Directing Under the Influence - The Fallacy of Originality

now nothing is original okay so you can steal from anywhere now originality is nonexistence so don't bother trying to conceal your thievery you can celebrate it you know if you feel like it whether you love them or hate them movies and TV shows are often full of references parodies and homages to other works you're probably thinking of some right now what do you like to drink a feiend for myit how fast does that go goes very fast yes hello uh the password is go fast boats mojito all one word yeah go fast boats and then mojito all one word sometimes these influences may be more overt basically in The Great Train Robbery they commit this great robbery and then at the end the police get them all and somebody in the last shot fires a gun into the camera that's why I have Joe peshy fir with the gun at the end of good Fells sometimes they can be rather vague the funny thing is like some of my favorite filmmakers like John gavetti you wouldn't necessarily see uh that influence on the surface but obviously there's you know a lot more going on you know subconsciously and references can truly come from anywhere so let's go beyond the purely Visual and explore the more nuanced ways filmmakers can pay homage films can often oscillate somewhere between straight up adaptation and heightened intertextuality think clueless is modern retelling of Emma e get off of me as if or How the Lion King mirror's Hamlet which Shakespeare lifted from Norse legend that Robert Edgars based his 2022 film The Northman on more recently you have anyone but you ripping off much as you about nothing which well this list is literally endless big time I am I big time okay Horror in particular abounds with these intertextual Rifts and there's something so satisfying about seeing these nods of acknowledgement in his 1981 film The Evil Dead Sam Ry playfully taunts Wes Craven by including a torn poster from Cravens The hols Have Eyes in the background Craven's response showing the Evil Dead on a TV screen in a nightmare on elmr which Remy then addressed by hiding Freddy Cougar's glub in Evil Dead 2 Tarantino is a master of these intertextual references hello drawing inspiration from genres ranging from Hong Kong action films put our guns down and let's settle this the [ __ ] conversation to martial arts films from war films 100 Nazi scals to filmmakers from the French new [Music] W you can see how felin's 8 and a half inspired Pulp Fiction's famous dance scene only Tarantino maintains that he was referencing godar's Band of Outsiders which now watching it actually Bears a striking resemblance to this and while you can't talk about homages and dance scenes without mentioning this amazing Flash Dance number but back to Tarantino I think this highlights the way homages are often multifactorial movies are more than just the sum of their visuals because film making is an amalgamation of many things from which one can be inspired by there's music which can get used over and over and over and over again or a score that just means a lot to the filmmakers [Music] welcome to Jurassic Park oh my God we had a music supervisor who kind of like was the middle man and she had us write a letter uh to John Williams say like Dear John Williams uh we're we're both named Daniel and we love the Jurassic cart them song um and then we uh we we just tried to kind of thematically explain how important the the song was in the film like this is like used to explain to an amnesiac what it feels like to like remember home like it's kind of like a hopeful beautiful moment I remember I was in my hotel room and I just heard like the Jurassic Park theme song from outside my my door and then like everyone was like knocking on my door waiting to like announce me and the producer John and we had like a jam box and we were just like like we got the song John Williams said yes sometimes there's a piece of score that evokes fear so well you decide to Riff Off it again composer Johan Johanson Drew inspiration from John Williams classic 1975 score for Jaws when creating the relentlessly percussive soundscape for 2015 Zario nothing will happen here they try anything it w'll be the Border hair and makeup can also serve as a source of inspiration who did your makeup we went for something dramatic do you like it you look like a badger how do you make someone's makeup look like a badger I mean how far do we go with this basically what happened was that I S established the courtiers the makeup on the women first um with these black bands across their eyes these white faces and black bands across their eyes which is I I've said this now I think enough time has passed it's slight homage to Blade run as well because I love it um this sort of band um and the idea is that the queen has copied a female courtier that she's seen and um but it's done quite badly and quite crudely and something a bit sort of quite childlike about it what do you think you look like bet Donna the the most recent work we've done together is Donna and I say to Chris store what do you think Donna's hair looks like and he sent me this picture in a text that said I think that's kind of beautiful sometimes a character in one film can stand in direct reference to [Music] another gtie rotate the Pod please [Music] H filmmakers can even pay homage with the rhythm of a cut for me it often is many different things it could be a line of dialogue it could be a location it could be a color of some article of clothing just a moment from life for 2019 marriage story Noah bombach Drew inspiration from a scene in Martin scors ASI's 2016 film silence that was technically a mistake was the eyeline I'm one of the eyeline to each person so Rodrigo looked at me said well that means we're going to have to go because the two priests are here and the bishop is there the Cardinal whatever and um so you jump the line on yeah but you go from monor to monor Lulu's left shoulder and my right shoulder to Steven and we were cutting it together thelman I she looked at me says I this is crazy I said I don't know yeah let's do it the other way we look did the other way is terrible go back the other and we got back to the mistakes I lifted that mistake in marriage story I do this a few times so we're over Adam's shoulder here to the judge and then we go over Nicole's shoulder in a sense it's almost looks like a mistake now we're over her shoulder to the judge so we're going from the judge to the judge so we're just staying on him it really align them it keeps it always it keeps telling that story of Charlie and Nicole and keeping it in in their perspective so much about perspective and about who who are we with and so when they're talking in the very beginning of the movie to the mediator I go I did do that exact thing you asked me if it was intentional I but I had a feeling