I’ve been reading Faulkner and Carver short stories. I thought that Faulkner would be a bigger influence, but he really feels more Mississippi to me. And, not contemporary enough. Still, his story telling is spectacular, and I enjoy reading him nonetheless. Also, there is this genre of Southern Gothic that I like, so there is always something to get out of reading him.
Now Carver…character, dialogue, and the ability to capture a moment in time that will change things forever…he is a master at that. We recently watched Altman’s “Short Cuts,” which is based on Carver’s short stories. I am really interested in ensemble stories: Magnolia, Sunshine State, etc. The challenge is giving each character an arc, and you run the risk of having some characters more engaging and interesting than others. Even Altman and P.T. Anderson struggled with ensemble. It’s a very complicated process, and I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to go for it on our first fiction feature. But, we’re not at the point where we have to make a decision yet.
Mystic River is also an example of ensemble, but we watched that one to get ideas about the sense of community, history between characters, etc. There’s a scene where Sean Penn playing Jimmy allows himself to be very vulnerable in front of Tim Robbins’ Dave. This is totally natural because we know that the men have known each other since childhood. They have seen each other cry before. They have secrets.
River’s Edge…this one I hadn’t seen before. I really liked the small-town mentality. I liked the juvenile nature of the teens dealing with the very adult subject of murder. I had this idea of maybe having our older characters acting like teens, but nothing solid yet.
Bufallo 66. Two things: brilliant aesthetic and simple, simple, simple story. Like my high school physics teacher, Mr. Pierce, used to say: keep it simple stupid.
