Yeah yeah, I know the internet is full of writer-movie lists. But this is Peditto’s writer movie list, which means I’m not going to hit the classics. Shall we knock those off now?
- BARTON FINK
- ADAPTATION
- THE SHINING
- MISERY
- SUNSET BOULEVARD
The best writer movies do something by alchemy that’s nearly impossible. They visualize a NON-VISUAL action–the act of writing itself. As any screenwriter knows, sitting at the typer/computer is is an isolated/isolating enterprise. It’s mental, in the head stuff. Left in the hands of Columbia College freshmen, it’s often times painful to watch a poor attempt at recreating the writing process. I mean– how exactly do you visualize it?
The best of the genre drive the narrative with the writer’s process. Barton Fink has writer’s block for 2/3rds of that movie, that is the central conflict. The Coen Brothers literally go into the wallpaper to objectively show an inherently subjective process. In The Shining, Shelley Duvall approaches her husband’s magnum opus only to discover, in a single image, that he’s lost his mind…
Here are 5 writer movies you might not have seen. Each instructs in its own way…
- THE PUMPKIN EATER
Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay? I’m in. There’s a scene in a zoo that alone makes the movie worthwhile. Also a scene in a hairdresser’s shop, just savage Pinter dialogue. Below is the stodgy trailer, don’t let it put you off. Check it out. Here’s a synopsis via IMDB:
“The study of a marriage. Jo has five children and husband number two when she meets writer Jake Armitage. She leaves this husband to marry Jake, and his career takes off. A few years and at least one child later, Jo is deeply depressed, breaking down in the middle of Harrods. After psychiatric care and the prospect of a new house in the country, she gets better; then, she is pregnant again, and this time Jake objects. Jo consents to an abortion and sterilization in the belief it will make her marriage happy again, but afterwards she learns ugly truths about Jake. She confronts him. “Why did you marry me?” and “What should we do?” become nearly unanswerable questions.”
- THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
This movie kicked my ass. One of the greatest Point-Of-View films you’ll ever see. From the eyes of a man who has had a stroke, we don’t see him until well into the movie. We see through him. I bemoan voice over scripts but here, there’s no movie without it. When he decides to write about the experience, it’s a profile in courage. This film won at Cannes and the Golden Globes so it’s not exactly unknown. Check it out.
- SWIMMING POOL
This makes my list not because of the super sexy Ludivine Sagnier, but because of the crazy plot…
“Swimming Pool is a 2003 French-British erotic thriller film directed by François Ozon and starring Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier. The plot focuses on a British crime novelist, Sarah Morton, who travels to her publisher’s upmarket summer house in Southern France to seek solitude in order to work on her next book. However, the arrival of Julie, the publisher’s daughter, induces complications and a subsequent crime.
While the film’s protagonist is British and both of the lead characters are bilingual, the majority of the story takes place in France – thus, the dialogue throughout the film is a mixture of French and English, which is appropriately subtitled.
Swimming Pool premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2003,[4] and was released in France a few days later, with a U cinema rating, meaning it was deemed suitable for all ages.[5] It was given a limited release in the United States that July, and was edited in order to avoid an NC-17 rating due to its sexual content and nudity. It was subsequently released in North America on DVD in an unrated cut.”–IMDB.
It too is free on YouTube. There’s nudity and sex….now that is how to dramatize the writer’s dilemma!
- IN A LONELY PLACE
“A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. But she begins to have doubts…”– IMDB
Nicholas Ray directing Humphrey Bogart? That pedigree make this one of the top Film Noirs, and one of Humphrey Bogart’s best. Bogey as Dixon “Dix” Steele, a “a down-on-his-luck Hollywood screenwriter who has not had a hit since before the war.” Creeping paranoia oozes. The possibility of screenwriter as murderer anticipates movies like The Player and Basic Instinct. Love this cheesy trailer–“suspense grows with every word!”
- PRICK UP YOUR EARS
From Google: “The life and tragic death of British playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) is chronicled in this biographical film. When the young, attractive Orton meets the older, more introverted Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina) at drama school, he befriends the kindred spirit and they start an affair. As Orton becomes more comfortable with his sexuality and starts to find success with his writing, Halliwell becomes increasingly alienated and jealous, ultimately tapping into a dangerous rage.”
This was a gruesome murder, documented by John Lahr in his biography. “On 9 August 1967, Kenneth Halliwell bludgeoned 34-year-old Orton to death at their home in Noel Road, Islington, London, with nine hammer blows to the head, and then committed suicide with an overdose of 22 Nembutal tablets washed down with the juice from canned grapefruit. Investigators determined that Halliwell had died first, because Orton’s sheets were still warm.[11]
The 22 November 1970 edition of The Sunday Times reported that on 5 August 1967, four days before the murder, Orton went to the Chelsea Potter pub in the King’s Road. He met friend Peter Nolan, who later gave evidence at the inquest that Orton told him that he had another boyfriend and wanted to end his relationship with Halliwell, but did not know how to go about it.
The last person to speak to Halliwell was his doctor, who arranged for a psychiatrist to see him the following morning. He spoke to Halliwell three times on the telephone. The last call was at 10 o’clock.[12] Halliwell took the psychiatrist’s address, and said: “Don’t worry, I’m feeling better now. I’ll go and see the doctor tomorrow morning.”
Halliwell had felt increasingly threatened and isolated by Orton’s success, and had come to rely on anti-depressants and barbiturates. The bodies were discovered the following morning when a chauffeur arrived to take Orton to a meeting with director Richard Lester to discuss filming options on Up Against It. Halliwell left a suicide note, informing police that all would be explained if they read Orton’s diaries, “especially the latter part”. The diaries have since been published.”–WIKI.
The movie shows the dynamic changing between Orton and Halliwell, Orton from young Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art student, Halliwell’s protegee, to his fame leaving Halliwell, now enraged lover, behind. Gary Oldham is a chameleon par excellance, one of his best roles, and maybe one you missed.
