Anthony Hopkins, known for his work in some scarey freaky films, wrote the screenplay, directed the film, and worked as an actor in the film, so I had to see this.
Slipstream was edited with disturbing breaks and rapid images. OK, I had trouble following the story and maybe that has something to do with the fact that I have never watched reality television and love long periods of deep concentration.
So I read the back of the DVD package to get a clue, and then realized "OH, OK this is a story about a screenwriter (could be any writer) who begins to live in his script/ the world he has created, so much so that he looses his sense of reality.
A viewer really had to pay attention and pick up clues quickly. I apparently was unable to do this. Yet, I understood what was intended and realized that Anthony Hopkins had effectively conveyed to the viewer exactly what it was he wanted to! In this case the DVD package wasn't lying when it said "Soon, he is thrown into a vortex where dreams, time, and reality collide in an increasingly whirling slipsteam.
Let me explain that early on a female character does define "slipstream" for the viewer, and so I thought this had something to do with reincarnation, which is a subject I've long been very fascinated with. However, there was nothing I was cognitive of while watching that seemed to be about past lives. Perhaps what was being suggested was instead the phenomena of Deja Vu, the feeling that you have been to a place or scene before, which some people attribute to past life memories.
This film also left me with a temporary depression.
As a result, I didn't give it a second go to try and figure it all out.
C 2013 Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
1/26/13
1/23/13
THE DEAL : CHRISTINE TRZYNA FILM REVIEW
One of the things I enjoy is watching a DVD and THEN reading the synopsis on the back of the case, the marketing.
Do I even agree with what that paragraph or two (propaganda) has to say?
For instance on the back of this film's case in big letters it says "SIDE-SPLITTINGLY FUNNY" and "TWO PEOPLE HAVE NEVER BEEN SO WRONG FOR EACH OTHER."
OK, I was amused at parts but my sides never split and also I did not think this was a love story.
If I had written the synopsis, I would say that this is a humorous but not so exaggerated story about how a film is made, starting with the screenplay. I loved the character of Charlie Berns as acted by William H. Macy, who in real life had his hand in this screenplay by way of his real life nephew who wrote it.
If you've spent any time at all with your laptop in a coffee house among screen writers (even when you are not a screenwriter), if you have ever walked down restaurant row on Magnolia where the Screen Writers are getting together with the People, you know that this story could very well be TRUE!
Character Berns seems to have experienced or heard about every last reality of getting a screenplay to production, and so he quickly puts into their places anyone who has any altruistic ideas.
The closest to my side getting split was when the Diedra Hern character as acted by Meg Ryan to be a unshakable studio exec who has been put on the case to keep after the screenwriter so that he delivers, goes to visit Charlie Berns at his home, which is an apartment building with one of those San Fernando Valley decayed buildings that has not only cracks in the cement and a broken pool empty of water but a dead tree in it.
Sadly this is how too many screenwriters actually live in the San Fernando Valley, when they aren't in coffee houses on Ventura or restaurant row on Magnolia writing or pitching or explaining what it is they meant to do with the story to the People.
Don't ask me how I know!
C 2013 Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved
Do I even agree with what that paragraph or two (propaganda) has to say?
For instance on the back of this film's case in big letters it says "SIDE-SPLITTINGLY FUNNY" and "TWO PEOPLE HAVE NEVER BEEN SO WRONG FOR EACH OTHER."
OK, I was amused at parts but my sides never split and also I did not think this was a love story.
If I had written the synopsis, I would say that this is a humorous but not so exaggerated story about how a film is made, starting with the screenplay. I loved the character of Charlie Berns as acted by William H. Macy, who in real life had his hand in this screenplay by way of his real life nephew who wrote it.
If you've spent any time at all with your laptop in a coffee house among screen writers (even when you are not a screenwriter), if you have ever walked down restaurant row on Magnolia where the Screen Writers are getting together with the People, you know that this story could very well be TRUE!
Character Berns seems to have experienced or heard about every last reality of getting a screenplay to production, and so he quickly puts into their places anyone who has any altruistic ideas.
The closest to my side getting split was when the Diedra Hern character as acted by Meg Ryan to be a unshakable studio exec who has been put on the case to keep after the screenwriter so that he delivers, goes to visit Charlie Berns at his home, which is an apartment building with one of those San Fernando Valley decayed buildings that has not only cracks in the cement and a broken pool empty of water but a dead tree in it.
Sadly this is how too many screenwriters actually live in the San Fernando Valley, when they aren't in coffee houses on Ventura or restaurant row on Magnolia writing or pitching or explaining what it is they meant to do with the story to the People.
