Post 32

By

Darrell J Banks

CR 2014

 What can you learn from Cary Grant and Leonardo DiCaprio in choosing a great character for a screenplay? Well, my favorite movies with Cary Grant are North-by-North West, Arsenic and Old lace.  

These scripts can be found at drewscriptorama (fair use).  Grant v DiCaprio, similar styles, smooth talking ladies man. This is no more expected then in the Aviator. While I am trying to find a copy of Gangs of New York, where Leonardo woos Cameron Diaz, in the Aviator DiCaprio, as Howard Hughes is a true player bred to find love in all the wrong places. What did Cary and Leonardo do right in both films they remain focused on their characters, they became their characters as Arsenic and Old Lace or in North By North West (found a copy at the library (TODAY)

 Below is a review I wrote a few years ago. Next up a review of Leonardo Di Caprio’s character creation.

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North by Northwest- A movie review

By Darrell j Banks

CR 2011 All Rights Reserved Worldwide

I bought several books on Hitchcock one with pictures one by a movie critic.  I learned a few things. I’ve always enjoyed Hitchcock he stars in his own pictures as a standby and creates tension out of normalcy.  This film has always been a favorite.

Hitch shows New York. A man (Grant/Roger) talking to his secretary on his way to an important meeting. Extras weave in and out, as they walk down a busy NY street.  Then bam, the acting starts he steals a taxi, saying his assistant is sick. Plays, phones, a pending business meeting. A message waiter calls for a Mr. Kaplan and Roger informs him he needs to deliver a message for an attentive mother.

He gets up and is shanghaied to the NY country side. Thought to be a spy the antagonists try to dispose of him by drunk driving. This is where the fun begins for eventually Roger will meet up with an attractive woman Eva Marie Saint. Back then words jumps off the page like sex at a strip club. “Every time I see an attractive woman I want to make love with her. “ Eve is 26 unmarried and industrial designer who has tipped the bus men she wants to dine with a killer with a nice face and she wants sex.  The train continues to Chicago. Eva holds his hand and blows out a match. Like his other films, Hitch uses libido to induce the audience into the twists and turns of this thriller. Eve has a large drawing room and doesn’t mind sleeping with a suspected killer. The police have stopped the train and Roger is packed in like a sardine, the police have questions for her and one still wonders does she work for the defense intelligence agency.  I mean so far the film has been normal, uninvited house guests, local judges, and hotel rooms. But spies?

Back in the day they didn’t show true love. Eve wants him to stay in his hotel room. She’s a big girl though he’s about sixty.  One wonders if she is aware that Gary Grant could never be a murderer. Eve doesn’t want to know much except like today’s “Madmen” he’s in advertising as Act 2 ends the action pauses. The porter cleans; Eve sings a child song, lights out.

Act 3 North by North West had it’s times restrictions and the noir genre requires pass a note to the agency. She won’t sleep with him but she has him in her grasps.  It appears the Defense Intelligence Agency is not so cruel. In Chicago the trains pull into the station now a days. (To view that beautiful bldg. rent The Untouchables Kevin Costner).  Roger carries her bags and they hide from the police as two spies follow them. The police search for porters with red hats and walk right past Roger shaving. Phone banks are shown as Eve and the bad guys plot their next move.  I miss those shots in movies. Since Collin Farrell starred in Cellular the phone booth has disappeared and now we get texting (Contagion) or emails shown on the screen. It’s not as interesting as a phone booth where all kinds of interesting things happen (Superman).Like in most of his films Hitch sets us up. Deserted plowed field finds Gary Grant in grey flannel awaiting his destiny. Cars zoom by and the stereo effect sounds like a plane. A man (Kaplan) gets out for a planned meeting. The man notices crop dusting (pretext) where there are no crops and Hollywood history is created.  In film people are killed by knifes guns, cars, sharks etc.  But rarely does a crop duster try to take you out.  Roger/Cary ducks, his suit soiled, bullets fly, and he must find and escape route. A car zooms by. Once surrounded by technology he finds himself alone against the machine. He flees back to the nature (a cornfield for safety).But the machine always welcomes you and then tries to destroy you. Chemicals are dropped and he flees for an approaching truck, which almost runs him over. The plane crashes into a symbolic fuel tank. (Man doomed trying to feed himself, and maintain a future).  Roger steals a truck with a refrigerator (symbolism again).  He finds himself back in Chicago looking for answers. He blows a spy’s cover and we find that Eve has been played as well as Roger who must once again play a corpse.  He pushes Eve into feelings she cannot utilize and the bidding between the neutral, good and evil concludes with a trip South Dakota.  Hitch uses violins to ratchet up the tension.  Roger creates a scene calling an auctioneer, idiot, creating a fight.  One thing I like about spy thrillers is that you see old signs North West Orient (Delta) Love blooms, and a story t must conclude.  Truth, innuendo, usually ends with a bullet. Leonard finds an old Gestapo trick, planes arrive and a choice must be made. Symbolism, verses reality. The good and the bad climb over the founding fathers and with a house divided one must survive to find true victory. I hope you rent this film and enjoy it. If only the WB would release it to the theaters again. Ciao.

