About three years ago, I did a short called "An Alright Start," and I honestly should have given Jean-Luc Godard a credit at the end of the film. That's how much of an influence "Contempt" has been on my own work. The film is such a raw, exposed nerve of emotions and resentments. The apartment scene in particular is terribly painful to watch as you witness the utter lack of empathy and the total breakdown of communication between Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli. But the scene (or the movie) never becomes grotesque or maudlin or melodramatic. Much more is left unsaid than discussed. Very little is ever resolved. 

There is one shot in the apartment scene that I specifically ripped off in my short, which you can check it out here (clip 2). I also tried to appropriate the feel of that scene as much as I could. Hopefully I was successful. 

There's another thematic element that runs through "Contempt" that has been a large influence on "Chupacabra." Namely, it's the battle of the romantic versus the realistic. Michel Piccoli's character (Paul) incapsulates this dialectic perfectly. He freely admits to taking the screenwriting job for the money, then pines for the days of being poor and writing plays and pulp fiction. The use of Georges Delerue's sweeping score often plays counterpoint to the simmering resentments between Paul and Camille. But it's Godard's use of Homer's "The Odyssey" that has been especially influential on my current project. There is perhaps no greater juxtaposition of the mythic and the mundane than exists between the epic journeys of Odysseus and the pettiness of the modern world. 

Here's a interview with Godard shortly after the release of "Contempt." Enjoy:

Circumstances require me to keep this post on the shorter side, and for that I wish to apologize. I'll get in as much as I can. I've been a big fan of Terrence Malick's work since I first saw "Badlands" while in college. I recall seeing "The Thin Red Line" on opening day, and while waiting to get in, the audience from the previous screening was exiting, and I overhead this one guy, probably about 16 or 17, say, "if I wanted poetry, I would have read a book."

Even though the kid hated the flick, he got it right. Malick's work is visual poetry. I'm not going go into a long winded dissertation about his style. I'll just say that if you love film, and you haven't seen any of his work, do so immediately. 

The ending scene of his last film, "The New World," is easily my favorite of his oeuvre, and perhaps one of my favorite movie moments ever. In the many times I've seen it, I can't think of a time when it hasn't made me a blubbering mess. 

So here it is. Keep in mind, this is the end of the flick, so spoilers abound. Another quick note: the music used is the overture from Wagner's "Das Rheingold," I work I'll comment on in another post. That said, enjoy:

I'd be crazy not to follow where you lead

In my last post, I spoke of the impact "The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford" has had on me. During the early days of meditating on this idea, I had a lot of additional influences and inspirations working their way through my skull, and most of them found their way into the story. Here's a partial list:

The films of Terrence Malick

Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt"

"Taxi Driver"

The music of Tim Hecker and Arvo Part

The opera "Das Rheingold" by Richard Wagner

Radiohead's "Arpeggi"

Baseball

My childhood, specifically the 7th and 8th grades

My family

Homer

Books about cult leaders and gurus. 

Later on, I'll go through and try to tie this rather random list together, if that's at all possible. 

For the classically inclined, here's Stars of the Lid's cover of Arvo Part's "Fratres (For String Quartet)."

And for those who are not, here's something on the lighter side: the sequel to the internet sensation "Cars."

The fear of things that don't exist.

I used to work with a guy who thought that supernatural forces, be they ghost or demons, would try to attack while he slept. He'd wake up, and "see" this shadowy presence lurking over him, pinning him to his bed. But he could only lie there in horror, unable to move. For centuries, people have had similar tales, and they often believed that an incubus or succubus hovered over them, trying to violate their souls. 

We now know that they most likely suffered from sleep paralysis, and what they saw were not demons, but hallucinations. But before modern science had an diagnosis for the horror they had to ordeal night after night, they came up with a tale to try to explain what they thought was unexplainable. They created a myth. 

Much like the legends of the succubus, or those of the Greco-Roman gods, El Chupacabra is  a myth. So I guess in a rather roundabout fashion, that takes us back to the quote I mentioned previously, "El Chupacabra symbolizes the fear of things that don't exist." Or put another way, the tale of El Chupacabra is an attempt to explain that which we can logically not. So I got to thinking again, how this title that I had fallen in love with quite randomly could lead to a story...

Well, what if there was a person who decided, consciously or otherwise, to turn himself, figuratively speaking, into a Chupacabra? What if someone created their own myth to explain things that they otherwise couldn't understand? There was the connection I was looking for. And with that, a story was born. 

Now, I feel like I'd be a bit of a chump if I rambled on about what this story's about in any specific terms...so I won't. I'll drop hints, talk about some of the inspirations and influences behind the story and maybe even post a couple script pages here and there. We'll see what happens. 

But I will talk about one specific influence right now because it deals very much with the idea of myth. Around the time I was brainstorming much of this stuff, I was totally enamored with Andrew Dominick's "The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford." And to those you haven't seen it, run and get a copy immediately. You won't be disappointed. Hell, I'll embed the trailer below if you'd like a taste. The film deals extensively with the themes of hero worship and the construction and destruction of myth...but enough of my rambling. Just do yourself a favor and watch it. 

Where do I start, where do I begin...

I'm not good with titles. At all. I'll probably name my first born after whatever is right in front of me, so don't be surprised if one of my kids is named Bed Pan Larsen. 

That said, I figured I should give a little back story as to why "Chupacabra" is entitled "Chupacabra." Back in October of '07 when Radiohead released their latest album, I became instantly obsessed with this one line from the track "Faust Arp." During the second verse, I thought I heard Thom Yorke sing about "Chupacabras." Turns out he was saying "duplicate and triplicate," but based on his tendency to mumble his lyrics, a mistake is bound to happen. Anyway, I didn't know much about Chupacabras apart from a vague notion that they were the Latino equivalent of Bigfoot. So I decided to do a little research, and ended up on El Chupacabra's  Wikipedia page. While reading the entry, one quote stuck out beyond all others: "El Chupacabras also symbolizes the fear of something that doesn't exist."

And then it was decided. I was going to write a script entitled "Chupacabra" despite the fact that I had no idea what the story was going to be about. I was just going to use that one quote as inspiration. Then everything started coming to me...

But I'll get into that next time. For now, a brief history of El Chupacabra to the strains of Kanye West's "Jesus Walks." 

Big Ideas (Don't get any) from 1030 on Vimeo.

yes we can.