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Don't Film Your Heroes

Don't Film Your Heroes

Posted by Lisa Christiansen on Jun 10, 2009
Someone (sorry to be vague; I did look for the source) said: "don't meet your heroes." I have updated this bit of wisdom for today's creatively-bereft movie industry: "don't live long enough to see who will play your hero in film."

Maybe some people were happy to see Jamie Fox play Ray Charles, Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison or Joaquin Phoenix play Johnny Cash and more recently  that guy Sam Riley who played Joy Division's Ian Curtis in Control because he obviously looked an awful lot like him. Of course there's always Cate Blanchett playing Bob Dylan, but that's the exception.

And now today I read that the race to play Jeff Buckley is now between James Franco and Robert Pattinson. So far the only requirement seems to be the ability to be handsome and a way of making sad eyes. Now I'm not saying I don't value those qualities in men, but I'm just saying I think Jeff Buckley was obviously more.

I found an online poll and cast my vote for Franco, mostly because Freaks and Geeks was one of my favourite TV shows. But I see that Mr. Twilight is out ahead at 86%. I suppose that's to be expected; I can't really beat the teen vote.

I'm of course holding out for some actor that can sing and maybe doesn't look all that much like Buckley, but can somehow make me feel - outside of music - what I am missing without this guy in the world. And really, that's what acting should be all about.

For music, there is a fine documentary from BBC that you can watch, and many wonderful videos... all featuring the Real Thing.

Today is Missing Links day. Join me and CBC Radio 3 blog editor John Paolozzi for a sharing of great online magic you might not have seen... yet.
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  1. Colin Medley
    01

    Re: Don't Film Your Heroes

    Posted on Jun 10, 2009 by Colin Medley
    Anton Corbijn was the director of Control. Sam Riley was the actor who portrayed Ian Curtis.

    -Colin the CBC Radio 3 Fact Checker
  2. TheRadioHead
    02

    Revamped Missing Links?

    Posted on Jun 10, 2009 by TheRadioHead
    Not first up anymore?

    Well. How long will I be made to wait?

    I have things to do, people to see, life to live.

    Really, I do.
  3. Russe
    03

    Re: Don't Film Your Heroes

    Posted on Jun 10, 2009 by Russe
    I'll vote for Franco, Lisa. I meant RPattz is cute and all but he already screwed with Salvador Dali and those teens probably don't even care who Jeff Buckley is for the most part. Plus I think Franco can basically do anything.

    Also Control, was it any good? I want to see it
  4. Ahmed Khalil
    04

    Control

    Posted on Jun 10, 2009 by Ahmed Khalil
    Control was pretty good, although the (true, I guess) story is frustrating and sad. "Ian Curtis" wears awesome clothes, though, and the movie looks good in general.

    A really good BBC music documentary is "The Story of Jamaican Music", which comprises three one-hour episodes covering about fifty years. Sweet music, amazing archival footage, and great people, including a heroic super-nun, still lucid in her nineties, who guided many of Jamaica's greats to lives of music.
  5. saidthewhale
    05

    Re: Don't Film Your Heroes

    Posted on Jun 10, 2009 by saidthewhale
    OH GOD PLEASEEEEE not "RPatz" playing buckley. Franco or I boycott.
  6. MONDAYSMAN
    06

    rockandroll

    Posted on Jun 10, 2009 by MONDAYSMAN
    don t ever forget the reason. I hung salvador in the lunch room last week ...
  7. Lisa Christiansen
    07

    @Colin

    Posted on Jun 10, 2009 by Lisa Christiansen
    Fixed it...thanks Colin, and sorry Sam.
    And Russe, about Control...it was good, just not much more than a "what happened" not "why" things happened.

    And yes, ok, Franco would be pretty good, esp after seeing him in "Milk."
  8. Colin Medley
    08

    Re: Don't Film Your Heroes

    Posted on Jun 10, 2009 by Colin Medley
    Not usually a fan of biopics, but Control was pretty amazing.
  9. John Paolozzi
    09

    Re: Don't Film Your Heroes

    Posted on Jun 11, 2009 by John Paolozzi
    Yeah, I actually really liked Control. Interesting when contrasted with 24 Hour Party people, which you all must watch tonight.
  10. flipzoso
    10

    Doc comparisons, Elvis Costello's comments, and Dido's Lament

    Posted on Jun 11, 2009 by flipzoso
    I am a huge (live) Jeff Buckley fan. I’m glad you linked folks to that BBC documentary “Everbody Here Wants You”, because I think they did an amazing job at touching on a number of aspects of JB. I think its better than “Amazing Grace”, but I understand that was 1) started a while back, 2) didn’t have the funding that BBC had, 3) had to build up its connections and networks (in terms of getting artists to speak on camera etc.) whereas BBC had all this established already.

    The best part about the BBC doc is near the very end we can hear an excerpt of Jeff Buckley’ singing Dido’s Lament from Meltdown Festival in London, which was being hosted by Elvis Costello. Its believed to be the soundboard recording, which is a huge deal in the live JB community.

    Here is what Elvis Costello had to say about that and JB:
    from Purcells opera 'Dido & Aeneas'.

    'I hope that people who liked him resist the temptation to turn his life and death into some dumb romantic fantasy--he was so much better than that. Not everyone can get up and sing something they take a liking to and make it their own, sing true to their heart and be curious about all different strains of music. Corpus Christi Carol was a completely conceived interpretation. I'd never heard the piece before and when I heard the original I realised what Jeff had done was even more amazing. He'd taken it into his own world. That's something my favorite classical musicians can do, be themselves but use all that expertise to make the music more beautiful. Jeff did that naturally. Only a handful of people are capable of that.

    I was amazed when he did meltdown. I asked him what he wanted to sing and he said he'd like to do one of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder in the original German! Absolutely fucking fearless. He was convinced he could sing it without rehearsal, just because he liked it. In the end he did a Purcell song, Dido's Lament, which is in danger of sounding incredibly poignant in retrospect: 'Remember me but forget my fate.' But he also sand Boy With the Thorn In His Side because he liked it, and Grace to show something of himself.

    When he started singing Dido's Lament at the rehearsal, there were all these classical musicians who could not believe it. Here's a guy shuffling up on-stage and singing a piece of music normally thought to be the property of certain types of specifically developed voice, and he's just singing, not doing it like a party piece, but doing something with it.

    My last memory of him was at the little party in the green room afterwards. There were all these people sitting round Jeff who'd never met before - Fretwork, the viol group, a classical pianist and some jazz player --all talking and laughing about music. He'd charmed everybody. I'd much rather remember that than anything.' -- Elvis Costello (MOJO Magazine, August 1997, speaking of Jeff at the Meltdown festival)
    http://www.flowersintime.org/show.php?songid=31
    And here is an audience recording of that performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxBKtqSha4w


    O get back fully on-topic, I personally hope James Franco gets the job, despite what the poll says.
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