3.25.2009

A Little Thought...

I've grown tired of people who fawn over filmmakers.

Pretty general statement, there. I myself am quite guilty.

But it dawned on me as I was reading a certain blog about the "next great American filmmaker" how clueless the majority of armchair cinephiles about art and the filmmaking process.

Making good films isn't about "creating art", like some Impressionist painter on a hillside. It's about waging war on that Void you need to fill. It's about dealing with setbacks. It's about kissing asses. It's about pretending to know what you're doing when you don't.

It's about being a politician, accountant, therapist, mechanic, and day laborer all in one.

Great films aren't "made". They happen. As much as you have a vision, as much as you plan ahead, it all comes down to the actual Happening of capturing an image and arranging it.

So when I hear an intellectual rhapsodizing over Cassavettes' art, as if he created Faces while musing at a cocktail party, I really, really want to set them straight.

Because the film world, intentions mean shit. All that matters is pulling it off.

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