Thursday, May 31, 2007

Opening Remarks

As we've been discussing in class, Pessl's novel provides great challenge and possibility for cinematic adaptation. Questions we'll pursue throughout the semester, and which we'll explore here, include:

1. How will we (hereafter, "we" will refer to this collective fantasy that "we're" the group entrusted with the project of adapting this novel-to-screen) balance the novel's quirky, fast-paced, whimsy with its suspense? How will we balance the seriousness and playfulness? An abundance of non-diegetic inserts or montages might disrupt a sustained gaze, at the same time that too much gravity would abandon the novel's allusive whimsy. Where will the drama lie? At which points will montages/non-diegetic inserts give way to a long take? Think about the opening of Wes Anderson's Rushmore in comparison with Max's and Miss Cross' conversation behind the aquariums: which conversations or events in Special Topics merit such unfolding in real time?

2. What will be this film's most important relationships? Which characters will we idealize, and how/why? How will we represent the difference between Hannah and Natasha, for example?

3. How will we begin the film? Theorists of narrative explain that the opening must introduce an element of desire, so as to seduce the spectator/reader into wanting to continue reading/watching. Some options might include: a survey of the Blueboods at Hannah's (p. 88), wherein Blue introduces each person in voice-over while each appears in a "making beautiful" close-up (similar to I Vitelloni's opening, but within a closer shot scale that feels like slow-motion); this sequence could appear before or after a clip from Sunset Boulevard, in which Norma Desmond states "we didn't need dialogue, we had faces." Or home video footage of Blue covering her eyes on the House of Horrors ride (p. 144), the family together in this past, while the voice-over states "sometimes it takes more courage not to let yourself see. Sometimes knowledge is damaging." Or many other options! What might be the implications of these, or other!, ways of opening the film? Note that Pessl introduces, on page two, Hannah's dead body. How/will this image haunt the film, as well?

4. How will we show Blue's bibliophilia and cinephilia? Which allusions are most important, and how will we portray these allusions? Intertitles? Film footage (e.g. The Dreamers)? Non-diegetic inserts of books, or book passages?

5. What directors' styles would best befit this novel? Whose aesthetics do you have in mind as you read, and what do these styles contribute to your seeing/hearing this book as a film?

6. Which events or characters will we "make beautiful"? Think about The Virgin Suicides, Coppola's investing the Lisbon sisters with an aesthetic afterlife that exceeds their mortal existence; this sunlit aesthetic contrasts startlingly with the blue-tinted bathroom within which Cecelia has just attempted suicide. While The Virgin Suicides represents the neighborhod boys retrospective idealization of the Lisbon sisters, Special Topics features Blue's captivating way of perceiving her world with exquisite attention to detail, such that many people's faces and gestures generate meaning beyond mere superficiality. Will we make every object and person in this film glimmer within the precision of Blue's attention? Or will we judiciously select certain aspects/characters that resonate more importantly? How will we depict this idealization?

7. Where will we use close-ups, and why?

8. Where will we use long takes, and why?

9. Regarding The Virgin Suicides, Coppola explains that her father encouraged her to focus on one word, which held the entire mood and theme of the film; Coppola chose "loss," and worked to inscribe this feeling in camerawork (by shooting at a distance, etc.) and mise-en-scene. [source: Indiewire.com, "Like Father, Like Daughter?: Sofia Coppola's Coming out with 'Virgin Suicides,'" interview by Anthony Kaufman] What word defines Special Topics, and how might we make choices around creating the mood/story of this word?

10. What will be our color palette, and how will it change throughout the film?

11. Who will we cast? Feel free to include images/clips, etc. What qualities will be most defining about these characters, and what will we look for in casting? What will they wear?