dbborroughs (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dbborroughs) wrote,@ 2008-10-04 21:23:00 |
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New Yorker Festival- ClintEastwood and the Young Shakespeareans
A detailed report will follow-I hope.
Arrived at the front of the line at the Director's Guild Theater just in time to see a black Ford Explorer pull up and to see Clint Eastwood come bounding out waiving and smiling. His film The Changeling is the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival tonight at 9. This man is 78? He's also not as tall as he seems in the movies.
The talk was very good although the moderator, a long time reporter for the New Yorker was a bit too- oh hell old- to do the interviewing properly since she spoke very slowly and what was worse focused on Mystic River (which she did a piece on Eastwood for) The Bridges of Madison County (One of her favorite films of all time) and The Changeling (which she's probably the only one who's seen it) so the discussion rambled from excellent to just okay (the discussion of Changeling will make more sense when we;ve seen it-though her constant asking about whether it was hard to get the look of 1928 was a bit too much.
We were shown a number of clips from his films, including one from Gran Torino his Christmas film which showed a spry Eastwood being treated like a doddering old fool by his son and his wife before Eastwood tossed them on their asses.
What was interesting was Eastwood talking about composing, and he showed all too briefly how he noodled and turned the noodling into the themes from Mystic River, Bridges and Million Dollar Baby.
The Audience Q&A was interesting with Eastwood asked if he was upset that he wasn't picked for VP. He quipped that John McCain had approached him at a party but he had silenced him before he could ask saying that it was the top of the ticket or nothing.
Interesting I also saw a local judge ask him a question about whether he was a good kisser or not.
(I'll try to give more details later)
Accessible - Eastwood signed autographs when the almost two hour discussion was over.(we were too far away to get the chance)
A quick lunch- we had just over an we zipped around the courner to the cafe in the Hotel Wellington before racing back.
We sat in the front row all the way to one side in front of Liev Schreiber's mom... and I'm pretty sure Naomi Watts who arrived late sans makeup and with a gray hat pulled down to hide her identity.
The talk was the Young Shakespeareans and it Was Kristen Johnson, Ethan Hawk , Martha Plimpton, and Liev Schriber. It was a a raucous affair that had what was clearly four friend busting on each other and getting into deep discussions. The moderator was almost redundant as they group simply went and talked about the Bard and acting.
Much of it had to do with the language and how if you let it Shakespeare will do all the work. Schrieber demonstrated the structure of To be or not to be and how one of the speech's from Macbeth will, if done right, bring you the tears that it requires. Amazing.This was as good as the John Barton Acting Shakespeare series or Al Pacino's Looking for Richard. It was two hours of the Bard and funny and informative and magic.
Kristen Johnson was both very good, though her under her breath remarks were picked up by the mics and she was a bit too involved in every discussion-which while funny often resulted in people such as Martha Plimpton getting run over. This is one that I hope gets put out on the web because its a keeper.
-------------------------
The Shakepeareans Panel can be found here:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/f
A detailed report will follow-I hope.
Arrived at the front of the line at the Director's Guild Theater just in time to see a black Ford Explorer pull up and to see Clint Eastwood come bounding out waiving and smiling. His film The Changeling is the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival tonight at 9. This man is 78? He's also not as tall as he seems in the movies.
The talk was very good although the moderator, a long time reporter for the New Yorker was a bit too- oh hell old- to do the interviewing properly since she spoke very slowly and what was worse focused on Mystic River (which she did a piece on Eastwood for) The Bridges of Madison County (One of her favorite films of all time) and The Changeling (which she's probably the only one who's seen it) so the discussion rambled from excellent to just okay (the discussion of Changeling will make more sense when we;ve seen it-though her constant asking about whether it was hard to get the look of 1928 was a bit too much.
We were shown a number of clips from his films, including one from Gran Torino his Christmas film which showed a spry Eastwood being treated like a doddering old fool by his son and his wife before Eastwood tossed them on their asses.
What was interesting was Eastwood talking about composing, and he showed all too briefly how he noodled and turned the noodling into the themes from Mystic River, Bridges and Million Dollar Baby.
The Audience Q&A was interesting with Eastwood asked if he was upset that he wasn't picked for VP. He quipped that John McCain had approached him at a party but he had silenced him before he could ask saying that it was the top of the ticket or nothing.
Interesting I also saw a local judge ask him a question about whether he was a good kisser or not.
(I'll try to give more details later)
Accessible - Eastwood signed autographs when the almost two hour discussion was over.(we were too far away to get the chance)
A quick lunch- we had just over an we zipped around the courner to the cafe in the Hotel Wellington before racing back.
We sat in the front row all the way to one side in front of Liev Schreiber's mom... and I'm pretty sure Naomi Watts who arrived late sans makeup and with a gray hat pulled down to hide her identity.
The talk was the Young Shakespeareans and it Was Kristen Johnson, Ethan Hawk , Martha Plimpton, and Liev Schriber. It was a a raucous affair that had what was clearly four friend busting on each other and getting into deep discussions. The moderator was almost redundant as they group simply went and talked about the Bard and acting.
Much of it had to do with the language and how if you let it Shakespeare will do all the work. Schrieber demonstrated the structure of To be or not to be and how one of the speech's from Macbeth will, if done right, bring you the tears that it requires. Amazing.This was as good as the John Barton Acting Shakespeare series or Al Pacino's Looking for Richard. It was two hours of the Bard and funny and informative and magic.
Kristen Johnson was both very good, though her under her breath remarks were picked up by the mics and she was a bit too involved in every discussion-which while funny often resulted in people such as Martha Plimpton getting run over. This is one that I hope gets put out on the web because its a keeper.
-------------------------
The Shakepeareans Panel can be found here:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/f
