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Venturous
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Re: Hugo Weaving films
quote:
CyranoRox wrote:
You all may have heard me say I'm working on a screenplay dramatizing Virgil, Dante, Beatrice and Lucy in Purgatorio, with some scenes of the back story of the women's plot and parts that Virgil narrates.
YAY!!!! You go, Cyrano!!!  all hail the Creative Vixens!
quote:
So we were playing Priscilla the other night for a friend and I realized that it's so close to the Purgatorio that they must have been thinking of it -
three thousand miles horizontal instead of vertical; a man at a dark crossroads of life, called by the lady he deserted to go a long journey back to her. An older mentor who fights some of the monsters along the way. The Gluttonous, the Wrathful, the Proud. A siren spewing pingpong balls. The freaks they meet. the friend they pick up halfway along. A reconciliation with the lady. A garden at the end, where some are staying and some are going home, plus a bit of real mountain climbing.
Note to self: rent Priscilla again!
quote:
I hope so; i'm encouraged by the thought that the movie people might be attracted to Dante
If anyone can do it, CR, you can.
---  "There is no certainty, only opportunity." -- V
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4/26/2007, 8:08 pm
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Doctor Delia
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Re: Hugo Weaving films
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CyranoRox wrote: Peaches is on the AFI list of ten worst Australian films. Some of these early outings sound just short of embarrassing. That can't be the whole story.
I'm afraid it is, CR. I've reviewed all of the films I could check out of the library, or find used on Amazon for a reasonable price. 23 or 24 films in all, which includes the six films which are part of the megabucks trilogies, "The Matrix" and "LOTR."
This much I have learned so far:
1. Weaving is definitely a late bloomer. Although his early work is competent, it lacked a certain emotional depth. His first big breakout film was "Proof" which he made at the age of 30.
2. Good acting cannot carry a film. You need good, no make that excellent, direction, production design and score. Although Weaving likes to make these low-budget indy films, he really should be a little more selective in the films he makes in the future. What good is it to be a diamond without the proper setting to show it off?
3. Weaving has stated several times in the Australian media that he considers the American blockbuster type movies to be an anomaly [in his career] and yet despite the apparent lack of sophistication of movies such as "The Matrix" trilogy, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "V4V," IMHO these have been among his best roles!
He absolutely ROCKS as Agent Smith, Elrond, and of course V!!!
Although based on adolescent literature and graphic novels, the themes of these films are grand, mythic and universal. They touch people in a way that some of these pretentious Aussie indy films never will.
4. It has been said 90% of actors play themselves over and over. It's a rare actor nowadays who can really assume different identities. Count Weaving in among that "talented tenth."
5. My reason for looking at all these films was to find some trace of V there, some clue as to where this powerful character came from. Most actors recycle bits and pieces of their characters from time to time, but what I found is no trace of V ANYWHERE. I also can find no trace of Weaving in V. If I hadn't been told who was playing V, I would have no idea who was behind that mask, even after seeing all of these films. Truly a performance sui generis!
P.S.- I'm looking forward to your screenplay also. Is it going to be a period piece, fantasy or a modern interpretation?
Last edited by Doctor Delia, 4/28/2007, 6:33 am
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4/28/2007, 6:29 am
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CyranoRox
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Re: Hugo Weaving films
Dr, I find a number of traces. V has the vocal power and authority that went into Elrond. Some of the visual-disconnect of Martin Webber. The bipolar quality [as the official book desribes him] of Rodney Flemming.
...and he waltzes like Tic  .
Seriously, all the HW characters that worked are at the extreme of inner-directedness. Isolated, unique, not working for anyone else, not integrated in society, not accepting any judgement but their own - that is common to Rodney, Elrond, V, Martin, Tic, Bracciano [which I did not see, but can guess from the images, reviews and text], and Agent Smith. Think of the roles we'd like to see him in - my list includes my namesake, Wolf Larsen, Lear [long time hence], and John Tanner - and they are the heroes of will - even willfulness - and adamant self-determination.
There's also an odd streak of interest in causality and epistemology, though that may be primarily the WBrothers. Proof is also Plato's cave dramatized - and tipped over- and the Matrix is made of epistemological games. But V raises some peculiar questions about cause and knowledge. The Interview presses on the antique philosophical problem of, as it's known, the reliable witness. Even Babe offers the question of whole worlds of hidden consciousness that encounter one another, and apparently change 'how things are'.
Is that the man? you once said, perhaps with irony, that you thought I had some insight into HW. I wish I did. But just perhaps, the man who won't play the game, won't do what he won't do, could make one among these guests star-scattered on the grass.
That's not to say that he plays himself in any simple way - tis a heterogenous crew, for sure, since the objects of the wills are so diverse, the moral stances all over the map, voices, gazes, tones all uniquely cut.
I had said that I thought the illusion in each movie was that he was playing himself, and i still think so- - that it's a real illusion. From this angle, though, there's something possibly RL true at the core.
Work with play the happy differentiation! 
