Saving Mr Banks

[azriona]

Bill and I went on our date tonight, and through a comedy of errors, ended up seeing Saving Mr Banks, which was totally all right by me because I'd wanted to see it anyway. Bill wanted to see American Hustle.

My Parents: What are you going to see tonight?
Bill: Saving Mr Banks.
Me: That's not true! We're going to flip a coin.
Bill: And then we'

Comments

[azriona]

at a certain point don't you sacrifice the ability to dictate how other people view your work?

Oh, yes, absolutely. And I think that's something that wasn't exactly spelled out in the course of movie - that Disney had every right to view Mary a different way than Travers did. And in signing her name to the papers giving him the movie rights, she's essentially given up control. (Apparently - and this is not in the movie, but I've seen it in a couple of locations - after the premiere, Travers went to Disney and said that the animation scene would have to go. And Disney just looked at her and said, "Pamela, that ship has sailed", and walked away.)

Thing is, he's right - she'd long since given up any right to have any say in the making of the movie. Just as any author does who puts their work in the public sphere. You can try to tell people what you meant by the green light at the end of the dock, but you can't make it an absolute rule. People will interpret that green light any darn way they want, and quite a few you didn't intend.

I think if Travers were alive today, she'd be one of those people who are totally against fanfiction. Like, "I-will-sue-the-pants-off-you". And she'd probably let Tim Burton make the movie version of Mary Poppins instead. (Which could be pretty good, actually.)

(Ignoring the hypocritical stance of that, of course, particularly if you consider films to be fanfics with higher budgets.)

I think mostly I'm good with people interpreting my own stuff - but maybe that's because I haven't written anything that was so tightly wound up in my own life that I wasn't willing to let it go. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to change that, really.

[earlgreytea68]

I'm so impressed by people who can do that.

[azriona]

People who can let go, or people who can write out their lives on paper?

[earlgreytea68]

People can write out their lives on paper.