This cold has me serializing my sleep. I sleep. I get up to cough. I sleep. I get up to cough. Usually, I need about five hours a night and I think I may have gotten that in bits 'n' pieces since I first went to bed last night. The rare times I get sick are the only times I can go to bed without the feeling that I've reached a good stopping point in my writing — finishing a script or a key scene or just plain gotten something done, even if I start the next workday by tossing it and rewriting. If I go to bed and I haven't finished something, I generally lie there wide awake, mentally writing what I should have finished before turning in…and I get up, shuffle back to the computer and put it down. There are advantages to working at home.
Lots of nice e-mails this AM from folks who tuned in Stu's Show. One of the things I love about It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is exemplified by the fact that Stu, Mike Schlesinger and I could spend three hours and fifteen minutes talking about it and barely scratch the veneer. There's just so much that's fascinating about that film — all the fine performances, the amazing stunt work, the technical expertise of those who made it, the locations, the special effects, etc. As I said on the show, I fear that in the Commentary Track, we may have dwelled overmuch on the mistakes…like Mickey Rooney wearing a headset in one shot and not in the next. But every movie has those and it's impressive how few there were in a film that was so involved, so complicated.
I think I should also say how impressed I've always been with the Criterion company. I have a lot of their DVDs (and before that, Laserdiscs) and I never bought one that I thought wasn't as diligently-assembled as was humanly possible. They always do the best transfers of the material and have the best special features. Working with them on this one, I witnessed the attention-to-detail I knew was inbred into the company.
They were also classy enough to actually send me advance copies of the finished product. I've probably done interviews or tracks or otherwise helped out on two dozen DVDs — sometimes paid, sometimes not. And I could guess that with less than half of them, the makers of the DVD honored their promises to send me copies of the thing when it came out. It is too often a case of once they get what they want out of you, they forget you. At least twice when someone at Time-Warner Home Video called and asked me to help out on a DVD, I had to say to them, "I won't talk to you about this until you send me copies of the last DVD I helped you folks with." Somehow, it's more annoying when they don't send you the $29.95 DVD than when they forget to send you a check for a lot more money.
Turning to other matters: I put up a video the other day about a blind gent on the street getting a helping hand from a passer-by. This video has been much seen on the 'net and apparently, a number of people find something a little (or a lot) offensive about it. Considering it from their viewpoint, I'm not inclined to disagree. This article was posted on a blog called "Bad Cripple" and I think the person overreacts but does make a valid case. I thought it was a nice bit of filmmaking but if I thought about it this way at the time, I might not have linked to it.
Saving Mr. Banks was the surprise non-nominee in this morning's Oscar nominations. It got one for "Original Score" and I think that was it. Everyone thought Emma Thompson was a shoo-in for Best Actress and maybe Tom Hanks or Paul Giamatti for Best Supporting Actor but everyone who thought that was wrong. I don't think that says anything about Hollywood finding the film dishonest or biased. I don't think the Academy ever speaks with one mindset or voice on things like that. I think folks just found other films and other actors more impressive. Always be wary when you hear someone say something like, "Well, they nominated Bruce Dern because they think he was unfairly overlooked for Black Sunday back in 1977." There is absolutely no data on this, no polls, no spokespersons speaking on behalf of the voters, no evidence at all. I was going to write it's like someone trying to tell you what your cat is thinking but in that case, the person at least would know you have one cat and maybe what color or sex it is. Those who try to say why Academy voters voted a certain way don't even know who those voters were or how many voted that way.
Hmm…I seem to have stopped coughing. The healing powers of blogging. More later.