Just some news

My professor at the Academy will direct A Doll's House this semester and I'm playing Torvald, which - I think - is a huge challenge to me and I hope I'll manage to do it. I'm working on my portfolio for the UCD theatre directing programme. I'm going to direct fragments from Miss Julie (by Strindberg) with a very close friend of mine, who's already a working actress and a few days ago got a nomination for the Theatre Guild's award (for best supporting actress, congrats!) & I'm looking forward the chance to work with her and I'm hoping it'll be a rewarding experience. I'm going to a ski vacation in the beginning of February - for just a couple of days, because after that our semester starts. :-) But I'm glad my friends came up with this idea, so I'll have the shot to visit Bansko (which is a winter resort in Bulgaria) & have some fun.

I've been thinking about working on a Harold Pinter play as well, so it could be a really busy semester with lots of things to do. I just started researching A Doll's House on my own (you know, there's always a way to impress the people you're working with! no, i'm no go-getter!, I simply wanna give my best, lol) and that's all. Just yesterday I watched a very interesting film from Israel called Walk on Water. I recommend it highly to everyone. It's just about a subject, which is typically German, but I think the film is very human and entertaining as well.

And Oscar nominations are tba in 48 hours. You know, everybody interested in making a career in film and theatre is obsessed with things like that. I know the Oscars usually go the wrong way, but the excitement is a big part of the whole experience, so I'll enjoy myself.

All these books

You know all these books people are telling you about - there are so many articles like The 100 books you have to read before you die (yeah, I really successful attempt to make somebody excited about something, lol), there are the books the folks at the Academy are talking 'bout all the time & of course, there are the books your friends have read & the books your Ma thinks you should read. And right now there is a campaign in Bulgaria (with a show on TV) - Bulgaria's favorite book. And I've been thinking these days - fuck, I've never read David Copperfield. And I even felt kind of ashamed because of it, because it's the way things are supposed to be. You have to read some books no matter if you care about them or not, which I think is the main reason for young people to not enjoy reading that much. I enjoy reading actually and I've read some books - I'm a big Salinger freak, I told ya already! - but I have no interest in reading some books, no matter how great they may be. I started Master and Margarita at least twice and I lost the interest after the first fifty pages. It just doesn't speak to me. (And I'm the guy who couldn't stop reading The Catcher in the Rye!) My point is that if society wants people to read, it shouldn't actually make people feel stupid because they haven't read a certain novel or if they happen to dislike it. There was a film I've seen last year - The Squid and the Whale (a great film by the way!) - in which the father (a writer, a total snob and a pain in the ass as well) said to his son: "Don't read that novel! It's minor Dickens!" It just felt stupid. But it reminded me of the way some people speak. I'm usually surprised that people I used to admire are such blind followers. One of my professors would say anything is great just because it's written by a writer who's a big name and must read. He pretends it without having read the book at all. He just pretends that on name recognition alone. And he wouldn't read a young immigrant writer just because he ruins the language. He has never read something he's written, not even a page, but he pretends that with such confidence, that it's simply impossible to not get angry at him. Unlike him, I don't pretend The Master and Margarita is something unworthy. I'm just saying it doesn't appeal to me. It's not my kind of a read. But he rejects even the idea of reading something & then pretends that he cares a lot about reading and about the young people not reading at all. And of course, his tirade ends with something like: "It's sad that a society of illiterates is coming to rule this country in some twenty years." That's absurd. No - not absurd. Absurds are at least charming. That's hypocrisy, which scares me even more. It's just sad that reading became something snobbish and people who accuse other people of not reading don't care.

Anyway, we could be doing some Harold Pinter the coming semester, so I'll check some of his plays tonight. I really loved a play I read some years ago. Old Times. Now I'm checking and I finally, finally got a copy of The French Lieutenant's Woman - a film Pinter penned and I've been recommended to watch. It's Meryl Streep, of course! I'll watch it tonight and could write something about it tomorrow. Another insomniac night of films! Great! Love it!

Anyway, just about my Tina Fey! I loved her speech at the Globes. She was the highlight of an incredibly dull night (for me). Anyway, she said something like that:

But I want you to know that I really know how very lucky I am to have the year I had this year and if you ever start to feel too good about yourself, they have this thing called the Internet. And you can find a lot of people there who don't like you. I like to address some of them now. Diane Fan, you can suck it! C.Letter, you can really suck it! All year you've been after me!

That got me really laughing! Well, now I'm going to watch The French Lieutenant's Woman.

