Auteur Theory

[viridian5]

Anne Rice’s recent meltdown on amazon.com at reviewers who panned her Blood Canticle coincides with my annoyance over new comments made by George Lucas as his rejiggered Star Wars trilogy comes out on DVD. These two "auteurs" have quite a bit in common

Comments

[rhiannonhero]

This was a brilliant essay. Thank you. :)

[viridian5]

::beaming:: Thanks! I read the recent Lucas interviews, then the thing with Anne Rice blew up, so I could no longer remain silent! *g*

[pun]

Han Solo was not a Hero, not then. . . . That was why I liked him best, even as a four-year-old. He was a gun and ship for hire, giving his services to whoever paid best. His heart might be more golden than he’d admit to, but it had a heavy armor of cynicism.

Totally. Han was probably my very first movie crush. He's so dashing! Goody two shoes never shoot first bull shit is not dashing!!

The more lithe CGI Jabba is so wrong. It added something to the character that he was so bloated that he could barely move, partly as a display of his power that people still kowtowed to him and partly as a visual metaphor of his rapaciousness.

Yes, yes, and YES! Really yes to everything you say here. Especially this:

These were things where the restraints of budget and technology made improvements to Lucas’ vision.

Precisely. There's a reason people do writing challenges and prompts and such. Because limitations actually encourage creativity. The Phantom Menace should be viewed as a parable against the perils of an unlimited budget

[viridian5]

Han Solo was dashing, so smart, and so sarcastic. Plus, he was the guy who deflated everybody else's delusions of grandeur.

Lucas left unchecked to run wild leads to badness. He really seems to have no judgment left.

Thanks!

I think I may have read that in college. Part of the reason why I post fic is that if I kept it to myself I would tinker with it endlessly until it no longer looked like itself. *g*

[dreamt]

I wanted to show it to my girl and was furious to see it had been deleted... But, gotta love the internet!
I found it in cached sites on google >D *evil cackle*
Feel free to delete this comment if you don't want a stupid Diva rant in your journal, but if you need the reference, here is the silly woman's rant.
And? I SO agree with you on Star Wars. ugh.

From the Author to the Some of the Negative Voices Here, September 6, 2004

[dreamt]

cont
Back to the novel itself: the character who tells the tale is my Lestat. I was with him more closely than I have ever been in this novel; his voice was as powerful for me as I've ever heard it. I experienced break through after break through as I walked with him, moved with him, saw through his eyes. What I ask of Lestat, Lestat unfailingly gives. For me, three hunting scenes, two which take place in hotels -- the lone woman waiting for the hit man, the slaughter at the pimp's party -- and the late night foray into the slums --stand with any similar scenes in all of the chronicles. They can be read aloud without a single hitch. Every word is in perfect place. The short chapter in which Lestat describes his love for Rowan Mayfair was for me a totally realized poem. There are other such scenes in this book. You don't get all this? Fine. But I experienced an intimacy with the character in those scenes that shattered all prior restraints, and when one is writing one does have to continuously and courageously fight a destructive

[dreamt]

okay WOW she ranted XD;;; I can't fit it in even two comments...
And now I feel like I'm flooding your journal...

Well, like I said. Delete if you didn't want it! ^^;;;

And Yo, you dude, the slang police! Lestat talks like I do. He always has and he always will. You really wouldn't much like being around either one of us. And you don't have to be. If any of you want to say anything about all this by all means Email me at Anneobrienrice@mac.com. And if you want your money back for the book, send it to 1239 First Street, New Orleans, La, 70130. I'm not a coward about my real name or where I live. And yes, the Chronicles are no more! Thank God!

Can you say *CRINGE* ? XD;;;
Neil Gaiman said it best.
"If I ever do this, please shoot me."

[viridian5]

I'm glad to have it right here for people who might have missed it. *g*

[mistressrenet]

When thinking about what the promised prequels would be like, my brother and I couldn’t figure out how Lucas would do them, since done right they’d be dark and tragic as they showed Anakin’s fall from grace. Lucas’ solution is not to do them right.
You know, I wouldn't even mind them being done wrong if they weren't so fucking plastic.

And yeah, word to everything you said, pretty much.

[viridian5]

This trilogy of his fall should be full of emotion. And it's not. We might as well be watching automatons walking around.

Thanks!

[witchwillow]

I've been blaming and blaming Hayden Christopher for being a total Jackass in AotC. And then 'Higher Ground' came on WHAM and I got mildly angrier.

Because there right in front of my face was the proof that he'd just stepped into the role of Annkin from a place where he was playing an abused, misundertood, trying to be a man, sometimes failing, confused, sullen, hurting, wracked with guilt teenager.

It was the reason I had dealt with Higher Ground being cancelled because I thought 'Hell Yeah' good choice for the man who would become Vader.

I've forgiven Christian now. Because my roommate quite calmly pointed out to me that George Lucas likely directed all the oomph out of him.

Cause I was showing her scenes from 'Higher Ground' and going see SEE! I've seen him do resentful brooding without it looking like constipation

[viridian5]

That is the kind of background we needed and didn't get.

Also, I've seen Ewan McGregor in many films that he's been excellent in, but he's drained of almost all life in the prequels as well. He has some moments of spark in The Phantom Menace when he's getting annoyed at Qui-Gon but he's comepletely dead in Attack of the Clones. All the actors are.

[twistedchick]

I can't even start to say how much I hate what Lucas has done to the originals. One example -- in the award ceremony at the end of the first movie, originally there was a vertical shot with C-3PO and Artoo off to the side, and Artoo was bouncing up and down -- and they were set off from everyone else. Now they're crowded in with other people and the scene's cut horizontally so Threepio isn't as visible. Changes the whole feeling of it.

[viridian5]

He comes across as so ham-handed now that it's hard to say whether he meant something by that or just wanted an opportunity to throw more spectators into the award ceremony.