Director's Early-Early Work: Kubrick, Nolan, Scorsese and Spielberg

On Wednesday, December 14th at 8:00 pm (ET) TCM will broadcast one of Stanley Kubrick's earliest directorial attempts - Fear and Desire (see above). Movie critic and historian Leonard Matlin (who is featured in These Amazing Shadows) says of Fear and Desire: "Kubrick's elusive, shoestring-budget feature-film debut is an existential antiwar allegory centering on four GIs (including a very green Mazursky, in his film debut) stranded behind the lines of an unknown enemy and fighting a fictitious war in an unidentified country. Long suppressed by Kubrick himself--who also photographed, edited, and cowrote with poet/playwright Howard Sackler--the movie contains some striking imagery and shows the germs of budding talent, but generally comes off as an arty and pretentious student film."

This got us thinking about other directors early work. We often think of directors appearing as full formed geniuses/auteur/dictators, but often what you find in their early work is a clunky style that only remotely suggests their future potential. Thank goodness they find ways as young directors to experiment and evolve without crashing and burning in the public eye (although strangely that sometimes happens in the middle of their careers: Spielberg 1941, Bogdanovich At Long Last Love, Scorsese New York, New York).

Christopher Nolan: Doodlebug (1997)
A man waits patiently in his apartment to squash a bug, but he could be hurting himself more than he realizes.



Martin Scorsese: It's Not Just You, Murray! (1963)
Now middle-aged, mobster Murray looks back at his humble beginnings as a bootlegger and his rise to becoming wealthy and highly influential.


Steven Spielberg: Firelight (1964)
Menacing UFOs attack citizens of a town. 
NOTE: Be patient with this video - it is very rough. If you stick with it you'll see some familiar images from his future movies.

Good & Bad Homages, Tributes and Ripoffs

If you're a successful director, filmmaker or auteur with a unique style you're sure to spawn a bevy of imitators and expressions of admiration across the Internets that take the form of a tribute video, reinterpretation of your work or downright ripoff. Above you will find a skillfully edited example of an homage compilation of Christopher Nolan's work by Dutchman, Kees van Dijkhuizen (who is all of 18 years old according to his youtube profile). This video is part of his [the films of] series that includes Ridley Scott, Tim Burton and David Fincher. I think [the films of] Christopher Nolan is his best.

A less successful "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" video was done by me over two years ago when we were trying to figure out the tone and point of view for These Amazing Shadows. I've always been taken by the old style newsreels of Pathe News, March of Time and Hearst Metrotone News. The fast talking infotainment style evoked a certain excitement and urgency that is so ripe for satire and reinterpretation. Above is a very crude attempt (and by crude I mean awful) at using the lively newsreel style to make the kinda dry subject of film preservation come alive. My only defense is that I threw it together quickly and cheaply to show others the basic idea. Out of some failures you don't really learn much other than how to wince. Below you can view the real deal.



Newsreels on the National Film Registry:
Jenkins Orphanage Band (Fox Movietone News)
Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel Footage
Republic Steel Strike Riot Newsreel Footage

These Amazing Shadows Interview subject updates: Wayne Wang, Barry Jenkins, Christopher Nolan and Barbara Kopple.

Wayne Wang: His new movie, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, has just been picked up for domestic distribution by Fox Searchlight for probable fall release. We're so excited because it looks like a beautiful film. His Hollywood studio films like Maid in Manhattan and The Holiday are nice, but we really love his work when he tells stories that are close to his heart. Check out the trailer above. Our sources tell us that Wayne is prepping for his biopix on Albert Einstein.  Hummmm...who to cast as Einstein? Young Albert: Giovanni Ribisi. Old Albert: Richard Dreyfuss. Oh, don't like that...suggestions???

Tracey Heggins (Jo') and Wyatt Cenac (Micah) in Medicine for Melancholy.

Barry Jenkins: He joined us for a post screening Q&A at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco. He is one of those rare filmmakers that is as good at promoting a film as making one. His feature film directorial debut, Medicine for Melancholy, is now running on Showtime. I am watching it as I write this fascinating blog post - so enjoyable.
Showtime schedule for Medicine for Melancholy: http://www.sho.com/site/movies/movie.do?seriesid=0&seasonid=0&episodeid=136098

Christopher Nolan (center) shooting on the streets of Pittsburgh.

Christopher Nolan: Christopher is working on Dark Knight Rises, his last installment of the Batman franchise. We wish we had some inside info but........we don't. We do however offer a twitter pic (above) of Christopher (center) and crew shooting in Pittsburgh. Notice the snow blower in the lower right corner - it is reported that the photo depicts him reading the owners manual trying to figure out how to get the snow blower to work. We believe that story is true because it seems consistent with how he was during our interview. You see we were having problems with a coffee maker and...(just kidding).

Sheet of the new Gregory Peck US Postal Service first class stamp.

Remember the US Postal Service? Well, it still exists and sometimes can be pretty cool. On May 13th they issued a Gregory Peck stamp. One of the stamps release events (there were others including in LA at the Academy of Arts and Sciences) took place at the Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island. Peck's grandson, 19-year-old Zackary Peck, was on hand as well as family friend Barbara Kopple. Scenes from Kopple's Documentary A Conversation with Gregory Peck was shown while Peck's Oscar performance as Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird" was re-enacted by S.I. Shakespearean Theatre Co. actor Joseph Daly. The stamp bears Peck's likeness from the movie because as Stephen Peck says in These Amazing Shadows - Atticus Finch "was closest to his true character, certainly the character he would want to be."

Our Filmmaker Interviews.

A screen grab of Christopher Nolan from our documentary, These Amazing Shadows

One of the most challenging aspects of our documentary was getting interviews with prominent filmmakers. The reality is that prominent people have worked long and hard to build their success. Why should they risk their reputation and precious time with a documentary produced by two guys with no discernible reputation. We had to develop strategies to overcome this reasonable attitude held by the multi-layer of people between us and the person we wanted to interview. Our main ally was persistence. And, the benefit of some small to large connections to people we know who have real connections in the film business.

The most interesting "celebrity get" was the director, Christopher Nolan. He is unquestionably one of the top directors in the world. We interviewed him about two weeks before the release of Inception. We had no idea his film would become the blockbuster of 2010. How did we "get" Mr. Nolan? Here is the surprisingly simple story. Our editor, Doug Blush, has a very cute daughter. She takes piano lessons from the same teacher as Christopher Nolan's daughter. A funny coincidence. During a recital Doug met Christopher and struck up a conversation about movies. Through this real, but a bit tenuous connection we relayed an interview request to him. To our delight he accepted.

Here is the interview scenario...Christopher is working night and day trying to finish his very, very complex film, Inception. He has a family. He has the mainstream media constantly knocking on his door. Literally thousands of interview requests. What does he do in the face of all of this? He makes time for our doc. Really amazing. He appeared for his interview on time (big thanks to his fantastic assistant, Stacey Kelly!!), coffee in hand, wearing his trademark vest/suit and looking a little tired, but ready. He was so nice and gracious. He focused on our questions, gave thoughtful answers and even flashed us his boyish smile several times. As you can imagine, to us, Mr. Nolan is quite the prince.

Here's rooting for Christopher to win the DGA award!

DGA Nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement: http://www.dga.org/thedga/aw_announcements-11.php3