ARTISTRY, DYLAN AND THE FALCON
On making art, missing people and lovely images
I always think of a creative life as long periods of making and short periods of promotion. You have to go away to whatever your work space is and get into a rhythm of rituals that feed your work. Nothing pleases me more than to see the pages pile up day by day. It can take years before a book or film is finished. And once finished there's no guarantee that anyone will care. Even hate can feel more fulfilling than silence. Which is why the quiet times of creation live longer in my mind. Winter can seem foreboding, yet it's a great time to plant seeds and bask in the little discoveries of creation. Hoping the new year is filled with ritual, focus and the unexpected delight of seeing an idea blossom from a moment of silence.
TOM WILSON AND BOB DYLAN
Was curious about how 'A Complete Unknown' would handle the presence of black Columbia staff producer Tom Wilson, who worked extensively on Bob Dylan's early recordings, including the historic "Like a Rolling Stone" session. He's in the film, has a line of dialog here and there, but if you don't know who he is or why he's important this film won't tell you. Wilson played a key role in the evolution of Dylan and Simon & Garfunkle's from folk to electric instruments. Plus produced a ton of jazz recordings. Not a complete unknown but should have a higher historical profile.
I should add overall I was pleased with the film. It’s very hard to capture the process of creation, since its a deeply internal process. But I felt director James Mangold did a wonderful job of using the reactions of the people around Dylan as a way to track his journey. I was too young to walk the Village streets in the ‘60s, but the depiction of the the clubs and recording studios felt spot on to me. Obviously Timothee Chalamet as Dylan really carries the movie without whitewashing Dylan’s ass hole qualities but I thought Ed Norton as Pete Seeger and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez were superb as well, both enthralled and appalled by the budding genius in their lives.
HUMPHREY BOGART, PETER LORRE AND SIDNEY GREENSTREET
Over the holidays I revisited one of my favorite movies and was really struck by the visual storytelling of The Maltese Falcon, especially the long last section, which takes place in the San Francisco apartment of Sam Spade. As directed and written by John Houston, the sequence is a masterpiece of lighting, composition and blocking. And the actors are always alive and engaged even when in the background. Peter Lorre, who actually doesn't have much dialog in the scene, is fascinating to watch as his face reveals a thousand emotions. Modern TV could learn much from how this was covered and edited.