Tag Archives: mike mills

he made the autobiographical film beginners (2010)
one of my favorite parts of the movie:
——-
STILL BLACK AND WHITE AND COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SUN, THE

STARS, YOSEMITE, GEORGE W. BUSH FLASH BY:

OLIVER (V.O.)
This is 2003. This is what the sun
looks like, and the stars, nature.
This is the President.

NOW PHOTOS OF THE SUN, STARS, NATURE, ETC. FROM 1955 FLASH

BY:

OLIVER V.O.
And this is the sun in 1955, and
the stars, and nature, and cars,
and phones, and movies, and the
President. These are what pets
looked like. These are fireworks.
This was smoking.

PHOTOGRAPHS, CROPPED IN ON FACES FROM 1955, VERY FAST

SEQUENCE OF PEOPLE KISSING:

OLIVER (V.O.) (CONT’D)
This is what it looked like when
people kissed…

FAST SEQUENCE OF FACES FORM 1955 LAUGHING:

OLIVER (V.O.) (CONT’D)
…When they were happy…

SEQUENCE OF FACES CRYING:

(CONTINUED)

10/29/07 4.

CONTINUED:

OLIVER (V.O.) (CONT’D)
…When they were sad.

FAST SEQUENCE OF MARRIAGE PHOTOS FROM 1955:

OLIVER (V.O.) (CONT’D)
My parents got married in 1955.
————————

liked the small things of this film. the simple graphics. the way the main characters meet and the girl can’t talk. the way we can read the dog’s thoughts. they way christopher plummer played his character. the main character’s mom.

mike mills’ wife is miranda july, also a filmmaker of sorts. i didn’t particularly enjoy her film “the future”

both in beginners (2010) and in the future (2011), we’re privy to the thoughts of domestic animals.

memoria

Wednesday March 21

March 21, 2012 migueldelosandes

Sentimentality.

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

Excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.

I love when part of this quote is narrated in Mike Mills’ film Beginners.