Rent
Although director Chris Columbus protested that a critic can't change his vote, I agree with Roger Ebert that Rent, the movie, now on DVD, is probably best for Rentheads. I'm assuming this is the rough equivalent of a Deadhead, Trekkie and whatever they call the Rocky Horror Picture Show fanatics. Although I'm a fan of musical theatre, I'm also an advocate of filmmakers taking Broadway hits into the real world. I liked what Milos Foreman did with Hair and what Rob Marshall did with Chicago. While this was a very true rendition of the play, it just didn't really add that special justification for making it a movie.
What I did love is the story of Rent and the way it highlights the bohemian lifestyle and what it means. This subject is especially near and dear to my heart right now as we just wrapped my own indie film; Valley Fog, which is also about the bohemian lifestyle. So, what exactly is "La Vie Boheme" that the cast sings about? These are the artists. This is the counterculture. This is the very small group of people, in every society, that directly questions the prevailing values embodied in the culture around them. While the bohemians in Rent live the total underclass lifestyle in an aids and drug-ridden squat in 1989 NYC, the lifestyle has been shown more recently in a film called "Undiscovered", which is about a young musician facing the industry.
Undiscovered and Rent have the typical antagonists, the A&R guy, the landlord, the people who want to rape your talent, who want you and need you to sell out. Valley Fog takes this into Silicon Valley as we see these executive level guys exploring the young SF talent in filmmaking. It's the same vampire game shown so brilliantly in The Graduate; the older, established, burdened, trapped generation trying to suck the life out of the young in order to justify their own sad, fearful decisions. I think Rent is too sad. And, with the story coming out of the Reagan era, it is understandably sad. We are at a similar point today, with the conservative right in full control.
Don't ask about our bohemia today. It doesn't seem to have a strong voice these days. Although the powerful boomers have stood up to the plate with an enormous slate of films this year, and we have label-supported Green Day, Howard Stern, Bram Cohen, and the hackers, I would not call any of that particularly bohemian. We need a grass roots artistic movement and about the closest thing to it that I can see right now, other than possibly the true hip-hop (as opposed to the 50Cent manufactured type) community, also in SF, is the indie film community which is burgeoning beautifully through the film schools, websites, festivals and operations like CinemaSport. This is where many of the brilliant new ideas and observations are springing to life today. So, in the words of Rent, "Viva La Vie Boheme!".
What I did love is the story of Rent and the way it highlights the bohemian lifestyle and what it means. This subject is especially near and dear to my heart right now as we just wrapped my own indie film; Valley Fog, which is also about the bohemian lifestyle. So, what exactly is "La Vie Boheme" that the cast sings about? These are the artists. This is the counterculture. This is the very small group of people, in every society, that directly questions the prevailing values embodied in the culture around them. While the bohemians in Rent live the total underclass lifestyle in an aids and drug-ridden squat in 1989 NYC, the lifestyle has been shown more recently in a film called "Undiscovered", which is about a young musician facing the industry.
Undiscovered and Rent have the typical antagonists, the A&R guy, the landlord, the people who want to rape your talent, who want you and need you to sell out. Valley Fog takes this into Silicon Valley as we see these executive level guys exploring the young SF talent in filmmaking. It's the same vampire game shown so brilliantly in The Graduate; the older, established, burdened, trapped generation trying to suck the life out of the young in order to justify their own sad, fearful decisions. I think Rent is too sad. And, with the story coming out of the Reagan era, it is understandably sad. We are at a similar point today, with the conservative right in full control.
Don't ask about our bohemia today. It doesn't seem to have a strong voice these days. Although the powerful boomers have stood up to the plate with an enormous slate of films this year, and we have label-supported Green Day, Howard Stern, Bram Cohen, and the hackers, I would not call any of that particularly bohemian. We need a grass roots artistic movement and about the closest thing to it that I can see right now, other than possibly the true hip-hop (as opposed to the 50Cent manufactured type) community, also in SF, is the indie film community which is burgeoning beautifully through the film schools, websites, festivals and operations like CinemaSport. This is where many of the brilliant new ideas and observations are springing to life today. So, in the words of Rent, "Viva La Vie Boheme!".
posted by Intervision at 1:39 PM
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