Showing posts with label drama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drama. Show all posts

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Chapter One, Two, Three...

Right now, I'm working on a new novel. For fun, and to trigger me, I post every chapter of it on my website, one after the other as they are completed (well, their first draft, anyway). Here is Chapter One:

 If you read it, please give me suggestions on any editing it might need.

I will not tell you what the novel is about. It's much better that you find out gradually, and probably more fun for you. At this point, I'ver reached Chapter Nine, and that's where things really start to unfold... ;)

English is not my native tongue, so it's not easy to write a book in this language - especially not a novel, where every nuance is so important. But the challenge is irresistible. Better to fail utterly than never to try.

I will tell you this much:
Actually, this story started as a screenplay, years ago. I completed it and it might be swimming around somewhere in Hollywood, if it hasn't sunk to the bottom of oblivion.

Anyway, I decided to make it a novel, but I want to keep as much as possible of the kind of straightforward storytelling of a screenplay. You may notice this in the style of the text and in the perspective of how the story is told.

I also found that I need to change the plot quite a lot from the screenplay version. There are some loose ends, to say the least. I'm in the process of that and expect to have several serious complications to sort out on the way. Wish me luck.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Totally Messed Up Rising


The grand finale of the Batman films, The Dark Knight Rises, is a complete mess. The 2.5 hours have a plot that's a maze where the first to get lost were the scriptwriting brothers Jonathan and Christopher Nolan, the latter of which was also the director. That didn't help.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Totally Messed Up Rising


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Not Taken by the Dramatic Curve


The film Taken from 2008, where Liam Neeson is a retired agent showing all his fury in saving his daughter from human trafficking, is a decent action movie, much thanks to him, but it fails mainly in its dramatic curve. So, the end can be nothing but disappointing.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Not Taken by the Dramatic Curve


Age-old Dilemmas Also Plague the Future


Looper is a film playing with the idea of time travel – but doing so with a dramatic nerve that leaves the intellectual paradox far behind. I wonder if that sci-fi ingredient is needed at all in the plot, except for the special effects. The story by director Rian Johnson is so classical, it needs no future.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Age-old Dilemmas Also Plague the Future


Monday, November 19, 2012

The Rage of Puberty


The film Chronicle, by director Josh Trank and screenwriter Max Landis, is a high school supernatural thriller turning into tragedy. Underneath the spectacular surface, it's all about the torment and rage of male puberty.

The essay has been moved to my personal website:

The Rage of Puberty


Saturday, August 11, 2012

Mama, Just Killed a Man


Writing at some depth about the Queen anthem Bohemian Rhapsody would take a book, so here I will have to settle for just touching at the subject. A few thoughts on the lyrics. They're just as impressive as the music.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Mama, Just Killed a Man


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Mental Narcissist


I watched all the episodes of the first four seasons of The Mentalist, the police procedural TV series. It's catchy. But it's not about a mentalist. It's about a raving narcissist.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Mental Narcissist


Monday, July 30, 2012

We Need to Listen to Kevin


It's a terribly disturbing story, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and the film gives no moment of relief. A ghastly nightmare, but the dream is incomplete. It fosters the myth of the innocent parent. That's not believable even in fiction.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

We Need to Listen to Kevin


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Two and a Half Ceases to Compute



I watched through the ninth season of Two and a Half Men, which starts by uncle Charlie being replaced by IT billionaire Walden. It's not working. The money keeps it running, but surely not for long.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Two and a Half Ceases to Compute


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Game of Words



I'm far from the only one enjoying the TV-series Game of Thrones, waiting impatiently for season 3 to commence. I bet that this excellent fantasy drama would have pleased even its foremost inspiration: William Shakespeare. In the midst of all the spectacular scenes, its foremost quality is that of words, words, words.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Game of Words


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Counter Acting


The arts contain numerous paradoxes. That's particularly true for the art of acting. Those who master it know to play on the opposite of what is called for, thereby enhancing it, as if real acting is counter acting.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Counter Acting


Saturday, January 14, 2012

Fame Must Be Raw


I tried to see the 2009 remake of Fame, about New York students of the performing arts. But it didn't grab me, not at all. It was just a bunch of scenes. The film makers might have watched the 1980 original, but they didn't learn from it.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Fame Must Be Raw


Thursday, January 12, 2012

Actors Interruptus


I've become addicted to Inside the Actors Studio, the TV show where James Lipton interviews famous movie stars at length. Like any addiction, it's a combination of delight and agony.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Actors Interruptus


Monday, December 26, 2011

Harry Potter vs. Voldemort – so what?


It might be blasphemy, but I have trouble appreciating the Harry Potter stories. I might not even know what I'm talking about, because I only managed to read something like a hundred pages of the first book – the rest is just what I've seen in the movies. That's fine with me.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Harry Potter vs. Voldemort – so what?


Saturday, December 17, 2011

Burlesque Breakfast of Champions


Finally, I got to see the 1999 movie Breakfast of Champions, based on Kurt Vonnegut's novel. I had avoided doing so earlier, afraid of being disappointed. Well, I was. They turned the wonderfully absurd novel into a tiresome burlesque.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Burlesque Breakfast of Champions


Sunday, November 27, 2011

With One Person I Never Got Bored


We come to this world, don't ask me where from, and we leave it after dancing on it for a while, don't ask me where to. But some of us are otherworldly all through. I had the fortune to get to know one of them: Charlotte Zutrauen, who passed away this spring after more than a century on the planet.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

With One Person I Never Got Bored


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Faith or Not, You Have to Leap

Steve Martin has made a bundle of movies. Of those I've seen, three stand out: the revealing view of superficial society in LA Story, the sensitive modernized version of Cyrano de Bergerac in Roxanne, and the naked take on fake religion suddenly becoming real in Leap of Faith. This is about the last one, right now my favorite – although maybe because I just saw it anew.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Faith or Not, You Have to Leap


Monday, June 27, 2011

Murder Mystery

The truth is elusive. That's what intrigues us about crime cases – real or fictional. What really happened is rarely ascertained, nor why it did. That's certainly true in the case of Alex and Derek King, who killed their father Terry when they were only 12 and 13. Their story raises more question than it answers. Is it only in fiction we can reach solid conclusions?


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Murder Mystery


Monday, March 14, 2011

Characters With Character

Now that Charlie Sheen is fired, I don't see how the sitcom Two and a Half Men can possibly continue. They'll probably try it, but the circle is broken. That perfect set of characteristic characters can't be rearranged.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Characters With Character


Sunday, March 13, 2011

Bland Leads Dull Glee

The TV world has its own natural laws, some of them more difficult to understand than those of Einstein's relativity and string theory. I often wonder about casting. Especially those who get to play the lead roles are frequently chosen as if failure is the goal. Glee is a typical example of this.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Bland Leads Dull Glee