the fat partner - predicting films

[jaime marzol]

a friend e-mailed me this quote, it's too good not to post

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This is from a review of the new De Niro movie, City by the Sea:

"Ten years ago I went with a screenwriter friend to Basic Instinct, and about two-thirds of the way through he leaned over and said, "It's about time for the fat partner to get killed." Sure enough, the fat partner, played by George Dzundza, got blown away a few minutes later. Two-thirds of
the way through City by the Sea, I started to think it was time for the fat partner to get killed—and sure enough, the fat partner, played by George Dzundza, got blown away a few minutes later."

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i wrote back

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that is a hillarious quote. i also watch films while looking at my watch, and usually guess what will happen for pitch points, mid points, and plot points. diane sees me looking at my watch and says, "i don't want to know."

only one film foiled me at every turn, To Live And Die In LA. everytime the movie gives you every signal we are going to turn right, and it turns left. when it' time for the short, ugly partner to get killed, the tall good looking one gets killed. made the viewing experience exciting, and enjoyable.

val de vargas (pancho from touch of evil) was in To Live And Die In LA. when they went to kill him, or consult with him, forgot which, can you guess where he lived? on Los Robles Blvd.

tim burton's films are very strict to the paradigm, the plot points, sub plots, pitch points come in right on time. this does not diminish the viewing experience for me, it actually makes it more exciting when it's a worthy film.

[Store Hadji]

Orson said he liked film stories that walked a tight-rope - not to say they were linear but that they were ready to plunge off a precipice. You sure can't say of Shanghai that it's predictable.

Probably the most surprising and least predictable film I've ever seen is Memento, which has a backwards structure, begininng with the end and concluding with the begining, and each time it jumps further back in time, you have no idea where the hell you are or what has happened, just like the main character, who has lost his short term memory (but it's spooky, not funny like Tom Hank's 'Short Term Memory Man' - "Tony Randall!")