Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with my first big report from the SANTA BARBARA FILM FESTIVAL. I reviewed the opening night film MELINDA & MELINDA by Woody Allen the first night, but have been slacking off a little since. Now I have returned with a huge amount of pictures from all the big events of the last few days. Below you'll find pictures and descriptions of events with such people as Charlie Kaufman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Paul Giamatti, Jim Taylor, Jose Rivera, Bill Condon, Brad Bird, Paul Haggis, John Logan, Julie Delpy and Zach Braff. Also look out for a short interview with Brad Bird about THE INCREDIBLES and his opinion on an INCREDIBLES 2!!!
Let's start with the amazing writer's panel that was covered in great detail by some other bastard with quicker typing fingers than me here... What wasn't mentioned, however, was how the moderator, who was Frank Pierson (President of the Academy and writer of COOL HAND LUKE and DOG DAY AFTERNOON) commented to Jim Taylor that he had no idea how Paul Giamatti was ignored for a Best Actor nom. Even the President of the Academy thinks Giamatti was robbed!
The panel was fantastic, a true selection of the best minds in Hollywood. These folks are the cream of the crop, the masterminds behind the best cinema coming out at the moment. And they also turned out to be full of laughs. Especially Julie Delpy, Brad Bird, Charlie Kaufman and Zach Braff. They really were the highlights of the panel, always keeping things light and funny.
Delpy proclaimed that she was a virgin to panels (just panels, nothing else, she proclaimed!) and was so adorably embarrassed about not staying on topic that it had to make you laugh. The sheer numbers of F-bombs she dropped was awesome. She mostly talked about her writing BEFORE SUNRISE with Ethan Hawke and Rick Linklater and how the process wasn't full of ego. They'd regularly tell each other segments of their writing was shit and needed to be changed without any feelings hurt... just a kind of, "It is, isn't it?" acknowledgment.
John Logan (THE AVIATOR, GLADIATOR) talked about having DiCaprio always available to read through the script as he was writing it. He said it was great to have such amazing instant feedback. Logan didn't get a chance to talk much during the panel, but he said that we should all hear Leo's Katherine Hepburn performance sometime.
"... and Brad Bird rules!" That was tagged onto a question by a geek in the audience (not me, I swear!) totally not directed at Bird. The love the fan community has for Brad Bird is amazing. You'll always find some douchebag giving Peter Jackson shit, you'll find a lot of negativity towards Lucas and Spielberg and Scorsese and just about every working director, but somehow Bird has the full support of damn near everybody in the geek community.
I got to chat with him a bit about Michael Giacchino's great score, an INCREDIBLES sequel and just why Pixar's the bee's knees. Here's that chat:
QUINT: Of all the scores nominated there is only one that I have on CD and listen to regularly and that's Michael's score for THE INCREDIBLES. Do you think he got robbed for a nom this year?
BRAD BIRD: Well, I don't know... The bottom line, really, is that he got a lot of attention, and rightly so, and he's going to do a lot more. He told me he had a helluva time trying to get that first break because they would say, "Well, what have you done?" He'd say, "Well, I've done this and I've done that," but then they'd say, "But no movies." It was like once you do a movie you can do a movie. How do you break that curse? I'm really gratified that he's getting a lot of work. I think it's extraordinary. He's got all kinds of films... Big movies, little movies, romantic comedies, action movies. He's gonna be fine.
But I really felt he deserved to be nominated because I loved his score.
QUINT: The score really feels like a fingerprint to the movie, you know? It's part of the identity of THE INCREDIBLES.
BRAD BIRD: Yeah, that's why it was really important to me that I get that 'cause I always heard that music when I was talking about it with people. It took me a while to find the right person to do that. Luckily, Michael loved that kind of music and knew what I was talking about and could go there. But what I was impressed about was that he captured that sound without being imprisoned by it, without feeling limited by it and there were a lot of films that get that sound, but they're only kind of replaying cliches and they're not taking it to new places. I felt Michael's score was honoring that sound, but also playing with it and going somewhere new with it.
QUINT: I don't know if you've heard this or not, but rumor has it that Fox has given FANTASTIC FOUR some $20 million plus extra to beef up their film in order to try to not be completely surpassed by THE INCREDIBLES.
BRAD BIRD: Well... wonderful! I'm sure the director of the film is sure happy to have some more money to play with. Anything to help a fellow director, I guess (laughs)!
