“I realized the less preoccupied you are with yourself, the better you do. You don’t want to read that you’re a genius, you don’t want to read that you have no talent, you don’t want to read how gifted you are or what a lowlife you are. The best thing is to just work.”
Woody Allen did not show up of course to receive his Cecil B DeMille Award at yesterday’s Golden Globe Award ceremony. I suppose one can view his continued absence at such awards as modesty, stubbornness, indifference, pomposity. But however you regard the behavior, you have to admit, he’s consistent. I mean, it’s a huge honor, and still he didn’t show. Here’s his reasoning, as quoted in the Chicago Tribune on January 12, 2013, which seems like a useful way to view one’s artistic pursuits, whether the product is a song, a book, or a casserole:
“I realized the less preoccupied you are with yourself, the better you do. You don’t want to read that you’re a genius, you don’t want to read that you have no talent, you don’t want to read how gifted you are or what a lowlife you are. The best thing is to just work.”
1 Comment
Tom Cole
1/15/2014 05:57:13 am
Now your're talking my language, Tony Romano. I guess I feel that there are always two reviews of films that matter. The first is of the experience of watching the film itself --- which has to do with how engaged, entertained, and/or engroseed one is during the initial experience of watching the movie. It is that experience that leads to the review you share as you rise from your seat and leave the theater. The 2nd review -- and the more significant, to me, is the one you can't formulate for a few days. This one has to do with how "sticky" the experience was -- how much do the movie, the characters, the story, stick with you long after the viewing is over. Sometimes, for me, both reviews match-up. I love the movie while I am watching it, and its story, theme and characters stay with me. But sometimes the two are not the same. That was my experience with "American Hustle" -- I was thorughly entertained and engaged as I watched it. It made me think, as I watched it, about how increasingly difficult it is to know what is real and what is fake these days. But . . . a few days beyond the viewing, I had no strong connection to the story or the characters. I think the key for me is often the degree to which I care for and connect with the characters. A movie like "Tender Mercies" stuck with me because of the character Robert Duvall created. More recently, I had a similar experience with "Enough Said". Julia Louis Dreyfuss and James Gandolfini created real, flawed, characters that I recognized and cared about.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
BLOGMy reflections on writing, reading, and random thoughts. Archives
November 2019
Categories |