User:TPoole/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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Whereas Mailer’s earlier films only allowed actors to acknowledge the camera as their narratives concluded, ''Maidstone’s'' ostensible plotline ends

with ''10: The Grand Assassination Ball'', but two more sections follow. ''11: A Course in Orientation'' features Mailer (not playing Kingsley, but rather playing Mailer the film director) explaining the process by which he made the film to its cast and crew, some of whom voice disappointment that the narrative drive towards Kingsley’s assassination was all for naught.

And then, famously, there is ''12: The Silences of an Afternoon''. In it, Rip

Torn–disappointed by the lack of an assassination in the film’s narrative—makes an apparently unexpected attack on “Not Mailer,” but on “Kingsley.” After announcing that he “must die,” Rey/Torn twice hits Mailer/Kingsley with a hammer over the head. The two struggle with each other until falling onto the ground. Mailer bites Torn’s ear, drawing blood. They grab at each other’s necks, with Torn gaining an upper hand just as Mailer’s wife and children arrive.

Even if (at first, at least) it is Rey the film character attempting to assassinate Kingsley the film character, it is also Mailer the man (no longer Kingsley and perhaps no longer the film director) who struggles with Torn, an

actor who has seemingly run amok. But here my description is admittedly simplistic, as their roles could have reconstituted themselves repeatedly during the apparently spontaneous and authentic encounter.

“I’m taking that scene out of the movie,” Mailer yells at Torn shortly after the fight ends. They continue to talk, trading barbs and insults in between Torn’s attempts to explain that he did what he had to do. Writing about the event later, Mailer admitted “Torn had . . . been right to make his attack. The hole in the film had called for that. Without it, there was not enough” (“A

Course” 238). Onscreen, the attack and struggle lasts roughly two minutes, with another six minutes covering Torn and Mailer’s ensuing and heated conversation.

The fight scene gave Mailer “a whole new conception of his movie.” He believed that his filmmaking process had created a “presence” that outlived the conclusion his original storyline and what had only seemed to be the end of the shoot. It was an event that took ''Maidstone'' closer to the “possible real nature of film” (Mailer, “A Course” 238).

@@ Line 185: / Line 185: @@
 Whereas Mailer’s earlier films only allowed actors to acknowledge the camera as their narratives concluded, ''Maidstone’s'' ostensible plotline ends
 with ''10: The Grand Assassination Ball'', but two more sections follow. ''11: A Course in Orientation'' features Mailer (not playing Kingsley, but rather playing Mailer the film director) explaining the process by which he made the film to its cast and crew, some of whom voice disappointment that the narrative drive towards Kingsley’s assassination was all for naught.
+And then, famously, there is ''12: The Silences of an Afternoon''. In it, Rip
+Torn–disappointed by the lack of an assassination in the film’s narrative—makes an apparently unexpected attack on “Not Mailer,” but on “Kingsley.” After announcing that he “must die,” Rey/Torn twice hits Mailer/Kingsley with a hammer over the head. The two struggle with each other until falling onto the ground. Mailer bites Torn’s ear, drawing blood. They grab at each other’s necks, with Torn gaining an upper hand just as Mailer’s wife and children arrive.
+Even if (at first, at least) it is Rey the film character attempting to assassinate Kingsley the film character, it is also Mailer the man (no longer Kingsley and perhaps no longer the film director) who struggles with Torn, an
+actor who has seemingly run amok. But here my description is admittedly simplistic, as their roles could have reconstituted themselves repeatedly during the apparently spontaneous and authentic encounter.
+“I’m taking that scene out of the movie,” Mailer yells at Torn shortly after the fight ends. They continue to talk, trading barbs and insults in between Torn’s attempts to explain that he did what he had to do. Writing about the event later, Mailer admitted “Torn had . . . been right to make his attack. The hole in the film had called for that. Without it, there was not enough” (“A
+Course” 238). Onscreen, the attack and struggle lasts roughly two minutes, with another six minutes covering Torn and Mailer’s ensuing and heated conversation.
+The fight scene gave Mailer “a whole new conception of his movie.” He believed that his filmmaking process had created a “presence” that outlived the conclusion his original storyline and what had only seemed to be the end of the shoot. It was an event that took ''Maidstone'' closer to the “possible real nature of film” (Mailer, “A Course” 238).