Post 28

By Darrell J Banks

Cr 2014 All Rights preserved

Some films should never be made, perhaps the upcoming batman/superman movie, but only time will tell. Until then we are left with the remnants of the Jack Ryan reboot.  Well, where can I start, I like all of the actors, and their performances while not great were interesting.  I think it was the script or was it the editor or let us start with the director.  (Name less go to imdb.com for that)

 The film jumped around and created the premise that the CIA can do anything it wants in Moscow/Russia. Well, maybe but even in the film world that premise does not work. 

 Perhaps the story should have been set up better, first Keira Knightly is a med student, next she is married to Jack Ryan, and next she is a jealous wife/fiance who ends up in Paris then Moscow.  

 MISS-JOINTED FILMS 

The world is full of them for example, Star Wars I, II, and maybe three. Star Wars into Darkness, Superman IV etc etc. You notice it is many sequels and you can blame a lot of people. Really, you can.

 After you create a great character, you must place them in a story that has a developed plot, structure, action, character development. Then perhaps your film wont be less then your original intentions.

POST 31

By  Darrell J Banks

CR 2014,2005

NICOLE KIDMAN

This is a past article I wrote while the roles Hollywood has written for her have slowed down since I wrote t

his article, little Nicky is about to break out again as Grace Kelly.

The Actress Nicole Kidman and writing for her.

By Darrell J. Banks

Copy Right 2005

All Rights Reserved

Perhaps it=s pretentious to presume one can write for an actress you have never spoken too. Pretentious to imagine and dream that you the writer can develop a screenplay for a box office smash. But that is the premise of this article. Unless one is married or divorced from an actress such as Sandra Oh, one needs a muse to create inspiration for an actress such as Nicole. Having once seen Ms. Kidman live and in person, the shyness, the demur quality and yes the beauty is inspiration to type well.  Yet, the roles she has selected over the past ten years are idiomatic. Nicole searches for a script with a remembrance of past characters.

Recently, I also saw a photograph of Nicole Kidman with Lauren Bacall. Back in the forties Lauren looked very much like the current Nicole. Then, Ms. Bacall played the smoky, vixen, good girl. Yet her characters were driven to the bad guy. Never to forget a sequel Hollywood grabbed Nicole Kidman from Australia to perfect the vixen role for the past ten years. Surprisingly, in a recent article Ms. Bacall, was quoted by the BBC that today=s actors are A of minuscule talent.@ A slur perhaps.  Yet, those who write for Nicole Kidman would find this quote abhorrent.

Consistent with the intelligent sex symbol, Kidman=s   sex roles have expanded since A Batman Forever@ where she played the infamously named    Dr. Chase Meridian. The Bond girl name, the double entendre has three meanings. Rewind from 2005.  Ms. Kidman has stretched her acting repertoire to include the abused sex symbol in ADogville,@ the bad wife of AEyes Wide Shut= and of course the seductress in ATo Die For.@

Symbolic of Marilyn Monroe with a brain Kidman plays the prevailing dumb blonde to perfection in A The Stepford Wives.@  This role continues in the pending A Bewitched.@

As a screenwriter, one rarely writes for the same actress over and over again.  For, unlike the studio, system of days gone by the writer sits on the sidelines as the studio revolving door of redheads, blondes, and brunettes twirl by. Inspired by the similar roles your dialog may ensnare the synapses of some busy actress. Hopefully it’s Ms. Kidman who remains busy with four films per year, while many other Oscar winners, the Roberts, Tomei=s etc. select less work each year.

 Ms. Kidman has chosen roles that Meryl Streep in her prime may have declined. Yet, like Bacall and Streep, the role of the abused blonde is predominant in Hollywood cinema.

The Films

The early Kidman films, AEyes Wide Shut@ and ATo Die for@ feature the good girl turned bad. That is the marketing premise but the writers of these movies, Stanley Kubrick and Buck Henry respectively are no slouches, and they use a three-act structure to expand the role of the dumb blonde. In Kubrick=s film the wife is the backdrop yet she controls the flow of the movie.  Tom Cruise is the featured protagonist.  As the subtle antagonist Kidman beguiles Tom into what she wants, and his eyes are wide shut to the manipulation.

