FILM TALK AND BIRTHDAY PARTIES
An old English professor of mine, the objective of whose course was to help us learn how to "talk about literature" once told a story of how Leon Edel, the famed biographer ofHenry James would "fall into a doze" at parties once the cnversation drifted away from talk about Henry James.
I don,t think I'm that bad, but I do know my energy level and alertness went up when I found people who could "talk about film" at two birthday parties I went t this weekend. Everyone knows movies, but not everyone knows how to talk about them.
So, it was with pleasure that I had a chance to talk with former Scout Productins development director, Roger Danzik and with filmmaker (MY FATHER THE GENIUS) at the birthday for filmmaker Alice Stone, thrown by her about to be 8-years old daughter, Sylvie. Lucia is not only a talented filmmaker (Her film won first prize at Slamdance a couple of years ago, but she is gracious and knowledgeable
The other party was for Northeastern journalism professor Bill Kurtz, himself the king of filmgoer who can be found regularly at the more esoteric venues like the MFA and the Harvard Film Archive. Apart from talking about Henry Adams rather than Henry James, we could also talk about how we discovered the earlyy films of Bergman and Fellini in th o ld pre-DEEP THROAT Combat Zone. But the rea treats were his children: Jake, who lives in China, has a deep knowledge of Asian cinema, and can go on about the aesthetics of Wang Kar-Wei and the visual poetry of cinematographer Christopher Doyle (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and HERO)And there is Kate, his half-sister, who is a graduate student at Columbia Not only has she had a documentary in competition at Sundance a few years ago, she has a scholar's knowledge of American experimental film (she envied my having taken courses with P.Adams Sitney), and talking about Bresson, Polanski, Bunuel, etc. It was even bearable that she finds IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE a bit too precious. To top it off, she is a big Missin of Burma fan. She jwas even at the old Bradford ballroom the same night that Burma performed their last concert 23 years ago.
Maybe that's whyI'm glad BUFF is going to be in one area this year. I can envisin myself sitting at a table at Johnny D's, and spending 6 days talking about movies. My ambitions are realy very modest.
I don,t think I'm that bad, but I do know my energy level and alertness went up when I found people who could "talk about film" at two birthday parties I went t this weekend. Everyone knows movies, but not everyone knows how to talk about them.
So, it was with pleasure that I had a chance to talk with former Scout Productins development director, Roger Danzik and with filmmaker (MY FATHER THE GENIUS) at the birthday for filmmaker Alice Stone, thrown by her about to be 8-years old daughter, Sylvie. Lucia is not only a talented filmmaker (Her film won first prize at Slamdance a couple of years ago, but she is gracious and knowledgeable
The other party was for Northeastern journalism professor Bill Kurtz, himself the king of filmgoer who can be found regularly at the more esoteric venues like the MFA and the Harvard Film Archive. Apart from talking about Henry Adams rather than Henry James, we could also talk about how we discovered the earlyy films of Bergman and Fellini in th o ld pre-DEEP THROAT Combat Zone. But the rea treats were his children: Jake, who lives in China, has a deep knowledge of Asian cinema, and can go on about the aesthetics of Wang Kar-Wei and the visual poetry of cinematographer Christopher Doyle (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and HERO)And there is Kate, his half-sister, who is a graduate student at Columbia Not only has she had a documentary in competition at Sundance a few years ago, she has a scholar's knowledge of American experimental film (she envied my having taken courses with P.Adams Sitney), and talking about Bresson, Polanski, Bunuel, etc. It was even bearable that she finds IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE a bit too precious. To top it off, she is a big Missin of Burma fan. She jwas even at the old Bradford ballroom the same night that Burma performed their last concert 23 years ago.
Maybe that's whyI'm glad BUFF is going to be in one area this year. I can envisin myself sitting at a table at Johnny D's, and spending 6 days talking about movies. My ambitions are realy very modest.
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