Thursday, September 24th, 2009

If I do have any readers, you will surely know by now that I adore Werner Herzog's filmmaking style. There is truly no other filmmaker quite like the helmer of Fitzcarraldo. All of the stories from the makings of Herzog's films are almost certainly and consistently more entertaining than the films themselves. Maybe Herzog realizes what a treasure trove he is, and what a lost art his guerilla style filmmaking has become, because Cinematical points out a new site to recruit aspiring directors to join Herzog's Rogue Film School to teach you all the things that actual film school will not. In the about section of the website, points eight and ten tell exactly why one would want to join a class taught by one of cinema's greatest visionaries.

"8. Related, but more practical subjects, will be the art of lockpicking. Traveling on foot. The exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully. The athletic side of filmmaking. The creation of your own shooting permits. The neutralization of bureaucracy. Guerrilla tactics. Self reliance.

9. Censorship will be enforced. There will be no talk of shamans, of yoga classes, nutritional values, herbal teas, discovering your Boundaries, and Inner Growth."

The site also notes that there will be another class in 2010 on the east coast. So, if anybody's looking for a birthday/Christmas or whatever the hell else you buy gifts for idea, the $1,500 enrollment to the Rogue Film School would be accepted.

In other news, The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business Blog has announced that David Cronenberg is in talks with Fox to write and direct a remake of Cronenberg's own critically acclaimed 1986 remake of the 1958 Vincent Price vehicle The Fly. I never really thought that The Fly warranted another remake, but if Cronenberg is aboard, my curiosity will get me in the seats. Also, who else is hoping that Jeff Goldblum will also return?

Bukowskis has the viewing for Ingmar Bergman's personal possessions that are to be auctioned off online at the moment until the auction actually begins on the 28th. Really, aside from a swivel chair, everything on the site looks amazing. The item that I'm interested at how much it will go for is the wooden chess set used in The Seventh Seal.

Finally, The Wrap has reported that Disney has trashed David Mamet's script treatment of The Diary of Anne Frank, which wasn't even set in the Holocaust, nor was the main character Anne Frank. Whenever the original story was announced, I have to admit, I wasn't as shocked as some, seeing that I'm not all that familiar with Mamet's work, and saw no real problem with him pairing with Disney for an adaptation of Frank's writings. I think I was personally more worried about the years and years of Walt Disney's alleged anti-Semitism being projected in a big budget movie about the suffering of the Jewish people. Regardless, I guess for the time being, both the national media's fears of Mamet and mine of Disney's history of racism have both been quelled.