  In ATo Die For@she played the protagonist spinning a web around her husband once again.

Who would suspect the weather girl? Why would you? Ms. Kidman continued this theme in ADogville@  Never one to shy from the sexual provocateur role Ms. Kidman perfected this vixen role with a vengeance.  Like Barbara Stanwyck in ADouble Indemnity,@ she earns her revenge.

In A DogVille@ Nicole is passed from man to man, a fitting pawn of the town=s paternal system. Yet, her character has a self-inflicted wound; she has chosen sexual abuse over her role as the gangster=s daughter. Abused, yet willing, she accepts the towns’= rapes for more than two hours. Ironically Ms Bacall starred in ADogville@with Ms. Kidman Why is Nicole afraid? Why would a town seek to protect her and destroy her?

As a screenwriter reviewing this trend in roles, one should steer Nicole away from the abused vixen. Yet, Ms. Kidman has selected this role once again in A The Interpreter.@ Perhaps market share?

In the same April 5, 2005 article (BBC UK) Lauren Bacall cited the lack of acting skills of today=s stars. . When Ms. Bacall starred in the pictures A Key Largo@ and  A Sex and the Single Girl@  sex was different or so we are lead to believe by today’s= censors.

 So, as a screenwriter choose to expand the sex vixen=s role. For that is the ultimate quest. Like fried chicken today=s actresses are packaged and ready to go. Select one, and then dilute the bad stuff for a long and prosperous career. Until next month when we cover the actors Tom and Laurence and break them out of the cracker jack box. Ciao.

Post 30

By Darrell J Banks CR 2014

Amy Adams-

So a relative snapped a shot of Amy at the premiere in Westwood of Her.

Been obsessed since then. While she did not win, that Oscar (tm) neither did my favorite song Happy. But thinking about Amy's career, she has been throwing down since Enchanted, where she breaks out. Three years later, she is in the Fighter, and making her move toward the future with a great Boston accent, where she can take on even Mark Wahlberg's  sisters

While I don’t remember her in Charlie Wilson’s War, I will watch her in a gifted DVD Doubt and she showed she could also do comedy in Night at the Museum. She’s been around for almost ten years and why am I writing this profile, because I am waiting on American Hustle to arrive at the discount show, missed at the full price theaters. I think she has potential on par with Nicole Kidman who started out with Days of Thunder and broke out in   To die For. Every actress has a break out role, hopefully Amy A, will pick up a few dollars in this Superman movie and return to her dramatic roots. Nicky did a Batman, but just one.

Next up a past article, I wrote on Nicole Kidman and writing for her.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010736/

Post 29

http://www.amazon.com/Bad-News-Day-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B00J150Q68/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395243429&sr=1-1&keywords=darrell+j++banks

Been busy writing and editing.

For my followers, lets go to number one

POST 27

By Darrell J Banks

CR 2014

THE MOVIES

So the other night I found and illustrated history of Hollywood.   I found the hard cover edition, the soft cover can be found at amazon.com.
It’s an amazing book with photos with your favorite actors from Charlie Chaplin to Judy Garland with Tom Cruise and Madonna included within the covers.

  

Which brings me to what is a star? Stars can be created, if you do not believe me. Believe in Lupita Nyong'o. Yep Hollywood can pick them, like Bette Dais in Now Voyager. Stars may start young like Bette Davis a dance lesson here, a recital, an instrument or they may go Yale’s dramatic arts to learn their trade. Either way, we get to feel and experience what they give us.http://www.amazon.com/Movies-Illustrated-History-Silver-Screen/dp/1840385537/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394124059&sr=1-2&keywords=the+movies+an+i

Post 26

By Darrell J Banks

CR2014

Once upon a time Steven Spielberg wrote books and screenplays. Everybody did that, it was fashionable. Back in the sixties and seventies cult classics   like Star Trek spawned volumes of readers. Star Trek was based on teleplays, but that effort lead to other things Recently I found The Star Trek Reader II in hardcover published in 1967-1973.  Lately it appears we prefer screenplays by themselves, instead of the novelization of a screenplay. Life sure is strange.

Speaking of screenplays, I found a portion of my trilogy in a red folder- episode one. Over the years, I’ve thought of going old school and converting all of my screenplays into novellas or comic books. Not sure, which would sale?   But finding those old pages does remind me I really need to get back to writing screenplays before I lose my dialog skills.  I've been busy editing my short story and adding descriptive five senses words, adjectives and adverbs. A different style, yes short stories and fiction requires a different mindset.

