Gossip Central

Jack Kerouac’s Mother Tongue: On the Road and The Voice is All

Kerouac aficionados will have a fine time teasing out details director Walter Salles and scriptwriter Jose Rivera took from the 1957 On the Road publication vs. the 1951 scroll text, the ur-Road first published in 2007. For example, the first line of the new movie focuses on the father, but then the story flips to the fictional characters familiar to readers since 1957. In a further innovation, viewers will note that Sal Paradise (Sam Riley) talks to his mother (Marie Ginette-Guay) in a curious French, referencing Kerouac’s French Canadian roots. The writer, from an ethnic neighborhood in Lowell, Massachusetts, spoke a dialect called joual.

Interviewing surviving members of the beat generation in their research, the filmmakers spoke to Joyce Johnson, Kerouac’s girlfriend at the time that On the Road was published to become an overnight bestseller. The author of the memoir Minor Characters told them about her own study of Kerouac’s language. Looking for ways to give Sal speech, the filmmakers incorporated this source, reaching outside Kerouac’s text in creating French dialogue between mother and son. Recently published, Joyce Johnson’s new biography,The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac, traces the development of Kerouac’s prose style, showing how his French freed him to create his famous spontaneous narrative.

Dr. Oz Prescribes Silver Linings Playbook at Le Cirque

Standing high on a stepladder, Dr. Mehmet Oz addressed the crowd at Le Cirque, at cocktails for Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell and his star Robert DeNiro. The talk show host applied his professional expertise, noting the unexpected relevance of SLP to current events, the horrific tragedy in Newtown, Ct. as this audience award winning movie shines a light on mental health in America. Dr. Oz mentioned the moment when DeNiro as Pat Sr. asks his son (Bradley Cooper), recently released from a mental facility, has he taken the right dose of his meds. Pat Jr. and Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), out on their first date at a diner discuss the relative ups and downs of anti-depressants. Looking around the room at film insiders, he commented on edge-fueled creativity.

Revisiting the Crime Scene: West of Memphis and Paradise Lost Trilogy: The Boxed Set

While The Hobbit, Peter Jackson’s prequel to his Tolkien inspired Lord of the Rings series, leads the box office charts, the New Zealand director was in town last week for its premiere, but that was not the only film he has opening. The next night, he introduced his film of passion, West of Memphis, the documentary he and partner Fran Walsh produced and funded themselves, a cause celebre in the United States revisiting the murder of three 8 year olds in 1993, and the three teens, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie
Misskelley, who went to jail for the crime.

 

 

Amy Berg directs the documentary feature, focusing on the case of the only WM3 on death row, Damien Echols, who with his wife Lorri Davis, also produced West of Memphis. While Damien Echols acknowledged Peter Jackson for saving his life, all agree, this film and Echols’ story would not be known if not for the decades-in-the-making trilogy, that covered the case as it was evolving, Paradise Lost, produced for HBO by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.

Les Mis at the Four Seasons/ Museum of the Moving Image Honors Hugh Jackman

They’ve been going non-stop. With New York screenings and lavish dinners, a quick jump across the pond for the London premiere, and back for the New York party at MoMA and appearances on many talk shows, Hugh Jackman was positive we’d all be sick of him by now. From his Jean Valjean role in Les Miserables, transformed from the bitter prisoner hunted by Javert to a spiritually liberated and rich factory owner, and his generous on-the-spot performances at various celebrations including a lunch hosted by Ron Meyer, Jackman is truly a songman you want to have around.

Quartet: Dustin Hoffman as Breakthrough Director

Fresh from Kennedy Center Honors, the actor Dustin Hoffman was promoting his new movie, Quartet, his directorial debut. At a Q&A following a screening last week, the Academy Award winning actor noted the relationship between acting and directing. When he was starting out, he wanted to direct. He had a dream: You could be the next Kazan, he was told, and he looked for projects to direct. He was supposed to direct Dead Poets Society and be in it. When he hesitated, the role went to Robin Williams. Decades later, he directs Quartet, and was named Best Breakthrough Director at the Hollywood Film Awards.Given that producers have been reluctant to allow him to direct without acting in the movie, he is vindicated, even though at 75, he would fit right in.

Les Miserables: Singing For Supper

Squalor, sewers, Dickensian suffering, a splendor of operatic riches! If you are director Tom Hooper, how do you follow the drama of last year’s multi-Oscar winning King’s Speech? A film of one of the most beloved Broadway musical epics, Les Miserables, set in the days of the French Revolution a la Victor Hugo might not be the obvious choice. Then again, Hooper is a filmmaker who has challenged himself with every project. The John Adams series for HBO comes to mind. So a musical? Why not.