If You Were Making a Movie... An Exercise In Novel-Writing

Two blog posts in one day seems a little excessive, but I'm new at this - and that first flush of enthusiasm always tends to be productive, right?

I am on the brink of my six-week hiatus from the real world; the biggest perk in being a teacher has to be the summer holiday. It's when I'm at my most creative because my brain actually has space to, well, work properly. That novel I've been intending to write since I was 14 will get going this time - and as stimuli for the novel-writing, I thought... if I was going to make a movie, what would it be like?

For some reason I find this easier than answering the more pressing question - that is to say, what the novel would be like. Movies are simpler creatures to sum up, I think. There's a shorthand to it. Rather than describing a character, you just put Keira Knightley up there and already the audience has certain ideas and expectations. Keira Knightley is fragile-looking, intelligent and elegant, and therefore her character has to have elements of this - else she's been cast in the wrong role. Think Lizzie Bennett, The Duchess of Devonshire - characters worlds apart, but with Keira-esque qualities.

Anyway, I'm getting off-track. The point I am trying, inexpertly, to make, is if I used my imagination to cast the movie of my novel - perhaps I'd have a better idea what I was doing with it. And I challenge other would-be writers to try it too!

So, here goes... the IMDB entry for my imaginary film/book, if you will...

TITLE: Wrecked, Solitary, Here (2012)
TAGLINE: Two sisters, worlds apart.

CAST...

Those of you who read my previous post won't be surprised by this. Carey Mulligan would star as Olivia Moran, a confused 24-year-old who feels abandoned by her family. Her father has recently died, and her mother, a former film actress, is living with a Russian millionaire in Moscow and shows no interest in returning to England. She's just given up teaching English at a private school after an embarrassing debacle with a lovesick sixth former. She is now living in a shared house in Oxford with some old uni mates.

Keira Knightley would play Christabel Moran - Isabel's half-sister. She is living off the remnants of their mother's fame as a model and party girl - but yearns to do something more credible, like music, or acting, or - well, anything that would prove she had a brain. She gives off airs of being very precocious but this covers deep insecurities. She is jealous of Olivia's Oxford education and recognises the hollowness in her media-driven life - although a strong sense of pride means she will never admit it.

How about Cherie Lunghi to play the mother? She's suitably glamorous to be conceivable as a Russian millionaire's moll-type. She'd be aloof and obsessed with wealth - and not particularly caring towards her daughters.

Dominic Cooper - is he in everything recently, or what? - he would play the love interest who gets caught between the sisters. He is Sam Wood, Olivia's smooth-talking housemate/landlord. He becomes smitten with Christabel's glamour after a chance meeting - and becomes entangled in her celebrity lifestyle. Meanwhile, Olivia becomes confused by feelings for him too.






Not bad as a starting point, eh? Riddled with potential cliches, but hey. I'll let you know how it goes!

Film and the Sixties Fringe

HOW BEAUTIFUL IS Carey Mulligan in An Education? There are clear references to the most elegant of all movie stars - Audrey Hepburn - in those dainty dresses and particularly that gorgeous sixties up-do. She's got Audrey's big, beautiful eyes, too. I saw this film for the first time on Saturday night and now I see why she was nominated for so many awards - although she does fall into Scarlet Johansson's trap of being captivating, not so much for her talent (although she is talented) but for being, well, stunning. Suddenly inspired to go for a blunt sixties fringe... although it would probably look irredeemably frumpy on mere mortals like me!

Speaking of sixties fringes - another impulse DVD purchase from a while back was 500 Days of Summer. It looked to be a cliched, run-of-the-mill chick flick - and it had elements of this, but intelligently and ironically went about subverting the romantic comedy genre. That might sound a little grandiose - this film is modest in its achievements, but there are far worse ways to while away a Saturday evening. The tagline - as any decent tagline should - sums up their premise: "Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn't." The chemistry between the two leads,  is engaging and believable. I remember Joseph Gordon-Levitt from his Third Rock from the Sun days - and that little teen flick that had a major impact on the culture of my school days - 10 Things I Hate About You. Perhaps this is why I still have a bit of a soft spot for him. The brilliantly named Zooey Deschanel is the one with the gorgoeous sixties fringe - is she developing a monopoly on kooky roles? She was wonderful in Yes Man - there's something about her ditsy, loveable persona which is very engaging. Think Pheobe from Friends - but less annoying!