QUINT: Where's Pixar going to go now?
BRAD BIRD: I think they're committed to making different kinds of movies. They are a director driven company. They want people to be passionate about ideas they have. They're not assignments, is what I'm saying. I think that they'll continue to go that direction. Whatever story A) the director is passionate about and B) they're excited about seeing... that's what they'll make. I think it's a wonderful company that has a really bright future. I think they're going to be all over the place in terms of what they're going to do. What won't change is the commitment to quality and character and story above everything else.
QUINT: What about INCREDIBLES 2?
BRAD BIRD: I think the key there is having an idea that goes somewhere new. I don't think you just want to recap what you've done. I think the other thing is that you have to feel confident that you have the original creative team. All my favorite sequels were done by the people who did the original, for the most part, where the lion's share of the people who do it, like 90% of the crew is the crew of the one that you like. And at every instance they felt they could match or better... at least they were attempting, you know what I mean? They felt confident going in that they could top or match the one that everyone liked.
QUINT: Well, Pixar's got a pretty stellar history of sequel work. They've only done one and it was perfect.
BRAD BIRD: Right! And quite honestly, that film I think defined the company. I think they went into it thinking, "Well, this will be an interesting little video thing," and when it didn't come together to their satisfaction they stopped it, they pulled in the guys that made TOY STORY and just completely redid it and killed themselves, almost, in the process. Everybody gets this Vietnam look in their eyes when you bring it up because they basically remade the film in 9 months. I think the fact that it's such a great sequel and a wonderful film shows you that when push came to shove they didn't go the cheap, easy route. They loved the characters too much to sell them short and I think that speaks volumes to the quality of the company!
QUINT: I can tell you that you got the full geek community behind you. We're pulling for you!
BRAD BIRD: Thank you, thank you very much. I'm very happy with the nominations we got. It's going to be very fun. I'm just going to enjoy the show!
OK, now back to the rest of the writer's panel!
Bill Condon got kind of shafted, with Pierson seemingly not even knowing he was there or even having any idea what KINSEY was when he was yelled at for forgetting to touch upon the film. Condon didn't get to talk much, but he seems like a genuinely nice guy with some great talent behind the camera.
Zach Braff was pestered by all the girls in the audience. He even commented that he felt so weird to be getting most of the questions while on a panel with Charlie Kaufman and the rest of the most genius writers working today. I, personally, wanted to ask Braff how much of the kissy-kissy he wrote into the script after he cast Natalie Portman... I mean, having that unique position of being able to write make out and love scenes with one of the most beautiful creatures on this Earth is an amazing talent and a god-like power.
Of the movies represented on the panel there were only two that I haven't seen... I missed the Austin screening of MILLION DOLLAR BABY and somehow missed THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, one of the ones I was most looking forward to seeing last year. Luckily, I'm about to fly overseas and just found out that THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES will be shown on the plane (as well as I HEART HUCKABEES, which I missed, too)... Paul Haggis was there for MILLION DOLLAR BABY and Jose Rivera for THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES.
Rivera mostly talked about how he keeps himself writing by being strict with it and treating it like a blue collar job. He also talked about being at the Cannes screening where they were able to get Che's sisters to the screening and sitting next to one of them while they watched the film. She started crying about halfway through and asked him for a tissue. He didn't have any, but he did hold her hand throughout the rest of the film.
Haggis talked about getting Clint Eastwood involved. He was originally approached to be an actor in the movie, but he said that he had retired from acting, but loved the script. He ended up directing and had the movie finished and ready to screen 10 months after he signed on.
Jim Taylor talked briefly about SIDEWAYS, but probably talked the least out of all the panelists.
Charlie Kaufman didn't say much... he was a little shy, but when he did speak it was always a fun story. My favorite being when asked about whether or not he knew John Malkovich before writing BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and how he got him involved if he didn't.
He didn't know the man, but there was apparently some worry of Kaufman being a creepy stalker since he wasn't a known screenwriter at that time. The person that was his go between for Malkovich was going to set up a meeting with him and Kaufman, but he had to ask Kaufman about the decision to include a 7 1/2 floor into the building where the main character worked. Kaufman said he thought it was just a funny image to him... an office on half a floor with people hunched over to get around. The guy looked a little relieved and told Kaufman, "Good... because you know... the number of John Malkovich's New York apartment is 7 1/2..."