Writing

Learning the craft of acting & directing is so much different than most people could even imagine. Above all, it's hard work, because the so called inspiration thing actually happens, but most of the time it just happens in the wrong moment & disappears as quicky and unexpectedly as it came to you. Anyway, acting to me has always been like a tool to express emotions, but it just made me aware of some other impulses inside of me. Without the acting, I wouldn't have been able to start writing & directing and these two are so much more a way to express myself than the acting. And there you can really feel the inspiration and you're really dependent on it. And I've been happy enough to have lots of people who are supportive and believe in me - not only friends, but some people, whose work I respect as well. And I've learned my lesson - don't give up. Not easily! Because it's what I used to do until recently - I just started a story and at the beginning I just felt passionate about it & confident about that I was writing, really mattered somehow, but then I just lost the interest & this emotion & I gave up on this story & started another one. I finished only a few. Anyway, now I have these weeks off (we have a break) and I'm home, far away from friends and coffee calls (I hate them, because I just can't say No, even when I want to!) & I have some time just sit down & write. I'm working on a story I happen to live & to believe in and that's something. The images & the characters just happen & I enjoy it. And what's even more satisfying is that I have a clear idea of what it's going to be. What the story is going to be about. So I'm not afraid of it taking shape. And having the instincts of an actor is just helpful here. It helps me find the character within the story. Maybe some people really start from acting and then really have careers as writers & directors - like Emma Thompson and George Clooney (whom I respect as a director much more than I do as an actor), Romen Polanski & even Clint Eastwood (I happen to love Unforgiven & Mystic River). The new story just starts to take shape, but I feel I'm in full command of it. I hope I don't give up! Please, don't let me!

The interesting shot

I'm into film (very much!) and I'm into photography. So here are a few film shots, which I happen to love. Over at Incontention.com, Kris Tapley selects his ten favorite shots of the year and even though this year's list looks quite disappointing, last year's selection is impressive. The There Will Be Blood shot alone (the hand shot) is amazing. And Atonement reality vs. celluloid (film) shot is amazing. Here are some of my favorite shots.


This one is from Quiet City and is the story of two strangers who meet & spend some time together (in the park, at parties, at art shows etc etc). It's a very poetic shot & I love that about it. The two charactrs running against the sun just feels so fresh and hot and kind of liberating, but at the same time it just feels surreal and like a part from some action packed sci-fi film. The composition is pretty simple, but working. It just feels like somebody captured this happy accident on film. I'm not really familiar with lenses and stuff like that, but I have some friends, who's DP (director of photography) undergraduates & we had a long talk about this one. Anyway, it's really poetic.


The Atonement shot. It's from a scene at the end of the movie. Robbie (James McAvoy's character - I still feel obligated to point out that James's performance was to the cast standout & he gave such an honest and beautifully nuanced performance, that it's a shame he didn't get enough attention from his peers, but he's not yet 30, so I believe he'll have enough shots at being recognized in the future). In this scene his character Robbie - who's a soldier in WWII enters a deserted theater and in his depression & weak physical condition he just walks around & when he gets in front of the screen, he just gets overwhelmed by emotion. It's actually a scene, which is open to interpretation & James delivers a performance which happens to be both haunting & ambivalent enough to raise these questions. I love it. And the composition is pretty amazing. These days I'm reading a lot about compositon (with all the Susan Sontag photography stuff & reading about acting & the physical presence on stage and on screen) and I have to say that this shot delivers, because it's a shot, which points out contrasts - color & b/w, the big & small figures & the excitement of the lovers onscreen & the pain of the man off screen / in front of the screen. And it's beautiful, ain't it? I read somewhere that its director Joe Wright uses classic paintings as influence for many of his shots and I think it's a good idea. Stealing from the masters isn't stealing, right? ;-)


My favorite shot - from There Will Be Blood. Anyone who has not seen this film, go and see it! It's amazing! It's so much unlike other films, that after it, I felt like I've read a big epic novel. And Daniel Day-Lewis is an actors' actor & even though I think he went over-the-top, I think it just worked in this particular film. There was the need for a performance, which is strong and commanding enough to get the film working as a metaphor. But I loved it. And this shot - among many others - is amazing. It's this hand - covered with oil - against the light. There's the greedy nuance in there, there's the feeling of a human being becoming powerful & feeling superior. It's like a quest for a victory and at the same time it feels pretty empty. I love it.

A Love Letter to Tina Fey - the Comedian

Tina Fey, I love you! I do! You rock!


I just love you on 30 Rock and your Liz Lemon is my absolute alter ego. haha. I make the very same mistakes in my life & have some of her phobias, so I find it pretty enjoyable to watch things happen & the way she's reacting. It rocks!

You're funny, spontaneous & generous. I'm a fan!

30 Rock is just what TV should be all about - great, clever writing, witty comedy and complex characters. Once people think of a sitcom, they forget about the logics of character, which I myself really don't like. Okay, Friends was fun. But as much as I enjoyed it, sometimes its characters just didn't make sense, because the writers wanted them to react in a situation in a way, which would make the scene work as a comedy, but not in terms of characters. And I think the show suffered a lot from that. You see - there are scenes, in which Joye just reacts as if he's somebody, who's really good at analyzing people's actions (and even manipulating them), but in others (and it's what the writers wanted us to believe at first) he's just a goofy fella with a big heart. But 30 Rock rocks big time.

