The Jabberwocky Of Julius Jones

1

What a cop out. I didn’t think that at the time, at the time it seemed like the natural outcome. It was only after, as I was ‘resting’ my eyes. It just seemed that if you really wanted her to suffer you wouldn’t have killed her off, you would have made her live, with the knowledge of what had happened In The Father’s Den. If she had lived, there would have been a much richer story to tell. That would be pain, and pain makes good material. But there you have the eternal problem - where is the story, at what point? By killing her off, it ends the natural story from the point at which they started it. If you had made her live, the story could have gone on, but would have been too long (and then you get into the current fashion for too-long films, ones that outstay their welcome and that wouldn‘t do), and anyway if you started it later on you wouldn’t have known the background….. So I can see why they did it.

On the other hand when they saved the main man in Stranger Than Fiction (which was strange if for nothing else that it was in English, after so many French, Swedish and Korean films) that seemed a bit too sickly sweet, but of course it was seriously stylized and American, and saving him was the point. Even that had a middle change of track - when he realized his tragic outcome……

2

There’s a point, maybe in the middle, maybe three quarters through, but it’s there - a <click>. The point where you know something’s happened, everything’s changed, we’ve changed tracks, we’re heading for a tragic ending. Maybe that’s called ‘closure’.

The beginning is almost like a presentation of facts, not the classic Hollywood pap, which is plot-action-structure and very formulaic, no, I’m thinking about the foreign/ indy type.

In El Balo there’s that moment of the journey into the hills, a magic moment, then the world comes crashing down, the beating, and we’ve changed tracks, we’re heading suddenly for a tragedy.

In Do The Right Thing, Spike Lee leaves that change till right to the last 20 minutes - the underlying racial angst was there all along, but it‘s only in the final 20 minutes when it comes to a head, that you accept that it will blow up.

In Strayed it’s not till the soldiers arrive that the change happens. Up to then it’s small episodes which tell you a little bit more about each character - their past, their ‘rules’, their life experience and the way they use that to deal with the current situation.

In Benny’s Video it was the moment when he lets his parents into his world via the video of the killing. Or maybe it’s the hair cut. You’re watching that hair-cut scene, and it’s as if the external change is also indicative of a big internal change.

In 7th Continent it was the money stuffed down the toilet - that hurt, and the fish tank attacked with an axe - those were the points you were going “NO! What are you doing?” It was also the moment where you realised there was no going back. - they were set on a terminal course.

In Death in The Garden it was the arrival of the hit man into the story. With the voice ‘grave’. From the moment he said what he was, you kind of knew which way you were heading.

Of course what it is, is that in the beginning half you’re getting to know the character. Then once you know them , think as they do, feel as they do, till you become them, then the rug can be pulled from beneath your feet and you can be plunged on the path to tragedy because you care about the outcome.

It also probably has something to do with the 5 act or 7 act script, and how each of those acts works similar to a symphony with its different tempos - often starting and ending with and allegro with a scherzo & andante in the middle. Mmm. Structure. Horrible word.

There’s an exception to every rule. In The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (which feels wrong from the start because they are in Prague yet everything is in English - English would be a common language with her character being Russian, but that’s not the point) the tragic ending there just happens, there’s no great lead up, it just feels like they needed an ending, so decided to end it there. I think that film is a good example of being overlong - editing is about knowing what to leave out - less is more.

Then there’s the films where you can imagine they had filmed 3 or 4 different endings and been forced to put it to ’focus groups’, or the studios who had picked the one ending that doesn’t fit and makes everything that went before pointless, and the overall effort pap.

Of course you can read these things in books, but it never seems real till you’ve worked it out for yourself. Annoying huh?