it felt in the best way like kind of something a mistake that worked because you could have always cut through him I mean there would be always a way you didn't I had I had two cameras I could have done the other wasn't interesting that he denounced God in public and surrendered the faith and is now living as a Japanese many of the critiques around such homages come from how blatant some of these cinematic influences may be the mo most detestable Habit in all modern Cinema is the omage I don't want to see another goddamn homage in anybody's movie don't be marinated don't soak yourself in films for some the references are just far too obvious and take them right out of the film but let's push back on this notion because great moments of cinematic Brilliance can truly be found in the least suspecting of Corners hello ladies look at your man now back to me now back at your man now back to me I really love those Old Spice commercials and I actually talked to the director and I was like and how did you do that and he was like we did it 116 times and it was kind of amazing and um I was like well I probably won't have that much timebie being open to all kinds of Cinema just be open to it I would have friends who would get angry I said no just just try to try to go with it it opens up a whole world you know it could be late years different from what I do but I don't care I never use mine I'm conservative you know oh this is a shot I always have fun with I always like that scene in one or two things I know about her at godar picture in which she looks at a coffee cup and he kind of moves into the top of the cup and into the coffee and the bubbles and the coffee uh get the impression of um space a Milky Way almost this is a New York version and you also have a very omnivorous appetite for film I don't think you're elitist in any way and I I love that you will mention Hammer horror movies in the same breath as Po and pressburger or Maria Bara in the same breath as um max oils for me uh I had no Prejudice or not Prejudice the wrong word but had no expectations in those days too you just went to the movies and um we weren't necessarily told not this is a special film this you have to really pay attention sort of like Eat Your Spinach you know you're just going to the just going in the movies you see sometimes soaking yourself in cinema as well says isn't such a bad thing after all what can ultimately come from this is something truly brilliant for a film like the worst person in the world which doesn't slot easily into one genre or another pulling inspiration from numerous places can be beneficial and this film has quite a few from the playfulness of singing in the rain to the poignancy of Annie Hallie let's never break up again the existentialism of antonioni mixed with the levity of cuor oh dear is there no such thing as privacy anymore only in bed mother and not always there but what about Transformers too one of the films I remember being very moved by is the you know Transformers 2 when discussing his own filmic Inspirations Yim Trier noted how Transformers 2 yes that Transformers 2 left him feeling move you know it's like it's kind of beautiful and weirdly tarov skinn when they're fighting out in those birchwoods and you know so I I still love all kinds of movies I still watch everything I think that there are some films they're easy to talk about intellectually and they're not always the films that give me the rush of of cinematic brilliancy I think sometimes movies that are quite mainstream can do something with a camera and space and movement that to me reminds me of my primary Fascination for Cinema you can see it in turovsky and kubri you know but you can also see it sometimes in in a musical or in an action film just the movement of something I am wondering if somehow that scene the death of a transformer somehow wormed its way you know subtly into some later film you made yeah well who knows okay so maybe this film doesn't instantly Scream Michael Bay but inspiration that Rush can come from literally anywhere it's how you end up with a film that you think you have a hold of a love story but then with the flip of a switch it becomes something else entirely from a broad range of influences Trier ends up with something that completely evades classification and this genre bending impulse comes from another seminal cinematic experience the production company that I run with esil fuk my co-writer is called don't look now and it's kind of a homage to Nicholas Rogue the work of Nicholas Rogue could have inspired an entire video in and of itself and there's truly no shortage of directors who have been inspired by his films take the fractured Narrative of momento do I lie to myself to be happy Christopher Nolan has stated that this film would have been pretty Unthinkable without Rogue citing his structural Innovation as having a large influence on him and he's far from alone ah yes yeah but for me he's he he's M he's the film Maker's Picasso really there are hundreds of movies that I love but I did say don't look now see that don't look now is another one that's like that is is a genre of film that's kind of genre but or a lot of I mean it's a classic that people draw from all the time now find me anyone who doesn't think the opening of Don't Look Now is up there with the finest work Brit Cinema ever produced take it easy no but it is astonishing it combines some unusual things on one hand it's a very nuanced naturalistic drama in terms of the performance and the way it's shot on the other hand it's a pure formalist experiment basically you know what is Cinema it's playing with time and space and R the master [Applause] both we tend to believe in the familiar we tend to say that's the definite mhm and of course that's where we run into serious trouble time definitely has a linear sense to it I don't believe it are you but perhaps there is one scene that has been particularly influential for its creative use of editing Cinema prudes you may want to avert your eyes if you don't know don't look now you might have already heard though that it has the best sex scene in old cinematic history the premise is simple enough a couple played by Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland make love before getting dressed for dinner reservations that they made earlier in the seor you will be eating here tonight I hope no thank you Senor Alexander we're going to eat out tonight but that's not how this scene is cut he cut it together but you never you none of it is you were there then they were getting dressed you were there then you were getting dressed and it's it's intercut like that all the time and it saved it and the only reason why it's good is because it lives in people's memory as opposed to being something that you watch and think oh God in this fractured representation of time