Don't ask me how I know!
C 2013 Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved
1/18/13
1/15/13
WORDS BANNED IN 2013? HMM THERE ARE SOMETHINGS PEOPLE (STILL) SAY THAT HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A TURN OFF!
UNIVERSITY BANISHES WORDS FOR 2013 by Thom Patterson article link!
trending, spoiler alert, bucket list, superfood, guru, job creators, yolo (see article for explanations).
Personally, I never could stand and cannot stand it when someone ends a conversation rudely by saying "Thank You For Sharing." I also hate it when someone says "hello!" or "hello?" and they aren't on the phone. Any phrase used by a television character, who is supposed to be smart ass funny, doesn't work on me.
trending, spoiler alert, bucket list, superfood, guru, job creators, yolo (see article for explanations).
Personally, I never could stand and cannot stand it when someone ends a conversation rudely by saying "Thank You For Sharing." I also hate it when someone says "hello!" or "hello?" and they aren't on the phone. Any phrase used by a television character, who is supposed to be smart ass funny, doesn't work on me.
1/14/13
100 FREE THINGS TO DO IN LOS ANGELES ( I KNOW THERE ARE MORE!)
DISCOVER LA link to the free things to do.
1/12/13
PENNY MARSHALL Quotation
... "On stage you have to tie up the loose ends neatly and send the audience home with a resolution they like. In real life, as was evident, that's not easy. I was familiar with indecision. My life was like a play in the midst of a rewrite. But was that bad? I didn't think so." ... - Penny Marshall
From "My Mother was Nuts", a memoir by Penny Marshall C 2012, new harvest Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt publishers, which I read and considered light reading over the holidays, even though Penny covered some heavy topics in her humorously matter of fact way of seeing life.
From "My Mother was Nuts", a memoir by Penny Marshall C 2012, new harvest Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt publishers, which I read and considered light reading over the holidays, even though Penny covered some heavy topics in her humorously matter of fact way of seeing life.
12/12/12
GOING ON VACATION! SEE YOU IN 2013 ?
It's that time! I'm taking a vacation.
What will happen between then and now?
Most likely December 12th 2012 will come and go as an ordinary day, as will December 21st, 2012, which is the Winter Solstice, and the "Gregorian Calender" December 12, 2012.
Despite all the buildup and antipation and the increase in tourism to Guatamala for December 12th or 21st 2012, I'm not concerned that the earth will flip on it's axis, nor do I believe this will be the day that UFO'S reveal themselves to all of humanity, though I will be watching for crop circles, and I'm still speculating as to how Santa has managed to deliver so very many presents in the wee hours all these years even with the help of elves and reindeer all who multitask! But I could be wrong!
In which case instead of having a few weeks to use the search feature of Google Blogger to read past posts of this blog, CHRISTINE TRZYNA - WRITERLY LIFE, you'll have a very long time to do so.
Seriously though, the snowman drawing below had me laughing out loud.
That may tell you just how much I need a vacation!
Till then,
Christine Trzyna
What will happen between then and now?
Most likely December 12th 2012 will come and go as an ordinary day, as will December 21st, 2012, which is the Winter Solstice, and the "Gregorian Calender" December 12, 2012.
Despite all the buildup and antipation and the increase in tourism to Guatamala for December 12th or 21st 2012, I'm not concerned that the earth will flip on it's axis, nor do I believe this will be the day that UFO'S reveal themselves to all of humanity, though I will be watching for crop circles, and I'm still speculating as to how Santa has managed to deliver so very many presents in the wee hours all these years even with the help of elves and reindeer all who multitask! But I could be wrong!
In which case instead of having a few weeks to use the search feature of Google Blogger to read past posts of this blog, CHRISTINE TRZYNA - WRITERLY LIFE, you'll have a very long time to do so.
Seriously though, the snowman drawing below had me laughing out loud.
Till then,
Christine Trzyna
12/10/12
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG : A SIGNATURE LIFE : BOOK EXCERPT
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG : A SIGNATURE LIFE : BOOK EXCERPT
pages 187 and 188
"I designed the apartment (in Paris) as Bohemian Luxuria, because I had long since discovered that writers may act bohemian, but they love luxury. (CT - italics is mine.)
Our apartment was a center for other writers because of Alain's association with Mondadori and many other writers we had a friends. Many of those friends would stay with us in what I called the Literary Room...
The (apartment) concept was one of an ongoing, moving stage, which fit very much with how I saw my life then.
