Pink! You've gone and painted it pink!

[squirmelia]

Saturday's Zokutou meet included writing a manifesto (and shouting out bits of it in Covent Garden) with eldar, verlaine, mcfie, and elvichar. We hung out at the ICA. Some lovely exhibitions there as usual, such as photos of two rather different towns in different countries, where all the bulbs in the streetlamps have been replaced by those from the other town. Saturday night, I ended up seeing a film - Adaptation.

On Sunday, verlaine and I scoured the streets of London for the pink tank that we'd seen a photo of the day before. After many chirping subways with flaking ceilings, the tank was found on a desolate piece of land on a street corner. It was still bright pink, barbified, but with moss growing on it, so we climbed it.

Comments

Pink Tank!!

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

Wow, where is it?

Re: Pink Tank!!

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

'The Pink Tank is permanently parked (until further notice) at the corner of Pages Walk and Mandela Way in Bermondsey, SE1, near the Old Kent Rd flyover.'

Re: Pink Tank!!

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

That settles it. Next time I go to London, I'm going there :)

adaptation

[criesbella.livejournal.com]

jodi:
what did you think of ADAPTATION?
thought i'd love it, had all the elements:
cage, streep, kaufman, writers, writing...

(in best diva voice): HATED IT!
was it too close too home? am *I* as HATEFUL
as that egotist? the way he treated his brother!
his relationship to the world as one big jerk-off!
bleh. very let down by this film.

:( --anne

Re: adaptation

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

I thought it was okay. Like you, I expected more from it, so felt a bit disappointed.

I liked the orchid theme, having grown up in a very flower-dominated village, becoming too well-versed in flower names at an early age. (I have now forgotten these and like to think more in a Doug style way, about acts people do with flowers, so, despite the later propagation of ghost orchids, I was a little shocked at seeing them casually snip the flower away, but enough about flowers..). I also liked some of the passages from the book that were pretty, and also the general cleverness of it all.

So, hmm, I liked it, I didn't hate it, but I expected so much more from it. Although I do think you might be right about that character, we may all be like him, and that is a bit disturbing.

Re: adaptation

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I really liked it, but I think it's a complicated film that tries to work on so many levels that it starts to leave the viewer's head hurting.

I didn't really see Charlie and Donald as different characters, at least not on one level - on one level they are the two different sides of the author's personality, failing to gel with one another. Let's not forget that the script is credited to "Charlie & Donald Kaufman" despite (as we secretly know in reality) being written by only one person. Charlie is the part that wrestles with the guilt of wanting to and failing to create high art, Donald is the pop-culture entertainer side. I think they're both definite aspects of the (real-world) Charlie Kaufman.

If Charlie treats Donald badly, it's a representation of CK's internal conflict, not really a suggestion that Charlie is a "real" writer and Donald a cheap, fake one.

Ergh, this film is impossible to write about due to the layering, the way things mean something on a straightforward level, and then something else on a meta- level, and then probably something else again on a meta-meta- level. Or something.

Re: adaptation

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

We can always write about pink tank-shaped orchids instead.

Re: adaptation

[criesbella.livejournal.com]

anne here--jodi's friend state side.

you make good points about the charlie/donald
character as same person. while i have followed
many "good/evil twin" storylines on soap operas,
i just didn't read THIS movie character as 2 sides
of the same person--not until the death scene.

i guess that's b/c i am a poorer pop culture junkie
than i imagine myself to be--
i know next to NOTHING about kaufman to begin with.
hey--my momma done raised no fool,
but i watched the movie for 2hrs. thinking,
"how can he treat his BROTHER that way?"

now WE may all treat OURSELVES "that way," but
i wasn't going there. i thought charlie was a MEAN PERSON.

when i re-watch this movie, as i must (on dvd,
with dir. comments) i will look at it as kaufman
denying/suppressing his own ego. thanks.

--anne

[feath.livejournal.com]

I missed another meeting! I feel like I will NEVER get back. waaaaaah!