Rogue reaches something more honest there's a sincerity in The Cutting that is somehow more emotional and it's a scene that would see its Echo over 25 years later another story of of me stealing something or trying to steal something I'm Gary I'm Celeste it takes forever to get a drink around here there's only one matress no in a direct homage to Rogue we get this cross cutting a meeting at a bar is intercut with a later scene in a hotel room that was the kind of effect that I wanted that it made emotional sense it was tracking the emotion of the scene but it it didn't didn't make any literal sense more recently this associate of edit found its manifestation in Maggie Gyllenhaal's the Lost daughter I don't want to bother you but uh if you like octopus this was literally swimming an hour ago and um foni and I had been talking about don't look now and I was like fans why don't we cut the octopus stuff like the sex scene and don't look now uh you have a lemon what both Soderberg and Gyllenhaal understood was the emotion inherent in the Jos it was like this beautiful almost magical sequence and this points to the interesting role structure can play in these intertextual relationships between films take the technical or melodramas of Douglas Zirk we lurking just beneath their sentimental veneers is something much deeper all you have to do is turn that dial and you have all the company you want right there on the screen drama comedy life's parade at your fingertips countless filmmakers have taken his cue of concealing sharp social critiques within their narratives perhaps most recognizable among them is Todd haynes's 2002 film far from heaven where the intertextual relationship to the melodramas of Douglas cirk most notably All That Heaven allows are apparent but maybe less appreciated are the other cinematic parallels that proliferate hanes's work folk music it's it's just a word you know I I can't use anymore from elements of felini 8 and a half to a key plot device in lean's brief encounter I felt the touch of his hand on my shoulder for a moment one of the very first films I thought of when I read the first draft of the script was a brief encounter so for people who know it begins in that refreshment stand in a train station MH and then in the background you see two people having a conversation and then a loudmouth friend interrupts the conversation you realize an important conversation has been interrupted and this brief encounter is played out twice one at the beginning and one at the end um but you return to that scene in come full circle and understand what this com very important conversation was that was [Music] interrupted I stood there trembling right on the edge but I couldn't I wasn't brave enough so I thought oh wow that's such a beautiful structuring device cuz then you travel through the entirety of the The Narrative to explain what that conversation was about what we missed you to have a wonderful night what's significant about these examples of homage is how they expand on the works that inspired them which brings me to a bigger point I mean we're all we're all standing on somebody's shoulders I think the key is whose shoulders are those um and and I think it's fun to kind of play with uh with moments that inspire you or or take inspiration from from things that you love but this scene was inspired also by Alice in the cities where you see them exercising together sometimes a filmmaker's influences will be more subconscious and these intertextual relationships between films will not always be readily visible by the time I'm making a movie I don't really know where I'm stealing everything from you know and someone says me I can see the thing you do here I'm like oh yeah that is where I stole that [Applause] Jiminy crickety flew the coupe drawing inspiration in this way whether consciously or not does not make a work derivative or unoriginal because there are ultimately many ways to tell the same story where's [Music] L expression in any form or I've said this a lot but for me it's like waves in the ocean that you can't really delineate but they overlap and uh I don't really believe in originality because there are a limited number of stories but there's an unlimited number of ways to tell them it is only theft if you take somebody's idea before they've realized it and say it was your own and then you're just a full-on [ __ ] but if you take something that's something moved that moved you that exists and you quote it or you imitate or you make another version I think that's just beautiful I think that's the nature of of creating things so back to this being soaked in cinema is not necessarily A Bad Thing Wells even does admit that most directors who are can still be great filmmakers the argument against what I'm saying is that the world is full all the best young directors are soaked in films hello cinematographic and they have managed to rise above that and to be remarkable cineast cleaning a work is derivative or un original solely because it features references or pays homage to another work ignores the way in which creative ideas rather than occurring in a vacuum build off what has come before them these arguments against omage and in favor of pure originality not only miss this from now on it'll be 50 push-ups each morning but confuse inspiration for imitation the Hy newest latest let me tell you the story of right hand left hand tale of Good and Evil hey h a t e it was with this left hand that old brother C struck the blow that laid his brother low love these five fingers they go straight to the soul of man so I said let's put love and hate on each one of these rings and I just borrowed that speech from the movie ultimately there are many things to be inspired by you have to let me go from paintings to photography to Nature and film history isn't necessarily a bad place to start there's no greater School of Cinema that film history I'm talking about film history from lumier all the movie brats learned from the masters of the 40s and 50s and 30s and and and and I'm sure those in the 50s and 40s learned from the silent movie M mat Masters and so we're all handing influences down and inspiring from generation to generation I mean and it's such a pleasure I just invite you guys to really go and revisit or visit for the first time and learn about all these great Masters since the early days because sometimes you think that you're doing something so original to to realize that in the 1920s it was already done many times and it's amazing to see the amazing development of of film language throughout the years you know because it challenges you

Channel: From The Frame

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Keywords: filmmaking, directing, cinematic parallels

Id: 5BIdMNWljxs

Length: 23min 38sec (1418 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2024