Film
Ow, Howl
I upped a new entry into my top 10 worst films of all time, the absolutely stank rendition of Howl, starring J. Franc. I’m not even a Franco-hater, his wanting seems nice, and I was rooting for him, and it’s not really his performance that blows the dog (though it’s certainly often cringey: don’t know why they didn’t get David Cross after his performance in I’m Not There).
Mostly, whoever wrote this script is a dingdong. I mean, they literally present animations that act out trippy renditions of a full reading of the poem, complete with bros on the rooftops of the city shooting up and howling. The rest is just an interview with Ginsberg in Franco style, and a milky version of the obscenity trial for the book. The guy who plays Kerouac looks like a game show host. Jeff Daniels hangs out.
I can’t think of many good movies about writers: it’s not exactly food for wow. Naked Lunch was good. I like Wonder Boys for some reason, and Barton Fink. I didn’t like Barfly though I’m sure there are some hounds here. I’m sure I’m blanking on some others. What you got?
Tags: howl, James Franco
Capote is pretty decent, but mostly because Philip Seymour Hoffman’s so good.
Barton Fink is incredible. Especially when you know that it was written when the The Brothers Coen were having a lot of trouble finishing the screenplay for Miller’s Crossing (and Miller’s Crossing is, perhaps, my favorite film. At least in the running with Good/Bad/Ugly, Rashomon, and El Topo).
My “worst movies” list only contains two… because I allow shit to be shit, but once in a great while something is so bad that it really, really bothers me that people would like it… or, at least, it put me in a state of frustration as to why it was made..? These movies are Saw (the first one, didn’t watch the sequels, obviously), and Michael (Travolta as angel, written by Nora Ephron, I believe).
PS. When Goodman says “Heil Hitler” near the end of BF… megaclick. Chills, so perfect, every time. As is the ending ending, on the beach. So good.
definitely interested in hearing your take on Wonder Boys, blake
I haven’t seen Franco’s Howl, but I kinda love movies about writers. Not all of them, but some of them. Such as:
The Door in the Floor
The Squid and The Whale (the parents are both writers)
Misery
The Shining (pretty much all movies based on Stephen King’s books are about writers, but those two are pretty good, especially The Shining)
Sideways
American Splendor (comic book writers are writers too)
The Ghost Writer
I haven’t seen Franco’s Howl, but I kinda love movies about writers. Not all of them, but some of them. Such as:
The Door in the Floor
The Squid and The Whale (the parents are both writers)
Misery
The Shining (pretty much all movies based on Stephen King’s books are about writers, but those two are pretty good, especially The Shining)
Sideways
American Splendor (comic book writers are writers too)
The Ghost Writer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcc9E_r_wTw
Still haven’t seen it in its entirety but I’m a big fan of fucked up puppets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcc9E_r_wTw
Still haven’t seen it in its entirety but I’m a big fan of fucked up puppets.
Mrs. Parker and her Vicious Circle, Misery, Bright Lights Big City, Capote, Satansbraten, Through a Glass Darkly, Deconstructing Harry, The Front, 8 1/2, Fear and Loathng in Las Vegas…
Mrs. Parker and her Vicious Circle, Misery, Bright Lights Big City, Capote, Satansbraten, Through a Glass Darkly, Deconstructing Harry, The Front, 8 1/2, Fear and Loathng in Las Vegas…
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, good call. Great movie.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, good call. Great movie.
I have to go with The Shining as the best one.
Johannes
I have to go with The Shining as the best one.
Johannes
By the way youtube link is to part of 1989 film entitled “Marquis.”. Everyone wears Daft Punk puppet faces and M. de Sade’s cock talks and has conversations with his owner throughout.
By the way youtube link is to part of 1989 film entitled “Marquis.”. Everyone wears Daft Punk puppet faces and M. de Sade’s cock talks and has conversations with his owner throughout.
The entire time I was watching Howl, I couldn’t get over Franco’s shitty glue-on pube beard. What the FUCK was up with that?
Oh yeah, the rest of the movie was ass.
adaptation
What are the other 9?
Also Fritz the Cat is a lot of fun and on instant Netflix.
