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Kristen directional debut

posted 6 years ago by Mody (183)
11 replies | jump to latest

It's officially announced she will direct memoir "The chronology of water"

https://theplaylist.net/kristen-stewart-chronology-water-20180516/

[–] charliekelly (1018) 6 years ago

Hope it turns out better than the shape of it.

[–] LLOwens (983) 6 years ago

While I consider "The Shape of Water" to be one of the best films of 2017, in my humble opinion, del Toro's magnum opus is still Pan's Labyrinth.

[–] charliekelly (1018) 6 years ago

Fully agree with the latter, though I haven't seen a couple of his earliest movies. Pan's Labyrinth was great.

[–] LLOwens (983) 6 years ago

The main reason why I believe del Toro should have won a Best Directing Oscar for Pan's Labyrinth was not just because of his vivid and immersive directing style but also because of the unconventional way he went about creating a film which I've never seen done in such a way previously, including its original storyline.

While the "The Shape of Water" was also quite vivid and visually immersive, the storyline was far from being unconventional. Even del Toro admits that he based the main character known as The Asset on the titular character from "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." And according to Variety, David Zindel, the son of playwright Paul Zindel, is claiming that del Toro ripped off his father's play: variety.com/2018/film/news/shape-of-water-plagiarism-1202706828/ Others are saying that "The Shape of Water" appears like a prequel to "Hellboy", namely The Asset bearing a strong resemblance to Abe Sapien. For this reason, I also consider "Hellboy" to be superior to TSOW.

Considering the aforementioned reasons, in my opinion, del Toro did not deserve to win an Oscar for TSOW. However, despite this, I still consider del Toro to have no peers among living directors in terms of his visuals in relation to the way he depicts things as not being what they seem, in line with Phaedrus' immortal words: "Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden", words that I wish to adhere to in crafting a story which boggles the mind and stirs the innermost soul of an individual. Thus, he's still one of my fave active directors working in Hollywood today and deserving of an Oscar--just not for TSOW. From the way I perceive it, the Academy gave him the golden statuette retroactively mostly for his body of work, most notably, for "Pan's Labyrinth."

[–] charliekelly (1018) 6 years ago

Well said. I also found Hellboy to be a better film than TSOW. With TSOW, it just seemed like it won for saying the right things politically in a metaphorical way, at the right time. And it should be noted that I'm not a hardcore conservative either. I'm actually a firm believer in "to each their own". I just don't think that an average film (at best) should win best picture just for making timely political statements. It's like the 30th best basketball player in a season winning the MVP award just because he wore the appropriate wristbands while putting up average to below average numbers. It's bullshit. I do hope that they are at least del Toro's authentic views and he wasn't just playing the system. Of course, if he was playing the system, that's pretty clever.

[–] CKid (3816) 6 years ago

For those who may be unfamiliar with the absolute true story of the chronology of water, here it is ...

Once upon a time, a very adventurous yet naughty oxygen atom wanted to see what a threesome felt like, so she had unprotected sex with two hydrogen atoms.
The immediate result (no waiting nine months for this to happen) was water.

Let that be a lesson to you!!! ;-)

OK, in all seriousness, might as well make Mody's link clickable ...
https://theplaylist.net/kristen-stewart-chronology-water-20180516/

And here's another article, this one from Indiewire ...
https://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/kristen-stewart-direct-bisexual-chronology-of-water-120196522

So not only will Kristen direct this film, she'll write the screenplay as well.
I find it interesting that Kristen states that she hopes to film this summer. That seems pretty quick to me. Maybe she meant finishing the screenplay this summer. But if she actually meant filming, I wonder what will happen with Charlie's Angels?

In any event, now it's time to play casting agent -- which actress would you like to see Kristen cast in the lead role?

[–] Mody (183) 6 years ago

Thank you for making it clickable 😂 and the story is amazing.

For Charlie's Angels the last update which was yesterday it said the filming will begin in august and the Against all enemies will begin filming june 11!

I would've loved to see Kristen playing the role but it won't happen i would love to see Anne hathaway in the role or rooney mara

[–] Ron2011 (907) 6 years ago

Great links Carved and Mody! Lots of good information on what Kristen is doing and what her plans are. She's been writing for her own movie, that sounds good and writing is a new thing for her. She'll never be a producer, acting and directing is what she wants.
Very interesting to see where she continues to go and to grow with the profession.

[–] LLOwens (983) 6 years ago

OK, in all seriousness, might as well make Mody's link clickable ...
https://theplaylist.net/kristen-stewart-chronology-water-20180516/

On your last OP Carved, Ron and I were also reminiscing about the good old days on the former IMDb message boards and how it was unfortunate that many of the regs on Kristen's board parted ways. And low and behold, there commenting on the thread to this article is none other than Austin Yearwood! He also left a comment on the latest video on my YouTube channel the other day as well. Yeah, he's still a straight-shooter, but so is our brutally honest Kristen.

[–] Ron2011 (907) 6 years ago

I really like her choices of movie roles, writing and directing. She has loved film making since she was a kid and seems to have some good natural instincts for it. Or perhaps better put, she has her own instincts for it which give her some interesting choices and roles. For instance she likes to do roles for Indie or new directors and those who have similar passions of writing/directing that she has. I think that approach is perhaps a kind of symbiotic relationship where she, the director and probably others in the film share such similar artistic goals.

[–] LLOwens (983) 6 years ago

I really like her choices of movie roles, writing and directing. She has loved film making since she was a kid and seems to have some good natural instincts for it. Or perhaps better put, she has her own instincts for it which give her some interesting choices and roles.

As far as a screenwriter and director, Kristen appears to be heading in the right direction as her short film Come Swim wasn't simply a talking heads movie but relied more on visuals to get her vision across. If only she could be just as effective in getting her message across without resorting to voice-overs, then that would have shown her mastery of the art form of storytelling, as rule number one in screenwriting and directing is: Show, don't tell. If a film is truly art then why describe to the audience exactly what they are seeing word-for-word? Isn't it much better for them to form their own conclusions and interpretations of what they see?

As far as her natural instincts, when she was a budding preteen actress, she was already a good judge of acting talent as she mentioned that her fave performance by an actor was Gena Rowlands' Oscar-nominated performance in "A Woman Under the Influence." One would be hard-pressed to find a better performance by an actress on par with Rowlands who exhibited complete mastery over her subtle and nuanced facial expressions. Thus, it should come as no surprise that film critics likewise recognize Kristen's skillful use of subtle and nuanced facial expressions as her forte.

I recall Kristen also mentioning that Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" was her fave horror film and I sure hope she implements some of the ways in which he was able to convey such powerful emotions such as fear and horror in his viewers without resorting to explicit violence by creating unforgettable imagery that is both artistic and primal. Kristen appears to understand that film is not just a visual medium, but just as importantly, it is a profound psychological experience, making it both emotional and visceral, engaging the viewer intellectually, emotionally and viscerally, triggering our innermost fears as well as what we truly lust after. The great filmmakers are all visceral storytellers. I sure hope Kristen too becomes a visceral storyteller.