He also goes by Charlie instead of Charles because there's a Charles Kaufman already at the WGA... who wrote the slasher flick MOTHER'S DAY! The only other thing of note I can think of is that Kaufman did say he was interested in directing at some point. I can't imagine what a Charlie Kaufman scripted AND directed film would look like. Can't wait!
Now let's change gears and talk about the Conversation with Paul Giamatti...
I was so glad that Giamatti didn't drop out. Because Santa Barbara is placed right between The Golden Globes and The Oscars and is only a short ways outside of LA, it's a prime place for nominees to generate some press and do panels and Q & As. After the nominations were announced a few people who didn't get nominated dropped out of the festival. I'm not sure if that was the only reason, but I was worried that since Giamatti got so amazingly snubbed (I mean, he IS SIDEWAYS) that he wouldn't want to keep his appearance.
But he did and he and Elvis Mitchell had a nice chat. He seemed just as I'd expect him to be... nice, funny and a touch weird. He talked about landing one of his first auditions, which was the role of a retarded stable boy in some horror movie starring Rutger Hauer (after a quick jaunt to IMDB I found this movie is called PAST MIDNIGHT and also features Clancy Brown! I need to see this movie!). He also said the first script to come to him that really gave him something to be passionate about was, ironically, a movie that no one thought was going to be anything but a cash-in flick... PRIVATE PARTS.
Giamatti said that the Stern persona is very much not who he is, which is why he felt Stern worked so well as an actor. He might have been playing himself, but since no one knows his real persona when they saw it at the beginning of the movie it was such a big shock.
I had to leave before the end of the panel, unfortunately, in order to make it over to the big presentation on Leonardo DiCaprio. He was being presented with an award... and I had heard early on in the fest that Martin Scorsese himself was going to be there to present the award to Leo. I could not miss that. So, yes... I have seen Scorsese in the flesh, as well as Jane Russell (!!!), star of Howard Hughes' 2nd film THE OUTLAW and whose gazangas were the cause of such controversy with the censor board as shown in THE AVIATOR.
Leonard Maltin hosted the event, running through DiCaprio's entire career so far. I know DiCaprio gets a lot of shit by the fanboys out there, but I've always respected him as an actor. He's always made the odd choice, went after the more interesting roles. Sometimes it worked (WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?) sometimes it didn't (THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK). But I think some of the detractors out there need to go back and watch THE BASKETBALL DIARIES and THIS BOY'S LIFE and TOTAL ECLIPSE and WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE? Look at those performances and see why Scorsese believes DiCaprio is the biggest movie star and best actor working today. Do I share Scorsese's opinion? I wouldn't go that far, but I think DiCaprio is a very talented actor who gets unfairly shat upon by a lot of fanboys.
DiCaprio talked about coming off of THIS BOY'S LIFE and having a choice. He was offered a big paycheck to star in HOCUS POCUS without an audition. The part was his. He was struggling for money and every inch of him said to take the offer... But there was another project called WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE? that he desperately wanted to pursue. He'd have to audition and the role wasn't guaranteed to him by any means, but it was the chance to work with Lasse Hallstrom and Johnny Depp. He turned down HOCUS POCUS and went for GRAPE.
Matlin commented that this is what sets him apart from most actors and why he believes DiCaprio has achieved his stature.
I'm just disappointed they didn't talk about his role in Sam Raimi's dreadfully underrated THE QUICK AND THE DEAD. That's a great movie that is hampered only by Sharon Stone's performance. Everything else in that movie is fried gold, including DiCaprio's cocky teenage gunslinger character. But they did show clips from it during the first montage, so I can' t complain too much. I also love how they included a picture from and listing for CRITTERS 3 in the program! Way to go Santa Barbara FF!
So, that was the big super star segment. There's one more left for me and that's tomorrow night. The yummy-yummy Kate Winslet will be appearing and I can't wait. Kevin Bacon is appearing later on in the fest, but I'm going to miss it, unfortunately, as I have to cut out on the 3rd to run across the ocean for a bit.
Anyway, on tomorrow's docket I also have Joe Berlinger's new documentary. I have a few reviews cooking as well. Many thanks to my buddy, Kraken, for taking the pictures above. Also, get well wishes go out to both Harry and Carol Marshall, who's one of the big wigs in publicity here at SBIFF. I cursed the poor woman by telling her that Harry had broken his ankle. Shortly after that, she went and fractured her own ankle! Get well, you two!
-Quint