Wilde I recall as being good. Generally though films about writers suck. If I made a film about a writer I’d make the writer a total uneducated dick.
Eh, “Sylvia” was not too terrible.
I wouldn’t really call The Shining a movie about a writer. Jack likes the idea of being a writer, he’s not actually a writer.
yes this
lara flynn boyle in happiness is the best writer dick: ‘if only i’d been raped as a child i would have known authenticity!’
jack writes experimental literature
before night falls. i like wonder boys too. enough to have owned it on vhs for 7 years or so. perfect ‘i have a cold what should i re-watch (pre-netflix streaming) movie’…i’ve probably seen it 35 times all the way through. i recently sold it to amoeba for 25cents…
stand by me
the richard dreyfuss ending counts, right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeKjKWXWZOE&feature=related
Reprise.
That’s an awesome movie. I like the scene when the dude livens up the party with a lil Le Tigre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XulczW0lHkE
I remember liking “Prick Up Your Ears,” though it was Kenneth Halliwell, not Joe Orton, who I found the sympathetic lead (maybe because of his portrayal by Alfred Molina).
I was disappointed with Howl too. I normally like James Franco, so I was hoping for something better.
Movies I enjoyed with writers as main characters: Misery, American Splendor, The Shining, Adaptation, Finding Forrester. And Little Women was my favorite movie and book when I was about seven-ten years old, mainly because of Jo March.
As an aside, my mom met the actor who was playing Allen at some screening of the film and said he was nice and enthusiastic…though she wasn’t too sure about the film.
there’s one called Henry Fool that is absolutely fucking great, directed by Hal Hartley.
Factotum is okay, watchable. i just saw I Am a Sex Addict by Caveh, uh, i can’t remember his last name, but it’s about him, he’s in it playing himself at earlier and later stages of his life (and he’s a filmmaker, and i’m pretty sure he wrote it). seriously hilarious and great, too.
i second barton fink, henry fool (although i would not say the same for fay grim, pretty meh), and of course of course the shining
i would add godard’s contempt, le magnifique (starring jean-paul belmondo though not by godard), and through a glass darkly
i can’t fucking stand naked lunch
jack writes conceptual literature
zahedi
google is crazy
jack writes flarf
Lonesome Jim.
Factotum.
He Died With A Felafel In His Hand (really good, netflix watch instantly)
The Extra Man
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING never shows her boobs, fyi.
funny farm was funny when i was twelve. it might still be funny today. before night falls made me horny when i was twenty. synecdoche, new york will be even better when i see it for the third time–though hoffman’s character, cotard, was more of a theatre director, as opposed to a writer.
howl didn’t offend me. i enjoyed the fact the entire poem was presented.
watching mad men, i always see a 40-year old kerouac in jon hamm. funny how he was casted as the lawyer in howl. still waiting for a proper kerouac film. cast hamm.
he did do a substantial amount of writing though….
Yes, Barton Fink is so freakin’ awesome.
quill?
ex drummer?
yeah, most are kind of passe.
love it. don draper: the anti-beat figure.
but right about the resemblance. eerie kinda.
I thought The Libertine captured Wilmot well. Though I doubt the tidiness of the portrayals of Wilmot’s relationships with the actress and the King, I thought those, eh, dramatically convenient relationships were essentially truthful about Wilmot’s challenges to political and cultural authority. Well-made movie, too.
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, was a great ‘minor’ poet – technically superb, plenty of humorously obscene doggerel – in my view, the lyrical peer of his contemporary (and much more ‘classically’ ‘poetic’) Dryden. I’m surprised his poetry isn’t
mentioned and quoted more often here by transgressy Bataillanders.
Moliere (the ’78 version) was a most entertaining movie about the life of Moliere as a traveling actor/writer/impresario – about money, the in-the-weeds theater, love life (okay: whatever), France in turmoil, and Art. It’s 4+ hours, but I don’t remember fidgeting more than usual at a double-feature. The director is Ariane Mnouchkine, whom I hardly know – probably you do well – and I didn’t recognize a single actor, but who cares about all that if it’s a strong flick.
