Personal Filmmaking

Personal filmmaking is emphasized in film schools and amongst cineastes all the world round as the only real antidote to the schlocky product created by Hollywood year in and year out. The best and most talented of filmmakers are able to bring fresh personal visions to tried and true genres, thus making original and timeless work. But is this really the case? I just watched HANNA, the Joe Wright film starring Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, and the young girl from Atonement. The previews looked good. I'll see most any action movie if given the opportunity and I was lazy today and wanted to get out. The movie starts all right, but as soon as we get away from the genre action-y stuff, we are thrust into the filmmakers personal preoccupations. Hooray, right! Wrong. Are we supposed to enjoy hanging out with a traveling hippy "family" in a camper? Are we expected to be mesmerized by gypsy campfire songs like some teenager on their first acid trip? Are supposed to be afraid of a bunch of gay-neo-nazis driving range rovers and wearing tennis outfits. Que?

Finally, we get back to the action and it turns confusing. If you've seen the preview, you'll know Hanna kicks the shit out of a whole shitload of top secret government people very early on in the movie and escapes an inescapable fortress. But later in the movie, she's running away from a schlubby gay guy that is like a bastardized version of Big Lebowski nihilists and the bad teenagers in Funny Games. And Cate Blanchett. I'm like - huh?

My point is this: we celebrate personal filmmaking when we like the movie. The rest of the time - most of the time - personal filmmaking sucks. Watch any number of these mumblecore movies. Better yet, read incoming manuscripts of books people have worked their whole lives writing. This is personal stuff. And you know what? It's BORING. And tends to be undisciplined and lousy art to boot. Joe Wright, it can be argued, makes personal films. In the same way Ed Zwick makes personal films. These guys are auteurs. Is this preferable to Unknown, or The Lincoln Lawyer, or Taken, movies that don't espouse to be personal visions, but straight genre exercises? I don't know. I just find this confusing because we all look at great work like Mean Streets or the Godfather and explain the excitement about those films being infused by the personal vision of the filmmakers. But if we are to be excited about this concept, we ought to examine the cases didn't work out as well as the ones that did.

Anyhow, one of the more interesting elements of the movie is that I'm sitting in row - this is Friday afternoon - theater about 1/3 full and the only two other people in my row are two hot women each seeing the movie by themselves one on each side of me. Riddle me that. Only in Los Angeles.