29th May 2011 The Human Doesn't Exist

If I am not mistaken, there has been for some time existed a cinematographic contradiction in the industry. Many cinemas are closed, but the production of films never stops, and there are a lot more film festivals than ever before in every corner of the world. One of the most ancient and the most known is the Festival of Cannes.

 

It was during that recently when a Spanish chronicler - reporter interviewed the American actor with fair prestige, Sean Penn; perhaps more famous for having been one of Madonna's ex-husbands. He was at Cannes presenting his film 'This must be the place'. The reporter quoted some critical opinions re. his interpretation in that film as one of the 'most unfortunate work' of the actor. An most adverse opinion any professional in any field could receive. It seems that Sean Penn would not accept any such opinion with folded hands, retorted with 'The human is miserable and it has no cure.'

 

As an actor, I have always liked his work, so far. As a person I know nothing at all about him, apart from what reports appear in the media, gossip columns and tabloid magazines. His proclamation though is outrageous, unjust and totally false. 'The human is miserable.' Because 'the human' doesn't exist. There are humans, great many of them and absolutely different one from another. There are miserable ones, yes, but there are also admirable ones, generous, kind, dedicated to good causes, cure sicknesses selflessly and help others silently. In real life, as in the theatre or cinema, there are a great repertoire of characters.

 

If Penn believes that there exists only one kind - the miserable -, he has not seen or understand anything at all of life. That indeed, is miserable. 

 

Tags: human, seanpenn

Prev: 29th May 2011 The Habit Of Reading Theatre

29th May 2011 The Habit Of Reading Theatre

Many people go to the theatre than you think. Enjoy, or not, what they see, and return home happy, or not, with the experience. For many it's a habit that the theatre forms a part of their life. Once a week, once a fortnight, or maybe once a year? No, that wouldn't put you in the category of a habitual theatre goer. But it's not bad. So we concur that there's a notable number of people going to the theatre fairly often. But how many people have the healthy habit of READING theatre?

Less, much less. In fact I would guess very few. Even fewer are the books of stage plays written and published. There had been a period, in my early teens, when I was considered a book-worm by all those who knew me. Definitely one of my favourite pastime (equal to being out with boys). I swallow them all up (the books, not the boys)almost as soon as any was published.

I found, still do, that style of writing very interesting. Pages and pages of conversations by the characters in the play, in script form, with the text describing their actions and expressions in brackets. Like:

"So there you are!"

(He turns and looks surprised. She ran out, banging the door behind her).

I remember new ones coming out regularly to feed my hunger with such almost visual stories, which had let me to become a stage actress for a spell of time, until destiny interfered ...  but that's not what I set out to talk about here.

This type of books seem to publish less and less. I suppose the entertainment industries want people to go the cinemas and theatres, not to read all about it first. It's said that people don't know how to read theatre (How can they if there aren't any available for them to read?) Also that the tangle, snarl-up technique to write scrip form theatre books is lost (How can it not if writers stop writing all together?).

So now even though scripts are still being written, they remain circulating only amongst writers, studios and actors, not to the readers in the street. The very few that did get published don't sell they say. And the even fewer that did sell apparently nobody reads. The once fertile field of wonderful theatre plays and cinema scripts for the public is not a field any more. It's a desert. An erial.  

Tags: theatre, script, reading

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