—
Charles Foster Kane was a fictional publisher of writers and picture-takers.
Bukowski hated Barfly too.
I’ll add to the chorus in favor of Barton Fink. Also, The Player by Robert Altman and Sunset Boulevard (both about screenwriters but still writers) and I like The Squid and the Whale too.
anybody see Henry and June? its about henry miller, june and anaiis nin, but not really about writing. not as good as funny farm
I liked Soderberg’s Kafka, though it’s not the ‘Kafka’ that Kafka saw himself to be, in my small knowledge, and I’ve heard the movie hated for being an inaccurate ‘Kafka’.
Soderberg also made a too-long but smart and pretty entertaining movie(s) about Cliche Guevara. The Motorcycle Diaries was more cinemanipulative with Cliche the Icon, but, for me, it was more fun (sadly?).
“literally present animations that act out trippy renditions of a full reading of the poem”
worst thing to do with a poem or song
I refused to see that Todd Haynes Dylan movie after I heard it contained a sequence dramatizing the lyrics of “Ballad of a Thin Man.”
adaptation.
The Secret in Their Eyes, Before Night Falls, Misery, Adaptation, Sunset Boulevard, Deconstructing Harry
This is a great list – I love a lot of these movies. Usually the film discussions here make me feel entirely out of it. But these aren’t just interesting / good films but the portrayal of the writer in each is somewhat different. Whereas TV always gets writers wrong in a way that usually offends me.
I’d add A Clockwork Orange and The Hours.
Excellent list. I would have totally forgotten about Through a Glass Darkly. I also like how many people are saying Barton Fink.
i wish someone would post or youtube: ““It Wasn’t A Dream It Was A Flood” .. the autobiographical movie of Frank Stanford. it seems the only way these things work is if the poet plays himself.
I don’t like you john minichillo.
There are actually *two* writer-characters in Barton Fink, which makes it extra-special good.
And let’s not forget Holly Martens in The Third Man.
american splendor
I thought it was pretty not good. It did, however, make me read “Howl” again, which was a great idea.
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Late August, Early September, by Olivier Assayas. The writers in it are fictional.
An Angel at My Table, the movie about Janet Frame.
Raul Ruiz’s Time Regained.
In general, I agree, writer-movies are pretty bad.
The hall of shame:
Number one, worst movie about a writer is probably The Basketball Diaries (truly horrible) Tales of Ordinary Madness also stunk.
I skipped Howl because i saw the trailer and it made me cringe. i couldnt subject myself to 90 minutes of it.
Its hard to make a good movie about a writer, unless you focus on the part of their life when they’re not writing (i.e. Drugstore Cowboy). Otherwise you get endless cliche shots of them sitting at a typewriter looking like theyre constipated, trying to Create.
Fear and Loathing was really good though, Where the Buffalo Roam not so much but interesting at least. And it had Bill Murray doing HST which was entertaining. Barfly should have been better. Factotum was pretty good, but lost steam whenever Matt Dillon sat down at a typewriter. When it comes to writer bio’s, documentary is the better format. Just don’t get Henry Rollins or fucking Bono to do a talking head (thanks a bunch, director of Born into This).
I like Naked Lunch as well in a weird way, although it was no Rabid. Hell, it was Cronenberg, and he is a genius.
Henry Fool, yes. It is the greatest.
yes, that’s a strange and beautiful little stretch of filmmaking
[…] Blake Butler hated Howl. […]
i liked quills.
it’s funny when main characters are writers but their being writers is completely incidental to the movie or even their character. examples– george peppard in breakfast at tiffany’s, jimmy stewart in a philadelphia story
Thought I’d mantion that a script has recently been started for a film based on Araki Yasusada’s Doubled Flowering. Two of the three writers have had hands in films previously produced and work for the industry, so I suppose it MIGHT end up happening, I have no idea. But I have met with one of the writers and gotten a rough synopsis of the approach, which will be novel, should it come to fruition.
A lot of movies about fictitious writers are pretty good, like Barton Fink, Naked Lunch, or Adaptation, because the character becomes an excuse to interrogate the process of creation, etc. Usually they suck when they’re biopics. It’s the same thing with books.
tinyurl.com/297sxrk
Crumb.