Last edited by CyranoRox, 6/5/2007, 8:28 pm
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5/7/2007, 8:01 pm
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Doctor Delia
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Re: Hugo Weaving films
quote:
V has the vocal power and authority that went into Elrond. Some of the visual-disconnect of Martin Webber. The bipolar quality [as the official book desribes him] of Rodney Flemming.
...and he waltzes like Tic
I suppose V himself would have said merely "Hmm.."
I guess I would have to agree with you that there are traces, but only traces of V elsewhere, but the CORE of that performance comes from...where???
What I object to in an actor's performance is doing the same thing over and over, like Kevin Costner always playing the heroic everyman. I saw him interviewed on Sunday Morning Shoot-out (the movie business talk show) and he was apoligizing for some role where he was playing a bad guy, and he was apologizing "I wasn't trying to re-inventing myself or anything..."
Say what???? I thought that's what actors do.
quote:
Seriously, all the HW characters that worked are at the extreme of inner-directedness. Isolated, unique, not working for anyone else, not integrated in society, not accepting any judgement but their own - that is common to Rodney, Elrond, V, Martin, Tic, Bracciano [which I did not see, but can guess from the images, reviews and text], and Agent Smith.
Yes, the operative word in the quote above is WORKED!
Gosh, I've seen so may roles which didn't really work for him, but they were sort of inner-directed too. Morris (True Lies), Harvey (Russian Doll), and Alan (Peaches).
Maybe in these roles the fault lies not with Weaving but with the directors and the script.
Maybe V "works" because Weaving didn't have time to think about what he was going to do. He just jumped into the role on short notice and flew on instinct alone.
All of the critics who liked this film mentioned Weaving's "mesmerizing" performance. The superlatives heaped on him for this role were more than I'm used to seeing for a mere action movie. It's the source of that power that I'm concerned with. For although he has been great in the past, on several occasions, he's never really taken center stage and possessed it the way he did here.
quote:
Is that the man? you once said, perhaps with irony, that you thought I had some insight into HW. I wish I did.
I don't remember my quote, but I can assure you that I wasn't being ironic. I think you DO understand him and his acting style better than most.
quote:
I had said that I thought the illusion in each movie was that he was playing himself, and i still think so- - that it's a real illusion.
I think so, too. At least for his sake I hope so.
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5/16/2007, 7:06 pm
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CyranoRox
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Re: Hugo Weaving films
Well, Dr D, no one could be as difficult in as many different ways as that gallery of odd birds and monsters.
You asked about my screenplay;  I tend to go on...
but it's centered on Virgil in Limbo and Purgatory, straight out of Dante; the twist is that Beatrice is working on Dante's and Virgil's rescue; Lucia or Lucy is a Virgil fan and saint and she wants her poet rescued, too. The novelty: I hope to dramatize my argument that Virgil cannot go back, on narrative evidence alone. So, one scene is Beatrice engaging Virgil for the task; another is Lucy visiting him at night [that happens in the poem] and quarreling with him [that's inferred and added] because he is so attached to his sense of justice - his fate in limbo - that he scorns any special pleading to get him out. Even worse, after he goes through the fire at the top of Purgatory, which renders men fit for heaven and purges the faults of love [that's in the poem!] he is actually purged, though in Dante no one mentions it, and must actually be changed; he however is sure he is not going on, and thus finds himself a rebel against God's judgement; there fore condemned by his own will and perception to Deep Hell, far worse than Limbo....
There is a scene, still to be written, just after the Pageant of Beatrice, where he admits to Lucy [who has appeared as Hope, the emerald-hued allegorical virtue/actress - she and Beatrice have a short conversation in the forest 'green room' getting ready] that he has reached a point of utter defeat - all courses are injustice, and his will and desire are completely opposed to the good. And a joyful climax when he finally 'sees', finally accepts a better justice [and also gets over himself just a bit]
Of course Dante is in it, but not the protagonist. Lucy and Beatrice's back story regarding the exploit is shown, that Virgil narrates and hints at in the actual poem. The scenes are set in heaven [bright medieval heaven, all jewel colors, gold filigree, ripe fruit, flower and leaf], Limbo [bright but dull, devoted to sports, resolutely horribly cheerful except for Virgil], Purgatorio [barren steep mountain, leafy/flowery forest garden at the summit, band of fire to walk through for a dozen strides]; also a group of modern scholars/junior academics who are 'doing' this reading. Their conflict is that one of them is making this interpretive point; his advisor wants to suppress the idea, because he is sure it will derail the cause for canonization of Dante [which exists in RL] - there is also a woman, protagonist's ex/antagonist's lover, who alleges she has visions of Dante, but is clearly delusional. [a bit of the mechanics is still needed here]
so that's more or less my 1-minute pitch - would you like to see it?
and as to whether it belongs on this thread - i can dream.
Work with play the happy differentiation!
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5/22/2007, 9:27 pm
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Venturous
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Re: Hugo Weaving films
Hugo is the voice of the villian, Megatron, in the new transformers movie.
