Screenwriting, a Folk Art
Jervis Dedalus
I need to clear something up: When I say that screenwiting is a "folk art", I
am by no means deprecating it as art. Terms like "high art" and "low art" are
way too relative. Even so, as for myself? I've never been anything other than
a person entirely embued with folk culture, art, whether I play it on my
guitar, find it in a gold pan, track it down from one end of Mexico to the
other, or live it in a bass boat.
Looking at the script for "Lost Highway", I was utterly bowled over in
contemplation of the sort of 'painterly' qualities...jesus what a bad choice
of terms...'painterly', but 'graphic' won't get it either. Okay, this guy is
_seeing_, much more than he is thinking, discursively, as he writes, and
he's ...okay...'painting' what he sees by taking down notes, snapshots of what
he sees with his brush, his camera, his keyboard in a very rude sort of
shorthand. Because of that 'rudeness' it is not 'high art' in the literary
sence, but in the graphic sense? Hell yes, this screenplay is high art. As
literature, it is not, but as art, like Blair says below, it can run the
gamut, depending on the artist.
I haven't seen enough Renoir - - wait - - did he do _Black Orpheus_? If so, I
could go on all night in praises of that album of fok songs on celluloid. Yet,
of course, the theme is from the folk art of Greece, the Orpheus legend, myth;
had any of the Greeks dramatized it? I am not aware. I have plenty of
Euripides, Sophocles, stuff by that damned twit Aristophanes, Aeschylus, but
nothing under title of "Orpheus" in my library, thus I assume it is 'folk
art'. But, it's been a while so I must move to something fresh in memory, Bob
Fosse's _Cabaret_, another kind of Orpheus legend. Like, really, who _is_
that Joel Grey character, anyway?
It's the scene where Michael York and Liza Minelli are standing under the
overhead and screamiing, hollering when the train passes over. Liza alone
screams for the first time, it's done on a ONE SHOT, you are looking at Liza,
screaming for all she's worth. CUT to WIDE-ANGLE shot of pidgeons being
flushed from amongst the beams of the understructure. CUT to ONE SHOT of
Liza for the rest of the scream.CUT to ONE SHOT of M. York stepping into the
frame to eclipse the backdrop of a propaganda poster, either a Nazi
anti-communist or Communist one displaying a huge red hammer and sickle.
Wordlessly, effortlessly, the intensity of Liza's scream is illustrated by the
flushing pidgeons, and even if it is the roar of the train doing it, the
silent comment from the camera is, "it's the scream". How can that be
known? The one shot of the terrorist poster is the answer. It's this one
shot of York stepping into the frame, over the poster that captures the
imagination. It would not do at this moment to have a TWO SHOT because the
viewer's eye might still be on Liza, and miss what must be seen on Michael's
face: The moving into the frame expressess and accentuates the attitude of
awe there. I watched that, and I just said to myself, "This is genius".
For an account of my acqaintence with Cy Feuer (producer of Cabaret) see
rec.arts.theatre.plays.
Blair P. Houghton wrote:
> <jervis_...@my-dejanews.com> wrote:
> >evolved out of the dusty backlots of old Hollywood, and no matter what
> >somebody's pretense might be about it, he's still just writing a highly
> >glorified 'horse opera' shooting script.
>
> Thirty percent of the time, you're right. The rest are
> failed attempts at Renoir that just look like horse opera.
>
> --Blair
> "Time to go watch Grand Illusion again."