Where. have. I. been??
Right here, actually. It's just that movies haven't been as big a part in my life the last whatever months as it used to be. Even during the Oscar season.
I know!!
I have actually no idea why I'm posting now except that, damnit, I've missed doing this.
I have seen some movies but I don't really feel like talking about them. Not that they were uninteresting (in good or bad ways) but just..I dunno.
In case I had never mentioned it (and I know I haven't), I'm dreaming of writing plays. You know, like Streetcar and Pillowman. Only even better. (that was clearly a joke)
So, lately I've been more interested in reading plays and novels than watching (and especially thinking about) movies.
Sue me.
No, really, I feel I betrayed a part of me.
But I have no problem if someone wants to adapt one of my (future) plays into a film. See? I'm still working for you, movie lovers!
The thing is, I haven't been writing much. I'm always thinking about this story or that theme, but the paper (or the .doc file) is still blank.
If any one can give me advice, be my guest.
For now I'm just reading stuff and, inevitably, living my life.
I hope either or both of these things will provided me with the boost I need to start creating something that I will finish and will actually feel good about it.
It would be great if you shared some of your favorite plays and/or favorite movie adaptations of plays in the comments. Especially if they're not the obvious choices.
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Okay! So my favourite plays:
ReplyDeleteAugust: Osage County, The Laramie Project, 4:48 Psychosis, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Hedda Gabler, Bug, Doubt, Euripides, A Streetcar Named Desire, Sweet Bird of Youth, In The Next Room (or the Vibrator Play), Buried Child, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Fences, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Mary Stuart, Closer, The Shape of Things. All very good for different reasons, but all amongst my favourites. Mostly because they're more honest than they are clever, and I value something honest, genuine and messy over something clever. And if they can have both, great.
As for my favourite adaptations, this is a bit harder. I generally don't need an adaptation to follow the source text to the letter, there's no point in it if it does. My favourite one, and also one of my very favourite films, is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which I think is perfect in many ways. It also actually does interesting things with the camera and setting to justify being a film. My second favourite adaptation, not far behind that one is A Streetcar Named Desire. It's pretty much perfect in every way, and Vivien Leigh is divine in it.
Other ones I like: Bug, The Laramie Project, Closer, Frankie and Johnny, The Lion in Winter, Dangerous Liaisons, The Long Day's Journey Into Night, Sweet Bird of Youth, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer.
I hope that helps or is a good place to start.
Thanks so much for sharing! I knew you would be useful.
DeleteI have seen or read 7 of your favorite plays.
I share the love for all things Tennessee Williams (where is Glass Menagerie?) and I really like Doubt and August:Osage County (and maybe Closer) but despite my respect for both of them, I can't really like Journey and Woolf. I'll give Journey another try but I think I've tried Woolf a lot already.
I think I didn't have much to identify with re:Woolf and I just thought I had heard the Journey story too many times already.
Funny that you mentioned Frankie and Johnny because I have my eye on it for some time now. I have to watch it one of these days.
I know I'm going to read Buried Child some day soon but you made me care to read Fences even more than before.
Thanks again for your rich comment!
(What about Angels In America?)
I've actually never read Angels in America, but I love the mini-series a lot and completely forgot about it.
DeleteFor me, I love Journey and Woolf because of their specificity. Journey is just the perfect demonstration of how the demons of a family come back to haunt them again and again; it covers similar ground to Buried Child, actually, but in a different way. I feel O'Neill's plays work much better onstage than in the read because he doesn't write the most memorable or witty dialogue, but I still think he writes great dialogue. Most of his genius comes in his stage directions and very precise plotting.
As for Woolf, for me it's a powerful depiction of how people cover themselves with their own layers and disguises and deceptions, and just how raw people are when they're removed. I also think that there's four brilliant characters there amongst all this, and the ending is one of my favourite scenes in all of theatre.
I'll keep your thoughts in mind when I visit Journey again.
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