She then contacted Oz and asked his permission to make it into a film.
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It’s really hard, I think, to see his mother and his writing to come to life off the pages. Initially overjoyed to finally have a state of their own, following years of persecution, Amos’ parents are decidedly unprepared for the violence that follows; at one point, most of the tenants of their building wind up living in their basement apartment, in an effort to avoid being shot and/or bombed. Sometimes on movies you see the director kind of bored in between takes. Jill Soloway has actually been really eloquent talking about how directing is desire and an expression of desire.
The character that results might be described as a quieter, more intellectual version of Portman’s “Black Swan” protagonist, a thoughtful but overly sensitive woman whose psyche is buffeted repeatedly by forces she has reluctantly embraced without understanding. Sarandon agreed: “I think it’s better. It went from being a biblical language that was only spoken in a religious context to a modern language that you could say, ‘Let’s put gas in the vehicle.’ You know, you had to update it”. Secondly, he said, “Don’t try to explain what my mother did, because that’s what other screenwriters who wanted to adapt the book who came before you did”. You have to say, I want it like that, I want it like that, I want it like that, and be precise and exact and brief.
“Eve” is a 17 minute-long short film, also starring Olivia Thirlby and Ben Gazzara, about an elderly couple who go out on a date. I felt completely in control.
She had just returned from London, where she was filming “Annihilation” at Pinewood Studios, on stages adjacent to where the next two “Star Wars” movies were in production. Much chuckling commenced, as though its badness was a forgone conclusion, and society tacitly perpetuated the idea that actors – especially attractive female actors – should know their place. Even as Oz’s homeland erupts in bloodshed and, soon thereafter, his mom succumbs to depression, the movie feels like it has no end in sight – just a collection of stories and details, one after another. Instead to have it more to do with how I experience the world. But then you realize that being direct with people is nice. When people who are looking to you for direction and are looking to you for guidance are given specific, clear instructions, that’s easier for them and that makes their life better. Scenes play like disjointed bedtime stories (as the film’s introduction sets up), and work to represent a more whimsically poetic brand of storytelling – a mission that sounds infinitely more endearing than Portman’s choppy product.
When asked how she sees the state of female artists in the US compared to France, Portman mentions that it’s commonplace and she “can’t wait for it to get that way here”. In the first, a person who’s lived a remarkable life, or has briefly experienced some extraordinary events, narrates a series of personal adventures: “This is what happened to me”.
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‘But she was a total pro, despite the fact that she was so unimpressed by me.