"Writers loved to stay in the apartment and continue to do so. The apartment is very quiet, and Paris is inspiring... Whether it is the air, the wine, or the ambiance, somehow it is easier for writers to write in Paris...
They were all part of the literary mix in Paris and the rich cultural life that I craved after my reclusive years at Cloudwalk. I was hungry for the exchange of ideas, a side of me that I had neglected, and I was pleased beyond measure to be back into it..."
pages 187 and 188
"I designed the apartment (in Paris) as Bohemian Luxuria, because I had long since discovered that writers may act bohemian, but they love luxury. (CT - italics is mine.)
Our apartment was a center for other writers because of Alain's association with Mondadori and many other writers we had a friends. Many of those friends would stay with us in what I called the Literary Room...
The (apartment) concept was one of an ongoing, moving stage, which fit very much with how I saw my life then.
"Writers loved to stay in the apartment and continue to do so. The apartment is very quiet, and Paris is inspiring... Whether it is the air, the wine, or the ambiance, somehow it is easier for writers to write in Paris...
They were all part of the literary mix in Paris and the rich cultural life that I craved after my reclusive years at Cloudwalk. I was hungry for the exchange of ideas, a side of me that I had neglected, and I was pleased beyond measure to be back into it..."
12/8/12
PASADENA by DAVID EBERSHOFF : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW
I remember one very obnoxious classmate of mine in a creative writing program. She said she was "suspicious" of any writing that began with physical (topographical, geographical, botanical) descriptions.
PASADENA by DAVID EBERSHOFF : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW
This is a book about class and changing status. Of a certain rich poverty, of people who make the best of that long moment called life, and who seem to have privilege but when it comes to what's really valuable in life, have little to nothing.
This is a book about fallible people making the best they can do in the long moment called life.
Each and every one of them lives disappointment. If they have hopes of romance, well, that is not how it turns out, and yet, they succeed at least temporarily at something.
It's pleasing to read a book, be it fiction or nonfiction, that takes place where you live. "Pasadena," is a book set in Los Angeles, Pasadena and La Jolla, during the first half of the 20th century, and it pleased me to no end as historical fiction, especially because the rich detail was of natural pre-city world, at the time when the building boom had just begun and southern California was being transformed from a small town dotted map into what you see when you fly into Southern California at night; lights for hundreds of miles of cities joined together.
At the center of this story is a girl of German immigrant father and refugee Mexican mother born high above a beach cliff in 1903, a girl who sets out lobster pots and swims without fear, and cannot imagine how her adult life will be so little of her own choosing. That girl will one day marry into Pasadena wealth, but her life will go wrong anyway.
So, as you know, I read and review a lot of old books, books that and longer being marketed. I know I would get more hits on this blog if I only reviewed the books that were just published and being marketed now. As a relatively unknown reviewer I could keep getting to the back of that parade but I love discovering a new author even if the work is "old."
C 2002 author
Random House is publisher.
PASADENA by DAVID EBERSHOFF : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW
This is a book about class and changing status. Of a certain rich poverty, of people who make the best of that long moment called life, and who seem to have privilege but when it comes to what's really valuable in life, have little to nothing.
This is a book about fallible people making the best they can do in the long moment called life.
Each and every one of them lives disappointment. If they have hopes of romance, well, that is not how it turns out, and yet, they succeed at least temporarily at something.
It's pleasing to read a book, be it fiction or nonfiction, that takes place where you live. "Pasadena," is a book set in Los Angeles, Pasadena and La Jolla, during the first half of the 20th century, and it pleased me to no end as historical fiction, especially because the rich detail was of natural pre-city world, at the time when the building boom had just begun and southern California was being transformed from a small town dotted map into what you see when you fly into Southern California at night; lights for hundreds of miles of cities joined together.
At the center of this story is a girl of German immigrant father and refugee Mexican mother born high above a beach cliff in 1903, a girl who sets out lobster pots and swims without fear, and cannot imagine how her adult life will be so little of her own choosing. That girl will one day marry into Pasadena wealth, but her life will go wrong anyway.
So, as you know, I read and review a lot of old books, books that and longer being marketed. I know I would get more hits on this blog if I only reviewed the books that were just published and being marketed now. As a relatively unknown reviewer I could keep getting to the back of that parade but I love discovering a new author even if the work is "old."
C 2002 author
Random House is publisher.
12/2/12
MAN ON WIRE : DOCUMENTARY on PHILIPPE PETIT : CHRISTINE TRZYNA FILM REVIEW
MAN ON WIRE is a documentary about a Frenchman named Philippe Petit who has more than a bit of circus in him. In 1974 he managed to walk (and dance) a wire tight rope that was between the two Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. This wasn't just a stunt. It was a spectacle.
