The article is from the New York Times, published October 31st. And the special angle of the article is about how Hollywood has completely avoided movies that deal with aging for decades and now, curiously, have this mega-budget film with this untried theme come out.
In my opinion, the way a film moves you and the way it performs around the world always has to do with the context of its time. And this context can change so radically as to lift a film to an extraordinary response -- like it happened with "Titanic" and tragically with "The Dark Knight" -- or contrarily make a movie flop even though it's good, such as "One, Two, Three", which came months too late, or Ed Zwick's "The Siege", which, had it been released post-911, would have met quite a different reaction.
With "Benjamin Button" that of course is hard to tell -- since mortality is such a universal theme, it seems not to be too closely tied to eras. For some reason it does feel like the perfect time for a story like this to me. Why? Economic meltdown? My personal age? -- I don't know what it is. Just a feeling. As they say, nobody knows anything. And I do believe that tackling such an ever-present and yet much neglected theme as human mortality now, and under the helms of a truly gifted director, brilliantly cast, within the realms of an epic tale crafted by a masterful storyteller and told by means of the most cutting edge of film-making technology ... -- every time I read what "Benjamin Button" is and will be, I cannot help but think this will be David Fincher's best work yet, a dead-certain Oscar winner and hopefully a movie that will speak to audiences everyhwere.
Gosh, got a little carried away. I cannot wait for this movie. Great to have article like this to keep the waiting bearable!
Thanks a lot, Christophe. Everyone, read this:
NYTimes.com: A Curious Life, From Old Age To Cradle
thanks christophe for finding,
ReplyDeleteand fincherfanatic for posting it.
great read.