbeat the studio's going to change it. Let's get something good. Can't be too downbeat, can't be too upbeat. They're tricky, you know? We got about that far in our discussion and I went off to do Bad Santa. I said, "Why don't you take a pass at writing it? Write it yourself. I'll come back, give you notes, whatever."I came back, read the script, loved the ending, loved the beginning. Loved the fact that the script starts with a fist punching the audience in the face, although that's the way I interpreted it. (Dan) interpreted it as, "Well, I thought it was going to be right after whoever the studio's going to be – whether it's Warners or DreamWorks or United Artists – the fist punches the studio! In this case, I actually liked the studio. United Artists. The studio was nice to me so we didn't quite play it that way but that was the intention in the script anyway.

Q: How much did the MGM shake-up affect the movie's release?

Zwigoff: Well, that's hard to tell. By the time we got to the editing room, Sony was already finalizing the takeover. We were editing up at Berkeley at the Saul Zaentz Film Center. I live in San Francisco so it was very convenient for me. UA executives would come up there very occasionally, just a couple of times. They'd look at cuts. They didn't have many notes, few notes here and there. They were pretty easy to deal with. But I couldn't tell if it was because they thought the film was okay or if they had nothing to do with anymore and Sony was taking over. [laughs] Truthfully, I don't know. But for whatever reason it was sort of a good thing maybe, you know? Maybe nobody quite felt ownership of it so I was left alone but I wasn't bothered too much by anybody. I didn't get too many notes that I didn't agree with.

Q: What was it like directing John Malkovich?

Zwigoff: It was a little bit strange directing John as an actor because he was also a producer. It was a very uncomfortable experience. I'm directing him his first day and we have this five-page scene of dialogue where Jerome comes to his house. I sort of knew that he was going to enter and go through this room and then John was going to end up on the phone in this room and he'd have this long three pages of dialogue. So I told the DP, "Why don't you light this room so John can go anywhere he wants when he comes in?" Because he's got a hundred plays under his belt, he's done a hundred films, he knows much more than me. I don't want to tell him, "Hit your mark here. Say this line, move over here, light a cigarette, say this." So I told John thinking he'd be thrilled. Any actor would love that freedom. I said, "You come in this room, you can go anywhere you want. I've lit the whole thing." He said. "No, no, I'll just stand here and do it." We rehearsed it and I said, "John, it's very static. It'd be better if you moved." He said, "Okay, I'll move. Where do you want me to move?" [laughs] He was so docile about it. It was so unusual because there's something very menacing about him, even though I love the guy dearly. I'm friends with him.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the casting of this movie and the process you went through to find these particular actors?

Zwigoff: The process is always the same no matter whatever movie you make. It's always the first place films usually start making compromises and start going wrong. I've walked away from a number of really terrific screenplays in my life. People think I choose not to work very often because I'm lazy or something. It's not true. I find scripts and the studio sits you down and they hire you. They say, "Okay, here's the list of the ten male movie stars.

Q: One of your actresses from Ghost World [Scarlett Johanssen] is probably on that list now of people they'll make the movie with.

Zwigoff: Yes, she is. Scarlett. Thank God. More power to her. Love her dearly. ... I find it very ironic that Scarlett's such a big star now. It's great.

Q: Dan Clowes has said that you wanted Vince, Ethan Suplee's character, to be bigger and more obnoxious because of your dealings with the film world.

Zwigoff: I liked the idea that he was written as such a coarse, vulgar creature and this poor sensitive, virgin freshman shows up and is forced to be in close proximity with him in this dorm room. To me that was just endlessly amusing. I just thought the dialogue was very well written for the guy where he was showing him this picture of this girl he's in love with and (Vince) is making all these horrible, vulgar remarks about her. People think I modeled him after Kevin Smith because Ethan's been in movies with Kevin Smith and he's dressed a little like Kevin Smith and he looks a little like Kevin Smith. Really, I never thought of Kevin Smith that much. It was closer to this guy I saw in a documentary called Overnight. It's a great documentary. It's about a bartender who was offered a three-picture deal by Miramax, Harvey Weinstein –

Q: The Boondock Saints guy [Troy Duffy]?

Zwigoff: Right. And within thirty seconds, this guy's ego and arrogance just spiraled out of control. He became so difficult to deal with that Harvey just dropped him. The guy became too much of a pain in the ass and his career just disappeared overnight. A very sad, telling story. Great film. So I sort of thought of (Vince) like that. This big, blustery, arrogant guy who was going to take Hollywood by storm.

Q: Have you been to art schools?

Zwigoff: I've spoken at RISDE. I've been to a few art schools to do research on this film. I went to Otis College here in Southern California. In fact, we hooked up with a life-drawing professor there, Gary – I forget his last name. He was on the set all the time. He was another guy I'd turn to and go, "Would they be drawing with charcoal? Would they be drawing with pencil? Would they be holding the pen like this?" A lot of the kids in that classroom weren't artists for the most part. A lot of them were extras. So he was very helpful but I depended on Dan to come up and tell me, "This wouldn't happen." A couple of times he'd catch something. I'd be like, "Let's try and make this as truthful as we can." At the same time, it's filtered through my own particular personality. I've never been to art school. I sort of more depended on him.

Q: Were you directing this as a comedy?

Zwigoff: What I liked about this script is that it started out as a very conventional college comedy. Light and silly, almost like an Animal House-type of thing and it got progressively darker. I talked to the director of photography, Jamie Anderson, about reflecting that in the way we were going to light it as we went. In general, we tried to follow that with the costume design as well. But it was a mixture for me. It slowly drags the audience to this darker place, which I know they don't want to go to. I find that all the time. People like light and silly and they like stuff that's really energetic and you get a character in a film bouncing around and screaming, people laugh. That's all it takes. I don't find that funny. To me what's funny is dialogue and nuance of character and performance. But I liked the fact that (the script) started out with the audience thinks they're going to be in this other film and they you slowly take them in this other direction. I liked that about it.

Q: Any thoughts on a sequel to Bad Santa?

Zwigoff:, Nah, I'm not going to do a sequel to it.

[last days of gerry the elephant]

I saw this last night, and I admit it was a very solid representation on some issues regarding art school, generally. Very funny in those respects also. The ending however I wasn't very keen on, it was just a little odd...   

I am interested to see Ghost World after this.

...just to see the full scene of John Malkovich go to town on all the 'art' in the gallery

Actually I anticipated this as well, but it wasn't in the movie I don't recall... Unless by chance I had missed it when I went for a bathroom break.

[A Matter Of Chance]

I thought this was pretty interesting - the pacing in the begining seemed awkward but once it got rolling it was good. Not as good as Ghost World but still pretty good. It seems like these two will do something again soon, because I am sure this movie is going to get noticed.

I also really enjoyed Ethan Suplee's kinda-kevin-smith get up at times.

[RegularKarate]

a couple decent laughs, but overall, it's shit.

[modage]

a couple decent laughs, but overall, it's shit.

thats the strong vibe i've been getting.  i was definitely going to see this, but i'm thinking now it's probably only a rental.