The characters are just hilarous, the comedy is always there and there's always a small detail I've failed to notice on the first viewing. Yeah, you got. I watched most episodes more than just once. Watching once is for starters, you know.

Right now, I have to think of a great moment in the episode Rosemary's Baby (with a guest star appereance by Princess Lea from Star Wars - I really forgot her name!). Anyway, Fisher! Fisher! Yeah. Carrie Fisher.

But anyway, Carrie is playing an older writer, who's been something of a huge influence for Liz in her childhood and inspired her to want to be a writer & in the first scene of the episode, Liz is attending an autograph signing session & just can't stop talking to her idol.

Here's the dialogue (with some pics).


Pic 1: Liz gets the chance to talk to her idol.


Liz: Hi, I don't want to sound like a weirdo fan, but I am obsessed with everything you've ever done. And I used to make my friends act out your sketches the next day. Oh! When I say my friends, I mean my Fisher price..my friends - dolls, because I didn't have a lot of (she can't believe she just talks and talks) friends. Oh, boy! Am I still talking?


The writer: You're gonna kill me, aren't you?








Come on. That's real comedy. That's real character within a few lines. And there's the cultural reference as well. I love that. No, I loaff it. I loaaffffff it. (Got my Woody Allen Annie Hall reference.) Haha. It's sad the series has such low ratings, really. It's a proof that people just wanna get a laugh and not think about it. And as Tina points out in a flashback in this episode: "It's so funny, because it's true." It's actually very true of great comedy, I think.

And that's why I love Tina Fey! Everything this woman has ever done is hilarous! And I love the fact that she doesn't have the confidence as an actress. It's quite cute how humble & at the same time hilarously funny and biting she can be. At the Globes she did dedicate half her speech to her bashers on in the Internet. It was fun. It didn't felt offensive or anything. It just felt like a sketch she's written & is performing to entertain people.

I wanna see more of Tina & actually I uploaded a video (she's done on Saturday Night Live, which I've never seen, but checked her Sarah Pallin impersonations, haha) and she made me laugh again. Enjoy! It's real fun!

I just love the Bush doctrine moment. ;-) (Anyway, I must say that I just don't get Amy Poehler as Hilary Clinton. It just doesn't work and seriously diminishes the joy of watching Tina stealing the show. Wow, now I sound like a fanboy! Terrible! I stop! It will be the last fanboy entry I write. So, sorry to Ellen De Generes & Jon Stewart & Billy Crystal & Steve Martin & Diane Keaton and all these other comedians I won't pay tribute to. :-)

Happy-Go-Lucky

I'm in a rather bad mood today & I wanna cheer up a little bit. Anyway, no matter how many cops of coffee I take, my mood is still bad. Maybe I miss some of my friends in Sofia. Maybe I'm going through some winter depression (very trendy, huh?), but today I just thought of Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky & about how much I love her character Poppy & the way she handles things - rejection, people's obvious hatred & irritation. She's just happy-go-lucky. She doesn't care about stuff. If she wants to talk to somebody, she talks & doesn't wait for this somebody to take the initiative. If she wants to go out and do stuff, she just does it. And it's kind of her life philosophy - she just wants to enjoy herself. So, no worries. And as she says: "Stay happy!"

I just wanna be like her. And I am - to a certain degree. But I care most of the time, which is a bad thing. :-)

Helen Levitt's picture

Hey fellas!

I usually have these insomnia periods when I don't get a lot of sleep, really. And I'm watching films then. But last night I slept really well and long, so today I feel like I could conquer the world. It's a good feeling. Nothing violent about it actually, just fresh and in the mood for lots of things.

This entry isn't about anything special. I justed wanted to share a picture I found on the Internet. I enjoy photography and even though it's very different from the medium of film, there are some moments, in which their similarities become obvious. But anyway, I found information about a photographer called Helen Levitt, I've never heard of before. She's amazing and maybe her work could be considered a little bit typical today (though I wouldn't say it), but she's a master. She does street photography & I uploaded a picture, which I think is really kind of haunting. I just checked it today and even though it's very simple, it just doesn't get out of my head. Maybe because it makes me think of the NY I've read about in Salinger's books. (And I'm a real Salinger freak, you know.) But come on, she just controls the space & I like the enigmatic nature of the picture's protagonist. And then - there is the space between the person in the front & everyone behind her (I think it's her despite of the clothes! Just feels this way!), but they're all on a long distance. And the POV. I love this picture.

Anyway, I just got a copy of Susan Sontag's essays on photography and I'm going to check them later today. One of filmmaking students at the Academy who's very supportive of my dreams of being a director, just told me about the book & I read a lot about Sontag recently. And of course, I'll be fulfilling my NY resolution - to work on myself intellectually ;-)

So, here's the picture. Doesn't it work for you?