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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

"New Moon" director talks about Bella, bells and whistles

 

Let’s see, there’s some little thing called New Moon opening Friday, about a moody 18-year-old in love with a palid guy whose skin gets funny in the sun, and there are, um, werewolves in it, and there’s a good little interview with its director, Chris Weitz, in December’s MovieMaker. Weitz, who had the unhappy job of directing another beloved book series adaptation (The Golden Compass – he talks about that, too), doesn’t give away too much plot-wise re Twilight, but he does explain some of his aesthetic parameters (David Lean! Akira Kurosawa!) and also what he thinks New Moon is getting at beyond the “bells and whistles” of the supernatural vampire stuff.
 
“In the case of this movie, the universal experience of being left by someone who you think is your life is not played out as in real life, where they simply don’t call you back,” Weitz tells MovieMaker’s Phillip Williams. "In New Moon, Bella has been left for her own protection and she actually can — by an act of extraordinary bravery and heroism — save the life of the person she loves, who actually loves her. Now that is the fantasy that one concocts in one’s mind when one is dumped, but it rarely gets to be played out. It’s that kind of supernatural skeleton of the movie that allows this to work.”
 
And on the subject of vampire pics, if you haven’t seen Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow’s dudes-in-a-van vampire western), Let the Right One In (Swedish ’tween bloodsucker gem) or Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Coppola’s operatic adaptation of the classic), they are three to definitely, er, sink your teeth into. 
Posted by Steven Rea @ 4:43 PM  Permalink | 2 comments
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:50 PM, 11/20/2009
    Only one character can fix the twilight movies. An appearance by the Daywalker, Blade. Lets see the audience's reaction when Blade unsheaths his sword and lays down the law.
    — CharlestheHammer


2 comments
About Steven Rea
Steven Rea has been an Inquirer movie critic since 1992. He was born in London, raised in New York City, and has lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Iowa City, Iowa. His column, "On Movies," appears Sundays in Arts & Entertainment, his reviews appear in the Weekend section on Fridays, and his blog, On Movies Online, can be found here. He is a member of the National Society of Film Critics.

Steven Rea's previous blog posts can be found here. Read his most recent columns and reviews, here. He also curates the movie stars and bicycling photo blog, Rides A Bike.

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