Americans Behaving Badly
The Two Faces of January's Hossein Amini on articulating action, the advantages of directing your own work, and shooting cats.
When screenwriter Hossein Amini first read Patricia Highsmith’s little-known novel The Two Faces of January over fifteen years ago, he was instantly mesmerized by the deep dive tale into the dark side of human behavior. Like Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, January likewise features Americans abroad, up to no good. One-part character study, one-part Hitchcockian […]
The Art of the Zing
Writer Andrew Dodge on his film Bad Words, the smell of a dictionary and obliterating sexy.
Screenwriter Andrew Dodge loves words. And he uses them to hilarious scathing effect in Bad Words—the subversive new comedy directed by and starring Jason Bateman as Guy Trilby, an acid-tongued man-child, on a mission to gate-crash a children’s national spelling bee. But his eligibility loophole of never graduating the eighth grade by no means suggests […]
Fiennes on The Invisible Woman
The film's director is interviewed by Creative Screenwriting.
by Andrew Bloomenthal Veteran actor Ralph Fiennes threw a proverbial one-two punch as the director and star of The Invisible Woman—a true tale of Charles Dickens’s secret love affair with actress Nelly Ternan, 30 years his junior. But if screenwriter Abi Morgan had her way, Fiennes would also enjoy a writing credit alongside her; so […]
The Prices We Pay: The Invisible Woman
Love and consequences in Charles Dickens' Victorian England
“You’re an admirer of my husband’s work, Miss Ellen?” asks a matronly Catherine Dickens to the young actress Nelly Ternan.“You will find that you must share him with the public.” Take it from a woman who’s been there and done that. Of course, Catherine’s husband is none other than literary great Charles Dickens, and in […]
Nicole Holofcener and Enough Said
Creating characters who cross the lines
When it comes to polite human interaction, characters in Nicole Holofcener’s films just can’t seem to stay within the bounds of social protocol. And if it’s uncomfortable watching them do and say things they shouldn’t, well, who goes to the cinema to watch people color inside the lines, anyway? Who could forget Lovely & Amazing—Holofcener’s […]