Screenplays really don’t use exposition to describe too many scenes. Now a days the studios don’t want a lot of dialog.   But dialog and scenes establish a character and lead to a great structure.  That’s where short story and novella writing can really help you. While set designers and costume designers will set forth the tone of the movie, short story writing focuses you on the moment; you must be brief and precise to lead the reader in mid story to a great conclusion. Because screenplays are longer, about 120 pages long think of the novella when pacing your story.  Remember writing inter-laps and every tid bit will help you accomplish your goal to obtain an Oscar ™, Emmy ™ or a Pulitzer Prize.

Try writing a page of a screenplay and convert it into a page of fiction.

POST 25

By Darrell J Banks

Well, I fell asleep on the Oscars ™ again.  I think I heard  J. Leto win for best supporting actor. I wanted to see the happy song hopefully they will put it up on you tube. Then I woke up and saw the good parts best actress, actor and film.   What was even better I got to see Jimmy Kimmel’s show.  That was fun with K Spacey and the other Oscar winners who showed up and taped their segments.

Now that Cate has won, perhaps I can now write a script for E. Thompson who should have been nominated for   “Saving Mr. Banks." 

But first, I must finish editing another short story. It took one hour to input my notes into the first page of a six-page short story.  This brings me to online editing. Perhaps you have seen a few errors in my blog posts, a spelling there a glitch of grammar.  Well that is the problem with online editing the human eye can only stand staring at a computer screen for so long.   But as they say at the print shop no excuses. Three hours is usually my maximum with breaks. Thus, I often edit anything I intend to sale by printing them and checking for

1. Copy errors

2.  Page lay out

3. Spelling forwards and backwards

4.  Checking the grammar and my sentence structure.

5. Paragraph formation

6. And one final reading before posting for sale.

This process usually works in all genres and formats but like the NY Times or Washington Post you may find errors.

Next post back to the movies.

Post 24                                                                                                                            

By Darrell J Banks Cr 2014

It’s  officially Oscar day. And on such a day don’t believe what you see. For as the gowns that march down the red carpet hide many a body flaw. Like the films, actors and screenwriters nominated today they merely reflect the same images we give Hollywood’s greatest award.  It’s a trick, a marketing trick to ensure you buy more tickets.  Eighty five thousand dollar gift bags, Dior, Armani maybe, but today we have Tom Ford and designers I would have to Google to determine their current trendy status. Ouch…. Secondly,  never believe too much, what you see in a movie.  Especially in Oscar season.  I watched disk 2 of Mary Poppins, and it informed me that Emma Thompson was not in London when Walt Disney inquired of her Mary Poppins story. She was in New York City.  So the writer or director changed  something, a necessary change to reflect the true nature of a writer. But they that’s entertainment.   A rule you should always follow when writing fiction ( plays, screenplays  or short stories.) is that the real truth rarely matter unless you are the subject of the film.  Yesterday I saw Long Walk to Freedom. As a young person whose group home was in attendance  hollered out at the screen Mandela is a player.  That was the imagery used by the writer and director to show the relationship between Mandela  his women and country.  While with his first wife,  Mandela was shown seducing and being seduced by many women. The analogy also applied to his country. He was a successful lawyer who did not need any more clients. But his best client was South Africa as he transformed from a pacifist to a warrior to one growing tomatoes and triumphantly emerged as a person of peace.

When you write a biopic, it is often best not to have a living subject. It’s also important they you maintain the image of those who seek more of the hero’s pixie dust.  I hope when they shoot MLK that they focus more on the message and not his  human flaws.

As a character study watch Gandhi from and then watch Long walk to freedom. There are extreme differences in each approach. I think the Gandhi way is better approach when you try to secure the rights from the family members or subject of your biopic.

Post 23

By Darrell J Banks CR 2014

AMPAS AMPAS, oops dee doo, I got a secret and it’s better some think then you.

It’s called the Independent spirit awards.  Yep tonight, or this afternoon in Cali time the independent spirit awards are on.  Except for Blue is the Warmest Color I didn’t know any of the international film awards. I knew Blue, because it won at Cannes and while my short film (Fall at 19 degrees (was not included in this year’s selections I felt a part of it.

Some believe the Spirit Awards reflect film culture a little bit better.  While 12 years a Slave and Nebraska were nominated by both groups, the Oscars forgot about Robert Redford’s All is Lost, which gained a Spirit nomination and I guess, could have filled that 10^th slot.

Question, how many members compose the independent spirit awards.  Well it is a little bit more complicated then the AMPAS, but if you nominated Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, there must be some similarities in recognizing talent.

So, good luck to the nominees and enjoy this time it will never be 2014  again.