Can conversation alone make a movie?

"I love the notion of long, enduring friendships that clearly are complicated," says Charlie Rose at the close of his interview of Wallace Shawn and André Gregory of the 1981 movie, My Dinner with André. Gregory told Rose he and Shawn were "best friends," a category Shawn waltzed around. He, on his part, can't say he knows himself, much less knows Gregory so he can he say they're friends? André tells Charlie that this is how the two of them are different but his friendship for Wally did not depend on how Wally felt about him.

My Dinner with André always reminds me of my old "best" friend, Al. That friendship is every bit as complicated as that between the two actors. Al introduced me to the one-of-a-kind movie. Directed by the two's frequent collaborator, Louis Malle, the movie depicts a dinner conversation between Wally and André. I was reminded of the movie today at lunch while perusing the screenplay. André's Preface narrated the events in his life that led to the making of the movie. In 1976, to the consternation of friends and colleagues, he gave up his career in theater and like the White Rabbit (in Alice in Wonderland that he directed in 1970), he embarked on a New Age journey. "I went to Asia. I went to North Africa. I stayed up till odd hours of the morning talking to Buddhists and physicists about ancient mysteries." He questioned the future of theater and questioned his own place in the universe.

André's journey recalled my lifelong quest for my place in the universe. I jumped off the cliff to confront the question frontally two years ago and I'm still questing. The movie, now that I was reminded of much of the content of it, gives me an idea of the movies I want to make. After years working with distressed individuals and couples I am clearly interested in the inner lives of people. What do people think about when they're alone? Gregory wrote that he became interested in Shawn's idea to make the movie in part because it would allow him to talk about what he'd been through, his thoughts and the feelings his adventures brought up. What we think in the privacy of the bathroom may largely need to stay private but much of that seemingly useless cogitation might be interesting for others likewise prone to self-reflection.

I love emotional dramas and tragicomedies about love and relationships but putting these on involves people and money resources I just don't have. What can I do at this stage of my questing? I can do screenplays and videos portraying conversations about the ideas and feelings people explore in the privacy of their own thoughts or when talking to best friends. (Spouses won't be ideal for this sort of conversation. They invariably think they know us so well we won't get far talking about those parts of us we'd not shown them before. I'm with Wally on this.)

In the 1960s when I met Aldo, I explained to him once what I thought of intimacy. With a best friend or lover, the two of you are "on the same wave length." Love creates this feeling between two people but it's not real. The feeling enchants us into thinking we're the two people in the world in our special cocoon but it will take years to create the real McCoy. Friendship usually does not involve that intensity of emotion but the two are the vehicles by which we create what deists say they experience in their relationship with their god. My fascination is with inner journeys and the outer journeys like friendship, love and other relationships that enable us to realize the inside outside.

Posted via email from The Pursuit of Duende