Sunday 25 October 2015

THE MADONNA IS BACK.

How I made my film The gun the cake and the butterfly was by filming it in my bedroom, my surroundings and house. I filmed it in a figure of eight mapping out the script, then I went back and filled it out with actual documentary footage to bring out the depth of thought, re writing, and adding footage to it in the parts I felt were necessary. I did not know what I was doing, I did not know how to make a film, I have only been to drama school and I did not care. I think it is important to let go despite my grandfather being the film director and writer Sidney Gilliat,  I just wanted to make something that was raw, passionate and as truthful and creative as I could with no rules about what was right or wrong. Although I tend to like pretty I did not care if it was so.
In Hollywood and the BBC there are rules. rules, money, awards and creative perfection.  Hollywood four years ago was told off for not having enough women, this year its full of strong beautiful women's voices. Carol, Brooklyn, The Danish Girl, The Lobster, Suffragette. With wonderful actresses like Alicia Vikander, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan, Rachel Weisz and Cary Mulligan.    All the films have suggested that the Madonna is back. The Woman is so strong and again as she did in the past, she could rule the world. There is as we speak Hilary Clinton running for Presidency, despite the Clinton's murky past they are held in high esteem.  We women have to take over the world.  Why would film make me think of this, it is a great reflection of what we are thinking at the moment. The man is rational but the woman believes in building and creating.  ISSIS is made of young men. They don't know what they are building, freedom fighters and instead of building they destroy and knock down their sand castles.  Women naturally wish to build, but they wish to build for eternity. They have a sensibility men do not have. I love men, but just look around you, and in this world of money, only a few still have their balls left to run the world or two run it with compassion and efficiency. They manage the world with money and accountants. The head of the BFI is a woman, Amanda Nevill and the world they have created within their organisation is a balanced affair.
We can take this and translate this to other world.

Films made today are too perfect, the sound, the actresses, the costumes,  because the are directed by men who are very educated and there is a problem.  They have too much education for the jobs available, there are too many business men.  There is no depth, accuracy is not artistic it is accuracy. Technically perfect as the films are, you need a balance. Mistakes technically are interesting and take you to a new dimension.  Mistakes in world politics are interesting too.
Would you say people in the 1950's look like a Vogue dressmaking pattern catalogue? I don't think so. There would be some people with dress sense and some people with no sense at all, this was shown in cleverly in Carol by Sandy Powell when she shows incredible elegance dressing Carol/Cate and make clothes for Rooney Mara a bit more ordinary until the last scene.
What makes The Danish Girl, is the language is so ugly to the ears that it becomes beautiful, the music follows this by Desplat. The scenery spartan, wet and although I can't remember a rainy scene, I had a feeling that it rained a lot. This fits in with what I am saying too, the women are strong and powerful.
The fact that the it is beautifully acted by Eddie Redmayne, Eddie has become Lilly and so a goddess.
The most important stories in the film world are those not spoken but actually hidden as in life. The most interesting love stories are not when a person gets married, but when it is unspoken. I like romances where you can follow each others eyes across a room having a conversation but nobody knows you are.  You are living a whole story that nobody else can see like a photograph in your pocket. It is people you are not talking to. This is the truth.  What people give up in an emotional sense is what makes a film and makes real life. This was shown so beautifully in the above film.
Brooklyn was wonderful at the BFI yesterday but for me the last scene is the best scene when she gives up her romantic life and goes back to what she has committed to. This reflects the world.
Let the women have more power and the Madonna is back.
Women always decide what they wish to commit to and make work. The men can then follow with their technical brilliance.

We need to wake up and support those woman in power whilst bringing balance back to our lives.  Films are showing us this. Men are providers and technically perfect whilst we are nurturers and our world needs healing. Let it be so, but lets ignore too pretty unlike the film world, even though men prefer it,  but make it real with depth.

A big thank you to inspiration from Ines and Barrington this morning.
The Dark Theatre.