I got it that this daring feat, almost unimaginable, was "the artistic crime of the century," and I sure was happy that Petit and his team got away with it!
The DVD doesn't focus on the art of walking a wire but in the collaborative effort of various individuals in France and the United States to make this achievement happen, and they had to be real sneaky to haul all that equipment to the top of the towers and install it. Today if they tried to pull it off they wouldn't be able to.
I couldn't help but think about this from a 2012 perspective: because of 9/11 some would say, and I feel this, that the United States of America as is, all that privacy invading "security" as a result of the terrorist attack that fell these towers, is not the one I grew up in or want to live in, though I won't be packing up to go anywhere anytime soon. I think that we had a sense of freedom we no longer have. Such as the freedom to take chances like this! I feel sorry for children growing up in this atmosphere.
I'm reminded of a term I learned in one of my Literature - Creative Writing classes: SENTIMENTALITY FOR THE PRESENT. As I understand this term it means that in the now you know you are in the best days, and they are soon passing, like in the last second. In other words I acknowledge it's going to get worse not better.
This film made me sentimental for the pre 9/11 days, knowing that all the privacy invading "security" that I have come to accept, but which my immigrant ancestors would despise, to access any public building and many hospitals, is actually more like the Soviet Union in the Cold War than some of us patriotic types are comfortable with.
So, watching the DVD which was put out by Magnolia Pictures in the United Kingdom and funded by the National Lottery, I couldn't just watch and not think about the changes since his August 7th, 1974 walk, and while watching I was with the project every step of the way. At the same time I felt that sentimentality for the present.
High Wire" by '90s Boston band Smackmelon is the identified music.
I got it that this daring feat, almost unimaginable, was "the artistic crime of the century," and I sure was happy that Petit and his team got away with it!
The DVD doesn't focus on the art of walking a wire but in the collaborative effort of various individuals in France and the United States to make this achievement happen, and they had to be real sneaky to haul all that equipment to the top of the towers and install it. Today if they tried to pull it off they wouldn't be able to.
I couldn't help but think about this from a 2012 perspective: because of 9/11 some would say, and I feel this, that the United States of America as is, all that privacy invading "security" as a result of the terrorist attack that fell these towers, is not the one I grew up in or want to live in, though I won't be packing up to go anywhere anytime soon. I think that we had a sense of freedom we no longer have. Such as the freedom to take chances like this! I feel sorry for children growing up in this atmosphere.
I'm reminded of a term I learned in one of my Literature - Creative Writing classes: SENTIMENTALITY FOR THE PRESENT. As I understand this term it means that in the now you know you are in the best days, and they are soon passing, like in the last second. In other words I acknowledge it's going to get worse not better.
This film made me sentimental for the pre 9/11 days, knowing that all the privacy invading "security" that I have come to accept, but which my immigrant ancestors would despise, to access any public building and many hospitals, is actually more like the Soviet Union in the Cold War than some of us patriotic types are comfortable with.
So, watching the DVD which was put out by Magnolia Pictures in the United Kingdom and funded by the National Lottery, I couldn't just watch and not think about the changes since his August 7th, 1974 walk, and while watching I was with the project every step of the way. At the same time I felt that sentimentality for the present.
11/28/12
FEELING THE CULTURE : HOLIDAYS FEEL DIFFERENT TO ME
FEELING THE CULTURE : HOLIDAYS FEEL DIFFERENT TO ME
By Christine Trzyna
I think it's because I (we?) can feel it in our environment, the difference between the work day week, the weekend, and the holiday. I think it's about guilt or lack of. When a whole lot of people are off and out to play, I feel freer, less obligated, and more likely to play too. Even though I organize much of my own time without obligation to others at this point, I still feel better about doing my own thing on holidays, in particular holidays that can be strung together with weekends into four days off.
11/11/12
WHAT I WANT MY WORDS TO DO TO YOU : EVE ENSLER : CHRISTINE TRZYNA FILM REVIEW
Here's the set up for this DVD : Fifteen female inmates, most in prison for murder, some for life, are part of a Writers Round Table sort of writing class with Eve Ensler as their teacher/group leader. Over a four year period their writing was meant to be theraputic and help them come to terms with their crime. At the end of this time, Ensler recruited some actresses such as Glenn Close and Marisa Tomei, to read the work of one of the prisoner writing group members. Hearing their own words acted out on stage proves to be an interesting experience and an emotional one for everyone including the audience.
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