Harry Trouper

For the ‘RIIFF Around The World’ photo Harry and I can only coincide this morning - he’s just finished one character (Miller) and is rehearsing for another (Ibsen). We meet on Tower Bridge and he’s back in his O&J character (Weatherby). What a trouper.

Charlie Trouper

The organisers of the Rhode Island Film International Festival have asked for contributions for their “RIIFF Around The World” TV commercials. They’d like photos of participants hitch hiking to Rhode Island, ideally giving a sense of place by showing iconic buildings, road signs and so on. Deadline Friday. So I meet Charlie on Westminster Bridge on Tuesday - she’s been travelling all night from Greece and is en route to Glastonbury. What a trouper.

Channelling Bresson

Jamie McCallum, O&J exec, got me thinking about Robert Bresson. There’s a wonderful quote on the wikipedia page: “My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected onto a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.” Currently in the process of killing an idea by writing it down, I know what he means. I got hold of Bresson’s Notes on the Cinematographer * (to B, ‘cinematography’ is the true art, ‘cinema’ a debased, debauched cousin). This tiny book is a treasure house and joins immediately that short shelf of holy books (including Mamet’s *Three Uses of the Knife and - the gift of O&J editor Simon Bryant - Walter Murch’s In the Blink of an Eye. Today I find I’m not alone in revering this book. Watched Bresson’s L’Argent: how many shots of doors are there in the film? And how many slightly-tight frames that seem to cramp the actors (sorry, ‘models’ in Bresson-speak) creating a constant unease. Brilliant theories put into practice.