4 Things That Give a Movie Staying Power

19Oct/090

4 Things That Give a Movie Staying Power

Having just completed the most ephemeral of movies, I found this article about things that make a film last by movie podcasters Gareth Higgins and Jett Loe quite interesting:

4: Auteur theory is dead - Collaboration is the Key

Mike Leigh makes consistently thoughtful, reflective, and just plain good movies; and he is usually considered to be one of the most distinctive directors working today. His scripts are famously shaped in concert with a long rehearsal process; and perhaps most challenging to the notion that films belong to the director along, for 20 years until his untimely death this year, he was intimately supported by producer Simon Channing Williams. Since High Hopes and up to Happy Go Lucky Leigh made films that worked, and he has spoken of the importance of collaboration in making this happen.

Big agreement on that point! Filmmaking is a collaborative medium and I despise the egos that take the "A Film By" credit.

What Higgins and Loe don't talk about is pop culture references. I'm in the middle of re-reading Byron's Don Juan. He references all kinds of books and news events that were common knowledge circa 1818-1824.

II
Vernon, the butcher Cumberland, Wolfe, Hawke,
Prince Ferdinand, Granby, Burgoyne, Keppel, Howe,
Evil and good, have had their tithe of talk,
And fill'd their sign posts then, like Wellesley now;
Each in their turn like Banquo's monarchs stalk,
Followers of fame, "nine farrow" of that sow:
France, too, had Buonaparté and Dumourier
Recorded in the Moniteur and Courier.

That's the second stanza of the poem. I recognize Buonaparté (that's Napoleon Bonaparte) and can identify the Banquo bit as a reference to Shakespeare's Macbeth. That's not a high percentage, and Don Juan is rightly considered a classic poem.

Why? Because I can still follow the story and enjoy the timeless quality of it, even if I miss a few of the jokes. I think a lot of Hollywood animation drew the wrong conclusion from the pop culture elements of Toy Story. Re-watching it recently, all those Star Wars and other references hold up, because they don't interfere with the story. A movie like Shark's Tale, however, seems to be larded with in-jokes rather than substance.

I call that the "spurious now" and try my best to avoid it in my storytelling. Even with Natural Victims, where I really wanted the movie to feel like it couldn't have been made any time other than the two weeks it was, I think the story elements are all pretty timeless -- best friends fighting over the same girl; a serial killer, well, killing.

I agree in principle with Higgins and Loe, but I think the main reason a movie stays relevant across generations is that it taps into a deeper storytelling vein.