I am suddenly seized by a need to see it, even though I remember 'transformers' as the annoying toys of prepubescent younger siblings - so macho, mechanical and violent, they seemed to be pushing a cold cruel masculinity - I always disliked them.
But to hear the Voice.... hmmm. 
--- "There is no certainty, only opportunity." -- V
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7/5/2007, 7:08 pm
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Venturous
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Re: Hugo Weaving films
WOW, CR! How did I miss this. sigh- I am not lurking about anywhere near enough these past busy monthes. This is spectacular! My education of myths and characters comes mostly through the visual and performing arts, and I have not read Dante, so a fair amount sails over my head, but now I feel a thirst for it coming on...
quote:
CyranoRox wrote:
You asked about my screenplay; I tend to go on...
but it's centered on Virgil in Limbo and Purgatory, straight out of Dante; the twist is that Beatrice is working on Dante's and Virgil's rescue; Lucia or Lucy is a Virgil fan and saint and she wants her poet rescued, too. The novelty: I hope to dramatize my argument that Virgil cannot go back, on narrative evidence alone.
So, one scene is Beatrice engaging Virgil for the task; another is Lucy visiting him at night [that happens in the poem] and quarreling with him [that's inferred and added] because he is so attached to his sense of justice - his fate in limbo - that he scorns any special pleading to get him out. Even worse, after he goes through the fire at the top of Purgatory, which renders men fit for heaven and purges the faults of love [that's in the poem!] he is actually purged, though in Dante no one mentions it, and must actually be changed; he however is sure he is not going on, and thus finds himself a rebel against God's judgement; there fore condemned by his own will and perception to Deep Hell, far worse than Limbo....
wow, shades of V! although, I have never imagined our Masked Man condemned to Hell - always figured he'd suffered enough already.
quote:
There is a scene, still to be written, just after the Pageant of Beatrice, where he admits to Lucy [who has appeared as Hope, the emerald-hued allegorical virtue/actress - she and Beatrice have a short conversation in the forest 'green room' getting ready]
I love the green goddess!
quote:
...that he has reached a point of utter defeat - all courses are injustice, and his will and desire are completely opposed to the good. And a joyful climax when he finally 'sees', finally accepts a better justice [and also gets over himself just a bit]
Of course Dante is in it, but not the protagonist. Lucy and Beatrice's back story regarding the exploit is shown, that Virgil narrates and hints at in the actual poem. The scenes are set in heaven [bright medieval heaven, all jewel colors, gold filigree, ripe fruit, flower and leaf], Limbo [bright but dull, devoted to sports, resolutely horribly cheerful except for Virgil], Purgatorio [barren steep mountain, leafy/flowery forest garden at the summit, band of fire to walk through for a dozen strides];
how lovely, your vision. I do believe I must live in Purgatory...
quote:
... also a group of modern scholars/junior academics who are 'doing' this reading. Their conflict is that one of them is making this interpretive point; his advisor wants to suppress the idea, because he is sure it will derail the cause for canonization of Dante [which exists in RL] - there is also a woman, protagonist's ex/antagonist's lover, who alleges she has visions of Dante, but is clearly delusional. [a bit of the mechanics is still needed here]
marvelous time-bending that adds depth and shimmer to the whole...
quote:
so that's more or less my 1-minute pitch - would you like to see it?
yes please! 
quote:
and as to whether it belongs on this thread - i can dream.
We have a thread for verbiage and one for 'non-V creativity' -- surely it could live on it's own thread there. Is this a V-inspired work, or something much longer in the works?
--- "There is no certainty, only opportunity." -- V
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7/5/2007, 7:20 pm
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CyranoRox
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Re: Hugo Weaving films
Thank you, Ven.  Squooble!!
And I Squooble you, Doctor, as well, if it comports with your dignity
I put the comment here, because I can dream of it as potentially a HW film. Dream, not yet hope, because my writing energy is limited these days.
But Transformers??? I hear he wants to please his kids, but that man is in need of a rockin' good screenplay!
Work with play the happy differentiation!
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7/5/2007, 7:54 pm
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Doctor Delia
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Re: Hugo Weaving films
Oh well, I guess we can always hope for the best with his next two films, now in post-production:
The Key Man (2007)-a film about insurance fraud. I think Weaving may play a gangster.
The Tender Hook (2008)- another Australian indie film about a love triangle involving a woman named Iris, a boxer and her "rogue-ish English lover" (Weaving).
Both seemed to be directed by neophyte directors. What is this man doing? We know he likes to do these offbeat, small-budget (I won't say "quirky"*) films with inexperienced directors, but give us a break! Throw us (adults) a bone here! I'd like to see him doing more roles like the kind Geoffrey Rush and Ralph Fiennes seem to get.
*If you ever meet Mr. Weaving in person, do not use the word "quirky" to describe his films or the films of Australia in general. He has said that he detests that word.
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7/14/2007, 8:59 pm
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