Stone Reader?
Reds
has a novelist character, but is it a
or a writer or writing?
It could be said of course that Barton Fink is a movie about a writer and the writing process but T.A.G.Dly?
Or typing. Which is what was said about Kerouac’s writing.
I think the Shining is a movie about a writer, yes.
Is that a real line from that movie?
yes. she throws herself on the bed.
Taken out of context, because I’ve not seen the movie, but I’ll judge it anyway: that’s pretty awfully dumb and stilted as dialogue, not to mention warped as a sentiment or “thought”.
you should see the movie. i mean, it’s todd solondz; he’s not dumb.
he just makes the same movie over and over again
I remember when it was released but never saw it. I’m not saying Solondz is dumb. But that line is – as I said, judging it out of context. Good writers and smart people write stupid stuff all the time. Will give it a try on your recommendation.
I found the ’66 FINNEGANS WAKE online, but the sound was fucked into a fastforwarding dialup connection wet brakes thing. I still watched it, though, but thought more about JJ than his book, so it counts for this.
”
I mean, they literally present animations that act out trippy renditions of a full reading of the poem, complete with bros on the rooftops of the city shooting up and howling.”
haha
I think it’s hard for a lot of writers and poets to admit to themselves that a lot of the Beats *were* bros, or the equivalent of contemporary bros on a lot of behavioral levels.
”
I mean, they literally present animations that act out trippy renditions of a full reading of the poem, complete with bros on the rooftops of the city shooting up and howling.”
haha
I think it’s hard for a lot of writers and poets to admit to themselves that a lot of the Beats *were* bros, or the equivalent of contemporary bros on a lot of behavioral levels.
tinyurl.com/297sxrk
LOVE that movie. “You compared me to Mussolini!”
I liked Infamous. Even Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee didn’t put me off, which is strange. But I agree, Phillip Seymour Hoffman is amazing as Capote. I also liked the Sylvia Plath movie with Gwyneth Paltrow. But this might be enough to make you doubt the credibility of my opinions!
ebert’s ’68 review of that is pretty tite: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19680509/REVIEWS/805090301/1023
Nice review. Also interesing:
Don’t think I’ve seen a film in English subtitled in English.
I think I’ve seen Loach subtitled (working-class Glasgow/Yorkshire; I don’t understand a fair %age of the dialogue by ear).
I’m pretty sure Jamaican-English is often subtitled.
The Gullah film Daughters of the Dust is subtitled.
– all of which makes the point about the only partial intelligibility of dialects.
I’ve seen it done in scenes, mostly comic attempts. Can’t recall an example right away. But it’s a, you know, listen-to-this-speaker-speaking-English-so-unintelligibly-that-it-requires-English-subtitles sorta thing.
A pretty famous example would be the black passengers speaking “jive” in Airplane — doesn’t the (white) nun translate – “Oh, I speak jive.” – after the subtitle gag has run its brief course?
– also an example of using the technique to ridicule – in that case, the black people, the white people, religious people, everybody (it was Airplane).
But, as an example not of mockery or of a theatrical ‘gee whiz’, Daughters in the Dust is fully subtitled out of (our – my, anyway) need: I really don’t know the Gullah dialect – either particular expressions or the general pronunciation of everyday words – , and I doubt most Georgian neighbors of the (now nearly assimilated?) Gullah do, either.
Much speech in plenty of British gangster flicks goes past me, and in art movies (like Loach’s), why not subtitle for American audiences? It wouldn’t be any more of a joke or a gimmick than in any other situation of unforced confusion at the dialogue.
Guy Ritchie’s ‘Snatch’ makes for good subtitle reading
Right, right. Snatch and Airplane. Should have been able to recall those. Shame on me.
http://onthebrod.tumblr.com/
It’s obvious that the main character is based on William Faulkner’s stint in Hollywood. The Coens are very familiar with his life and work… They slid in low-key references to Faulkner in several films
Barton Fink I’m referring to
Anyone know how to get a copy of that film? I’d love to see it. Big Stanford fan here