My visit to the Carmel Film Festival

I went to the Carmel Film Festival to see "J.Edgar." I was only able to see an hour and a half of the 2:17 minute movie because there were power outages in Monterey and the film kept shutting down. I can give you guys an impression from what I did see. Leonardo Dicaprio will be up for a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Hoover, and he has a good chance of winning. His was a very good performance. As for the movie itself, I personally found the structure of the film confusing. The film is told in a series of flashbacks and goes back and forth between different periods of Hoover's life. I found the structure to be jarring, and for someone that was not familiar with Hoover's life, and the events told in the film, I didn't feel the film's events were placed in the proper context for the movie to flow and for people to understand the events of the film well. From what I have seen, I don't think "J.Edgar" is going to be a "Best Picture" contender. I can see it getting acting nominations, but that's about it.

The music, which is composed by Eastwood, is the most unobtrusive score that Eastwood has done. In most scenes, save for a couple, the viewer barely even notices any music.

While at the festival, I did get to attend a lecture with Gary Roach and Joel Cox, Clint Eastwood's editors. I found that lecture to be the highlight of the festival experience. Joel Cox in particular is very informative and exceedingly personable. The event was scheduled to end at 3:30PM and he stayed until 4:30PM meeting people and answering people's questions. I asked a question, which he answered. My question was what the most difficult film to edit, and in all the years he has been editing, were there any particular films that he found disappointing or that turned out better than expected? He said that "Bird" was probably the most difficult to edit due to the flashback in a flashback sequencing (this is very similar to "J. Edgar.") He said he wouldn't call any of the films disappointing, and that his and Clint's philosophy was that every film was a crap shoot and you never know how things will turn out. People may like it or they may not. He said that he felt "Changeling" and "Flags of Our Father's" were overlooked by critics and audiences.

I asked him why Eastwood refuses to do DVD commentaries and he said that Clint doesn't want to do them and feels the films speak for themselves and he doesn't want to talk the films to death.

Before the screening of "J.Edgar" Clint Eastwood, Dina, his wife, and Dustin Lance Black came out. I was six or sever rows from the stage, so I could see
them pretty well. Clint Eastwood gave the Clint Eastwood filmmakers award to Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter of "J. Edgar." When he was presenting the award, Dina, his wife, asked him how he was to work with and if he was a diva, and Clint Eastwood said "he was terrible." After that, Clint Eastwood took a pin out of his pocket and was about to give it to Dustin Lance Black. He said, "oh, that's the Oakland tree. We'll get the award later," and Dina said when she saw him take out the wrong award, "it's just like at home, right friends?" Dustin Lance Black said something like he hoped they worked together again, and Eastwood said "if I have anything to say about it, we will."

After that, Clint and Dustin Lance Black did a short interview with Peter Bart, the former editor of "Variety." During the interview, Eastwood mentioned Leonardo Dicaprio was the first actor to call him and request to be in the movie, so he was cast. After Eastwood's answer to the first question about what attracted him to the project, Peter Bart said, I've done about eight shows with Clint and that's the longest answer I've ever heard. You must be comfortable in Carmel. Eastwood replied, "it's my home town."

When they turned to Black, he said he started writing the script reading all the books that were out there, but he said they weren't that good because they were written from a political perspective. After he did that, he interviewed people who knew Hoover. When asked how he dealt with the issue of Hoover's sexuality, Black replied "I slept with him (Black is gay)." He said he didn't think it was any of the extremes, but in the research he said he found his life matched up more with the life of a gay man than a straight guy. In particular, he said the fact that Hoover took a lot of pictures of Tolson sleeping, which seemed to substantiate to him that Eastwood was gay. Ultimately, he said he left up to the viewer, but that his portrayal was accurate to the time, and that Hoover's time wasn't a time where you had a partner and was open about being gay, so he had to infer.

When Peter Bart asked Clint Eastwood if Black was on the set, Eastwood replied, "as the director, I was there part of the time." Eastwood also said that Black was on the set during filming, and that he was writing something else while he was on the set, so he didn't see much of him. Eastwood also said he wrote some extra voice over material which was very helpful to the film, which Joel Cox confirmed when I spoke to him.

At the end, Peter Bart turned to Eastwood and asked him if it was a conscious decision on his part never to repeat himself and that every movie had to be different, and Eastwood said it wasn't a conscious decision and that "everything in my career has been an accident, including getting into acting in the first place." He said he always goes with his first impression and when he reads a script before tampering with it and going past it he asks himself what he he liked about the script in the first place. He said "that's my routine, and I'm sticking with it."

The entire sequence was about fifteen minutes, so not very long, but it was still pretty exciting nonetheless.

I hope you guys have enjoyed my play by play of all the action at the festival! Smiley